SpareDollar told customers it would raise fees from $4.95/month to $8.95/month effective November 1. Some users say they are upset, while the company says higher fees are necessary.
Founded in October of 2001, SpareDollar charges a monthly fee, but does not charge listing or commission fees. SpareDollar president Tomas Salas said the rate increase was necessary to hire additional staff to answer customer-support questions and provide reliable and updated services. Salas said SpareDollar has not raised rates in the 2 years since it began charging fees.
"As our membership grew, we invested heavily on our server infrastructure, and bandwidth expenses have steadily increased," said Salas. "We feel this rate is still very competitive and well below other companies that provide similar services."
One user complained to AuctionBytes that users are disappointed; "It's not that the price is so expensive, it's that the site does not work properly and has not delivered updates that have been promised for more than two years."
Salas said the biggest customer complaint the company receives stem from the challenge of keeping up with the rapid changes eBay makes to its site and API. The complaint is not uncommon among developers, who use the API to communicate with eBay's system so they can carry out tasks on behalf of users. Developers pay eBay an annual membership, a certification fee and an access fee every time they use the API.
Salas said SpareDollar has been working on a new version for several months, though users complain the new version has been promised - but not delivered - for a year. "We plan on rolling the new service out in stages as an alternative login page and a separate site," said Salas. "A major concern from our users was getting used to a new service and the possibility of encountering "bugs" during the upcoming heavy listing season. The beta has been in private testing for a couple of months and we will be offering public testing in the next 1-2 months."
eBay sellers are generally price sensitive, since any increase in fees cuts into their margins. One AuctionBytes reader said of SpareDollar's announcement:
"I can afford the monthly fee. As a business person, the fee is a cost of doing business. All I do is take the monthly fee and divide it by the number of auctions I plan to have in a given month and either add that to my selling price or to my shipping and handling. If I average 50 auctions a month, I ADD 18 cents to the selling price or the shipping cost. But most of the people on SD have no idea what goes into a "selling price" and any increase is devastating to them."
SpareDollar does not release its member count.
http://www.sparedollar.com
Note: AuctionBytes contacted Salas Wednesday morning when the SpareDollar site appeared to be down. Salas said it was experiencing DNS issues and would be back online shortly.
