Overview

The 'consignment software industry' is small and unregulated. There is no government agency protecting you from misleading marketing efforts. A couple of software providers (Liberty and Consignpro) fail to make sure you understand all fees involved prior to purchase.

Here's the cost difference in the first year alone:

Consignment Software Price Gouging

If you visit the Liberty website and come away thinking you will pay only for the software ($995) and can avoid being forced into paying substantial support fees, then their strategy has been effective.

Add $295 if you would like to have a second copy of the software and increase the annual service fee from $323 to $443 (extended hours).

Not so incidentally, if you don't purchase the Support Plan, service will be denied in any form (except forum posts which may take up to 48 hours for a response) and software updates will be withheld. (Updates are necessary for obtaining bug fixes and minor software improvement). In some cases you will also be penalized ($25-$50) for not opting for the Support Plan when purchasing other services.

QuickBooks - Add $199 to be able to transfer data to QuickBooks. (Data export in QuickBooks format is included in BCSS.)

Pricing: The Liberty 'Pro-Pack' - software, barcode scanner, thermal tag printer, thermal receipt printer, cash drawer, credit-card swiper: $2,124 + 1 year service + $75 shipping = $2,378. BCSS (2100 tags, credit-card swiper): $1,385.

Pro-Pack with Dell computer: $4,023 + 1 year service + $100 shipping = $4,446. BCSS: $1,978

From their website: "How To" questions, walkthroughs or anything deemed a "Training" call is not covered by the Support Plan! Phone Training must be purchased @ $100/HOUR.

After Hours/Weekend Assistance: "Call for pricing!" Liberty's response: "Any assistance outside those hours [Mon-Fri 9am-8pm EST] is on a case by case basis as our techs are generally only available during support scheduled hours." Elsewhere on their site: "All prices are STARTING PRICES with no guarantees. The nature/complexity of the issue could generate additional charges. Prices subject to change." In others words it's suggested that you purchase software not knowing what service charges will be.

Have a question or need help with Windows? $100.

Liberty: All printers and scanners come with 30 days of support then $75 or $100 per-incident How does this compare to hardware offered by BCSS? The hardware manufacturer (POS-X) provides a direct telephone number for free support during the life of the hardware AT NO COST!

If you acquire a new PC it will cost $150 to reinstall if you're not on the 'Support Plan'. (BCSS: $29)

To upgrade from a previous version of Liberty, add $449. (BCSS: $79) To help sell the service-fee increases of October, 2010, Liberty now offers upgrades for "FREE".

'Data Repack' $100. Apparently Liberty has set a limit on the amount of data that can be entered/stored and charges $100 when the maximum is reached (to compact the database)! BCSS has free utilities for deleting old consignor and inventory records to keep the database size manageable.

Zebra 2844 printer listed price: $449. Add $14.95 for a cable and $20 (est.) shipping. $482! BCSS: $379 including cable and shipping.

Unitech Barcode Reader: $299. Most scanners today connect via USB. Liberty: add on $50 for a USB connection! $349! The very same scanner sells online for $50! (Google) Keep in mind that if there's a problem with the scanner after 30 days, you'll pay another $75 or $100 for help each time.

Add 5% for shipping and pay extra for cables. BCSS: 0

If an order is cancelled before the product is shipped, a 6% credit-card fee applies. BCSS: 0

From their Terms and Conditions: "Please note that all software sales are final." BCSS: Money-Back Guarantee - 30 days or when the software registration code is issued, whichever comes first.

From their Support Plan Registration Form:

1. "FREE Updates" (The updates are not 'free'. They are denied if support is not purchased. They are only available if support is purchased.)
2. "Pricing subject to change [increase] at any time..."
3. "Great discounts off all hardware purchase" (We have yet to find any software vendor charging more for hardware than Liberty. In addition to over-inflated hardware prices, Liberty charges extra for cables and shipping.)
4. "FL [Florida] residents add applicable sales tax" (6-7%)
5. "All [support] plans are for a minimum of one year"
6. "Credit card will be billed automatically"
7. "..all plans are a non-cancellable one year commitment"
8. The support plan must be cancelled in writing.

Liberty suggests comparing their service fees to Geek Squad which is one of the most expensive services on the Internet.

Adding Up the Total Cost

Here's an itemization of the real cost of doing business with Liberty. The amounts below assume a purchase of 5 copies of the software, a thermal label printer, a receipt printer, a cash drawer and a barcode scanner. Consignpro is included because Wilson plays the same pricing games:

Arm Twisting

Both Liberty and Consignpro will refuse to talk to you or even answer your emails if you have not paid annual support fees and you will be denied software updates, so when you have problems (and you will), you will be forced to pay fees.

Liberty: If you didn't purchase 'The Support Plan' and need help, you'll pay a lot more:

Consignpro: Wilson was exposed in 2009 for offering a 'free update' to users who had not paid OPTIONAL support fees for a number of years. The 'free update' disabled their software and Wilson refused to 'fix it' until they agreed to pay more. This alone should discourage anyone from considering 'Consignpro'. (View the public thread about this or click here if that page has been removed.)

Diversionary Tactics

Alaina Wanko at Liberty is in charge of diverting attention away from Liberty's extremely high fees. She attempts to do so by conducting a smear campaign against their staunchest competitor: BCSS. She circulates this email in which she quotes a handful of past unhappy BCSS customers while apparently insinuating that Liberty has had none. She also makes several false representations and accusations which are refuted below. No doubt her lack of ethics and professionalism is endorsed and encouraged by her employer.

Wanko quotes Jayna Thompson as saying "I was using BCSS for 4 years and it was very unreliable, expecially [sic] with 2 computers networked together." Rebuttal: A professional technician would have looked to the computers and the network for inadequate resources instead of blaming the software. Several other BCSS users were and are using the very same program on adequately-powered computers and networks with no problem whatsoever.

Likewise Wanko refers to Crissie Richardson's claim that our software caused a data loss: Not true, and we challenge Liberty and Richardson to prove her claim. These are all causes of data loss: User error; Viruses; Power failure; Hardware failure; Data corruption; Hard disk bad sector; Electrical surges; Software problem (1/4th as frequent as User error). Regardless of the cause, the simple solution would have been to restore the last data backup which of course Richardson did not have because she failed to back up her data. (Today BCSS has 3 ways to backup data, 2 of which are storage on our servers for safe keeping.)

Wanko cites Linda Morado and we will agree that Morado was a huge service problem. We literally spent hours (at no additional charge) tending to her inability to understand and use computers. Morado consumed more of our time in one year than any 5 users combined.

Wanko cites Gary Callahan as claiming our software is not a 'true database program'. It is a database program built upon Microsoft's FoxPro database language. The repeated crashing that he refers to was caused by inadequate computer resources.

In summary, Liberty points to only 5 people in 8 years who converted to their software from BCSS. We've had at least that many convert from Liberty to BCSS. Microsoft would be proud to have such an excellent customer-satisfaction ratio, and we are proud of ours.

About Support

BCSS is supported for free by email and documentation. Phone support is optional. In stark contrast to Liberty and Consignpro, we do not deny service and withhold updates if paid support is not elected.

Wanko professes to be 'confused' about our support policy and of course suggests that we intentionally contradict ourselves for the purpose of misleading potential buyers.

She ponders a ridiculous scenario wherein our customers might be put on hold for 20 minutes and pay for the wait time. (We can't put a caller on hold.) Meanwhile her employer charges $100 per hour for phone support, and any question remotely defined (by Liberty) as 'training' is subject to the charge.

Other Groundless Attacks

Wanko lies outright about consignor IDs in BCSS, claiming that it is REQUIRED (emphasis noted) to use part of the consignor's last name. That is not required and never has been. We have suggested (for those who like the idea) to use part of the consignor's last name as a way of knowing to whom an item belongs when viewing the price tag. Any sequence of characters can be used for the consignor ID.

Wanko claims that she read our License Agreement and accuses us of lying about software ownership. Our Agreement reads, "Ownership of the software or the media on which the software is contained is transferred to you." That is correct. On the other hand, you do not own Liberty or Consignpro. You would only have the use of the software (a 'license') - not ownership.

She says, "I also found no field for size at item entry, nor are their drop down menus to choose from for descriptions such as color, brand, size, etc." She didn't look. BCSS includes categories, user-defined groups and drop-down menus precisely for such usage.

She asks: "Once you enter an item in inventory the screen closes and the item goes where??" The item is entered in the database and is displayed where else? In the inventory table, in the consignor's account and in reports!

She writes: " If you have more than one item to enter you need to open back up the item entry screen which has very limited fields for description." BCSS allows for the entry of one inventory item. It also allows for the entry of multiple items on a different screen called the 'Batch-Enter Screen'. Information can also be entered in spreadsheets then imported into BCSS. The description field is limited to 20 characters because the description is printed on price labels and there isn't room for more than 20 characters. The details field can accommodate 100 characters. There's plenty of provision in BCSS for detailing a description of an inventory item.

Her: "I only saw a couple reports." There are over 300 reports in BCSS. She didn't bother to look.

"...saw nothing about making items expired." Once again, she didn't look. Discount schedules can be configured to transfer unsold items to the House Account. Aged inventory can otherwise be donated, destroyed or returned to the consignor.

Wanko: "I also didn't see any security features to allow only certain people to access certain functions." The Diamond and Virtual editions of BCSS include full-scale employee management, including the ability to grant or deny access to any area of the software and database.

"One more thing to note, even on the BCSS website, he says you need to note the engine and program language, because it can cause data corruption if not sufficient." We have no idea what she is talking about. Engine? Program language? More guff.

She finishes her spam email with: "Just because I could not figure certain things out does not mean they do not exist." That is exactly right but it doesn't keep her from distributing information about us and our software that is exactly wrong.

Finally, from the Consignpro website: "Since 2002, we've converted over 25 former Liberty customers to ConsignPro due, primarily, to customer service issues. Essentially, these customers would have rather re-invested in new software ($$$) than continue doing business with ResaleWorld."

Summary

You get the drift: Bash lower-priced competitors, avoid adequately disclosing fees and adverse policies prior to purchase and lock users into big-fee software. Our competitors would rather have 1 user paying $10,000 than have 10 users paying $1000 - 90% less service work! Are you going to be the '1'?

Wikipedia: "A fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation."