Kidson Talks | The E-commerce Chemist

24 responses so far ↓

• 1 Liz // Apr 30, 2009 at 11:12 am

  Tamebay Forum post here: http://www.tamebay.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2440

  I did comment but it has to be approved, which is strange as my other posts didn’t have to be.

• 2 froo blew it // Apr 30, 2009 at 1:40 pm

  £199 per hour JUST as their entire client base needs help because of ebay finally going after froo for breaking ebay rules. convenient!

  I still think it’s amazing that they knew their stores broke rules, they knew ebay had a date to crack down on their designs, and they still sold people those designs, knowing that within days or weeks, the client would know that what they just paid for was now useless.

  Charging clients to fix what froo did (building ebay stores that all need to be fixed) was a second slap in the face, after building such sh*te in the first place. Now, they want to charging people outrageous rates to get the help they need.

  Insane!

• 3 Paul // Apr 30, 2009 at 2:50 pm

  We’re getting away from Frooition as fast as we can. The way they’re going, it feels like we’ll wake up one day and all our listings will be gone. Their servers were down for hours on end this weekend just gone.

  On a emotional level, they’re just horrible people to do business with. When we complained about being mis-sold the NSE so-called ‘upgrade’ they just ignored and deleted our help tickets. Then they wrote to us to say ‘If you don’t like it, go somewhere else’.

  Frooition’s true colours are now emerging from underneath all the sales bull on their shiny website.

• 4 Bob // Apr 30, 2009 at 6:20 pm

  Your Tamebay Forum post has to be approved because Tamebay don’t like to see criticism of Frooition – remember they got their shops for free and are Tamebays biggest advertisers. They are regular defenders of the indefensible.

• 5 Melanie Pursglove // Apr 30, 2009 at 9:45 pm

  I was given a hard sell before xmas by one of the directors about the frooition website solution in addition to my Ebay shop template having said quite clearly that I had already been ripped off by one web site designer so I went ahead – big mistake. Now my website does not work properly – I don’t get answers to my questions and find that my support tickets have been deleted quite mysteriously and of course you can never actually speak to anyone on the phone plus my Ebay template goes in and out of operation. When I did get an email from someone it was to tell me that this was only ever meant to be a basic website solution and he wasn’t sure why I was ever given the assurances that it would do very much – in other words – couldn’t give a damn

  So I’ve been shafted three times as I have paid for the Ebay new store experience too.

  So if you have any recommendations on Ebay designers and other designers I’d be glad of any recommendations

  I would have thought in the current climate that it was important to build customer relationships but clearly not

  I wonder how long they will be around – strikes me that it is now a policy of rip the customers off as much as you can whilst you can

• 6 big lad // Apr 30, 2009 at 10:18 pm

  I also experienced the server down time and the response from frooition was that it must be my connection. Bulls**t, they must think that all there customers are stupid.

  well we are stupid for going with frooition in the first place!

  I put in a general request with frooition 5 days ago to fix a csv export problem which was working perfectly fine before the paid service’s bulls**t came into place.

  Now they are telling me that they can only deal with the request if i cough up cash for one of the two overly priced support services!

  Surely if part of there software is not working properly then its there responsibility to fix the problem!

  Seems like a scam to me! and get the customer to pay for there f**k up!

  I would never recommend frooition to anybody, Its the worst company that i have ever dealt with. Any body reading this please do not go with frooition!

  Also I am currently in the process of moving my ecommerce website as they have also cocked this up too. Frooition are impossible to work with!

  Ebay should monitor companys like frooition and let there customers give feedback as to how there performing, just like they do to there sellers. When they dont perform to certain standereds, suspend them indefinitly!

  wish there was some way to get are money back!

• 7 Liz // May 1, 2009 at 10:19 am

  Hello Melanie,

  It is hard to find eBay design developers/consultants but I would recommend Createyourtemplate.com or ASWAS.com if you need more consultancy/business related services with your design.

  Always seek references form real customers and check forums and blogs for opinions and information.

• 8 Liz // May 1, 2009 at 10:21 am

  I spoke to Chris from Tamebay at Channeladvisor Catalyst and he welcomes any design company to advertise with Tamebay. Frooition was all he knew at the time for the UK which is why he *seems* pro Frooition.

• 9 Paul // May 1, 2009 at 10:37 am

  Be interesting to see if Tamebay report on the £199 p.h support charge, the Frooition NSE bugs, the prolonged server outages, the 12 month delay to upgrades promised for the Frooition website product, etc.

  Chris (rather naively IMHO) blogged that “Frooition have offered me a free shop design and all I have to do is blog about it”.

  Whether Chris likes it or not, Frooition now consider Chris a blogger in their pay. Chris, will you prove that wrong?

• 10 Angry Frooition Customer // May 1, 2009 at 10:38 am

  Link to ASWAS post which says that Frooition only pay their people peanuts so I think you have over estimated what they should charge!

  My husband as a consultant charges £70 an hour, but that’s face to face.

• 11 Liz // May 1, 2009 at 10:48 am

  I had my post approved on the Tamebay forums, but in all fairness I didn’t say anything bad.

  As an ex-frooster I am sympathetic to a point but I also have three clients who use Frooition services, one moving away but two who are not likely to be able to afford new design or the fallout if Frooition goes bust!

  In all fairness I knew their business model was not working when I was made redundant over 18 months ago, too much sizzle and not enough sausage.

  Frooition employees are going to find it hard to stay in the eBay industry with the reputation going down the pan, that’s the saddest thing.

• 12 Vintage Paint // May 1, 2009 at 10:55 am

  I have just spoken to someone in the design team because it is probably the only contact you can make with a human being at that company. Paypal integration does not work on the site and has never worked due to continual error messages within the software – this is Frooition problem but they cannot and will not sort it out It was suggested that I might like to give them to paypal details and they would see what they could do…………………..I don’t think so

  I need to lick my wounds and reevaluate strategy

• 13 Liz // May 1, 2009 at 1:34 pm

  Frooition are supposed to be paypal integrated partners as per their website, it should work with payments pro and it did in the beginning as I integrated it for a customer.

  The Frooition website is based on Oscommerce which is a free open source system which you could use. I am using Zen Cart (similar to Oscommerce) with a modified Template Monster template for one of my clients new websites: http://www.uk-sports-wholesale.co.uk and cost my client:

  £15 per month hosting
  £130 template
  £75 per year SSL certificate

  Of course you can not use it right out of the box, but you might like to try something like Shopify or Vendio.

• 14 Angry Frooition Customer 2! // May 1, 2009 at 2:48 pm

  Got this link from eBay forums, and I am glad to see people can see the horror that is Frooition. I was a new customer converted at Catalyst just a month or so ago and everything that was said was lies. They were sweetness and light until after they took my money. I don’t have my design yet but I am desperate to get my money back and cancel the order, but they seem hell bent on completing my design and keeping my money!

  I have spoken to M****** B**** who is supposed to be support and A***** P***** who is sales. Both are useless and have lied to me! I am not paying £199ph for support AND a subscription fee!

  edited to add: blanked out real names to protect identity!

• 15 Liz // May 1, 2009 at 3:01 pm

  Anyone want to answer the question of what you would be prepared to pay for support? Please include your expectations for the price too. I am curious.

• 16 Liz // May 1, 2009 at 3:53 pm

  One of my clients has only managed 15 sales today (Normally around 80 on a Friday) as his Frooition template is smushed. Darn it, might have to remove the Froo-ness before the new template and store is done.

• 17 Debbie at As Was // May 1, 2009 at 6:33 pm

  Hi. Debbie from As Was here. Thanks to Liz for suggesting us.

  Funny how my Tamebay post wasn’t approved yet either.

  We offer $500 off for Frooition customers dumping their listing templates to hire us. If you’re also getting a simple Store design from us, we take $100 off (our simple Stores are only $400… we don’t bother with non-compliant “advanced” stores, and that’s a long story ).

  So we’re happy to do something fresh, unique, and truly custom for anybody interested in what we do and how we do it. You’d have to be tired of columns and want to stand out from other sellers.

  By the way, our contract says that we fix problems we caused for free, ASAP, and that anything broken in our work due to eBay rules that existed when we installed the work also gets fixed for free. If Froo had the rule, they’d had to fix ALL of their Stores for free since the rule they’re breaking is from 2004.

• 18 Vintage Paint // May 1, 2009 at 9:19 pm

  Thanks for the links Liz – I’m following these up nos.My paypal problem lies within Frooition software as it will not activate it as a payment provider even though I have amended my paypal account correctly. Most of my support tickets are mysteriously closed……..so my clients can order but they can’t pay…………was this not the object of e-commerce?

  Like other angry contributors Mr MB is conspicuous by his absence and failure to respond and today I found out that someone called Chris who originally gave me about 10 mins or less on the software but knew very little about it has now left – rats and sinking ships come to mind

  I had paid £50 for the Ebay upgrade because that is what I was quoted at Xmas but then again I have seen nothing for it

  As I don’t live far away from their offices a personal call is in my mind

  I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling totally ripped off by this company. The sales director – so very keen at xmas – is now curiously absent

  Could kick myself for being so stupid. I only hope that this company gets its just desserts

• 19 Jason // May 3, 2009 at 5:48 pm

  I really think Frooition employees should be named and shamed on the web so they never get another job in this town again! I am not going to try it here as it is clear I will get ‘starred’ out but I will make sure people know who I have had to deal with at Frooition and the kind of people they are!

  I would hate to think I accidentally hired anyone to do with Frooition again,employed in the last 12 months of course!

  Reading your CV it seems that you gave the Frooition customers the service they needed and when they got rid of you the company entered a downward spiral.

• 20 Liz // May 4, 2009 at 6:33 am

  If you need help just drop me an email (see about me page) I know how frustrating it can be having to start again after thinking it was all sorted!

• 21 Liz // May 4, 2009 at 10:41 am

  @ Jason, it is true I won’t allow naming and shaming on my blog as I do not wish to affect the future careers and/or businesses of ex-Frooites.

  Any business you employ in the e-commerce world you need to know their references and experience.

• 22 Dominic // May 4, 2009 at 2:32 pm

  I think the charge for support is misguided way of ‘discouraging’ support tickets being submitted. Clearly all the issues with the Frooition NSE and recent server outages have led to loads of tickets being submitted.

  I don’t believe anybody will actually pay £199 an hour fee which seems a ridiculous figure at a quarter of the quoted £795 cost of a Frooition store.

  I wonder if anybody submits a £199 support request whether the bugs would actually get fixed for them? Would they solve the pop-up blocker issue? Slow loading? Empty promo boxed? etc. Or would they have paid £199 to get the response “it’s all eBay’s fault” or “we cannot replicate the problem”.

• 23 Dominic // May 4, 2009 at 2:55 pm

  If you look at the FAQ on their website there is no mention of the charge for support:

  After Upfront fees are paid are there any additional ongoing costs?
  Yes, there is a £15.00 plus VAT monthly fee which will cover access to our software, design hosting (5gb bandwidth), script usage and ongoing global updates. You may also choose to take out 10mb product image hosting for £5.00 plus VAT per month.

  Why can I trust you?
  To date, we have produced literally hundreds of eBay designs globally and all of our clients have been delighted with the work. Speak to them and they’ll tell you we’re a friendly bunch who are passionate about what they do.

• 24 Liz // May 5, 2009 at 12:59 pm

  Hmm, that’s quite bad. They should change their website to reflect the changes or new customers are going to sign up thinking that support is included and not up to £199 per hour.

  I would check out the Tamebay forum as the topic is heating up.