Auction Flex

Great Auction Software

Vorteile:

I love the easy to use interface. All of the tabs you need are right there on the easy navigation screen. Plus the export to Quickbooks option makes billing a breeze.

Nachteile:

The only con I can think of is you cannot have a customer checked into an auction twice. We have In house and online bidders. Some of our in house bidders go home after they won an item and buy online as well. There should be a feature that let's you check an in house bidder in to the auction with an online number as well.

The most features, PERIOD

Kommentare: We have had a lot of success with auctionflex, we recently opened a second account when we expanded and opened an office in another state.

Vorteile:

This software, written and enhanced over a period of over a dozen years, has FAR AND AWAY the most features of any product on the market. If you are a general merchandise auctioneer, you should consider auctionflex on your short list for its versatility.

Nachteile:

The software is SO FEATURE rich, that there is a significant learning curve to operate it. Because it is not a true cloud based product (its cloud version is actually just a remote desktop connection to their server farm), it is easy to have item lockouts if multiple team members are entering data for the same auction at the same time.

Cannot depend on servers to keep data up to date, accurate or backed up

Kommentare: I am disappointed with Auction Flex/HiBid. It is very hard to navigate, expensive, huge learning curve on the auctioneer side, and you are unable to adjust anything, spelling, update photos etc.. Without chance of destroying bids. I had 153 new lots, that "just disappeared" 2 days before auction close. They had been uploaded to the online bidding piece HiBid.com, but according to Auction Flex Support, they were unable to pull the online data to re-populate the back office piece. I was then told that I would not be to automatically clerk the lots after closing of the auction. Lazy programmers not wanting to sync their piece-milled software. The cherry on top was when the person called me to explain how they couldn't make anything right, she offered to help me upload my next auction to see what I was doing wrong.

Vorteile:

The ability to charge customer credit cards on file. The ability to grade bidders for non-payment.

Nachteile:

They do not have backups. No auditing to research what actually happened in the event something goes wrong. There is not an option to restore data after the Auction Flex 360 "loses" it.

As a bidder, it just doesn't come any easier!

Kommentare: Allows me to participate in online auctions without missing out on the live component. Critical for people with mobility challenges or in areas where distance prevents travel to live auctions.

Vorteile:

Easy to register to bid, read all disclosures, and jump into the action without too much bureaucracy or trouble. Once registered, the software recognizes the user almost immediately, allowing bidders to re-visit their bids, up their offers and watch live action.

Nachteile:

Back arrow kicks you out of the program, requiring user to sign in again. The "back to auction" button should be visible and accessible on all detail and bidding screens.

Embarrasses us on a daily basis

Vorteile:

Clerking works well. The HiBid function isn't bad. The shipping engine is good, with the occasional bugs.

Nachteile:

We use Auction Flex to manage our entire business. It is nearly impossible to learn and random errors occur unless you know the 'Setttings and Options' menu by heart. This menu has 32 tabs of settings with awkward titles that the average user will have no idea what they are for or what they mean. It is completely unreliable for client communications. I have to watch every email sent to consignors and customers for blank PDFs. Their PDF engine also either creates enormous files that will not email or smaller PDFs with pictures on top of the text. The system is now emailing our absentee bidders telling them they are outbid on an auction that has not even occurred yet. I've attempted to contact Auction Flex support four times by phone or live chat today and no one answers. They have also removed their support phone number from their website.