Slippery Auctionsniper adds sales text under your name with InstaMail "service"

I see other concerns now among other registered users - please log any support or concerns here, however brief.

Thank you symptheticos!

shamangroup

I think you ought to go to "Modify Account" and review the options you have checked there before you go complaining about "Sneaky AS".

Thanks for your advice, Steve, but I have reviewed the Modify Account section and find that's exactly where the sneakiness of Auctionsniper lies.

You see, if you examine the "example" text of the Instamail letter, there is none of the sales copy in that "example". However, the actual letters sent to your transaction partners contain two paragraphs of financial incentives from Auctionsniper to get your transactional partners to join in.

Auctionsniper does not ask permission to do this, nor do they tell you they are doing it, and they are signing your name to their words.

I find it an outrageous practice that will certainly lead to trouble. For me, I've already had complaints, not from using Auctionsniper, but from soliciting business for Auctionsniper from my vendors. Come on, your reputation is at stake!

I cannot imagine any Auctionsniper user is satisfied with this, yes, slippery behaviour.


Jeff Manning
shamangroupuk

shamangroup

Yeah, I see what you mean, Jeff. I unchecked that option from the get-go, so it never occurred to me to look at the sample letter. There's no indication that what will actually go out will also contain a statement about Auction Sniper.

I don't mind plugging AS; it's a great service. But if it's something that irritates other folks on eBay, and especially if it also gets you in dutch with the eBay "police" by listing the AS URL, then maybe it's not a good idea.

If you compare, here's the text that Auctionsniper adds:


"I used AuctionSniper.com to win this item. As a seller, you can
earn $5 for every new user that you refer. Simply paste these
lines into your end of auction emails, and click this link for
more details: http://www.auctionsniper.com/seller/

Snipe eBay and win more auctions. Use what others are using to
beat you! Unattended, last second, auction sniping. It's as easy as
bidding on eBay, and we do the rest. Free trial.
http://www.auctionsniper.com/?from=shamangroupuk@yahoo.com"

What really gets me is that this is not disclosed and is included written in the first person in a letter signed by me (or any other user). It would really simple to eliminate this from the Instamail function, which I think is a valuable service - but I was really shocked that it was used unknowingly to flog product.

shamangroup

Why is it that after 66 views only one person has responded to this issue?

Isn't anyone else disturbed by the fact that Auctionsniper is a little more than liberal with your personal contact details, online reputation and the text under the name that you sign?

shamangroup

quote:

---

Why is it that after 66 views only one person has responded to this issue?

---

Because most of us are smart enough to figure out that if you dont like the feature to simply turn it off.

Maybe it does suck that the advertising is there but these guys have to make money and get new customers. The only way I can see them doing that is by word of mouth and emails such as that.

I figure more customers and such means a better service and lower fees to me. Maybe you could offer to pay a fee to use the instamail feature without advertising or something.

RIGHT ON, JAYOLSON!

OK, Steve said the same thing - turn it off.

But the real issue is the deception.

Why hide the fact that this sales copy will appear?

If this were a tag line at the end of the email, and I could control the copy to my vendor partners, and it were disclosed, I really wouldn't mind.

But that's not how Auctionsniper behaves and I don't want Auctionsniper to become another PayPal.

Can anyone tell me if they're comfortable with Instamail with this feature?

Can anyone from Auctionsniper tell me why they offer a feature that has all forum participants recommending it be turned off?

shamangroup

>>Why is it that after 66 views only one person has responded to this issue?<<

Maybe the other 65 are more tired of the same member posting the same sentiments again and again, ad nauseum, in so many different folders?

Maybe they have long ago forgotten about any valid point he may once have had and can now only bring themselves to ignore him, in hopes that he will be cured of his almost neurotic habit of repeating himself?

Shamangroup: Unfortunately, those of us who have been around for a long time, have learned the hard way, that it really doesn't do any good to complain about certain things. Particularly since Adam Roth (the founder of AS) left in June. That's when all the major changes took place on this site, and the quality of customer service went down hill. Now, when loyal long-time customers present legitimate issues/problems, they get accusations of incompetence from Sara instead of real customer service. Just take a look at some of the previous threads posted here.

Don't be too hard on the others for their support of Steve. Steve is just another experienced AS sniper who gives of his own time and experience to those less knowledgable. He is well liked, especially since he's so much nicer, kinder, more patient and MUCH more professional than Sara.

I don't like the instamail feature either. And I especially don't like that the sample they give is really nothing like the actual email that is sent. But I have no confidence that AS will ever change it -- no matter how many complaints are posted. So I just don't use it.

Again, no discussion of the issue.

Auctionsniper misleads it's members and writes words in their best customers mouths and nobody cares?

Would you let your lawyer or accountant get away with this type of behaviour?

Of course not. So why should we let Auctionsniper?

Is there nobody that uses this forum for a real discussion of real issues?

I think that Auctionsniper deceiving it's customers is a very real issue. That's why I've posted it several times. So as many people as possible know about it and feel outraged enough to open cases and pressure Auctionsniper into doing the right thing.

Auctionsniper writes words in it's members emails. This is wrong. It couldn't possibly be clearer. And everyone's upset that I'm not an Auctionsniper cheerleader, not that Auctionsniper is behaving deceitfully.

Where are the sensible people who understand the issue here?

shamangroup

1 message per thread, duplicates of this thread in other areas of the forums will be deleted. Posts mentioning legal matters will be removed, as will competitors in any form. You want to sue us that's fine, but this is not the place to start the discussion. Use some common sense folks.

Shamangroup (and everyone else): I hope you get a chance to read this before Sara deletes this post again.

You asked me if there were any other surprises you should be on the look out for. I answered not of the kind you were refering to.

I also went to tell you how great AS is when it's working properly. I've won many, many auctions because of AS. And I've told a number of people about AS. I said that the best advice I could give you or anybody was to give AS a fair try and to come to own conclusions.

This is the typical over-reaction you can expect from her. In the last case I filed with technical support, I specifically expressed my displeasure with her accusatory responses to customers and lack of common courtesy and professionalism and decent customer service. The response I got was "Yeah, Sara's way out there." So even her co-workers know how she is.

If Sara can control her anger and typical over-reactions and leave this post alone, then I may stick around. But it seems her goal is to drive away as many long-time loyal customers as she can. I think she's forgotten it's the customers who make her paycheck possible.



[This message was edited by Sniper Sara B. on December 10, 2002 at 01:29 PM.]

Hope you stick around, but you need to follow our few simple rules which I outlined above. Thank you

We will add mention in the example text for instamail that the email will include a promotion of our service.

If enough people are interested we could add the ability to remove the promotional text at a cost of 25 cents per instamail. We have few ways to attract new customers and that's one of them, so we cant just take it out. If we take it out we need to get new customers elsewhere which means expensive, mostly ineffective advertising which is expensive. We monitor all signups and how they came to signup.

test

shamangroup

I must applaud Auctionsniper for doing the right thing by committing to disclose the promotional copy in the Instamail feature. This shows that there are people at Auctionsniper who care about our concerns.

And thank you for tolerating a bit of constructive dissent by allowing me back into the Forum.

shamangroup

Well, I guess it's not allowed for me to say that I like AS so much it's my PRIMARY sniping service.

There: I haven't said anything anything about anything other than AS!

I've been in tech support. Most of the time it IS the customer's fault. And, many of the times the problem has already been answered on this forum, but some members are too lazy to do the research. Take this instamail "crises". Same old pattern. Someone leaves an "How could you - I'm calling my lawyers" message about AS infringing on their constitutional rights. Another member "patiently" tells them about turning that feature off in their account (IT WAS THEIRRRRR ALL ALONG, just roll down, duh). Then they come back and demand that AS change this, because if they didn't blame AS, they just might have to take some responsibility for not setting up their account properly. So, it much easier to blame AS for this, then it is for them to admit they should have been more thorough.

And where is it written that the customer can rant, vent, threaten to leave, and post rival services; while AS is just suppose to take what ever a customer throws at them.

You're right: Customers make Sara's paycheck possible. CustomerS. Not Customer, and not a Few Customers. (With a few more customers like that, who needs competition.)

And, I get sick of reading about people that are going to leave AS and go to another service. I REALLY don't want to hear about it. JUST LEAVE. I don't need to know you're leaving, and I won't miss you. (Don't let the door hit you in the butt!)

Also, some one said earlier that the customer is always right (although that person has left negative feedback for their customers, so they must not apply that standard to themselves). Well, what happens if two customers want the opposite thing? How can both of them be right?

As far as this clown (crack-pot) that started the latest. 26 posts in 3 days! The only folder he hasn't posted on is "Items wanted". His conspiracy theory about Steve is completely unfounded, inappropriate, and tacky. It would be far more logical to say this clown is working for a rival service. And now it looks like he's playing games to see if he can still post. Chatter163 gave him what he "said" he was looking for.

star_trkr, I checked your old posts. There was a time when you were more like Steve. I joined up in May/02. So, I wasn't around that long before Adam took off. I've only had a couple of snipes not placed. One of them was while I was signed onto eBay. There was a 20 minute window where I couldn't bring up my auctions thur eBay. Dead. I doubled my AS lead time. One AS snipe got thru - one snipe didn't. But, I couldn't even get a manual snipe in. Maybe, I would feel differently is I had been around as long as you.

So, if someone has to leave, do. Just don't stink up the place.

[This message was edited by Rick on December 10, 2002 at 04:17 PM.]

Whatever you might think about me, consider this:

1. Auctionsniper is now going to disclose their promotional copy to customers

2. I never resorted to name calling.

shamangroup

Rick, no need to go postal. They're just venting and posting their opinions. I dont want them to leave. Some things went a bit far, but I think what is here now is ok and I can understand their side of things too.

Conspiracy? What conspiracy am I supposedly involved with? Says who? Did I miss something here? Please elucidate.

I found the post you were talking about. No harm done. No offense meant, none taken.

Rick:
In the first place, I have NEVER posted any information about a rival service. What I said was that AS is my primary sniping service -- only in different words.

Secondly, I never said the customer is always right. However, I have been around long enough to know how to use AS and make appropriate changes to my account. When I do have a legitimate issue, I don't expect to be treated like a moron and accused of not knowing what I'm doing before the the person (employee) responding to me even bothers to check out the situation. If you've been in tech support then you realize that sometimes the person who brings something to your attention is not always an idiot, and you have to check out the situation BEFORE you accuse them of such. If you check it out, and I'm wrong, then you can tell me I'm wrong -- but don't assume. That is issue I've had with Sara. And since I'm still here, I'm obviously giving her a chance to improve upon that behaviour.

And if wasn't for Sara having deleted parts of some of my posts or entire posts that I've left, you would have seen how I attested to the many, many auctions I've won and how I attributed them to AS. When AS is working properly it is a fantastic service. I told a number of people about AS. If I didn't like AS I would tell other about it.

As for the instamail feature. I never liked the feature so I never used it. I didn't like that fact the the example never indicated there would be a sales pitch included in it. I never complained about it because I never felt as stongly about that Shamangroup did. However, the fact that he did doesn't make him a crackpot or wrong. He actually had a legitimate point. His issue wasn't that this instamail was sent out, his issue was that the instamail was sent with a sales pitch in it, that was done without his knowledge and without any notice (not in the example) by AS.

Also, in a post of mine that was deleted, you would have seen me set Shamangroup straight about Steve. I told him point blank that Steve is an experienced AS sniper who generously gives of his experience and time since he is so patient. And in a reply of Shamangroup's that was deleted, he thanked me for setting him straight on that.

Hope you enjoy the Holidays.

star_trkr,

Why would you think that everything in my last post was about you? There is only one paragraph about you, and it has your name on it.

Hope you enjoy everyday!

My eyes are now opened...I recently received my first e-mail from a seller that was apparently not happy I had sniped. A copy of the notice was included, and I was NOT aware that I was advertising for AS! Don't know how I missed it, but I don't like it, don't want it and have turned it off. It really doesn't make sense to me, as I feel that sniping primarily benefits the buyer, not the seller, so why target them with advertising?