posted on January 21, 2008 05:21:34 PM new
Well I think its been 7 years now with Vendio- all the way back to when it was auctionwatch- At that time I left auctionrover to come to auctionwatch- Funny- now I've gone back to them- of course now they have become Channeladvisor- In a year we thought would be flat at very best because of the change to CA- we ended up with a %25 overall increase- all in the 3rd quarter which is when we really threw the switch with CA- and stopped all listing with Vendio- I know the Vendio staff reads these boards and I'm leaving the following post for their (and maybe your) benefit
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For those sellers wondering which service is for them, I would offer this advice- Vendio is very good and extremely cost effective IF you simply want to run ebay auctions, BIN and an eBay store, the drawbacks- Poor fiscal reporting- we believe our numbers are off now for 06 by at LEAST 10K via the vendio reports- CA is dead accurate, Inventory oversell- how many times did we show something in stock only to find out that it wasnt there like ghosts in the machine, Lack of automation returning items to inventory after a return or deadbeat bidder & relisting, no flexibility for your own website- vendio stores display how vendio wants them to and no differently, no google checkout- no real variety of credit card processing service- quite simply vendio is limiting, they are also a bit slow to implement ebay upgades- when ebay implements a new service it seems like it takes vendio a year to catch up, also you are on your own when it comes to education of the marketplaces and services, If you have to come to a point in your ebay Business where you have come to realize you want to sell on multiple platforms- Amazon, Ebay Overstock, and most importantly your own website and still maintain a centralized inventory and reporting source, then Channeladvisor may be just what your looking for- its incredibly powerful and extremely flexible, Its Integration with Shipworks is the perfect multiple vendor shipping solution, the customer service and education is second to none- you actually get an account manager with a phone number that is your liason,
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Its not my intention to trash Vendio- We've been with them for a long time and without them we wouldnt have grown the way we have- But I now feel we have outgrown them- they do some things very well that CA is a bit lacking in IE- the customer manager component, the bulk editing features, the simple and easy to use interface. But overall CA is a true full blown E-Com Solution- (Sears uses them, Brookstone uses them, Rockbottom golf etc etc) The drawback? CA is difficult to learn - We are now a full year in at this point and just really now understanding a lot of the features and functions and its not cheap either- But you get what you pay for. In the end I know that CA will allow us to take our business to the next level, whereas with Vendio we would still be stuck at the same level unable to grow or advance past each previous year.
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Good luck to all the sellers that frequent this board- I never did post here often as these boards seem rather negative more often than not- Maybe thats changed... Its funny- a fireman I work with said to me just today- "Remember years ago at station 8 - you were always on the computer- I thought how weird is that- theres no money in that- now just look at what you've built..."
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Take care- Maybe we'll see you again- on the Channeladvisor boards
posted on January 21, 2008 05:46:08 PM new
chortle, chortle...
A succinct observation, Bill!
While I'm hardly a VD booster, the TWO YEARS I spent at CA gave me extreme...GAS!
Ole WingNut always struck me as a pompous auction know-it-all(or nada)...
Unless they hired new help, their CS dept is dominated by a bunch of...NASTY SNOTS!
When they cannot solve a problem, their "solution" is to DENY that a problem exists -- what a bunch of clowns!
If yer BIZ if that huge, just get some whiz to design an accounting proggie for you installed on yer PC...THEN, all ya need is an IMAGE HOST (Auctiva is FREE/ INK FROG is only $9.99/month) and a 7th-grader's knowledge of HTML (read FUR DUMMIES, for goodness sake)...
There's NO excuse for anybody who is a SERIOUS feeBay business-person for spending more that $0.00 - $9.99/month on AUCTION MGMT folderol...
VD survives on FEAR and FEAR only!
There are 1000's of folks who learned auctions here and are terrified of trying sumptin different, no matter how excruciatingly EASY other options are to learn...
Ai! Carrumba! For that matter, if ya have a feeBay STORE, they GIVE you a pretty good basic proggie for FREE...
posted on January 21, 2008 05:54:11 PM new
Good luck to you, David! Edited to add, nice store! I hope my kid doesn't click on the link, tons of stuff he'd be nagging me for!
[ edited by pixiamom on Jan 21, 2008 06:00 PM ]
