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Sellathon & technical support is shockingly bad - why?

S sctradingMember
Sellathon seem to be dragging the good name of Auctiva down at an alarming rate, if my experience - still unresolved since MAY 08 - is anything to go by.

I've tried going through their ticket system, but they must have the same staff as PayPal & eBay have. They don't read your ticket, guess at an answer, treat the customer with disdain, and rely solely on cut & paste. I'm adamant that it's a different respondent every time using the same name - so add fraudulent to incompetent too.

I'd like to escalate a serious complaint to Auctiva as Sellathon are pants. The irony is, I'm trying to resolve the problem and there's only me interested in that it seems. One would think they would be trying to retain customers!

My complaint? My Sellathon code - for which I've subscribed to for a very long time - no longer works properly. It didn't in May, and we kinda resolved it to a 'sort of' solution. Far from ideal, but I'd lost the will & patience at that point.

I've taken a few months away from eBay, come back to use the service (kept my subscription up BTW) and now I'm effectively told I can either use the long, drawn out post-listing revision on eBay or use Auctiva instead of GarageSale (apparently not compatible any more?)

But I PAY for Sellathon! I use Auctiva now and again for listing, but drift to GarageSale as I can use it offline.

By all means, I'm willing to write a formal complaint as there's a few issues been brought up if this is anything to go by.

Firstly, Auctiva has always been superb - and I expect it to be. Sellathon used to be excellent, now it's atrocious. If I was a QA manager or anybody @ Auctiva, I'd want to resolve that.

Secondly. I don't want to take my business elsewhere, but I'm being pushed down that route - especially if the code that always worked okay now no longer does.

Thirdly. If I wanted to correspond with someone that doesn't listen to anything that's been said, and replies with inane mutterings, I'd go and find a drunk. I would expect someone working on a Technical Support desk to be able to offer just that - support of a technical nature. NOT simply to copy and paste Emails and not be concerned if the customer's issue has been resolved.

Anyone else had similar problems?

BTW If anybody at Auctiva would like to reply to me directly, please feel free. As it stands, this debacle is on the verge of becoming a farce. To think I've recommended Sellathon to many many friends over the last couple years.
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A auctivajeffAuctiva CEO
We came out with new tracking code in September. You need to remove all your old tracking code from all your listings and replace it with the new tracking code.
quote:
so add fraudulent to incompetent too.
No, it's the same person. They average close to 5's on their ratings. At the end of each support case you are given the ability to rate them and leave a comment if you'd like.

I saw 2 support cases for you, both of which we replied to within the day and to which you did not follow up.
S sctradingMember
Jeff

You must not be looking at the correct case, it's the same one mate.

IF you had have reviewed the case in question, I'm pretty certain you'd share my concern with the standard of responses.

The fact it's compelled me to register on here to try to seek some sort of resolution, rather than to simply give up & cancel as probably most would do should say something?

IF you'd have read the case fully, you'd also be aware why I didn't follow up - frankly, it was easier to simply 'let be' rather than keep banging my head against a wall.

But, by judging by your response, if it's easier for you to be defensive rather than share the customer's concerns and try to resolve them, so be it.
A auctivajeffAuctiva CEO
I looked up all the cases under the email address you have registered on the board here. If you've filed cases under multiple email addresses you can provide me the others or the case #.

The solution remains the same. Revise your old listings to delete all old Sellathon code and replace it with the new code that came out around the middle of September. Seeing as that code is in close to 20 million listings on eBay and working in those listings I'm certain this will work for you as well.
S sctradingMember
Hey Jeff

With respect, that's what you get for assumption Wink

The problem is not that I'm using the old code, it's that the new code doesn't work with 3rd party listing tools as it did.

I've always used GarageSale, and (despite the well-publicised changes Sellathon made with regard to Ebay policy changes & the 'kick it back'shenanigans) never had any problems.

However - after returning to eBay to list SINCE the code change you mention - the code is getting 'scrunched'.

The solutions proposed by Support?

1. Append each listing post-submission by adding the code to each auction by hand through eBay. (defeats object of using listing tool, plus very time-consuming?)

2. List through Auctiva.

3. Don't use GarageSale.

So here's my gripe(s).

I've been a long-time user of Sellathon since early days, recommended your service to 100s of folk on blogs, ebooks, etc.

Your code used to work fine with GarageSale (Support mention this crunching is an existing problem that's been brought to their attention before).

My goodwill stands for nothing it seems, I've kept my subscription up (despite not listing) & through this latest debacle. However, it's clear that Sellathon are unwilling to attempt to revise the code to maintain it's integrity in cases like mine.

I don't expect your coders to work to suit every single 3rd party listing tool, but your reluctance to work on a problem that will obviously narrow your market should be a matter of concern.

Then again, maybe it's not a coincidence that this MAY increase custom direct with Auctiva for listers like myself using 3rd party listing tools? Clearly, it's an executive decision NOT to ensure Sellathon works well with listing tools in the hope it may influence listers to change to Auctiva.

As it stands, I use Auctiva now & again for specific types of listings. For others, I prefer GarageSale. However, being that I cannot now use Sellathon & GS together, something will have to give.

Sadly, it will probably have to be Sellathon - and that should worry you. It won't just be me - check your reviews on forums such as auctionsoftwarereview.com & you will note many have referenced the decline of Sellathon because of functionality issues, code problems or poor technical support (or all!).

I'm afraid I feel disappointed such a superb tool as Sellathon has declined so much to this sorry state.
A auctivajeffAuctiva CEO
The code we give for insertion is not scrunched. If your listing program "scrunches" it then you should contact them for support. I can't possibly see what we could do to stop the scrunching being done by another program. The old code and new code are entirely different and there is absolutely zero chance we can make our new code look or work like the last code. eBay completely changed how their site works and we had to adapt our code accordingly.

AuctionSoftwarReview is hardly a reflection of the satisfatction of our userbase. Happy customers have no need for such a site and aren't out looking for sites to leave great reviews on. Sure if we sent an email to our users to leave a review maybe 5% would be bad, but the other 95% would be great. The question then is whether there is something I could do better to make those other 5% happy, and whether there is any other systemic type of problem going on. As far as I can tell neither of those are representative of your support issue.

There must be 50+ listers for eBay. There is no way to test them all, that would cost a fortune.

You sound like a loyal user who just wants to get it working, I'm not sure what all we can do though. This may be a case where a refund is the best solution.

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