It's not looking good - not looking good at all!

1 million listings BUT:

Broken links on the auction's main page include:

Site Map
How To Sell
Community

All Links to their Announcement Board and Systems Status Board

Also, I attempted to download their Seller's Manager and those links(from My Auctions page) are dead as well.

It appears the plug has been pulled.

Disappointing!

George

Ahhh! Some of the broken links are already working again! And maybe the others will soon!

I guess you can get something done once you crosspost your complaint to a half dozen of the major message boards that support this industry!

George

Nice to see you, George-how's the cow business these days?

I'm fairly new to Yahoo, and had several problems with getting signed up and editing my auctions. Each time I asked Yahoo for help and got it promptly. I've listed a few inexpensive items and have bids on three of them (so far) the first time they were offered. I'm pleased with that. Couldn't get the Seller's Manager program to work for me, but their on-line listing form is pretty easy to use and you can schedule when you want your auctions to start (at no extra charge), so I really didn't suffer for lack of the Seller's Manager.

I used to be signed up on Yahoo as a buyer, never as a seller. I know I would no do well there with my items, anyway. But here's what I don't get! Why am I always reading here of the myriad problems Yahoo Auctions has? It can't be a money thing. That just offered this college dropout $1 billion dollars for his MySpace-type site -- name escapes me at the moment, but it was all over the financial stations like CNBC a couple of days ago.

So what gives here? I've always felt that Yahoo Auctions, first and foremost, should have been a standalone site -- I, for one, as a buyer have always had trouble finding the auctions.

Second, with all the issues and negativity regarding the 800-pound gorilla, this would be Yahoo's shining opportunity to really make this site work and perhaps be something viable to a wider range of sellers at better price points.

I lump Yahoo and Bidville together in this regard, since they're both A) public companies and B) been around for a nice number of years now. They don't advertise, period, or their advertising is p-poor at best. Yahoo doesn't spend the money and Bidville, as we all know, squandered millions.

So I'm starting to shy away from sites like these in favor of newer sites that actually seem to be understanding what it's going to take to succeed. Whether they ultimately do is, of course, the jury's out on that.

One of the most important is a site that works, period, so that sellers can do what sellers need to do -- advertise their business and their listings, not spending loads of time troubleshooting things on a site that don't work.

And, yeah, obviously I know about the Bidville buyout by Ubid, but the jury's still out on how well they're going to promote the Bidville site going forward, if at all. Yahoo seems to be busy playing with too many other hot-at-the-moment ventures to worry about the long-term viability of its auction site.

You all know my story - been there since it went free! And, yes - there are at times issues, glitches, etc. but it's too easy and free to not use!

And - I've done OK there!!

I believe it's not getting attention as it's not a priority. It's definitely not part of the economic fix that generates revenue (yet). So, issues, etc. on this arm of Yahoo prolly are the low of low on the priority list!

Hiya George - good to see ya here again!

It appears that all the broken links that I previously reported have
been fixed on the home page of Yahoo! Auctions with the exception of:

System Status

which USED to be a link to an Announcement Board for any problems or
glitches in how the system was working.

Other than just another "broken link", I guess it's not important
since the last post on it was made in November of 2005 before the
NEW development/tech team took over. And we all know there has been
a myriad of those type problems since then.

It appears that the Announcement Board has also been scrubbed. It was
probably the quickest fix for all the broken links. All of the links
to it were removed from the home page, but the link to it from
the now "restored" community page is still broken. It also hadn't had a
post made to it by Yahoo! in several months.

What conclusions can be drawn from this?

I see both positives and negatives.

The positive I see is that these problems were addressed once I
reported them here, on several other prominent message boards, and
through the feedback box. Some may think it's a bit nit-picky, but
these are supposed to be professionals that are running Y! Auctions
and there shouldn't be dead links on the home page for days on end.

And, by fixing these dead links, it means that Yahoo! hasn't
completely given up on the auction venue at this point, which is
what I feared when I started this thread. In spite of the lack of
communication and support from Yahoo!, Yahoo! Auctions has grown
over the last few months. And I believe it will continue to grow as
long as Yahoo! can keep it running and mostly glitch-free.

The negative I see is the means taken to fix this problem.
By removing the announcement board, it indicates that Yahoo! is
choosing to become even LESS communicative with its users.

I suspect that's become a necessity as much as a choice. Given the
elapsed time taken to fix the problems that I reported, I believe
the already limited staff of the development/tech team that did all
the recent upgrades to Y! Auctions has been decimated to the point
that it's strictly concerned with keeping the auction site up and functional.
That, of course, should be their first priority.

The problem I foresee about being so short staffed is a possible
repeat of the auction site becoming unstable and unfunctional over a
weekend and no one addressing the problem until regular work time on
Monday - a repeat of what happened LAST Thanksgiving weekend.

Again, if you see a problem that needs to be addressed, use the
feedback link and report it:

http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/auct/cgi_feedback

and also post it here.

On my report,I received a reply from customer care that made me
laugh - they indicated that their "broken links" problem might be
with MY browser cache settings! SO typical Yahoo! support!

George

AlterEgo:

Great article and he's very smart. I would love to see what you describe - dual platform with intelligence to either notify a seller to remove an item or the intelligence to 'remove it without human action'.

Definitely will be watching all this unfold!

Greetings all!

I recently learned that the person that had been the manager of Yahoo! Auctions has left Yahoo! With the VP of Shopping, Rob Solomon, leaving earlier this year and a complete turnover in the tech/development team late last year, that means that Y! Auctions has had virtually a 100% turnover in personnel over the last twelve months, all the way up through the VP level.

Also, the NEW development/tech team has been decimated and also diverted to work on other projects. That is probably the reason that the links keep “breaking” on the home page. And the announcement page, community page, and complete boxes of links keep disappearing and then reappearing there.

Yahoo! also had a disappointing earnings quarter for the third quarter and the stock is currently at a 52 week low, off nearly 50% from its high in January. Yesterday, Yahoo! Chairman Terry Semel acknowledged the company's recent difficulties in a conference call and he vowed to fix them with a "back to basics" approach.

What does this all mean for Yahoo! Auctions? I wish I knew!

A bright spot is all the good things I’ve heard about the NEW VP, Hilary Schneider, from some of her former co-workers at Knight-Ridder. I hope that she sees Y! Auctions as a venue worth keeping and developing and she will fight to get the resources needed to do that.

Ultimately, I suspect Y! Auctions future hinges on the revenue that they’ve received from the advertising and whether it has been enough to cover the expenses for maintaining the venue and produce a profit.

In spite of the lack of attention from Yahoo!, Y! Auctions continue to grow in listings and some sellers are having good success.

Those that are having success should keep up the good work! And those that haven’t tried Y! Auctions should give it a try to see if it works for them.

Above all, the uncertainty should make each seller consider diversifying their business so the loss, or a drastic change, of one selling venue will not devastate their business.

Let’s hope that we soon hear a commitment from Yahoo! that they want to support their auction venue and build it to be a true competitor in the OAI.

George

George, they have no customer service either. Is that going to improve....

I fried my security key... and am waiting for a response to an email.

So, Until they have an ACTIVE CS, they are no better then ebay. They are just as glitched out, and they have partnered with China also.

The only difference is... Yahoo is free. And Ebay rapes.