Not All Apples Are Bad
We've naturally taken a close look at each of our competitors. Sure we want to know every edge and advantage, but more than that, it's our responsibility here in our own little corner of the world to 'serve and protect' those interested in computerizing their consignment businesses. We're fighting back, so please use the links below links to advance to the inside scoop on how some vendors are plotting to keep one hand in your pocket while shaking your other. But first, some general observations:
Hawkins (CCE) and Wilson (Consignpro) are a couple of guys who took some programming courses then discovered that they could write (some pretty shoddy) consignment software programs and sell them on the Internet (since at the time there wasn't much competition and buyers were limited in their choices). That was 'then'. Today potential buyers are demanding much more - more attractive, appealing and useful web sites; dependable user-friendly programs, excellent, effective, personable support - and fair pricing!
Well, that's proven to be quite a challenge for these two who thought they might skate through several years of pumping out mediocrity while keeping prices high. Such is to be expected from 'one-man shops' who, as programmers, think they're a bit smarter than the next guy, as reflected in the sub-standard way in which they conduct their businesses. They answer their own phones and attempt to convince people that it's an advantage to talk directly to 'the owner'. They attempt to discredit us because we are simply costing them a lot of money! The serious underlying problem is these 'software companies' are gone when these two are gone, and given the huge drop in sales they've experienced, that may be just around the corner - a serious reason for them to cling tightly to annual support fees while they dream up schemes for other add-on fees.
Bill Hawkins, CCE
Yes, a man of many faces - and attempts to mimic our web site and product names and spam search engines: bestconsignmentsoftware.com, ccenet.com, ccesupport.com, consignmentshopsoftware.com, consignmentshopsoftware.net, consignmentsoftware.net, consignmentsuccess.com, consignofthetimes.net, successsoftware.net...
We started bestconsignmentshopsoftware.com on 3-15-2001. His sites bestconsignmentsoftware.com and consignmentshopsoftware.com were formed in 2002. Our product name is Best Consignment Shop Software. He calls his Best Consignment Software. He infringes upon our web site and product names in hopes of continuing to pilfer from us.
We started in consignment software by first selling Hawkins' software in 2001 but 8 months or so into the arrangement, we caught him stealing from us. (Unknown to us, he spammed his software demo with his contact information and we in turn distributed it to our web site visitors.) Our potential customers were contacting him directly to purchase which allowed him to avoid paying our commission.
We responded by developing our own consignment software (written by programmer Gleason Pace (503-543-4451, sombrero@mm.st) who will confirm that our software was not 'stolen' or 'reversed engineered' from Hawkins, as Hawkins claims. Hawkins made such claims because he thought that crying 'foul' was more profitable than competing fairly. We purposely made sure our program was better and we purposely priced it substantially under his - $275 vs $375.
Deceptive Practices
Hawkins has always thought of himself as being 'a little smarter than the next guy'. Providing us with a demo with his contact information was our baptism.
Foremost on the list of his offenses is falsely claiming loudly in public that we had stolen his software. He lied on his web site, in emails and in phone conversations about us, claiming he had legal recourse, was going to file suit, encouraging people to report us to fraud agencies. It appears he has become aware of the fact that he has subjected himself to law suit of his own for public slander and libel, having since removed his slander page about us from his web site.
Hawkins is a schemer - inventing ways to make more money with a little deception. When we became his competition with a product priced at $375 (well under his $695), he responded by stripping essential features (house accounts, layaways, special promotions, wish lists) from his high-priced plan to come up with a $395 product - to give the appearance of a competitively-priced alternative to our plan. His stripped features are standard features in our $375 Deluxe Edition so in order to have a comparable program, his users would have buy back each one of those features as 'modules' at $60 each! Actually to be accurate, Wish Lists were not available as an add-on module. Anyone wanting the $395 plan and Wish Lists was forced to buy the $695 plan.
We're just getting started. Hawkins advertises updates as 'free' but then requires that annual support be paid ($60) or updates are not available, so there are no 'free updates'. This was on his home page: "All features, including technical support and the free updates as promoted throughout this web site are included in this price!" Support (beyond a brief period) is not included!
His support policies are particularly opportunistic and exploitative. At one time, if users weren't aware that it was required to elect annual support within 60 days, they were then locked into having to pay $45 per support incident. He may be making that fact more clear these days because no doubt, when he springs these traps upon victims, they must respond with anger.
If Hawkins makes derogatory statements about us, chances are he is lying and we'd like to know about it. Ask Hawkins to put his claims in writing and send them to you. He likes to state his lies by phone (no written record), such as, he has filed 'cease and desist orders' and law suits against us. Both Hawkins and Wilson have gone so far as to claim that we are 'in jail for stealing software'. Just ask for any allegations in writing. You won't get it. Copies of filings? They don't exist.
Most recently Hawkins thought it was a clever idea to program some features in his software to become disabled 60 days after purchase (30 days after the money-back guarantee expired) then disclose to his buyers that they needed to pay to reactivate those features. Clever.
Fair Play
Please help us create a fair playing field by reporting negative comments made by our competitors to us. This information will be used in the future in our actions against them. Please include date, time, method of communication, person's name and direct quotes (if possible).
Brian Wilson, Consignpro
Being the unscrupulous opportunist he is, Wilson readily bought the 'They stole my software!' ploy and jumped on the band wagon, having at least enough foresight to see what was in it for him to go along. No doubt the quality of our program and our very competitive pricing has crippled CCE, Consignpro and Liberty, but rather than lower their prices, they conspired to attack our credibility.
It's not 'ironic' that Wilson thinks it's appropriate and effective to make slanderous public remarks about us. Judging from the support he receives in some forums, it's been quite effective. Meanwhile, his prices remain as high as his attempts to distract would-be buyers attention from that very fact.
False Advertising
These are ConsignPro advertisements in Overture and Google promoting ConsignPro to be 'free'. The program actually sells for several hundreds of dollars. (Overture and Google, search term 'consignment software', 1/5/2005)
Here's an outright lie about having the 'lowest price'. (http://www.vhsoftware.com/compare.htm, http://www.vhsoftware.com/message.htm, 1/5/2005)
Price Trapping
Wilson knows that some consignment stores will expand and will need to purchase additional software licenses for additional computers, so he poses the question, "How much are additional [Consignpro] copies?", then conveniently avoids answering the question while attempting to appear to be issuing a helpful warning. (screenshot)
The trap? Consignpro costs $995. Additional licenses are $295. Wilson refers to this as a 'discount', suggesting a 'bargain'. Those who buy Consignpro now and discover the need for additional licenses later will find they are trapped into paying outrageous networking fees! Additional copies of our software are $100 each.
| Cost of 10 Software Licenses |
| BCSS |
Consignpro |
| $ 450 |
$2,950 |
Annual support fees will also increase from $125 to $195!
Additionally, quoted Consignpro prices DO NOT include additional charges such as License Transfer Fee $50, Label Customization $75/hour, Replacement CD $25, Replacement User Guide $25, Database Repair $69, Printer Support $40, Data Conversion $200. These lofty prices and add-on fees are, however, an indication of this vendor's pricing strategy. He also falsely claims that "some competitors" charge up to $100 per hour for support! (screenshot)
Recently Wilson has conjured up new plans for an infinite income stream from users: online backups & online customer account access at a 10-year cost of $3,108.
In this caption: "In the spirit of total disclosure, we present all our fees and charges below."
In this caption: "Software and Packages (prices do not include UPS shipping); POS and related hardware options (prices do not include UPS shipping)" Shipping charges are not revealed until late in the ordering process. (http://www.vhsoftware.com/pricelist.htm, https://nt27.securedata.net/vhsoftware/order.htm, 1/5/2005)
Moreover, Wilson attempts to cover up the high cost of his hardware offerings by comparing his high prices to even higher 'List Prices' which in reality, don't exist. (screenshot)
Like Hawkins of Consignment Success, Wilson plays charades with the cost of updates, outwardly promoting them to be 'free' - when in fact you must acquiesce to paying $125/$195 for annual support to get updates. Otherwise updates (and support!) are totally unavailable!
Deception
Wilson claims to be doing visitors a favor: "To save you some time and energy we've spent some time last Spring comparing ourselves to other popular software..." and asks, "Why do we give you all this information about our competitors?", suggesting that his comparison is a thorough representation of all competition. Representation of our software is conspicuously missing along with several others.
Wilson is fully well aware of the many consignment software providers, yet he and Hawkins limit their comparisons of their competition between themselves and one or two other vendors, while lying about having made exhaustive and extensive efforts in comparing their software programs to others. They patronize their visitors, claiming that these comparisons have been made for the visitor's benefit! The obvious intent is to steer potential buyers AWAY from the many other software providers - any number of which are priced well below these profit mongers. Here patronization and lies are used in combination: "We've taken a lot of time to compare our program to our competitors to make sure that you, our customer, receive the best value for your money." It doesn't take 'a lot of time' to determine than Consignpro is just the opposite - highly over-priced. This claim might better be stated as, "We only compare our product to the same two competitors who compare their products to ours. We are lying when we say this is an extensive and thorough comparison. We provide this limited information in hopes that you will not feel compelled to look beyond these three choices." (http://www.vhsoftware.com/faq.htm, 1/5/2005)
False Claims and Exaggerations
Wilson says his paid membership in NARTS (National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops) is "Your Assurance of Professionalism". Anyone can become a member by paying a fee. NARTS did not evaluate Wilson or his business practices and they refuse to disclose their reason for designating him as 'Vendor of the Year'. Moreover his mother is the founder of NARTS. (http://www.vhsoftware.com/message.htm, 3/5/2006)
This outlandish claim is unsubstantiated and highly suspect: "ConsignPro - The Industrys [sic] Favorite consignment software!!" (http://www.vhsoftware.com, 1/5/2005)
Consignpro is a small operation attempting to impress with hyperbole and misrepresentation. This caption on the main page attempts to suggest that ConsignPro has multiple locations in large cities. This is taken from the 'Contact Us' page showing that in fact their location is in New Jersey - not 'New York'. (http://www.vhsoftware.com/contact.htm, 1/5/2005)
A common strategy of those highest in cost is to belittle competitors, baselessly claiming "you get what you pay for". Wilson goes so far as to claim that buyers of his software "will save money in the long run". Really? Compared to what? (http://www.consignpro.com/consignpro.html, 1/5/2007)
Vendors can and do claim superiority in product, but none ever have proof of their claims. To refute Wilson's implication that our software is 'cheap', we can honestly state that our program has several hundred satisfied users. He is left to contend with the FACT that our software is simply very competitively priced:
|
Best Consignment |
ConsignPro |
| Five-Year Cost |
$ 945 |
$10,409 |
| Ten-Year Cost |
$ 595 |
$13,161 |
Assessment of ConsignPro
Wilson at ConsignPro misrepresents his product in advertising claiming it is free when in fact the full version of the program is not only not free, it is unavailable as a demo. The truth is only the demo version is 'free' but it is severely limited in use. There is no "Free Consignment Software" as advertised.
He misrepresents his competition and lies about his motivation for providing very limited information. He posts lies on his web site about us even after he has been apprised of the facts. (http://consignpro.com/compare.htm, 1/5/2005)
His strategy is to patronize and deceive. He attempts to portray having a 'big-business' presence in multiple locations in large cities, borrowing prestige from the name 'New York' when in fact he is located in Florida. He makes unsubstantiated claims on his web site about being the "best" and "favorite".
The ultimate goal of the false claims and sensationalism is of course to distract from the real issues of his unstable expensive software. Updates are essential and Wilson represents them to be 'free' when they are not. He hopes to generate a permanent stream of income by charging users annually for customer support and for ongoing services such as: License Transfer Fee $50, Label Customization $75/hour, Replacement CD $25, Replacement User Guide $25, Database Repair $69, Data Conversion $200.
Both Wilson and Hawkins of Consignment Success scheme to trap their customers into paying endlessly to use their programs. Over time they plan to make more money bilking their clients for inflated 'service charges' than they make from the initial sale of the software!
Most recently we received a complaint that Wilson had allegedly hacked into a user's computer and removed the registration code and their data. Does he have access to your computer? Were you advised of this capability when you purchased the program? Require a written statement from Wilson that he does not have access to your computer.
Fair Play
Please help us create a fair playing field by reporting negative comments made by our competitors to us. This information will be used in the future in our actions against them. Please include date, time, method of communication, person's name and direct quotes (if possible).
Liberty, Resaleworld
Liberty is in a class all its own: Cost! Theirs is by far the most expensive program available yet on their web site they falsely claim "We will not be undersold!"
- $199 to add QuickBooks which is typically included in other consignment software
- $35 for a replacement manual
- $295 for a software home copy (free elsewhere)
- $200 for data conversions
- $295 for networking licenses
- 50% commission if you want to sell your Liberty software to someone else
- Outrageous hardware prices
- Shipping charges tacked on to hardware orders
Like Hawkins, Liberty realized they needed to offer a lower-priced product to compete with us, so like Hawkins, they removed several useful features from their high-priced plan to come up with 'Liberty Lite' while outwardly claiming:
"...we’ve disabled some of the features many new store owners and smaller stores don’t really require." (Picture)
The following are some of the features omitted in Lite. This ploy, by the way, has since been abandoned. Perhaps the larceny was a bit too obvious.
- In addition to selling your customers' items, you'd like to sell items belonging to you, but you can't use Lite because 'retail items' has been disabled.
- Someone wants to purchase items at the point of sale which haven't been entered into Lite, or the items belong to a consignor who hasn't been entered. Can't add the item at the point of sale because 'add item/consignor at point of sale' has been disabled.
- No store credit at the point of sale, so consignors wishing to apply their sales proceeds to their purchases can't be obliged. Disabled.
- You're in the middle of entering a sale. Something comes up. You can't exit the sale because 'Suspending a sale in point of sale' has been disabled.
- It's time to settle up at month-end. You'll have to do pay outs one at a time because 'group pay outs' are disabled.
- You want to network computers but you don't want every employee to have access to sensitive data. Not possible because there's 'no security or user administration'.
- Want to know what customers have purchased in the past? There's 'no customer purchase history'.
- Purchases other than cash as a tender can't be recorded.
- You want to keep a list (a 'wish list') of items in which buyers are interested so that you may contact them when the items arrive in your store. Can't - There's no Wish List feature.
Perhaps new or small shops don't want or need costly conveniences like bar coding and scan guns, receipt printers and cash drawers. It's logical to offer lower-priced programs without these features, but removing 'basic essential features' and attempting to pass the absence of such features off as "not required" is suspect.
Liberty went on to say, "Lite users can always upgrade at a later time by simply entering a different serial number." More deception. There's the little matter of the cost of upgrading ($300), the extra costs of a manual ($29), the QuickBooks Module ($200), additional licenses at $300 each, charges for annual support $120/$240 per year.
It's doubtful that any store, new, small or otherwise, would be pleased to use a consignment software program that has been purposely 'disabled'.
We understand Liberty reps have also been guilty of making false slanderous statements about us. We had hoped that along with claiming some virtue for 'having been around longer' they might also have been a bit more mature in their marketing methods, but not.
Liberty boasts of its number of employees. It might just be that their high overhead is exactly what keeps their prices high and their attempts to pass on additional fees high on the priority list.
Fair Play
Please help us create a fair playing field by reporting negative comments made by our competitors to us. This information will be used in the future in our actions against them. Please include date, time, method of communication, person's name and direct quotes (if possible).
