 Poster: A snowHead
|
snowbunny - Oops, looks like they're mine, unless they extend the deadline again!
Any other snowHeads pick up anything? WTFH ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
PG, Nice one. Naturally we will be expecting a report on their performance in due course (or even on a race course-your choice) 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
The Champagne went for 25% over its guide price 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
rungsp, If the Skiers Edge is yours, that's an excellent price.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Hmmm....bit of a stewards enquiry needed here:
Auction officially closed at 5pm (revised from Friday due to disruption from bombs).
At 5.40 (approx) I was the high bid, and assumed that I had won the auction. I then went home.
This morning I see a higher bid on the website, and a different name. The "buyer" has bought several of the items, clearly somebody who cares about the cause...fair enough.
I thought I had a real bargain, it seems that instead a.n.other has a bargain.
I am not happy at the conduct of the auction, from what I have seen so far, the organisers are professional e-auctioneers and should have done better.
My interpretation is that they were not 100% happy with the low price and persuaded the other guy to pay more.
Maybe I'm wrong, but....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I lost out on my bid too by someone who only needed to bid £101, but instead bid £350!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
| the organisers are professional e-auctioneers |
they won't be in business much longer unless they improve things. It seemed clanky and open to suspicion (if not abuse) all along. E-Bay has shown the world how to do it. I think you have every right to ask questions of the organisers but with manual insertion of the bids you'll probably never get at the truth of exactly who bid how much and when.
Sorry you missed out rungsp but it looks as though PG got the skis. If you rent PG's place in BSM, he might give you a go on his Skiers Edge. Free. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
rungsp, I suppose there's a chance the other guy waited until the last minute, then put in a bid by email, perhaps backing up by a phone call. It probably took them a while to update the website with last minute bids - there seem to have been a few.
Whatever, it is a bit of a cranky system at best.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cranky?
I'll say it is cranky!
I had an e-mail from them apologising: "manual input, sorry, we'll see if Graham Bell can do you a deal of some sort" etc.
Fair enough....or so I thought until I looked into things a bit more:
The chap who "outbid" me (and paid £540) for the Skiers Edge machine bought several other lots. BUT the "winning" price he paid for 2 of the lots was £530 LESS than the bids he had previously submitted AND he was allowed to withdraw a bid of £490 on another lot altogether, resulting in a no-sale. The conditions of sale clearly stated that all bids are final, no withdrawals allowed etc.
I am fairly p!ssed off about this!
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Hmm seems like there may be something rotten going on, it would have only seemed fair that they should have notified the previous highest bidder that a new higher bid had been recieved and given them the opportunity to raise their own bid. I hate to say this as the money raised is for a charitable cause but there are laws governing how auctions are supposed to be run
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
rungsp, what you're reporting sounds pretty extraordinary. Auctions have been running smoothly for decades, if not centuries, with perfectly straightforward principles involved.
Obviously an auction can't be run with bidders part-blind to what is happening, or not in a position to place bids with confidence that there's a level playing field and a close of bids to the second, time-wise. This is another baby of the internet age, and the www calls for a refreshing level of transparency.
Maybe Simon Kelton, Adam Sullivan and Dan Hardie of ask4events - operators of this auction - might care to answer for the above issues.
Anyone care to email them and let them know this thread is here? It's only right that ask4events should have right of reply. There may be fair explanations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David, you are quite right, I have already e-mailed them with my comments (verbatim in the post above) but I will e-mail them a link to this site.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
I've contacted Adam as well, the guy I've been corresponding with over the skis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Here is his reply.
Time to drop this I think. I'm not happy, and not satisfied: he equivocates on the point of human error and seems to say that late e-mails were allowed (with a set time limit late is too late, end of discussion in my opinion).
Time to move on though...
Hi
Thank you for forwarding this link. Its always interesting to here from Snow Heads it is a great medium, and run very well.
Can I just put this to rest as I have a meeting soon, the bids are manually put up, ASK4 is not eBay, we could never afford to be. We are passionate people who raise money through social events, and we have put our toe in the water this year with hosting an auction to sell our remaining auction items.
Users of the site do not see all the bids as we do not have the manpower yet to add them as they come in - we are looking to invest in an automated system that will be more transparent for the users. With you bringing this issue to our attention you have made us aware how frustrating it must be to miss out. We have posted the maximum bids and left out the path how the bid arrived at the total.
With regards to Jack he is a strong supporter of what we do, as he believes in what we are doing, the reason bids look erratic is because he is in Australia and we have had emails coming in late for some reason or another, he clarified his bids in a fax so everything on the site is now accurate. As you can image im sure human error has occurred in the listings but not to my knowledge. As it is a first for us and something put together in 2 weeks prior to the auction in March, we feel quite pleased but obviously we seem to be viewed as scamming, crooked people - I hope you feel differently now I have explained and pass this onto other other people at Snow Heads.
I would love to put our point across on the forum but I cannot spare the time today. As I said I will speak to Graham and see if we can cut a deal if you still would like a Skiers Edge.
Our site is for passionate skiers who want to donate and get something in return, it is an extension of our very popular event hosted at Christie's, we would not have had the success we have had in raising funds if we were crooked in anyway.
I can offer you 2 complimentary tickets to our event at Christie's next year as we do not like to upset anyone - please accept these as an apology and we will change the way our online system operates. Send an address with your postal address and I will keep it on file.
Kind regards
Adam Sullivan
ASK4events.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
rungsp, I knew I could hear bells ringing. The Adam Sullivan is the same guy who runs snowAwards. About which some snowHeads have expressed some doubts in previous threads. Stick it into the search engine if you are interested. Adam is a registered  but has never posted. I think a fair summary of our feelings about both the snowAwards and this latest auction is that the motives of the organisers have not been questioned but the execution has been less than perfect in both cases. Let's hope they can improve things before their BAFTA event in 2006. Some of the luvvies might be less understanding than snowHeads if it doesn't go smoothly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
This is so inspiring I'm thinking of going into car auctions
Nice car. What do you reckon we should bid?
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Fri 15-07-05 13:47; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
One thing I would add to this is that first thing yesterday morning I had a contact with Adam who had only just updated the site to include my bid because of three emails ( two sent on Friday pm and one copy Monday morning) he only received one bid Monday morning.
Still, don't want to prejudge the issue. A good percentage of the final bids are reasonably high, and I reckon most people are taking part both for fun and to support a cause, rather than try to pick up a bargain. On top of the final bid price there are all the shipping costs that are down to the bidder, as well. No real incentive for any naughtiness, it seems to me.
Online auctions by email, whoever runs them, are bound to be prone to error. First time they've tried it apparently.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
The devil's in the detail: Lesson One of anything. I would have thought that a superior result could have been obtained on a pre-existing internet auction site, with the same attendant publicity for the cause, but with full confidence in the mechanism.
We seem to look at things fairly on this site and it's difficult to understand why Adam Sullivan runs his ventures in ways which inevitably generate controversy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Still, at least they're doing something positive, or at least it seems that way. In the end anyone that actually "does" something rather than talks about it will "generate controversy". The only way not to is to "do nothing, say nothing, be nothing", as the saying goes. It's always easy to pick holes.
I get the feeling that as it was IT that caused a few eyebrows to be raised ref the SnowAwards, they lack expertise and are muddling through in that area. That could well be all there is to it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
PG, Echoing your comments, at least they are doing something. Hopefully any money raised will benefit our winter athlete's, who are rather poorly funded.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We could have an open, on-line auction here on snowheads using this simple forum software. One topic per item. Only registered users of course to participate. All bids would be transparent, accurately timed and bidding wars could result which would generate extra benefit. No need to have any manual intervention. No need to 'muddle through' which I also think is probably their main problem, as PG suggested.
But when we found evidence of faulty systems and reported them, Adam did tend to go into 'denial mode', which is a pity since SnowAwards has generated a fair amount of publicity and the fund raising for snowsports is fine in principle. Yes he is definitely a 'doer' and deserves credit for that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ok well I received notification of my successful bid - but have emailed them four times since Monday without reply!
The auction site said there was a choice between the various skis manufactured by Liberty, and that shipping costs would be down to me. I've asked for clarification, but no response. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
Iffy web sites are one thing. Not replying to emails is quite another. I take it you won't be paying up until you get a satisfactory response, PG.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Zero responce to last night's (polite) reminder either. I suppose I could ring, but's it bit annoying having to do that from France.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Maybe he's gone on a short course in how to run auctions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ok after a little detective work I found "Lokate Promotions" http://www.lokatepromotions.co.uk/ (via the Snowawards site) - all having the same address as Ask4Events. Rang them, spoke to Dan, who has promised prompt action - have just forwarded copies of all emails to him...
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
what happened? all OK?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
An emailed acknowledgement has just arrived. Get the feeling they're a bit "snowed under". We'll see what happens next...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
- how difficult is it for 3 people to handle the results of a very simple email auction with a fairly small number of lots??? They already know who has 'won' each lot so they can easily ignore other emails for the time being if they really are busy. Once again what we see (as outsiders) is a lack of competence and a failure to respond within a reasonable time to perfectly reasonable queries and contacts. There should be money in the bank now for Snowsports GB. That some, at least, is not there is because the promoters are falling down on the basic mechanics of their ventures.
Remember that the £53,000 auction was run by Christies - not Ask4events nor Snowawards nor Lokatepromotions.co.uk. Should Private Eye bend their mighty organ in the direction of these intimately linked organisations. Shurely shome shuspicion..........
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
