Sounds like a someone who is just trying to put Auctiva down. They always throw in, "I'm going to a 'paying' site because by 'paying' for my service, I will get 'better' service."
What these troll like people fail to grasp is this. Auctiva 'is' getting paid. That's right, BUT they make their money in a non-traditional way. This has been explained a gazillion times. Still 'some' either don't understand or want to try and play up the sterotype "you get what you pay for". Even that isn't true. Look how many SpareDollar members paid and paid and paid and paid and paid but SpareDollar NEVER did work well. They paid their $8.95 and were ignored.
All listing services will have 'issues'. It's how the listing service 'handles' these issues that counts. Auctiva is great when it comes to customer support and dealing with any service issues. Then again, you have SpareDollar, for instance where you 'pay' $8.95 per month and receive poor if any customer service at all.
Good luck on your quest for perfection.