Combine Stock Control website & Ebay, Channel Grabber & Roman Cart?

[Helenw6781]

Hi Every one,

Im looking for some advice one where to go from here.... (the short version)

1) have my own website built my self and using roman cart for the shopping basket,


2) Also use Ebay, but finding it hard to keep track of stock.

3) Contacted by Channel grabber which will combine all the sales outlets and help keep track of stock and orders
(for a charge £100 start up then £50 pm)


We had a little run through and it looked great, as I can run every thing from channel grabber.

HOWEVER, as soon as I mentioned that I do my own website, the lady told me that this is more difficult, and that the developers have to write a special code to get to integrate it into my site (extra cost ) etc, OR, If I go to some one like "easy webstore.com" these are pre-set to work with channel grabber, So I thought maybe I could switch my site over to one of these as Im not GREAT at webdesign, I just get by..... but then the price ticks up again... (£50.00 a month...)

So my question is, Has any one been faced with this sort of scenario? and can you offer any solutions that maybe Ive not thought of yet??? maybe another company LIKE channelgrabber which will be better for me?

Thanks x

 

[Brightpearl]

Hi there

Brightpearl could well be the answer to your problems, it synchronises all your stock across your eBay listings and/or webstore to help you manage orders and fulfilment across the two. We also have our own webstore solution or integrate with Magento who also have a great ecommerce solution.

If you needed it, we have professional services to help you migrate across to either solution and build your new website. What's more Brightpearl includes CRM and accounting components too, enabling you to manage your customer communications and interactions as well as all your orders going straight into your accounts.

We offer a free trial so you can try it for no risk or cost, visit our website http://www.brightpearl.co.uk and find out more or sign up there. We also run webinars each week where you can get to know the application a bit better too, register for one here http://www.brightpearl.co.uk/resources/webinars

We hope this is useful for you.

 

[kulture]

Have a look at Linnworks.

 

[TGLTS]

you avoid Channel Grabber, it's over priced and quite simply does not work. We are a start up business and basically the £120 for the first month and setup wasd a complete waste of money, i would have been better off burning cash to keep warm.

The only feature they list that actually works is the stock sync, the invoicing is unusable as they are incapable of calculating VAT correctly, the Anchor price system which sets each channel (eBay/Amazon) prices does not work and you have to do them all manually and to do that you have to view multiple pages for each channel so it's actually quicker to edit them on each separate channel than through Channel Grabber.

The 48 tech response is a joke, we had tickets open for 30+ days and they are totally incapable of resolving problems with there own software.

Amazon and eBay both have FREE API's which is all they are using with a non-functioning front end attached so the fact they are using FREE API's and charging £60+ a month for a front end that doesn't work just adds insult to the injury of signing up with them and wasting £120 to achieve nothing.

In one month we made about 300 sales and had 2 where Channel Grabber had not updated the eBay/Amazon channel stock levels in time so we were paying for a stock sync which also didn't work and had to let customers down.

If you want a somewhat working stock sync and that's worth £60+ a month to you then give them a shot but there is better and cheaper available. Alternatively use the eBay and Amazon API's, a half decent coder could create a bespoke system specific to your needs in under a week.

 

[camorra]

Another one here that recommends UK based Linnworks.

There have various solutions, dependant on what you are looking for. However, we find Linnworks Anywhere to be the best for us.

 

[Daniel.ChannelGrabber]

Dear [FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, arial]TGLTS[/FONT],

I am really sorry that you have had some difficulties with ChannelGrabber. Unfortunately you seemed to have had a less than adequate experience with us for which I am very sorry.

I am not sure about the 30 day ticket you had without a response, this does not seem to fit with how we operate and if there was ever a ticket that late with no response then someone would be getting in some serious trouble! We have actually spent a lot of time and effort improving our support and 48 hours is now considered quite a long time to get a response and we also have a phone number available for an immediate response albeit there is a charge for our basic package holders but for our professional customers there is an 0161 number available to speak directly with our UK based technical support team.

Again, I am really sorry you have had some trouble but thank you for taking the time to make your feelings known as we take on board everything people say and we genuinely care when someone has been less than pleased.

Both myself and the other Director are working very hard on making sure that our customers get an improved experience and exceptional support and there have been big changes even in the last month.

I wish you the best of luck in the future and should you ever wish to get in touch with us again then we would love the opportunity to take you through all the new changes we have made including the increased support levels.

On a more light hearted note, I have just received my recent gas bill and I think I would be better burning cash that using my gas to keep warm as prices are soaring!

Kind regards,

Daniel

 

[TGLTS]

I had one of the worst experiences I have ever encountered in over 20 years of being in business with Channel Grabber. Not only does the product you sell not work and is totally unusable but you also have staff such as Danny Lindley who are doing you no favours and just his mannerism alone would be enough for me to never deal with Channel Grabber ever again.

How can it be possible for a company that apparently can manage all sales channels and interact sales data with various accounts software not handle selling prices correctly or have main features such as the anchor prices system that do not work?

Even more alarmingly you do not understand or calculate VAT and correctly and when this was submitted you blame the FREE Amazon API as it does not pass the data "apparently" yet the math isn't rocket science:- sell price/6 = VAT amount.

£10.00/6 = £1.66 so in this case on a £10 sale £1.66 is VAT.

This is just one example where there was a trouble ticket that did not get resolved and 100% makes Channel Grabber unusable, anyone using the figures Channel Grabber produces are calculating VAT incorrectly and will also potentially be losing money on sales because Channel Grabber does not work and is not even remotely close to working as advertised.

If you would like some screenshots showing the numerous support tickets that were not resolved or responded to that's no problem i have a file full of them so just ask but surely you could easily see the numerous tickets not responded to or resolved in your own systems somewhere if that works which is unlikely.

 

[mrsmcy]

We looked at both channel grabber and Linnworks and opted for Linnworks in the end. It was mainly based on price but we have been very impressed with Linnworks. I set most of it up during our free trial period when the support guys were very helpful. I used their live chat on several occasions and they talked me through step by step.

We save hours a day now by having our website integrated and eBay etc. we order our courier at a click of a button rather than the long drawn out task of inputting each address. For as little as £20 a month I think it's great.

 

[jamie1183]

Linnworks is a great system, one of our Magento clients fulfillment companies use this and have seem great feedback from the client on it.

 

[greengecko]

Another vote here for Linnworks. 2 Websites along with eBay and Amazon stores all integrated, few teething problems initially but nothing major.

 

[exceedmedia]

Yep, would also second Linnworks. We have just moved across from their local version to anywhere, because we have a large number of ebay variation products that need listing. It takes some time to configure properly but Linnlive is a dream once its all up and running.

To be honest, it is the ONLY one out there that has hassle free integration across many multiple platforms. The only pain is that its a windows based system (we run macs) and so we have to have VMware running at all times to use it. We thought that might be a deal breaker, but the feature set and time saving from using it far outweighs the hassles of having VMware running in the background.

 

[mdj101]

Just come across this post looking for a solution and thought I would go and look at linnworks, WoW bit of a price hike from the £20 listed on here just a couple of years ago. It now looks like the most expensive solution out there at £80 a month!

 

[Page]

They have a free version and freemium model - and if you are needing more than that then the cost is worth it

Channel grabber - er no thanks - wasted to much time with them and for ?? £ gone

The two products and businesses structures behind them are not comparable IMHO

If you are UK based then linnworks is sensible - but there are also things like channel advisor but if you are fussing about £80 then they are no good either since they will cost you far more

 

[Linn Systems]

Hi MDJ101,

Thank you for your interest into Linnworks.

WoW bit of a price hike from the £20 listed on here just a couple of years ago. It now looks like the most expensive solution out there at £80 a month!

Linnworks has developed greatly in the last 2 years and we are continuing to improve.
Hence the difference in price over time. Also we are supporting our customers 24/5 something that the majority of our competitors are still not offering today.

With regards to our pricing model previously Autonomous sync was not included and support was offered 9am-9pm Monday to Friday.

Understandably at first glance Linnworks might look like the more expensive solution, but if you take into account with Linnworks we take no commission from your sales, we offer no restrictions on who or however many channels you wish to integrate with and also you can work with as many couriers as you so wish without incurring extra monthly fees, we feel the price is very competitive and transparent.

Should you have any questions please get in touch.

Kind regards

Richard Maxted
Business Development Executive
LinnSystems LTD

 

[Page]

IMHO your business model is now becoming flawed - unless you dont want smaller users because they are to much hassle

The prices and jumps have become to big for smaller users and in the long run this will harm your user base
You want a fat and stable base - which is what the freemium model gave you - but the jumps upwards are now big ones

At the top end the jumps can be large and not a problem - the turnover and the business structures are there - for those that are liable to be prepared to pay them - and they pays their money and takes their choice and can take advantage of the many features that Linn offers with multiple staff and job roles

But at the lower end - we are looking at a very different set up
Perhaps a single person - working from home - struggling to juggle demands on their time - but also wanting and trying to grow their business

So yes - "as many channels as you want to integrate" and all the other things that Linn offers
But for a smaller users - erm - they may only want to integrate one channel and only use one dispatch method

So I think for these lower end users - unless you dont want them (and there is nothing wrong with that as a business decision) - there needs to be an additional step or two in the pricing jumps