New restriction on free accounts

[mario]

On (or around) Sep 15th, Gixen will introduce some changes and restrictions on free accounts, as follows:

1) There will be no change in pricing for Gixen mirror subscription. It will remain at $6/year for recurring Gixen mirror subscribers, and $8/year for one-off payments.
2) Free users will be limited to 4 winning snipes / month. Users who use Gixen in excess of that will be required to subscribe to Gixen mirror (annual, mirror chunks, or pay-per-use).
3) Gixen mirror users who subscribe to Gixen using recurring paypal payments, and subsequently cancel recurring payment before the end of the subscription period will have their subscription length adjusted accordingly, as if they made a non-recurring payment.
4) Users who subscribe to Gixen mirror using recurring paypal payments will be protected from any future price increases of Gixen mirror for subsequent years, for as long as they don't cancel the recurring payment.
5) Pricing of Gixen Mirror Chunks will remain unchanged.
6) Pricing of Gixen Mirror Pay-Per-Use will remain unchanged.

[Guest]

I am OK with this. Gixen has saved me thousands of dollars over the time I've used it. The $6/year is by far worth it if you know how to use the service.

[Guest]

Perfectly fine with me as I am already a mirror subscribe. I can't believe anyone would refuse to pay just $6

[colinswatches]

All seems good to me. Glad to see there is action being taken to encourage more frequent users to pay their share.

[Gixen]

[inchitover]

[inchitover]

If i have three ebay accounts an want to use gixen for each account, do i have to make a subscription for each individual ebay account?

[gixenuser]

[Mike]

There is an historical expectation of a free service paid for by adverts or other means.

Some will be willing to pay a subscription for a higher level of service but those expecting things on the cheap will always do so.

In short, Gixen will lose those looking for a free service, who would never pay.

Gixen will also lose those who started at Gixen who were initially attracted by the free service but later willing to pay for the advantages that come with paid membership.

There may be a few users who current use the free service and move onto the paid, but overall Gixen will lose paying members, or not expand as quickly as where there was a free, albeit limited service.

[Mauro]

Gixen is my go to for free snipes. I used auctionsniper ages ago and were always inside the free snipes limit.
I do snipes maybe once a year, and what I save in that year maybe amounts to tops 10$, but I'm exaggerating.
I mostly buy from small chips auctions, or from buy it now for everything else.
I'm fine both with these news and the 60s timeout, in the sense that I wasn't paying before and I will keep not being a paying member in the future But who would be, for literally a few snipes a year. Realistically one per year.
Last time for example I had to use google to search for "free ebay sniping" because I even forgot gixen's name after all the time I wasn't using it

Just popping in wishing Mario to finally make some bucks off this site.

[braided]

[vintage-copper-kitchen]

as others have said we have more than one ebay account can they be linked to one subscription

[Guest]

The problem with multiple E-Bay accounts is that people could then just pay one $6, and have their mum, girlfriend, all their close trusted mates, family etc all use it. Why would you need multiple E-Bay accounts? Even if you need multiple accounts for perhaps selling different items, just use the same one for buying.

[Guest]

[braided]

[Guest]

I had in the lifetime subscription first but then gixen cancelled all the lifetime accounts as they wanted more money, i have used gixen since it started but now i don’t use it anymore, i paid for lifetime not for annual subscription

[Guest]

[hobby936]

I need to know how many accounts I have as I may be duplicated also when do I pay $6.00 which is okay with me. I may only use Gixen a couple of times a month but always I have contributed. Please let me know as I only need one account. Thanks Bill

[FreeGixer]

I'm not one to be all up-in-arms about someone making a decision on how to run their business. So don't take this for a negative rant. I just don't understand how the mandatory charge is only $6?

I always figured this site made its money from a commission on winning bids. eBay has an affiliate program called "eBay Partner Network" (EPN). I figured this site was tapped into EPN's API for commission. If not, then I figured they would be generating revenue on the ads, if not both.

So it's perplexing to me that the operator is claiming they need only $6 to "keep Gixen alive". This just seems like bad business because it seems to me the operator is not acting in good faith. Gives me the impression that maybe the operator is looking to skim an extra $6 per user under the guise that they need this money to stay open. Maybe I'm wrong.

The service is great and has been great. So again I'm not complaining. Charging 6 bucks just makes it seem disingenuous. That's not a lot of money. I would make it back in probably a week in savings, but the principle might keep me away. Again I could be wrong but I did want to share my thoughts.

[User1]

[whatever99]

how much is pay per use?

[bernie]

im a recurring subscriber.
only 4 shots a month is pretty steep.
that wouldnt even cover if you want to buy only one product and fail a few times.
i recommended this lots of people, but with only 4 shots, i guess i wont anymore. i would suggest at least 10 to keep people interested..

also +1 to combine different accounts in one subscription.
most of the people sniping regularly have more than one account.

[John]

I won't be paying, bye

[Rickajho]

[Guest]

[Guest]

[Guest]

How does the $6 recurring subscription work?

Do you automatically charge the $6 to my Paypal account every year? (I don't understand how Paypal would allow that without my authorization.)

[TLisenby]

[madrabbitwoman]

[tomsteiner1]

Already have mirror but how do I know if it is recurring or one-time?

If not reccurring, how does Paypal handle recurring payments?

[sadanon]

I liked the idea behind Gixen when I first discovered it back in 2010, and after I used it successfully a few times, I felt the effort and service involved deserved compensation. And so I was a paid subscriber for about 6 years.

But I started getting disillusioned with the site when the nag delays were implemented, and with every successive detriment for free users, my enthusiasm waned. I no longer felt like my subscription was a donation to maintain the site and reward Mario for providing the service for all, but that I was expected to pay for special privileged treatment denied regular users (like so many other sleazeball sniping websites out there.)

To put it another way, I didn't mind paying when it meant a few extra features were added as perks, but nothing was taken away from free users.

I am no longer a paid user, and I doubt I will be again, due to degrading policies such as this. If you want Gixen to be an exclusively paid service, make it a paid service; don't stoop to the level of your competitors, with bait and switch crippled "free" accounts, undermining your userbase and punishing them for utilizing your service. I hoped you were better than that.

Gixen used to be the best site with the best attitude, and that goodwill counts for a lot today with word of mouth. People donate money to youtubers, streamers, gofundmes and patreons for no other reason than they want to support what they believe is a worthy endeavor. Alienate them with greed and defensive excuses, and there's no motivation to contribute.

Such is the difference between soliciting donations for a soup kitchen, and just straight up running a restaurant.

[Mikexx]

[Bigbill]

[Guest]

How about extending subscription by 1 month (or 1 chunk) for paid subscription if mirror is down and you lose auctions. This would be limited to 1 extension per day. Lose auction would be when gixen has problems and your gixen bid is higher than the actual winning bid.

[peter3mullins]

I'm all for this latest change. I've been a paid subscriber for several years and I want to see this service continue. If more people pay then the continuation of the service is more likely and also there is less need to raise prices in the future for those that are paying.

People who don't pay and won't pay even when they like the service and are regular users (and presumably saving $$$ and much time) are a drain on Gixen's resources and really are no big loss.

Regarding one Gixen account for multiple eBay accounts as has been suggested by a few people, I would advise Mario to resist this as there is too much potential for abuse.

And regarding the 4 item limit per month, there is nothing to stop budget conscious users from buying or sniping directly on eBay when it suits them and just using Gixen for auctions that end at inconvenient times.

I'll keep recommending Gixen as people can still try it for free, can then keep using Gixen for free (if they are not buying more than 4 items a month via Gixen) and it is a really good, reliable service - well worth the money!

[Faxman59]

Now come on.
We are talking 6$/8$ a year that saves you hundreds or thousands of bucks each year plus helps you snipping the things you really want.
The discussion is senseless, unless you are one of those people that want everything for free. It takes time, money and effort to keep a site like this up and running. If you are not willing to spend this low amount on money for a good sevice then it's just that.
I been using this service for years (don't even remember when i joined) and it has never let me down.
Go elsewhere and see what you get for 50 cents a month.
That's my 5 cents to the whole story.

[guest]

[Guest]

I'm the anonymous poster ref multiple accounts. I sell myself, I only have one account but understand if others have a fair few. Respectfully, $6 a year for a business (i.e. one for each business) I don't think is a big ask. It is a minimal cost for what you get, likely covers the savings, and even if it didn't, the time saved alone and ease of use? The time saved for any business is the benefit, it is for me (as I used to snipe by hand, sitting here waiting).

I'm also with peter3mullins, as I too feel that there is room for abuse of multiple accounts.

Regards Gixen being out for your money, well people can use the service for free, to see if they like it, and when I last looked, the prices of other services (that were not as good) were much more expensive. Plus if for multiple business's, those multiple payments of $6 is tax deductable anyway. I suppose it depends where you are in the world, but over here $6 doesn't buy very much out in the world. Many people will spend that on a single coffee. I'm with peter3mullins (who raises many other fair points), as I too feel that there is room for abuse of multiple accounts.

It seems from reading that people feel that being offered a service for free, is unnaceptable business practice. Often I've seen on the internet, and in life, people offered something for nothing, but then want more.

I'm very happy with the service and price.

[Guest]

Ah, just went off to pay some more to extend my usage period and found the 'Compare Gixen sniper to Other Sniping Services' page. You can find it by clicking the 'Compare' tab at the top of this page. Worth a read.

[JohnBGixen]

The changes are perfectly acceptable and to my mind the $6 which is about ÂGBP 5 in the UK for a YEAR is fantastic value.

Onle one query: I know that I pay but how to I confirm status?

[Bluesaint64]

[Matt]

[mario]

[mario]

[mario]

[BlueSaint64]

[mario]

[Bluesaint64]

[Guest]

[quote="hobby936"]I need to know how many accounts I have as I may be duplicated also when do I pay $6.00 which is okay with me. I may only use Gixen a couple of times a month but always I have contributed. Please let me know as I only need one account. Thanks Bill[/quote]

[mario]

[businessam]

I agree with a previous poster who mentioned the historical expectations of free service via adverts. I also agree that as a previous mirror subscriber who reverted to free (because of personal lack of use), the waiting wall is not future-customer friendly.

To Mario:

You are changing your business model (albeit out-of-necessity according to you) which surely will alienate a population of your customers. But you have to focus on what your target market is. You can't surely please everyone as it will lead to monetary losses. Consider what you are offering to customers. Adding 'red-tape' to a standardized/previously free product (eBay sniping/Gixen) will just shift your customers to a competitor with cheaper prices (or potentially free if they use ads).

For increased profitability, instead think, "how can I make Gixen more featured and desirable?" That is the premium product that you have to create. (One example is a customer in this thread that said they liked to use multiple eBay accounts---if you can integrate this functionality relatively smoothly into Gixen's interface rather than telling them to do it themselves or making a second gixen account, then that is an example of value-added feature to Gixen that people will actually pay for). Finding similar things that add value to a preexisting product will make Gixen overall profitable.

Now my personal opinion here is that I think the problem with this sort of digital service product is that customers don't have a tangible feeling of what they are paying for. Especially when moving from a 100% free product to a paid, you have people who have no idea why they are paying now. Let's say your goal is strictly to cover increasing costs. Then you have to be absolutely transparent with those costs and have your customers either decide whether they are willing to support for a "nonprofit" sniping service. On the reverse, let's say your goal is to make some profit from an otherwise revenue loss item (nothing wrong with that). Then you need to demonstrate what your product is exactly providing, linking some sort of obvious service to the transaction.

One way to do this I think is to have customers Pay-per-winning snipe. This links a reliable positive outcome (winning snipe) to payment of your service (gixen), and creates a positive association with paying for Gixen service.(This linking between winning bids means only positive associations are made, whereas if losing bids are also counted then negative associations are created which would neutral out your customers' feelings unless they were customers who tended to win more than lose). The previous model I just mentioned is opposed to your current model of mirror service, which for all intents and purposes only motivates purchase based off fear (fear of having a server go down and missing some important snipes). Fear (and s3x and other primordial emotions) offer an effective sales technique but not one that garners long term favor/trust in your customers. Additionally, the mirror service ~>90% of the time does not provide anything that the free service does not also provide (you could "simulate" some constant fake primary server outages, to make the mirror service provide an actual service more than <10% of the time but this is unethical and likely will eventually work against you with new customers). Therefore the mirror service is not providing anything significant over the free service...so why would anyone want to pay you for that (besides your incessant pleas to ask for support for a nonofficial-non-profit service).

Take my comments as you will, but good luck and best to you. I never read comments after I post but hope it works out.

[cpushack]

If $6 a year is greedy then the local coffee stand at $6 a drink is a bank robber.

$0.50/month, I save that nearly every day in auctions.

I was a little worried when I got the email notice "New restriction on free accounts" as I have a mirror account, but I guess it was just sent to everyone.

Keep up the good work

[BlueSaint64]

Businessam:-

A pay per winning snipe is a rather stupid idea for a number of reasons.

1. If every account has to be monitored for winning snipes, and every account billed varying amounts for those winning snipes every month, or even quarterly, it would cause an Everest-sized mountain of extra work in administration, and no doubt, major re-programming of Gixen itself which might be fine for Microsoft but not a virtually one man band.
And what happens at the end of the period when people don't pay? Is Mario supposed to send email reminders to everyone? Yes, things can be automated (more programming, or extra cost of purchasing the necessary software) but you still need a human to oversee such things.

2. However you price winning bids, for the majority of regular users I suspect, the cost would be significantly larger than $6 a month rather than $6 a year.
Faced with a monthly bill of $10 or $20 how many current users are likely to migrate to another sniping service with a cheaper, flat monthly fee? Answer - MOST.

3. If free users are unwilling to fork out $6 annually at present are they going to willingly pay per win in the future. I don't think so. Many people claim they don't sign up because they are such infrequent users, maybe once or twice a year. I suggest in 80% of cases that is pure BULL, they just want something for free. I doubt there's more than 5% of users that would pay less than $6 commission on winning snipes over the course of a year.

4. Look at the fuss (in another thread) freeloaders have made over the apparently major inconvenience of having to wait an extra 30 seconds to log in. Are those people going to stay with a service that might actually charge them a few Cents for winning stuff cheaply? Of course not.

Most software gives users a 'free trial' period in which the product is limited in some way, whether that is by being unable to Save your work, Print it (or only with some logo or wording obscuring it) or some similar restriction.
Up until now Mario has benevolently allowed for free an almost unrestricted service with just a minor inconvenience of a minor wait, and viewing advertising.

Now he's chosen to restrict it to 4 wins per month - hardly a restriction for genuine occasional users, only regular freeloaders. Good on him!

The crux of the matter is $6 or $8 per year for the Gixen service is a STEAL, and anyone who doesn't want to pay it is NEVER going to convert to a pay per win system, you will only drive away your core users who would pay significantly more.

It's a shame you (Businessam) never read comments after you post; you might learn something!

[fablemaker]

I am more than happy to pay . I have been a subscriber to gixen for a few years now and love it. Thank you Mario for providing a great service.

[elvey]

I get good value. I think we all do.

I’m guessing you already use HTTPS for everything, Mario. Yes? EBAY says it’s mandatory next month. It’s funny - I remember for so long eBay would redirect HTTPS to HTTP.

[Guest]

[Cupid]

[CanaryWolf]

Best to put a notice on the splash screen. We would have plenty of time to read it with that countdown timer.

The error message/narrative generated is:

"Please eliminate Gixen Mirror pay-per-use balance of on the settings page before adding new snipes."

I agree with other users that paying 6$ a year is reasonable. But understanding the new policy has not been straightforward. To the uninitiated, the error message above just indicates the site/service is probably broken.

[mrmopar]

I just discovered this new policy when I went to update some additional bids. I got the message that i have used up the 4 free/mo.

Here is my question: I have several bids that were previously set up. Can I assume that they will not work at this point unless i subscribe?

The system won't let me add new bids, that I know, but I am unsure about the dozen or so that were already set up. I must have won at least 4 so far to get the message.

I am surprised at the number of people who say they rarely use the program, but then again I buy a lot of little $ items and have grown used to sniping ALL of them just to keep myself consistent. This will impact my usage for sure. I have been a subscriber in the past, maybe 2 or 3 years total, but the free service worked for me. I have been burned a few times using the free service when something happened to prevent a bid from going through. I also didn't mind the wait times. I am in the camp that thinks that this is not essentially a fee service if you use it much at all (which I do). The free service is limited to infrequent users now.

[Cupid]

[mrmopar]

I am curious about my main question (what would happen to the bids I had set up to end today had I not subscribed), and others may be as well, but I went ahead and subscribed to be safe. I think the fee is small relative to the time necessary to watch all of the bids, but fees add up from all over, so a free service, even with the irritations, was nice. I now pay sales tax on every ebay order on top of the winning price and shipping costs.

I went with the reoccuring payment of $6/yr. My subscription runs until 9/14/20 then I assume unless I cancel it prior, it will renew automatically for another year and my paypal will be automatically billed? I don't know how active I will be a year from now, so it is possible that I may let it roll, but I may have cured my addiction by then too!!

[Cupid]

I just don't know how Mario has chosen to implement the restriction, which is why I haven't attempted to answer that question.

I have ideas about how I would have done it myself, but stating those here would be pure speculation on my part and therefore irrelevant in terms of answering the precise question that you have posed.

Also, I guess it doesn't matter in the long run since he has chosen only to allow a maximum of 4 snipes (or groups of snipes) to be scheduled by free users from now on, so going forward it won't be possible for anyone to get into the same position as you were before you decided to subscribe again.

In short, only Mario can answer that question, he may pick it up here or you might prefer to email it to him directly at the support address given on the Contact tab above.

Yes, the next payment will be automatic, but you will be informed when it happens, so it isn't likely to be a complete surprise when the deduction occurs.
_________________
Mark

[markz]

I've paid for several annual subscriptions because I wanted to give back when I was using Gixen regularly. Early this Sept. I sniped four items between 20 cents and a dollar each. Had I read the email about the four item limit, I would have just bid 50 cents each on enough of them to get what I wanted with out using up the four item limit, and I won a few more items to confirm that works fine since I lost the free use of Gixen.

When the limit took effect, I went to snipe an expensive item and at first couldn't figure out why I was no longer allowed to place another bid. I ended up just finding a buy it now auction for that item, and later installed JBidwatcher to occasionally snipe cheap stuff. Now that the Gixen free service is so limited, I'm no longer interested in a recurring subscription.

It took me a while to go back to my email and find this notice, as it was not in the FAQ or the pricing page when this went into effect. Perhaps I'll try the short term slots if I'm in a big shopping mood again and can find that offer at the time (I don't see it now), but for the moment I'm pretty much stopping my use of Gixen. The new limitations make this feel more like a premium service, mostly for profit. I'd rather contribute to a project that is more useful at the free level. I'm finding fewer and fewer items with low enough starting bids, that I'm not sure Gixen will continue to be worth any fee to me for my level of purchases.

One suggestion I'd make to help folks recognize the value of Gixen would be to offer some long term statistics for each user account so we can see clearly the cost benefit. Of course it is hard to determine how much similar items would have cost with out a snipe tool, but long term spending per month, and the number auctions successfully sniped per month historically might convince me to change my mind. Perhaps I've used Gixen more than I realize.

Another suggestion would be a tally indicator showing n of 4 snipes used as a hint that this limit exists on free accounts. Using up the four on auctions hardly worth sniping makes for an unpleasant surprise when you want to get serious about a more expensive item.

Best regards Mario, and thanks for providing a service I did enjoy for many years.

[Guest]

I was annoyed when I was in the middle of setting up snipes to find out I could only do 4 at a time now. However, I always thought Gixen mirror was a monthy sub. I had no idea it was only 6$ a year. I'm ok with that.

[Rickajho]

[app]

Where can I see, whether I already reached the free user restriction of 4 winning snipes/month?
Gixen clears all snipes more than two weeks ago. Snipe history is not availble for free users.
Do I have to count for my own or is there a counter available on gixen?
What happens with pending snipes when I reached the limit? Will they still be fired? If not, can they be re-activated by getting a paying member or do I have to re-enter them?
Lot of questions, I know, but there weren't any helping answers for sure so far. The only thing that was clarified is that grouped snipes will count as one, which seems self-explaining for me.
Thanks, Michael

[Cupid]

I interpreted what Mario wrote, earlier in this thread, as meaning that the user would not be able to enter more snipes than could result in winning more than 4 in a month. That could be wrong though, I'm sure I'll be corrected if that is the case.

So, for instance, I would expect that once you win one you'll only be able to add three until a month after that win.
_________________
Mark

[mario]

This is correct Mark. Once the snipe is in, it will work, even if above limit (e.g. if I have a bug that would allow it to be entered). You will not be able to add more when you reach the limit, however. The logic as described by Mark is correct - e.g. if you win 1, you can enter 3 more.

[siouxperkev]

COME... ON... PEOPLE... ITS 6(SIX) DAMN DOLLARS A YEAR. FIFTY CENTS A MONTH. JEEEZZ.
GET OVER YOURSELF.

[mrdoug]

Dear Mario,

You are loosing me and others as a potential paying customers. Due to the recent changes I am no longer using Gixen, but have switched to another online bidding site. I would be happy to pay if it were not for the nonrecurring payment penalty, and the fact that I have multiple eBay accounts, as do many others.

My humble suggestion is to charge everyone $6 a year, recurring payment or not. Or if you don't like that idea, charge a nonrecurring payment of $24 for 4 years. This would satisfy my first objection.

My second suggestion is to charge $2 a year for each additional eBay account, or an extra $8 for 4 years. I would then have no objections and would be willing to subscribe to your service, and I believe others would be willing to join me.

I thank you for your consideration.

[sirstone]

How do I enter the payment site?

[Cupid]

All the payment options are available at the top of the Settings page that you get after pushing the Settings button which is displayed after you have logged in here via the web interface.
_________________
Mark

[Clockspring]

It’s $6! A year! And people are complaining? I’m amazed really. If you save $6 on one snipe then the rest of them are free. There are so many ways to look at this but to complain that a man wants $6 to provide this service is insane.

[cocosnipes]

Excellent deal and I like the idea of the new Bid Shielding you are putting into practice.
Gixen seems to work very well indeed. So pleased I found it.
Thank you