It Was All A Bad Dream: Auctiva Was Just Jerking Sellers Chains?

Written by John Comments
Last Updated June 10, 2009

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I came up with the title of this post about "jerking the chain" and then before I started to write I decided to look up the origin of the phrase. Word origins can be an exciting way to uncover history and linguistics is fascinating to me.

I was surprised and even shocked at what it stems from and then how APPROPRIATE the use of the term is in this context.

Jerking Your Chain – Is a phrase coined in the US back in the early days of the history of this county. It comes from the slave days when overseers would jerk the chains of slaves which would cause irritation, pain and frustration. It also was a way to ensure unruly slaves were reminded of who had the control.

According to a new staff written blog post … After monitoring Auctiva’s community forums, support cases, e-mails and other forums, a few things were clear, notes CEO Jeff Schlicht: Customers thought the original plan was too expensive and they didn’t want to pay final value fees. They prefer a "simple, no-surprises flat-rate pricing structure."

And that’s what they’ll get with Auctiva’s new plans, Schlicht says. A $9.95/mo. Flat Rate Plan gives users unlimited listings and up to 1 GB of image hosting, while a $2.95/mo. option with up to 500 MB of images is geared toward those users who typically post fewer than 15 listings per month. Additionally, as part of its complete e-commerce solution, Auctiva continues to offer its Auctiva Commerce off-eBay stores, which provide sellers the opportunity to diversify their online selling efforts while increasing revenue and lowering costs.

I am so confused. So before I make my comments, I would like you to read the comments from the CEO of Auctiva Mr. Jeff Schlicht…Click for full story

"If you’re asking yourself, ‘Why didn’t they just use this pricing in the beginning?’ the answer is that I thought our customers would like to have the choice of picking a tailored plan based on usage," Schlicht says. "We spent a lot of time developing our different pricing packages to best meet the needs of the many different types of eBay sellers who use Auctiva. Clearly, I was wrong, so we made changes.

All too often, large companies fail to listen to their customers," Schlicht notes in his letter to users. "Auctiva’s brightest future includes the users who brought us this far. Among all third-party listings services, Auctiva remains the best-poised to meet your current eBay selling needs, help you grow your business and facilitate your journey beyond eBay."

— Jeff Schlicht (CEO Auctiva)

Thanks for the clarity of focus and the admittance to your error in judgment. But I really do not understand how you got that $199 tier down to $9.95? I am missing that part of the equation? How in planning did you ACTUALLY think sellers would "prefer" to have a "choice" of picking THAT tailored plan based on usage? Dude, now you got me all messed up.

Did they REALLY find that $199 a MONTH was just a little too much? How do you go from $250 down to $199 and then finally land at $9.95? So the response now is basically … Ooops my bad? Come on guys WTF?

Is it just me? Am I the stupid one that just does not get it? Or was this a clear case of profiteering and jerking your subjects chains? Hmmm, were they just jerking sellers chains to make sure we knew who was "the massa"? OUCH dude, stop it!

David Mark

Was a customer at AuctionRover which later became Channeladvisor....left them to join Auctiva and found out free is pretty good. Left Auctiva to join Ink Frog and I'm lovin' it. Goodbye Auctiva....thanks for making me leave. Your pricing change and apology was too late, I found something much better.

If you are still with Auctiva....you should seriously consider making the change over to Ink Frog. I don't work there....I just like their platform. David Mark, CEO

Cranger7

They may wish they had just stayed free after all this...Can I just comment on the very good point made about "From Free to ChannelAdvisor pricing"

Even I know better than that! It says a lot when you haven't learned about different type markets & customers and even worse when you don't know your own customers! Or who your REAL competitors are!

I have used paid services for a long time now but I still find some of their things useful like insurance, I still love them for the convenience of quickly adding extra insurance for items that need it or are excluded by Fedex...but oh yea...that's not free is it? well its still a cool feature that they import data and let me pick insurance to buy from Upic by pointing and clicking. That being said....

You get what you pay for is what I think so hey...Auctiva = EXCELLENT VALUE - viruses and all. But seriously did this stuff really happen? I just cant help but comment on ths ya'll!

How do you go from free to higher tier pricing without offering a whole new site or access to stuff you didn't get for free before???

AND I would bet most of their customers could never afford the original top tiered price plan they offered and NO SELLER that COULD was going to start paying those prices without looking around first!

I can see raising prices to cover cost so you can keep on being Auctiva but seriously....this whole thing should be on the evening news for entertainment or better yet.... Saturday morning cartoon. Hey thats a idea...The Charlie Brown Starts A eBay Business , wow , How come I feel like I could relate to that show? (thanks John for letting me post)

Tim

Unlike a lot of folks, I was not surprised at the pricing. Basically, that is the pricing for the higher tier of 3rd party providers. I was with ChannelAdvisor from the time they were free (Free Forever! Yeah, right.) until they kicked little sellers to the curb - so I recognized the initial pricing plan that Auctiva put out there.

What did surprise me was Auctiva's misreading of their customers. You can not go from free to ChannelAdvisor pricing (No matter what you may think of your product) without having a lot of customer angst. And, I don't know who they thought they had for a customer, but FREE attracts a different kind of customer than ChannelAdvisor attracts.

I am happy to see that they have figured things out - though it may be too late for Auctiva.

vintagecrafts

If Auctiva had offered flat rate pricing in the beginning, I would have been happy to stay and never would've found out I like Inkfrog better (thanks Auctiva!).

Still unsure why research on a price wasn't done first?! Flat fee or not, the way Auctiva customers were treated in the last week and a half, I don't want to do business with that kind of company.

I'm proud of the eBay community letting Auctiva know how we felt and keeping the stuff (being polite) that was going on in the forefront. We can and did make a difference.

Kat Simpson

Wow! Change powered from the People, what a concept, ROFLOL You guys want to TELL them how you feel? Call in tonight - I have them for 1/2 hour on RRBradio.com

John, as always, LOVE your analysis!

katydidscards

I was one of the Auctiva users who reacted very strongly to the initial news about the tiered pricing plans. I felt the plans as they were initially presented were completely unrealistic, the proposed percentage of our sales (the final value fee) was utterly inappropriate, and the short 30-day time frame was irresponsible and unreasonable. In short, I felt stampeded and threatened and angry.

Then changes were proposed. It seemed as if there was a new pricing plan offered every day. The CEO was visible and vocal on the eBay seller boards, and was very unprofessional in his comments about his competitors. I eventually was blocked from posting in Auctiva's own forums, although I have two accounts there.

I asked specific questions of their customer support and was told one thing, then when I pointed out that their marketing VP contradicted what I had been told by CS, I was told "oops, we made a mistake in what we told you." How could I trust what they were saying if their own CS staff didn't know from one moment to the next what the plans were?

I decided to move my 1,000+ items to InkFrog, (while still retaining my Auctiva accounts, so I could do so over time), and have not been sorry. The staff at InkFrog have gone out of their way to be helpful and assist in the transition. They have remained level-headed and professional, which I cannot say of the Auctiva staff/CEO.

I appreciate that Jeff has apologized for unprofessional manner in which this all was handled, and that there is now a flat price plan (which we all asked for.) However any trust I had in their company has been destroyed by their behavior over the past several weeks (and we won't even discuss any of the past issues I've had with the company.)

I will likely go for the lowest flat rate plan for several months, and once I get all my auctions revised I will be closing my Auctiva accounts. Once burnt, twice shy, and all that.