Site Maintainence???

Hey Jeff, Just busting chops but I didn't even notice it siad 5 minutes. I thought it said 30 mins to 2 and a half hours. Even I wouldn;t expect it to take 5 mins.

Incase you don't already know a couple of minutes I tried to come back to the site and it came up as "site cant be displayed" or "site can't be found" so don't be surprised if you get a load of messages saying "WHA~APPEN". I am not ready to list yet today just trying to get to a picture I need to send someone.

By the way you California guys shouldn't get too upset about us NEW YAWKERS breaking your chops. If you wanted you probably could go surfing today while I am in an apartment with no freaking heat because of a broken boiler and a landlord on vacation. Not to mention 3 cats who are really close to going for a swim in the east river wearing nothing but a burlap sack for a wet suit.

I don't mind a service having short delays due to maintenance or some unforseen minor problem, but it seems to me that Auctiva is consistently in extended problem mode with no contingency plan for the people who depend on the integrity of the site for their living.

Case in point; If you are going to offer the service free than you should expect a glut of new users and memory usage. This is great for business long-term (or is it?), but what about the huge added use of memory? Was this even considered and if so, why is memory now an issue?

I realize that there are growing pains to any venture, but when people are counting on you and you keep on having the same problems over and over, then it's time to examine your planning skills and business philosophy.

I don't know of any other image host that has these kind of problems. I consider myself to be very supportive and will be glad to help in any way I can. I am the first to rant and rave about how great something is when things are going well and I appreciate what this service provides, but maybe the free membership thing was just not a good idea if it means Auctiva can't take care of it's customers?

Just a thought.

Well, now it's 7:48AM and I had wanted to post my listing before leaving for work. Guess that's not gonna happen with it being far more than 2.5 hours max.

I'll agree to that. But have you been on sparedollar? It's a similar site that costs $8.95 a month for 50 mbs of image space raised from $4.95 a month not to long ago and they seem to have worse problems not to mention from what I read over there last night it looks like the owner took the money and ran. He was caught bragging on a golf site about the new 06 beamer he got his wife, and his blueberry slacks and his 07 beamer he wants to get all while the site is suffering from constant outages and problems and he is no where to be found.

Be thankful we at least get a response here because over there you get nothing. It's sad it was a great site until the owner just didn't care anymore. Their price increase happened around was followed by immediate outages for hours and even days was what drove a lot of people here. I am one of them. There was even a day where they didn't pay their web hosting bill and the site was shut down.

I think things can be ran better here too and I think eventually they will. No one goes to the trouble of having a staff and live help and moving servers and adding servers which they did not too long ago as well as updating the site on user suggestions and keeps the site free. For all that I am thankful. Of course when they screw up i am also one of the first saying "umm hey you screwed up." If you haven't been to sparedollar i suggest you don't go. I happen to have an account there right now that I use for a back up when this site goes hay wire but that is also because I have thousands of ads there that I haven't moved here yet.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining because I don't think i'm getting my money's worth here. All I am saying is that this world revolves around the almighty dollar, like it or not. And just because something is offered for free doesn't mean that there are no more costs for the provider. So who is paying for the added expense of having a ton of new users? Do Jeff and Bill put up their own money out of the goodness of their hearts?

I am only being realistic here. There are obviously some major expenses in running a site as complex and memory dependent as this one and the money has to come from some where.

I am thrilled that it's free, but also aware that it can't be free for long without some serious consequences so why not charge us $10-$15 a month now and make the neccessary adjustments needed to make the site stable rather than wait until they are near complete ruin and then ask for $30-50 a month.....

The insurance idea just doesn't seem plausible to me as a source of income. Maybe a small % of the final value fee or some other sales based revenue, but not insurance. Most buyers don't want it and certainly not at a premium.

Ok, I'm done...lol

I apologize for being so opininated and chatty. It must just be the woman in me.

That was exactly my point Jeff. We don't mind paying in order to stabilize the integrity of the database and to make the site profitable for you guys.

Why not charge a small % of final value sales since this service offers so many features that we would have to pay ebay through the nose to get such as supersized pictures, etc? This way we grow together and as our sales improve than Auctiva will be justly rewarded. I, for one, have no problem with that becuase I think this is the best image hosting service there is, and it's not even close.

eom

Don't get smart with me young man....


lol

Why not charge a monthly fee. There are plenty of sites that charge monthly and then still charge a % of FVF but that is when you will see me leave because I don't need anyone else dipping into my profit. Monthly fee is fine % no way.

Just make sure if you do decide to cahrge a monthly fee you spend the $125K on the site and not on a new beamer like some other website owners.

I agree that the monthly fee is a bad idea. First off, sellers have different sales volumes and profit margins. The % works because that means each individual is paying based on how much they sell, which in turns encourages better service and therefore better profits....

It's a win, win for all of us, even if you don't like the added expense. Why should the image host provider have to support us and why should sellers pay an unfair fee if they hardly ever use the service (for example)? I want to work and do well on ebay, but I need this kind of service to make it happen.

Let's work together and get-er-done.


eom

I'll agree judging on what I have seens and if you think you have people doing voodoo now imagine what they would do to you in you charged them $8.95 a month.

I am from UK and I think Auctiva is fantastic (when it's working). I know it is frustrating but it will be worth it in the end. Just remember folks - this is a free service and these people are working round the clock for us so give them some credit and a pat on the back for the work they have done so far. Hope you enjoyed your jack and coke.

quote:

Originally posted by Smartcookie:
I agree that the monthly fee is a bad idea. First off, sellers have different sales volumes and profit margins. The % works because that means each individual is paying based on how much they sell, which in turns encourages better service and therefore better profits....

It's a win, win for all of us, even if you don't like the added expense. Why should the image host provider have to support us and why should sellers pay an unfair fee if they hardly ever use the service (for example)? I want to work and do well on ebay, but I need this kind of service to make it happen.

Let's work together and get-er-done.


eom

This is strating to turn into a conservative/liberal political discussion on taxes. The reason I won't pay a % is because I already pay a % to ebay and a % to pay pal if I use them. What % would we pay. I make $8000 a month you mean I should pay $160 a month based on a 2% fee. While a seller who makes $500 a month pay's $10 and can take up as much space as I do for images. That is hardly fair. Your penalizing the bigger seller because thay make more money. Yeah I know ebay does it but without ebay there are no sales so they can do it. $160 a month on top of a $500 average ebay bill would send me back to sparedollar.

Where did I ever say $160 a month? I said a percentage of sales, which means if the service is making you money, you pay back a small amount that is fair and that brings a profit for Auctiva that is consistent with the service it provides. It could be .5%, I have no idea what the amount should be, but there are people smarter than me that can figure that out to each parties satisfaction.

As for small profit sellers taking up as much space? How long will they be in business if they aren't making money? And besides, I doubt seriously that someone doing $8000 per month will use the same space as a seller doing $500. No way.

Lastly, you say eBay is neccessary to make money, but what would it cost you to only have ebay as your source for image/auction hosting per month?

You already enumerated the pitfalls with Sparedoller, which is the cheapest hosting service I am aware of beyond Auctiva.

Auctiva is not only the best image hosting service available, but in a real sense an absolute MUST if you want your auctions to be professionally and efficiently organized, current problems notwithstanding.


eom

They have stated they do not want to charge for the service so stop debating how much they should charge. Yes this very frustrating. The site rocks when working and when it does not work it sucks. We do count on it to work because it a work tool and we want to go to work. It is like driving 100 miles to a jobsite and you find you left all your tools home. A big waste of time. I planned days ago to be listing now and not chatting here. We all have choices to make concerning this. I am getting very tired of it. I tried the frog and found it very confusing and a big time waster. Maybe I did not try long enough. This listing service is SO easy to use and fast when working I really do not want to change, but Iam not able to work as of late. It is not working as it is. I am not giving up just voicing my opinion and frustrations. Ebays listing works but is slower and costs alot for inexpensive items. Makes them not worth running. I hat to list good stuff over there with poor pictures and it costs more the double to get a good looking auction. Oh well, enough of my 2 cents worth for now.

Trust me, we are just as frustrated as everyone posting here. Luckily, everything seems ok right now and we are working on the database backup (as I type this, the backup is going). Once that is complete (less than 2 hours), it will be safe to put the site back online.

Regarding bugs/issues: we have a comprehensive list of open issues (I believe we are aware of everything) and are working on a resolution for them.

When the backup is complete, and the site is live... if you find anything that is not working, please create a new thread so it can be brought to our attention.

I say leave well enough alone. I'm for one am happy with the way things are!

Keep up the great work Jeff

Please explain what you are happy with?