Last night when I saw Tom's post about all the Auctiva problems being eBay's fault, my eyes nearly exploded. But I didn't respond, not wanting to be long winded or sound as if I'm griping. I'm glad to know, though, that if the Auctiva site being completely down IS eBay's fault; I'll get in touch with them right away for problems on the days during December when I wasn't able to post.
The Cable Company/Electric Company analogy, however, had me gripping the arms of my chair, but I managed to control myself and NOT post. I just turned off the computer and went away. (Which is something I'm having to do more and more lately, and which is costing me a LOT of money!)
The equivalent of blaming the cable company because the electricity went out? Even if eBay WERE down, TOTALLY, it wouldn't/shouldn't disallow us from getting to the Auctiva site or looking at our showcase, because we're supposed to be able to do that from our Account page. So that was a ridiculous analogy to make.
Auctiva is, I THINK, independent of eBay. The two don't depend on each other to keep going. If eBay's down, we can't post, but, as I said, we should still be able to get to the Auctiva boards. So the idea that the problems are connected is ridiculous. Next he'll be blaming it on the current full moon!
All I can figure is that Auctiva really doesn't care whether they have customers or not. You can't write anyone there, whether it's support or sales and get anything back that is the least bit helpful or friendly. ONCE in a GREAT while, somebody will answer a support question with a smile, but mostly everybody is totally defensive and really just plain NASTY!
When I wrote the "Sales Dept." last summer asking why the money I had paid through the end of the year was eaten up by Manager coming out when I didn't want it or need it, and asking why my posting pass had expired 7 months earlier than it was supposed to, I got the MOST incredibly rude response from Heather. It blew me away that the SALES DEPARTMENT of this company would treat its customers that way. Being a small company is no excuse; in fact, it makes it doubly bad because a small company has to try harder.
I've been a cheerleader for this company since I first started using it and have brought four people that I know of on board. And I have to be really careful what I say about it to them NOW because they don't use it as much as I do and if I tell them all the stuff that's going on, they won't use it anymore. (And think I'm MAD because I continue to TRY to) But since I do believe that when it works, Poster is far and away the best program around for MY needs, *I* keep hanging around hoping it'll work.
I don't mind the money I paid, because when the program works (the half of it I use, which is only Poster) my auctions look fantastic and I love the way they look and SOUND and I love hearing from people who see them who write and tell me that.
But I very much mind cranky, sarcastic, and even MEAN and NASTY answers from people when I try to USE what I paid for and it isn't working. I minded it a LOT during the Service Box fiasco when I WAS cheering for Auctiva and suddenly my auctions became fodder for some disgruntled Auctiva user who kept turning me in to eBay. I mind it a lot when the whole system is down, and the only thing we see is an "Ah...yes.. that must have been a problem for our users" (paraphrasing an answer I saw in a post from last night or earlier today.) I can't think of three times in the past YEAR when Auctiva has been down, but three times in one MONTH? eBay's fault????
I wouldn't want their jobs either......which is why I don't HAVE the job they have. They are supposed to be the experts, which is why they HAVE the jobs and we pay for their expertise. Whether people are using WIN 95 or Netscape or XP or whatever......if these are problems, then they need to SAY SO in a caveat BEFORE they tell everybody to "Download it Free." If they don't want to deal with all the operating systems, then they need to address that fact and limit themselves to one version of Windows.
It's hard enough to deal with eBay and the crap they shovel our way. But they're big and while it isn't a defense, it explains why they don't care that I've visted umpty nine different auction sites with links to other people's sites (warning for me on THAT one since I linked to my daughter's auctions,) mentioned pottery makers like Hull or Anchor Hocking within the body of the auction (warning for me on THAT one - SPAMMING) or sellers who had PayPal logos appended to their auction every time they revised it, so that if they relisted it three times, they had FOUR PayPal logos on the auction. (Warning for me on THAT one, which is the WORST because I have no control over it!) Or even worse, links to their BUSINESS site which is a CLEAR offense on eBay and SHOULD BE! But *I* don't turn these people in to eBay, even tho those same offenses caused me to almost get my auctions pulled.
When I disabled my Service Box, step-by-step, as I was told to by Tom, it wasn't there...for about 12 hours. Then it was back after Tom promised that it would never show up again. THEN I got the third warning in a WEEK from eBay about having two clickable links to Auctiva and PayPal. I'm scared to death to put UP any auctions for fear something will end up there that will get my auctions pulled!!!
But eBay is BIG BUSINESS. Auctiva, by its own admission, is not. So I guess they have to figure out which way they want it. They either stay small and address the needs and problems of a devoted group of followers, many of whom have been with them since the file that holds the pictures in the ftp space says "AP98", or they blow off the devoted following and go for more and more and more people who will become more and more and more disgruntled and unhappy. I'd hate to think that they feel that's a GOOD idea, given the fact that nobody can get their money refunded once they pay for the program.
Very nearly every person I've ever seen gripe about something on these boards has come back at some time and said "Good job, Auctiva!" "I LOVE the way _____ is working. Keep up the good work!"
Auctiva, on the other hand, answers a select few, determines who they don't like (based in large part on what they post on the boards) and decides to ignore them, and its personnel come to work everyday either hoping like hell that enough of the program is working that they won't get 60 red-faced posts on the boards that night or that if they do, they'll just ignore them.
Nothing makes me happier than to see ANSWERS to ANYTHING from Auctiva support on the boards, which, while they are NOT Support Request boards, cover answers to many people's questions. In fact, nothing makes me happier than to see that somebody's HOME at Auctiva at some point during the day. The thing that probably drives us ALL the MOST crazy is to be so frustrated, get MORE frustrated, then finally just get totally TICKED OFF because NOBODY'S THERE! Or they are, and they're looking at all these frustrated people and not being too impressed by it.
Nothing made me happier than to find these boards and find other people who could give me ideas about things, even though there were/are some people here who are vindictive and horrid because they CAN to be, and who don't even have the guts to post under their SELLER ID. If I wanted to post under another name, *I* could claim to be a totally pleased, happy-as-a-clam Power Seller, too!
I've found a lot of help here and I've given some people some help here. I've griped here and so do other people. I have a feeling that Auctiva would a WHOLE lot rather we'd do our griping HERE than keep writing support requests.
Sorry to be so long winded and do so much "griping" but we are NOT all equal on these boards. We are a diverse group of people spread wide across the world, selling all sorts of different things. The idea that we have found people to commiserate with is a comforting one. The idea that we will be attacked for stating what is wrong and that we are upset by it by the very people ON the boards is sad and smacks of eBay where NOBODY gives a damn.
I thought WE were better than that.