Complaints About the Site Are Now Personal Issues?

[amy]

http://bidchaser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1127
http://bidchaser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1129

Apparently if you mention the name of one of BidChaser's owners it makes it a "personal issue" that shouldn't be discussed based on the comments of  BidChaser owner Cesar in these threads.  :

[Michelle]

Leo and Cesar made it a personal issue themselves by saying problems are fixed, over and over again, when they are not fixed at all. Maybe it's a matter of their personal honesty. Sellers over there are getting really disgusted. 

[bargainbloodhound]

I think it would be better for customer relations if Cesar stayed in the background and let Leo handle the angry questions.  Leo seems to be able to handle criticism better. 

[Anita]

I read a bit and thought I was back in high school...

[vitalfinds]

Why do they all stay with Bid Chaser?  It's not like there's not a thousand other small auction site options.

[Michelle]

Vital - I think they're desperately seeking the elusive silver-lined aution site. They seem to think it will be BC. JMHO, I don't think the site will ever work; hasn't since the beginning. Just today there was a post that someone had a sale but never received notice of the sale from BC. Same old, same old, day after day. 

[Nat]

[quote author=Michelle link=topic=674.msg2664#msg2664 date=1128728500]
I think they're desperately seeking the elusive silver-lined aution site. They seem to think it will be BC. JMHO, I don't think the site will ever work; hasn't since the beginning.[/quote]

They can dream on.  I don't think so either.  Why do I think that? How long have they been around? If they were mean to be the next "elusive silver-lined aution site" it would have happened by now, especially since how long have they been around?  Let's see, Whois says the bidchaser.com domain was created in 05-SEP-02.  What have they accomplished in the past 3 years? If they were meant to be that silver lining, it would take time but not 3 years.  Since they accomplished SQUAT in the past years, except the reputation of being huge spammers, I say DREAM ON BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bargainbloodhound]

Whois says the bidchaser.com domain was created in 05-SEP-02

The actual site opening was june 2003.  The opening press conference was held a few blocks away from where eBay Live was being held in Orlando.  Even so, I think 2 years is more than enough time.  It seems like they are trying to recreate their old site Carnaby (right down to the current BidChaser look which is very similar to Carnaby), but have yet to achieve that goal. [for anyone who wants to explore the old Carnaby site, a large part of it is preserved here: http://web.archive.org/web/2002112213044...rnaby.com/ ).

On March 1st I asked Leo (BidChaser) the following (thanks to Yahoo cache for preserving these quotes from the now deleted FAS forum  ):

Since Carnaby.com was considered by many to be one of the most user friendly sites around and even had 3 million listings at one point, but in the end couldn't compete profitably with eBay....what will be different this time around to make it work?

Has the online environment changed enough in the past 3 years that a viable competitor will be able to compete in a market dominated by eBay when the past 3-5 years has seen potential eBay competitors such as Carnaby.com and BidBay sign up millions of users/have millions of items listed only to fall by the wayside as eBay exerted its (market) muscle?

and this was his response:

I am sure the question will come up sooner or later, so I will address it openly here and now. As an insider I have to say, Carnaby's demise was not because it could not compete profitably with eBay or any other auction site at the time. Internal morale problems caused an irreparable rift in the company. Some just left in disgust, others left for Bidville... and the good looking ones stayed on at Bidchaser Smile

OK, I am teasing about that last comment. But that's pretty much the way the cookie crumbled. I was fortunate to retain the majority of the technical talent that created the robust architecture that in the end let Carnaby handle over 3,000,000 items and a population of almost 200,000 members. It had definitely hit a critical mass. Moving forward would not have been a question of "if" but "when".

But enough about the past. It is still a sore point for me, as I am sure it is for anyone who participated in its rise and fall.

The fact remains that from a technical standpoint - if you look around and ask yourself, "which of these sites can take it when it's time to succeed?" - I'm confident in saying that Bidchaser has what it takes. We know the technology, we have the talent in house, the resources, but most importantly, we have the determination to keep going. I am sure many bets have been placed over the years that my name, and of those who have worked with me over the years would have disappeared from the online auction horizon. But we're a persistent, nagging group Laughing . Mostly, we believe in our model and we believe in the online auction commity.

As far as marketing, we are following the same direction that was so successful for us in the past - we let the site grow organically. We let our membership drive the direction and the rate of growth.

I firmly believe that there will always be "catalysts" in the market. Events that change the tide.

There was eBay's downtime for Gold's and Yahoo, as there was Yahoo's fee announcement for Bidville, there was eBay's fee increases for Wagglepop, as there was an innocent post at Wallyspogbog for Carnaby. Maybe it is this "post wagglepop" wave that will lift Bidchaser. I sure hope so - we are ready.

In the meantine, we continue to build a solid infrastructure, we continue to service our existing members, and to our fortune, we continue to execute our business and marketing plans.

the following exchange on the similarities of the BidChaser design to Carnaby took place on March 23rd:

bargainbloodhound:  I couldn't help immediately noticing the very very strong similarities to one of the last designs of [Carnaby]...

bidchaser: It's no secret that our design team (Frank, Scott, Cesar and myself) came from Carnaby, and were heavily involved in designing its navigation and layout.

We spent a lot of time and effort, and used a lot of feedback to come up with the mechanics of that design. It would be foolish to put all of this effort to waste.

After looking at a lot of different ideas, we kept coming back to our original "baby" as the best starting point.

Leo

I actually think in many regards they've gone backwards rather than forwards since March, and aren't even close to even recreating Carnaby let alone being a viable alternative to sites like Yahoo or Overstock (and eBay).

[thentavius]

*yawn*

[Michelle]

The most items I ever saw listed at BC this year was less than 20,000 (auctions and stores). Far cry from 3 million. Even with so few listings the site has had many problems, and still does today.