Amazon GLitch AOB down for the umteenth time.

Well, title says it all–I can quit AOB, and plan on it–they used to send out e-mails when shit happened, now they don’t say anything and just hope that their users were offline at the time they went down. Seriously for the past 2 years, Communication at AOB sucks. I float better than most because I am computer savy–it’s really the outages that seem to happen once a month or so, with no explanation whatsoever that frustrate the HELL out of me–I mean, they don’t even tell you if the problem was fixed–or if perhaps it is just a regular maint. thing that they do. They don’t even bother to state if the problem is just front end and orders are getting pulled from all venues–or if it affects the back end too. There are other companies that do what AOB does–and they communicate better-it will be worth the extra money a month for that.

I mean I went to work all day–and still no message on their forums, or anywhere that I can find about what happened.  What am I supposed to do?  Start a ticket?  Ask them what the hell is wrong with their site?  I should be the one to go out of my way to type a ticket to them that they might answer with any kind of useful information? Instead of the company contacting it’s customers?  Hello?  Asellertool sends me e-mails all the time, Scout Pal used too. . . I’ve also recieved some e-mails from ALibris in the past year.

And also, How many of us are there?  1000?  Should we all start tickets?  That seems like a waste of AOB’s time to reply to everyone on an individual basis.  I’ll stick to my guns : They don’t post because they don’t want people who didn’t happen to try and use AOB in the Wee hours last night to know what was going on.

However, I cannot quit Amazon, only work around their crazy glitchdom.

Yes, sales still are in the pooper

I havent  been around  because of a vacation, and an unhealthy obsession with anything to do with this election.

Rest assured, sales still suck.  Yes, I am selling stuff and doing better than others, but, in the past 2 months my sales have dropped about 40%.  Every trick I know to make sales happen, has probably only had the affect of limiting the drop in sales, instead of bringing me up to the norm of the past 7 or 8 years.

Not to mention the absolute lowballing going on.  $20 books with sellers droping to $5 almost over night–and no, I’m not going to spend $9 to make $8.

Ok, well here is hoping for the best on Tuesday, everyone go out and vote, and be prepared to stand in line and prove your ID if you have to.

Horibble Ebay Glitch / Bug -Clicking Listing Links = Purchase?

I was shopping on Ebay from a seller whom I knew I was going to buy from. I clicked the link to a listing in their store and it automatically said that I had purchased the item–went straight to “pay Now” displayed on the page. So I thought, ” Well maybe I clicked on the buy it now logo” so I clicked a 2nd listing link from the same company, and it also went straight to “Pay Now.”

It’s been 5 mins and the items are not showing up in my “won” list on Ebay, nor have I received all the auto e-mails.  We’ll see.

Big Fat ZEROS — Daily Glitchdom on Amazon

Amazon glitches once in awhile so I’m used to it, but this week is crazy.

This is the 2nd day for me this week in which ZEROS are piling up in my Amazon inventory, but they are getting stuck in pending mode.  When I woke up this morning I had 10, a few of those have made it to the other side, but I just checked and I am still at 10 ZEROS with some new items added in. . .There is no consistency to what is making it across the finish line–ie –first one in first one out, they are random.  Of course AOB can’t pick up these orders. . .And for me deleting is just too time consuming because then I have to keep track in case some of these items have really been canceled or were just in someone’s shopping cart for a moment— I have 40 Books to ship and 3 hours to get this done–ok yeah, I’m wasting time here 🙂

Amazon buying Abebooks

I know a lot has been said about this, mostly by those sellers who do NOT sell on Amazon for various reasons.

I sell on both Amazon and Abebooks, and even though my Abe sales have been picking up, Abe is still my lowest producing venue, and one of the most expensive to list on. So my worry is not Amazon will somehow ruin Abe, although I do think that it is good to have a venue like Abe out there almost exactly as it works now.

My worry is that Abe owns Fillz, and that Amazon might make it’s 3rd party sellers who use Inventory Management services, use Fillz. I love AOB, and I do not want to use Fillz, and it’s not just the price.  I am a computer geek, and game playing fool, I used to design webistes, and the Fillz Shipping is just a clunky nightmare compared to AOB, some other Fillz features are just as clunky too.  I also still ship one book at a time instead of using bulk. One reason is that because of my location, almost every item I ship needs an individual shipping decision regarding weight and price since I don’t deal with books exclusively over $25. I know Fillz has some standard fill in stuff factoring in weight, but I actually need to know more than that when making a decision. Also, alot of my books need extra secure packaging, and they are easier for me to ship with accurate postage through the one at a time method.  And lastly though on Mondays I do all my shipping at once, during the week I try to squeeze out a few at night during chores and movies, and leveling my Bard. Last I checked one could only bulk ship on Fillz.

On the Abe side, I like being able to request extra money for shipping.  I know some of you all upgrade for free, and pay any extra amount.  But, I run a full time business, and since I buy 90% of my personal items online, I know that a scarce few stores upgrade for free–My $5000 TV did not come with a shipping break.  My $1000 laptop did not come with free shipping, My clothes are never shipped for free unless its a once a year sale.  AND as of late I have booksellers ordering INTL from me to dropship thinking that I can get screwed on the shipping instead of them.  So I really hope that Amazon does not standardize Abes shipping.

It’s Not all Bad. . .

I will take a break from my bitching, to share an e-mail I got today from an Alibris customer.

“I wanted to let you know that the book arrived today in fabulous
condition, and I wanted to thank you for the care in packaging it and
in sending it. I also wanted to say thank you and kudos for the
very, very accurate description you gave of the book. I was not
disappointed in the least. It made the transaction a pleasure.”

I mean, in this faceless enterprise of selling books on the web, it’s nice when I get letters and e-mails like this, thought I would share so that you all know that not everything in my life is glum 🙂

Calling it off with International Shipping?

I’m thinking of ending my relationship with International Shipping. . .

INTL shipping is too much like dating that Slicky Boy everyone warns you about. . .

He often arrives late. . .If he shows up at all. . .You never really know where he is hanging out. . .Sometimes he just disappears for a few weeks. . . You can’t trust a word he says and you can’t keep track of him unless you invest in some expensive GPS system or a PI. . .Sometimes you end up paying for the date and it’s never cheap because Slicky Boys have extravagant tastes despite their low pay grade. . .Slicky Boys are also very high maintenance. . .And sure, I’ve had a blast with them, but the nights waiting up, wondering if they were coming home, or laying dead in a road or some other woman’s bed outweighed the fun.

I have sold some of my priciest tomes INTL, however my average INTL sale is only $30, this does not give me much margin for error. Here are a few problems off the top of my head that I have with INTL sales.

1- There is no inexpensive option to track the book, you have to trust the customer when they say the book did not arrive. I believe that people are basically honest, however last year I had 6 missing books to Great Britain in a 2 month time period surrounding the back to school crowd. I use Endicia so sloppy writing was not the issue, nor was improper forms. In the US I just lose out on my cost of the book and $3 or so for shipping, for INTL add $10 – $30 to that and it sucks. I don’t lay awake at night wondering if the book will get there or if I will have to refund, but I do get a certain level of stress with these orders.

2-Most books I ship have to go 1st Class INTL, the flat rate envelope does not properly give the protection these books need. While, most of my 1st INTL packages average abut 7 – 14 days, the P.O. does not even give a delivery estimate. They like to say, “varies.” Many a customer understands this, but a few don’t, and they are hard to deal with.

3-If a book is returned for insufficient address or whatever other Post Office whim, I usually eat the cost to resend it, esp if the address was correct. At $10- $30 a pop, as I said before, it sucks, and adds up.

4- I don’t offer heavy books for INTL sale on most sites. On Ebay people can mail me for a quote. On abe though, they can purchase and then I will request extra shipping. Lately when I request extra shipping charges through Abe, people, refuse. . .This wasn’t always the case. I do pay the extra up to 2lbs or so, but if a book is 4 lbs, I have to request the extra shipping. Even if it was a $150 book, why should I pay $25 – $30 out of my pocket to ship the book, when it will usually sell in US within a couple months? Set the shipping rate higher? Then I wouldn’t sell a darn thing, most books cost me less than $14 to ship.

5- High Maintenance -I have to answer a lot more e-mails for INTL shipping, and most of the time I can’t really tell them anything about where their packages is. The US PO sometimes scans the Customs info, sometimes they don’t. Also, for heavy books and books that need a shipping quote, I have to package the book and weigh it, send the emails, and then get rejected 9 out of 10 times. Other high maintenance that I don’t have to deal with atm is the whole needing to hand them to a cashier at the Post Office.

Umm yeah, so, I’m on the fence.

I like the idea of sharing literature around the world. I used to have book stores in Australia and Ireland order 5 – 10 books from me at a time, and then I would send them surface–this was a win win situation for both of us–I could still use the M bag for them, but M Bag is the biggest hassle in the world for me, my post office doesn’t even carry them, I have to go to a downtown location to get it. . . .Well I have alot more thoughts on this, but I have to get back to work.

Big Scammer Beware ? Athens OHIO Address

Over 28 Claims in the last 2 months-not counting refunds, and this is just the people whom actually read the Amazon Seller’s Boards.

This may just be an Amazon scam, but, anyone shipping to a certain address in Athens Ohio should read this thread– this guy is ripping off tons of sellers, he claims non delivery or materially different–and it could be happening to people who sell on other sites too. The partial address and names of the company and people are here–and Amazon seller Support even suggested to one seller that they post this info–

http://tinyurl.com/yq8xxa

** Original OP has admitted to listing things under the wrong ISBN–but plenty of other reputable sellers who list things right have been burned, and some of them even won their  A to Z Claims, and we know hard that is.  The current thinking is that this is a rogue employee as these probs seem to have started in the past 2 months, and people had sold successfully to thembefore that with no claims, or lost packages.

Funny

I’ve spent 30 mins looking for a book about shapeshifting –it has just disappeared from my inventory.