On June 1st, a reader sent me a letter with a complaint about ePier. He was high bidder on an item, and the seller never responded to his emails. He felt dissatisfied with ePier's lack of response to his complaints. I wrote to ePier on June 1st, explaining that I was the publisher of a newsletter for online auction users and that one of my readers had complained about ePier. I asked for information about their policies concerning deadbeat sellers.
On July 10th, I still hadn't received a reply from ePier, so I emailed again, warning in my letter that I would feel it necessary to write about ePier's lack of response in a future issue. After getting no response to that letter either, I finally called ePier on August 3rd. James Kim, CEO and President of ePier, answered the phone.
"We look at virtually all the emails that come in," Kim stated. "We are not always able to reply to all of the emails. We are working on doing a better job. Customer service is one of the areas where we want to do a great job, obviously." Kim said that he had read my emails, felt it was important to get back to me, but that he was busy with the demands of a small growing company. He classified the problems I encountered as growing pains on the part of ePier.
After talking to James Kim, I got the sense that ePier is struggling to manage its growth. Like many start-up companies, ePier has limited resources and not enough time in the day. Kim said that membership is growing every day and the number of ePier registered users is in the "tens of thousands."
ePier has one full-time person to handle customer service, though he is called on to do other tasks as well. Kim said he felt that ePier's customer service is a "7" on a scale of 1 to 10 and said that ePier is very committed to users.
ePier is owned by a group of individuals that Kim says is committed to ePier. He expects ePier to break even by year-end and to generate half a million dollars in revenue within a year. "We are on the correct path to growth," Kim stated.
I took the opportunity to ask Kim why people should use ePier. He said that the problem with eBay is saturation. They have hundreds of thousands of storefronts, and that sellers tell him that they get lost on eBay. He also opined that eBay items are over-priced. He said that auction buyers are looking for values. About eBay, he said, "Buyers are going to look for good-priced items, and they are getting sniped at the last minute."
Kim said that because eBay is looking to generate $3 billion in revenue in the five years, eBay must go after the larger companies. Current eBay sellers will "be pushed out by the Walmarts and Sears and will become disenchanted - their items will be lost" on eBay.
Kim went on to say, "ePier has many advantages over eBay. Each ePier storefront receives individual attention...they don't feel they are lost. ePier users find great value in things that we do." He went on to mention some specific features that ePier members find useful, like calendaring.
So, was James Kim's lack of response to my emails a warning that customer service is awry at ePier? Or does it signify that ePier is a growing company that warrants a second look? I can only report on my experience. I'd love to know what YOU think. Take this opportunity to post a message on the AuctionBytes Online Auction Sites Forum, especially if you use ePier.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/index.php
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
