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Fee structure significantly reduced, new contact info |
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Hello folks--
We're making some big changes here at Eggschange, and
it's important that our members and casual browsers are aware of these changes. We'll
explain the reasons in a moment, but first we'll summarise the changes:
- Effectively immediately, we're eliminating all
sliding scale fees, so
now selling an item on Eggschange is free
for listings that do not use any of the optional listing features. If you elect to
utilise optional listing features to enhance your
listing, those fees will still apply.
- Also effectively immediately, all advert fees will be reduced to 1/2 of their
previous level.
- While we'll still be actively responding to questions, technical support, and
customer service emails, we will be significantly reducing the amount of time we spend
on updating site news items and providing new, unrequested features.
The reason for these changes is that Eggschange has failed to
take off as we had hoped, and therefore we're finding it harder and harder to justify the
amount of time and money that we've been spending on the site without it at least
partially paying for itself. We're puzzled by this; although lots of members have used the
FutureWatch feature to record items they
are interested in buying, and the
FutureWatch Summary shows a considerable list
of items that people are looking to bid on, the listings that could satisfy this demand are
simply not materialising.
Nonetheless, we still believe in the utility that a site like
Eggschange can bring to the smallholding community, and
since the major costs have already been sunk into the site, we feel that keeping it running
in a minimal fashion will still give it a chance to possibly find a niche in the community. So
Eggschange is essentially making a shift from embryonic small
business to hobby as an adjunct to our own smallholding activities.
Due to this reduced amount of attention on our part, we feel that it won't be appropriate
to continue to have our basic fees remain at the levels that they have been. This is why
we're dropping all sliding scale fees and only retaining the fees associated with
the use of optional listing features. Similar reasoning applies to the reduction in advert
rates.
As to the future of Eggschange, only time will tell. If it
finally catches on in the community, we may slowly re-introduce sliding scale fees and increase
the amount of time we spend providing new content. If use dwindles, it isn't
clear that Eggschange will remain a part of the Internet
and smallholding landscape. We're just going to wait and see.
As you can imagine, we're somewhat disappointed at this current state of affairs, but we
haven't given up yet, and are still hopeful that Eggschange
can find its audience and become a bigger part of the fabric of smallholding life.
A word regarding listing fees: the auction software that we use to run
Eggschange automatically generates an invoice whether there
is actually an amount due or not. So don't be surprised if you list something and receive
an invoice email; unless you've used one or more of the optional listing features, the
invoice amount will be 0.
We're also updating our contact information by including a "snail-mail" postal address:
Eggschange
94 London Road
Suite 205
Headington
Oxford
OX3 9FN
This info can also be found on our
Contacts page.
Finally, thanks to everyone who've joined Eggschange and
particpated in the community. We've appreciated your custom, and hope you will continue to
find value in this site. We'd still love to hear from you regarding your thoughts on
Eggschange or how to encourage new sellers, so drop us an
email at Customer Service and let
us know what you think.
Warmest regards,
Lisa & Tom
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