AW Frustrates Many
Written: Apr 26, 2001
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The Bottom Line
A site with great potential, ruined by poor planning, no respect for customer base and high fees. Stay away.
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| Full Review |
Auctionwatch has the potential to be the best auction listing and post sales tool management service on the internet. It is currently the largest, with almost four times as many listings on eBay as their closest competitor.
There are serious problems at auctionwatch.com, however. While the individual customer service reps are wonderful, the tone on the support boards is somewhat punitive. Posts on controversial subjects are regularly deleted, and users are regularly suspended.
Recently it was discovered that AuctionWatch had arranged to take PayPal referral fees from users without their knowledge. Only after the press became involved would the management give a full response to many requests from customers.
Communication is a weak link. There is usually no notice on site changes, and sometimes major changes in the look and feel of the site have been implemented during peak user times. People have become very frustrated, to refresh their screens and find that buttons have moved, or even disappeared. There has been no central place to communicate these kinds of changes, only threads on message boards. A recently developed announcements message board has no easy link to it, an probably will not alleviate the problem.
In recent months, simple category changes at eBay have taken five days to implement at AuctionWatch. This means that many users are effectively shut out of the service for days at a time. Because AW has a history of conflict with eBay, they are not on the list of providers which receive advance warning. Other services implement category changes overnight.
The implementation of fees has been a disaster. After the initial and expected user backlash, AuctionWatch was so unprepared that it has taken them 7 weeks just to post charges. Many users are left to review thousands of charges for accuracy, and having their credit and debit cards hit with two months worth of charges at once. Poor planning.
All in all, I'd have to give AuctionWatch a very low rating. There is more than I can write here, but it is a case of a product which had great potential, but has been plagued by the results of poor planning by management compounded by poor communication.
I have moved to auctions.goto.com - a place with a better atmosphere, more respectful management, all the same tools, and smoother operation. The fact that they are fully integrated with eBay makes all go smoother.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
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