Blackthorne Software Discussion Forum: Seller's Assistant Release: John, Still Waiting For Answers

By Jim Roberts (downmeltd) (207.30.162.91 - 207.30.162.91) on Sunday, February 11, 2001 - 02:55 pm:

"I know that many of you are going to have questions, so we will be manning this board for the next several days to answer any questions you may have."

Questions for John and eBay

1. How long ago did you guyts know this was going to be happening?

2. Why did you continue to take orders for AA and AAP AFTER it had been decided this was going to occur?

3. How much control do you now actually have over the software?

4. Will you still be providing minor and intermediate updates to our current versions of AA and AAP, as was promised to us when we purchased the license?

5. If we do NOT wish to upgrade to your new software, will we only be able to use AAP 1.26, or will you make 1.27 Beta 39 the final pre-2.0 release? There are a number of features that our business relies on in 1.27 that are not supported in 1.26. We can't run nearly as efficiently without them, but don't want to have to rent our software to keep using them.

6. All software is eventually superseded by new versions. But software vendors don't usually terminate support for the current version for some time. Take McAfee VirusScan. They terminated version 3 in 1998. They didn't terminate SUPPORT (updated virus files) until January 2000. For those of us who purchased version 4, we were given a FREE upgrade to version 5, a free update to version 5.10, 5.11, 5.12, etc. Virus Definition files are free for LIFE (sound familiar). Now, I'm not going to ask much. I'm not going to ask that my current version of AAP work with eBay for life. But, can you GUARANTEE me functionality through 2002? At which time I can decide whether I wish to continue doing business with you and upgrading, or moving on.

7. If you can't guarantee functionality through 2002, how long CAN you guarantee functionality through? (we're only asking for a year and 3/4 here) Using Quicken and TurboTax are poor examples of your new policy. That software was generally DESIGNED for 1 year of use, especially TurboTax. Nothing more. Yours wasn't.

8. Can you GUARANTEE me that eBay will NOT have control over my emails, or access to them?

9. Can you GUARANTEE me that eBay will NOT be able to control who I communicate with as far as eBay customers go?

10. Can you GUARANTEE me, with how closely eBay and SA will be linked, that eBay will NOT have any access to my data, at ANY time (even with future upgrades)?

11. Will ther new version be able to handle OTC sales?

12. Will the new version address the problem of not printing our own name and address on the packing slips on anything but Auction sales? Will it give the promised feature of adding comments in the Sale Memo field to the Packing slips?

13. If I make an OTC sale to an eBay member who did NOT purchase the item through eBay, is eBay going to crack down on me for doing so? Are they going to be ABLE to know if I'm dealing with eBay members off of eBay? Can you GUARANTEE me this, if not?

You said at the very beginning of this discussion forum that people would be available for the next several days to answer any questions. Answer these, please. These are important to us, and to YOUR future. I see that even as late as 11:30 you were around to answer questions for your beta testers. These questions have been posted since 12:40 yesterday afternoon.