Auctiva PLEASE step up

Hi Taz. I saw your posts on that thread. Thank you for helping her.

Wow! Did you get a little carried away? I don't know what to say but felt almost obligated to reply here now. lol

I swore I read that Jeff said it would be a good idea what you suggested but can't find it now. Maybe I'm thinking of your post. At least we know it's not Auctiva, even though they're getting blamed.

Hi SolelySucculent I don't feel I got carried away at all.One person in that thread did nothing but hurl shovels full of dirt all day.That person claims to have facts to back things up and refuses to listen to reason. It appears that person is a know-it-all and I kindly pointed this out.
OK possibly a tad carried away I merely wanted to get the debate from that forum carried over to here where we could have input from satisfied Auctiva users also! Unfortunately the hurler would not step up and merely chose to call this post a "Rant"
If anyone is interested here is a link to the thread in question on the other forum. http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?messageID=1010831138�

I just wanna back this up in my own way. I think that Auctiva has a good basic system of teaching people how to use their system with the Tutorials and Videos.

Perhaps Auctiva should spend more time on this section. Make Many Interactive Tutorials and Videos for Everything including Tips and Tricks and Troubleshooting. You guys could even come up with User Video Tips of the week or something where people send in videos of their own how tos or tips or Whatever. Knowledge is power and not everyone wants to come to the Forums to learn. Some people want it in their Face.

Expand that tutorial section. If a problem comes up repeatedly that people want answers for or could use answers for - Take a half hour to make a video and post it to the Site to alleviate those problems before they happen and thus avoid Damage control!

I have to admit, when I really 'checked over' checkout instructions it was confusing, even to me. What no one has mentioned is that SO MANY new sellers are completely clueless because they can't/won't read any info on exactly HOW to sell, either thru Ebay OR Auctiva.

I read Ebays Answer Center some of the questions by new sellers are beyond belief. Please, I am NOT slamming new sellers, everyone has to start somewhere, I am merely saying that if some of them haven't grasped the basic concept of how ebay works they shouldn't be selling to begin with. If a person signs up with ebay and says 'hmmmm, gonna sell some stuff right away' the chances of something going wrong are pretty good. No user agreements are read, no tutorials taken. At least if they buy a few things first they would have an idea of how things work.

My main point being this---even if Auctiva HAD a detailed post about everything mentioned above, it probably wouldn't get read by most people. They want the beautiful templates, extra pics, and easy sell form, and they want these things NOW, but then after the sale they don't know what to do. Look at how many of us with hundreds of FB are still stumped by certain things...Ebay is much more user UNfriendly now than when I began using it, it's no wonder folks have problems.

The basic gist of this (long) post is---Auctiva could list every little thing that might go wrong but if no one reads it what's the difference? People have a tendency to jump in without getting their feet wet first.

OK I'm done, (Feel free to jump all over me) If I offended anyone I'm sorry. But this is the way it seems to be.

Hi 8880, I see no reason for anyone to be offended or jump all over you. You raise some excellent points here. My point is even if the Newbies do not read it, it is there and they cannot complain that they were not given an idea of what to expect since it is not clearly posted. In a litigious society such as our I am truly surprised that this has not occurred to Auctiva management that they are leaving a HUGE door open for something of this sort. As a regular here on the boards you know how we are constantly barraged with "Lost Listings" "Maintenance Issues" etc...

Would'nt it be nice to have a place to send these people to for answers rather than the redundancy of trying to answer each post with basically the same answer?

it would also put a stop mostly to people that as you say

quote:

have a tendency to jump in without getting their feet wet first

coming to the boards and complaining that nowhere does it say anything about .....
Thank you for your input on this. I hope more people will post to this and maybe wake Auctiva management up to the need to address this once and for all.

BTW I too when I initially signed up I was one of the ones who

quote:

have a tendency to jump in without getting their feet wet first

This led to me the community boards and rather than slamming Auctiva becoming an active community member and trying to help out.
I have found more help on here than on any discussion board I have posted to previously

Hiya Taz,
I agree with you completely. It's just kind of annoying to see people always thinking whatever is wrong is Auctiva's fault, when almost ALL of the time it's Ebay's. I myself have had virtually NO problems with Auctiva, but I'm preching to the choir here aren't I

BTW, I don't even bother with the discussion boards, too many pihrannas there, but the Answer Center on the other hand is very helpful.

Hi Taz. Yes, I saw that and started to post. I am not up to the rise in blood pressure my post would have brought. lol

I wanted to tell the OP over there that this happened to me on Oct 16th and I went straight to Live Help. They said it was an unusual problem and forwarded it to the correct department. The problem soon went away. Several buyers had difficulties paying. It's an eBay thing for sure.

I apologize if I sounded snitty. I sure didn't mean to and reading it now, it sounds pretty tacky to me. So I hope you didn't take it wrong or forgive me if you did.

I thought it was funny (not haha) that my first contact with eBay about it was exactly a month before their estimated repair date.

I have found more help on here than on any discussion board I have posted to previously

I second that. This is a great board! And I love Auctiva's tech support... and I'm not even paying them.

I rarely post there, lurk to learn, and just stick to the Vintie board.

Hi SolelySucculent I did not think you were being snitty. I was glad you posted here and only wish more community mebers would post to this thread and keep it alive so Auctiva finally deals with this ongoing issue. I see someone reported my post to eBay that you were referring to on the other board and it was removed!

quote:

Hello tazfrompa,

We appreciate your participation in the eBay Community Forums.

This email is to notify you that we unfortunately had to remove the following post that you made:

tazfrompa (66 ) View Listings | Report Nov-07-07 22:10 PST
218 of 223

They said it was an interpersonal dispute. LMAO. I think it is because I posted several references to eBay referring to them as FeeBay in it!

Hi Taz, just went to see your eBay posts, now I see it was pulled.

Although I only started on these boards this year I founnd that as I got more into being active the more it seemed that I like yourself and other regulars are doing Auctiva's clearing up particularly on the eBay pulling listings for hijack checks front. And I have never had any response from Auctiva when I have complained about Auctiva not warning new clients about this.

Yes, many new starters try and run before they can walk, will not read the tutorials and unfortunately read Auctiva's many occurences of 'Easy' on the home page without realisng it is relatively easy for a person with software engineering experience but not easy for most people. I would particularly cite the use of profiles, seller details and templates which are straightforward when you consider how they all work together but most users do not need or want to know like many car drivers regard their vehicles.

Although the user front end of Auctiva is one of the best it is not fully in line with XP and onwards Microsoft Windows design guidelines of being task orientated. They appear to me to be almost as Win98/NT applications in the way menus and pages are shown, I don't mean the fancy styling adopted for XP and Vista I mean the path a user takes with them.

They currently demand knowledge of knowing where you are going to achieve your goal rather than guiding you through the steps required to achieve what you want.

So until this is addressed (user interfaces being one of the most difficult features to get spot-on) work for volunteers like yourself is likely to increase.

I must admit I have been rather busy lately and have not been on here much but it amazes me how many questions re-occur to the extent of almost needing my own set of stock answers to hand. This is all wrong and does get more than a little frustrating at times answering the same questions over and over again.

Trouble is I like to help others as you do so one needs to keep cool and remember the old saying which sounds appropriate for the the guy you spent several hours with, "empty barrels make the most noise".

Hey Choo remember this post? Posted by you

quote:

Posted August 04, 2007 04:07 PM
Calling Auctiva please note the number of clients who are being panicked over their listings dissappearing off of eBay I do not believe it is doing you any good.

This information should be made clear in the sign up process, if it is in place great, if not please tell prospective clients so they can 'schedule' the disappearing act for a sales off peak time.

https://community.auctiva.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/855609321/m/6141072042


They never stepped up for this one either.



Posted by me in response to your post

quote:

Posted August 09, 2007 08:06 AM Hide Post
Hey Choo it sure seems like Auctiva has been on the boards alot the past 2 days? But they are ignoring this post like it is the plague Actually I have not seen Auctiva give a satisfactory answer to any post asking them to warn people about indexing issues Why do you think that is? Maybe they feel that warning people will decrease sign-ups?Personally I feel it is better to have been forewarned and be a satisfied user than not be warned and sign up only to quit using Auctiva. I am sure that quite a few people never even make it here to the boards and just throw there hands in the air and never use Auctiva again.That is really a shame.ANY REPLY AUCTIVA SUPPORT ?

Hello Auctiva are you listening here?

I read all the suggestions. I don't feel I need to, or owe, a reply to every post or question. I take all suggestions into consideration. There is no way everyone will always agree with my decisions.

We keep track of the number and time of registrations and cancellations and there have been no problems with either maintenance or eBay 's hiding listings. I check those stats daily.

We could tattoo the answers to most of these questions on peoples foreheads when they register and they'd still ask.

We have a lot of customers, and there is a certain percentage, that won't ever do anything to help themselves. Instead they always go straight to a live person, whether that is our support request form, live chat, phone, or this message board. And that is ok. That is why we have all those methods of support. To keep costs controlled and ensure critical support needs are met most quickly it's always appreciated if customers first search for a solution in one of our other methods first that don't require a human to reply.

Well Jeff, considering how long this (eBay listing pulling) has been going on a simple answer from you would have been appreciated somewhat earlier as the pro-active members on these boards have been smoothng waters for your company for sometime.

We (the many pro-active board members) also take quite a load off of your paid staff which must allow them more time to engineer this site. I like many others believe you provide an excellent site and promote it wherever we can on the boards and off so a little bit more communication would be appreciated.

So according to the stats you do not need to inform new clients about eBay's anti-hijack listing pulling. Ok, officially it is not a problem, so not our problem but in my opinion it is bad PR and a touch complacent.

Hi member_8880, bit more time available this evening (UK time), I cannot comment on Auctiva's checkout as I have not used it yet.

However I can agree with the rest of your post, I think only the won't read, why should I, it's supposed to be easy brigade will object or be offended but then they probably don't read these boards either thier loss.

Unfortunately someone saying thier site is easy leaves the doors open for complaints, such a statement must assume a certain level of expertise whether it be beginner or advanced or professional. Unfortunately these days anyone who can turn on a PC reckons to be computer literate and in an increasingly overprotective spoon feeding society I reckon things will get much worse as applications and system complexity increases.

Certainly some questions show no interest in reading the basics and are just not worth answering, "give it all to me for nothing as I cannot be bothered". Well tough on them, I hope they put more effort into listing content (images and description, postage) and after sales, (packing, posting and customer satisfaction) I doubt it as is blatantly obvious on eBay every day

I'd love to make the site easier to use. Doing that though would just make it harder to use for the people already using it.

If you have some ideas ChooChoo sketch them out and fax them to me.

It's not easy to make a site that is equally easy and fast for all levels of users. Additionally there is cost and time considerations. We're approaching 65 employees. Even a week spent doing a few things would be more than $100k. And I can assure you we could spend months making things easier. That's millions of $. I prefer spending that on adding new features and functionality for those that are willing to read the tutorials and watch the videos and other training we already have.

Hi Jeff thank you for stepping in with some input . I have been watching for awhile and waiting to see responses from Auctiva concerning the issues brought up in this post.I agree 100% that

quote:

I don't feel I need to, or owe, a reply to every post or question.

There are some things I believe would make the site more user friendly for seasoned users/active community forum members such as ChooChooGuy, member_8880 myself and many others.
I concur whole heartedly that

quote:

We could tattoo the answers to most of these questions on peoples foreheads when they register and they'd still ask.

.What would be nice is if you could make a stock set of answers for indexing issues and place a category on the community board for Thursday maintenance with a sticky post as to why Thursday night and why that time so that the Newbies and those who chose to complain can be directed straight to Auctiva,s answer rather than we volunteers having to answer the same question over and over.
I could not agree more with ChooChooGuy

quote:

So according to the stats you do not need to inform new clients about eBay's anti-hijack listing pulling. Ok, officially it is not a problem, so not our problem but in my opinion it is bad PR and a touch complacent.

Jeff what is the possibility of creating an advisory board with input from Active Community members? I believe a brainstorming session would greatly improve our ability to be pro-active members of the site.Possibly a private invitation type of forum where ideas and input could be freely exchanged back and forth without less seasoned input if you catch my drift?
I understand the cost and time implications involved in setting this up but I believe the overall benefit to the site would ultimately pay off in a better user experience and bottom line for Auctiva.
I love the site and if I was on the West Coast would have probably investigated employment opportunities with the company.

ChooChooGuy here is a direct link to the thread I was referencing earlier where eBay pulled my post due to FeeBay references http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?start=0&threadID...icache=1194814057343

Hi Jeff, yes it is rather a Catch 22 situation I for one would rather features were added at this time rather than a new format to contend with.

Recent updates like scheduled relisting have blended well into the existing format which is much appreciated.

I am well aware of the dangers of changing front ends and when you are dealing with a moving target like eBay and no doubt a degree of Microsoft OS changes to be wary of then it is a potential minefield and could break an excellent tool set.

Will have to put on my thinking cap when creating listings but a change to task orientated menus from the present style would be a costly major overhaul. My personal preference is the current format but like Microsoft developing Windows, without Windows PC's would not be in such extensive use as they are now if we were still in the dark old days of DOS.

Regarding mixed abilities some front ends get around this by having two, e.g. classic/"task orientated" or standard/advanced which would keep both camps happy only snag is of course maintaining two interfaces in synch with functionality. Unfortunately this would result in increased maintenance costs.

You are probably aware of all this anyway, meantime, thanks for the reply.

I agree with you Steve, definitely have a forum "conference" if you will, of folks that have been on here a while and are familiar with the ins-and-outs of the site. (kindly excuse my log-in, this is my second account i am currently having "issues" with and just joined the forums last night...you can find me as sell-it-now_auction-express)

anyway, i think a meeting of the minds would do the site good for both users and auctiva employees. it does 'stink' when you get the newbie on here asking basic questions about things that have been clearly covered time and time again; if they'd only do a little research first before spending all of the auctiva employees time on basic stuff when there are some actual "new" issues that need their time a little bit more.

perhaps a *suggestion* would also be....post auctiva's hours as far as when you guys are here answering questions....tech support, etc. i've had a tech rqst in since yesterday with no responses....kind of frustrating.

cheers,
kathleen

Sell-it-Now_Auction-Express
Buy-it-Now_Auction-Express

Hi Taz, thanks for the link, just been browsing 'your' thread I will have to go through this now lengthy thread in stages, must get some listings written.

Well taz, I could not resist going through this thread to the end, and when they go like that it is the main reason I rarely go on the eBay boards.

The level of intelligence exhibited on Auctiva's boards by most, especially the regulars infers to me that generally those that get to grips with Auctiva's tool set use thier brains rather more efficiently than most.

So perhaps having the current Human Computer Interface (HCI) format which is functionaly solid and appeals to the more advanced users is an advantage.

This does however contradict my views above on adopting a task orientated HCI.

Hi Kathleen thanks for chiming in here. I have seen your posts about your log-in problem. Hopefully you can get it fixed soon.
Choo hope you got a charge out of the posts on that thread. One particular person on there really seemed to know everything and be able to do anything better than anyone else.
People like that annoy me severely but I guess I should let things slide off my back a bit.

For questions that have to be answered over and over, why not list them in FAQs in the Help section? Save some work by having some kind of contest where best answers could be voted on.

booklady

Hi everybody,
Been reading this thread with great interest!
First a few pleasantries...Taz, congrats on your first 'pink slap'... Trust me it only hurts for a little while
Choo, nice to see you again, was wondering where you were.

I have to agree with EVERYBODY, every single post has merit and good ideas, I really have nothing to add right now. Actually, I thought booklady had a good idea, but again, it comes down to NO ONE WANTS TO READ ANYTHING. I took all the tutorials when I first signed up, I am well versed with Ebay & Paypal policies (that helped too), but if I have a question I just do a search on these boards and I find my answer, voila! I am probably the most computer illiterate person I know, but I always have to think, if a person like me can figure this stuff out why can't everyone else?? (Choo, big 'duh' goes to me, you really lost me in one of your posts because I know nothing about computers) But I can read and follow Auctiva's instructions, and I get by just fine. I think most of it is common sense, which is something I guess not everyone has.........Listing auctions is alot of work sometimes, but it should be fun too. Like they say 'knowlege is power'. Will be keeping an eye on this thread

Hmmmm.....Still thinking...I re-read Jeff's first post again (thank you Jeff) and it makes perfect sense. Put yourself in his place, no matter what he might do not everyone will be happy. I will be optomistic here..at least this is a site that has excellent services for FREE, a wonderful community center, and a CEO, engineering, and all the other Auctiva folks that will personally answer questions on the boards and in a support request. Where else can you find that? Sure there are problems now & then, but what website doesn't experience problems? I could see losing one's mind when things go wrong if we were paying alot for this, but we're not. We are free to use Auctiva or not use it. Granted, the problem the other night that sparked this whole thing was a big one, and something that none of us could have fixed, but it WASN'T Auctiva's fault. That's all I have for now... Still gonna watch this thread...

Hi '8880 yes some of my posts have got a bit deep on this thread but they were mainly aimed at CEO Jeff who will be well versed in what my wife considers to be techno-babble.

The important thing here is that the videos and tutorials are pitched at the correct level so those that want to learn how to use Auctiva but do not need to know how it works can quickly move on and go about what they are here to do. Sell items for money.

From what you say about the videos and tutorials the level and approach is good, just the matter of pointing the reluctant newbies to them

ChooChooGuy the Human–Computer Interaction is a definite control factor here. I feel that it is a bit advanced for this board but since you brought it up it needs addressed.

quote:

A basic goal of HCI is to improve the interactions between users and computers by making computers more usable and receptive to the user's needs. Specifically, HCI is concerned with:
* methodologies and processes for designing interfaces (i.e., given a task and a class of users, design the best possible interface within given constraints, optimizing for a desired property such as learnability or efficiency of use)
* methods for implementing interfaces (e.g. software toolkits and libraries; efficient algorithms)
* techniques for evaluating and comparing interfaces
* developing new interfaces and interaction techniques
* developing descriptive and predictive models and theories of interaction

A long term goal of HCI is to design systems that minimize the barrier between the human's cognitive model of what they want to accomplish and the computer's understanding of the user's task.

Professional practitioners in HCI are usually designers concerned with the practical application of design methodologies to real-world problems. Their work often revolves around designing graphical user interfaces and web interfaces.

As such the user does need an ability to interface in a more effective way with the end product however the end usage does not need to be significantly complicated by glitches in the GUI that lead one to a less than favorable end-user experience.
Not all users are knowledgeable with computer terms and they do expect instant gratification rather than computer-ese.

Hi Taz, where I last worked on a GUI HCI stood for Human Computer Interface where this was the actual layer of software between the application and the user which is what I was referring to.

The HCI as found and redirected within Wikipedia (and most other search results) refers to HCI as ... Interaction is essentially the study of man communicating with machine.

That subtlety aside my point was not so much as whether there were glitches in the GUI or not but whether the GUI was designed with the expectation of the user understanding the structure of the application or not to achieve their goal with it.

Use with knowledge of the structure is very much evident from software development toolsets right through to the most basic user in the Win98/NT Windows environment and in decreasing degrees through XP and Vista.

In other words software engineers used to inadvertently write the GUI from their knowledge rather than the end users, and when you think about the first users were computing engineers and mathematicians.

And yes I agree with you completely, the user has a task to do and expects the computer to simplify and quicken it and should not need to result to computer-ese.

Hi ChooChooGuy I hope you did not think I was being critical of your post . I am fairly well versed in computers as I have certification in Network Administration and am self taught in alot of other things. Computers fascinate me and I spend alot of time in books
I had a basic grasp of what you were saying in your post but being the Curious George I am I had to learn more.
I ran a Google search for Human Computer Interface to better figure out what you were talking about and the Wikipedia post was the first thing in the search results.

I posted the Wiki piece to try to help other viewers of the thread to understand a bit more as I saw member_8880 post

quote:

(Choo, big 'duh' goes to me, you really lost me in one of your posts because I know nothing about computers)

.
It does seem to me the 2 terms are very closely related and almost interchangeable but I will look at learning a bit more about it and will more than likely see the differences.

Hi Taz, no problems I enjoy a good debate on these things and the software/hardware world have more recycled objects i.e. terms, acronyms and abbreviations than the best green minded person could ever have.

Even Microsoft rename and reuse technology titles as the years go by and I think that computer chip manufacturers are not much better, in ten years time HCI will probably have mutated into something else again.

I have learnt a lot of what I know and much that I have since forgotten by the same route as yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by ChooChooGuy:
....if were still in the dark old days of DOS....

I do enjoy reading all these discussion posts. Really makes me realize just how much of a dinosaur I am, though.

I was happy as a clam back in the dark old days of DOS (particularly since DOS was such an improvement over what things were like before the introduction of IBM-compatible fixed-disk systems (although, I admit, dealing with RS-232 did make me REALLY crabby). The advent of GUIs and HCI development is what killed my interest in understanding how computers work. Maybe it's not so bad with other platforms, but WIN's hijack of my ability to control my system and peripherals in a straightforward manner is a real turn-off for me.

I understand why things had to change, and I know overall it's for the best, but the fun has all gone out of it for me. Now my computer is just another tool that I hope doesn't break, which is kinda sad.

Hi lapzo, before I got into Windows progamming I much preferred designing and programming microcontroller based systems . . . bliss

Do it all yourself ...aaaah !

But then I got hooked into Windows and liked the challenge even better but really disliked the macro laden MFC/VC6 environment where you did not know what on earth was going on, (I guess that is what turned you off).

I do like the evolving .Net scene and really must get deeper into that, hmmm, this thread has diverged a bit

Hi all, you are right Choo the thread is moving in a bit of a different direction form its original intention but then intelligent conversation is nice also.
I am enjoying the banter evolving in here You have pulled a new term out for me to Google

quote:

MFC/VC6 environment

I am more hardware oriented than environment I must confess

Bumping the thread and bringing it back on track with my ORIGINAL post.

quote:

Let me start by saying I am not slamming the service! I love it, however the ongoing problem of newbies coming and running away because their auctions disappear for indexing and losing listings due to maintenance is crazy! A simple fix from Auctiva would be to CLEARLY post some of the known issues that Newbies may experience in a readily accessible place. My suggestion would be a page that comes up when signing up for the service that clearly details issues and provides the answer to the problem.Maintenance is a particular bone of mine.
Every Thursday night without fail someone new and many times experienced users complain about maintenance. I posted a rather scathing reply 2 Thursdays ago.
Last night I spent several hours of my own time trying to help someone with an issue that eBay was blaming on Auctiva. I was on the eBay discussion board until after 3 AM last night.

I notice that Jeff made it to the thread and posted and would like to thank him for his concern and answers.

But damage control after the fact is not the answer.

Please I reiterate get some system set up that explains to Newbies how Auctiva works what they can and cannot expect. It is preposterous to expect the Community to constantly defend Auctivas integrity when they refuse to Address a simple issue such as this.
In case you think I have not been around Auctiva much I used it as a paying customer under another SN in 2001 and 2002. This issue has been broached countless times and so far nothing.

Remember one disgruntled customer does more damage to a companies reputation than 100 satisfied users can repair.

Simple math would prove that addressing these issues prior to someone signing up would go MILES towards overall satisfaction not mention improving Auctiva's bottom line!

I was thinking about this thread earlier while answering a question about this very thing. Just a little blurb that jumps out to someone like me that could miss it if it's right in front of me... surely that's not too much to ask? Please?

edit- I see Miss M also answered the same question for someone else in Getting Started.

quote:

But damage control after the fact is not the answer.

This is it in a nutshell. Please, to save people from that frantic feeling... surely you know what it feels like to lose (or think you lost) something you've worked so hard to finish.

So what if there was a thread pinned to the top like the READ THIS FIRST ones, in a few places on here???

HAVE YOUR LISTINGS DISAPPEARED? HERE'S WHY
or something. That would at least be some help, would it not?

I started a Poll in Getting Started. If enough posters respond, maybe Auctiva will do something.

booklady

These are some great ideas.

quote:

So what if there was a thread pinned to the top like the READ THIS FIRST ones, in a few places on here???

HAVE YOUR LISTINGS DISAPPEARED? HERE'S WHY
or something. That would at least be some help, would it not?

quote:

I started a Poll in Getting Started. If enough posters respond, maybe Auctiva will do something.

Hopefully Jeff reads this and finds the validity in it and follows through with some new ideas.

I think it's an excellent idea..I like the POLL format. Way to go booklady!

Good idea Shadeaux, that's a good second resort at least the panicked seller with hours of listing creation seemingly blasted into billions of individual electrons can get some instant pain relief assuming they join the community (smiley for dispair).

Another good idea booklady, just seen it via the lounge epic-thread, I'm off to the polls having corrected my spelling above . . .