Interestingly, a deal from Centrecom was removed today. There were many negs and many angry past customers.
What is the future of companies like centrecom and COTD on ozbargain?
Future for Centrecom, COTD on OzBargain?
Damo on 07/01/2011 - 12:44
Last edited 07/01/2011 - 13:39
Last edited 07/01/2011 - 13:39
Comments
+1
i think they lost future potential customers due to the fact that communication between business and buyer is essential through EVERY processing step
I don’t understand the whole concept of using these kinds of venues for advertising, and then making the buyers unhappy.
Because unless they are deliberately trying to scam, "making the buyers unhappy" is actually NOT in their business plan. What their business plan lacks, however, is "scalability" in a very flexible way. Swamp of new customers. Large number of sales over short period of time. Those are difficult problems to solve if you are running a website. These are even more difficult problem to solve if you are doing any kind of logistics. End result? Unhappy customers.
If people know how to solve these problems maybe they can form a consultancy company helping business shipping real goods in their logistic setups.
Yes, but if they aren't interested in investing to grow their businesses, why bother to spend money promoting them?
I've been involved in business management all my working life… it's not rocket science. If you don't want extra sales, then don't advertise. LOL
I've had problems with them in the past. I ordered a custom built desktop based on their greenguide advertisement. The case shown in the photo was a high-end gamer type. The case we received was the lowest budget case you can get. I know that the case is not the most important part of a computer, but this significantly effected the value of the deal (and the quality of the PSU). When we rang to complain they said the photo was just for illustrative purposes only.
I think if one looks back at the history of both cotd and centrecom, their deals have been largely popular amongst ozbargainers. However, the fickleness of ozbargain members and the 'power' of the negative vote can undo that in one or two mistakes/poor deals. Hard to claw back that reputation….
The other, (slightly paranoid) thought, is that if one wanted to really damage a rival….simply sign up, say you're a rep for his company, then post a bad deal….or one that can not be fulfilled.
how the rep vanished off the face of the earth
potentially….the guy may have been run over by a bus, mother died…who knows….
Hard to claw back that reputation.
Hard — maybe but definitely possible. After all CoTD and Centrecom are established companies and if they offer very good deals sometime further down the future, people will still buy from them.
Dell pricing error fiasco for example. For the following month Dell is probably the most hated company. I am sure some people still felt hurt by them right now, but by large most people are fine and moved on, and continue to buy Dell.
yes…like Dell….
is ozbargain still affiliated with Dell?……just out of interest…..
I remember there was some flurry a few months agoI won't call "OzBargain is affiliated with Dell" as I do not have direct dealing with them (and the merchants posting offers on OzBargain, etc).
The "flurry" a few months ago is on OzBargain taking some affiliation sales from some specific merchants, and yes it is still the case. More about it here (which really only applies to non-logged in visitors).
For clarity sake, the deal, http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/37435, was not removed.
Regarding fake reps, our mod tools sort out who is a rep and who isn't. 99.9% of the time its a poster pretending to not be a rep and not the other way round.
I suspect the Centrecom rep is being told not to comment until direction from higher ups. A bit strange that the rep posts a deal without commenting but maybe that's part of their job description. E.G. In the company I work for, the marketing person posts a new item on Facebook everyday as part of her job description.
our mod tools sort out who is a rep and who isn’t
I thought so……doesn't stop my paranoid musings though :)
Regarding fake reps, our mod tools sort out who is a rep
Its kinda like santa's 'naughty or nice' list :P
There's an article about COTD in The Age today:
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/trading-…
Interesting article,
Last year he bought 2000 airconditioners from Retravision and sold them in a day.
''They know what I can do for them is discount their product in the quietest possible way.'' And while he says he loves his customers and would be nothing without them he is also quite pleased to never deal with them personally.
Interesting to know where they get their stock from. Their deals on Chupa Chups and gum make me think they get similar deals from supermarkets/milk bars etc.
They became quite famous and many people wanted to do business with them. They have a link in their website for sellers who want to sell their items. May be they keep getting items from overseas or people traveling overseas and finding items cheaper or good to be sold in aussie markets.
COTD made millions in selling products, but if still they cannot manage or spend on their servers, its a big shame.
now they have a brand name and are encashing in. their deals are not so good now and items are either cancelled orders or imported goods of some brand or about to expire items.
Anyways, at last its all about money.
also interesting….
Gabby Leibovich hints that corporate poachers are looming and he may soon sell Catch of the Day.
and these
"Gabby and Hezi Leibovich predict Catch of the Day's revenue - when added to projections of revenue for sister company Scoopon - could exceed $100 million this year"
"Mr Greenberg employs 120 people and claims 30 per cent growth every year. He won't reveal profits but says revenue is close to $100 million a year."
"He boasts the company sells an item every 14 seconds and that he once sold $1 million worth of Samsung TV's in an hour. He has 550,000 subscribers."Which bit is interesting?
- Why are Leibovich brothers selling CoTD?
- Who are the "corporate poachers"?
Hopefully not Harvey Norman :)
methinks 'corporate poachers' may be groupon?
It may be a bit of spin to promote the notion of 'Aussie battlers against the big faceless corporations'
Little chance Groupon would purchase anything from the Leibovich brothers (apart from a Domain name) lol.
@zhenjie
yeah dealextreme.com.au
for those of us who have been overseas and only just got back, could someone please fill us in as to what happened with CoTD?
I am looking back to try to find CoTD deals that have an enourmous amount of comments, to find some info, but no luck so far….
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/37156
was the last big flurry, as the mob misunderstood the deal and wanted a hangin…..
I don't understand the whole concept of using these kinds of venues for advertising, and then making the buyers unhappy.
Same way as I don't understand the whole concept of those restaurant food coupons, where people get a discount but then get some absolutely crap dining experience (or turned away).
Listing here is free, correct? So it's free advertising, and to a pretty big pool of consumers, correct?
I'd have thought that sensible retailers would use deals published here as loss-leaders as a REALLY cheap way of getting new clients. Why would you use that to publically give those buyers the sh1tz?
Not sure about COTD, but for Centrecom the lack of service, and how the rep vanished off the face of the earth means that hundreds of buyers won't use them. Why would a retailer choose to fall on their sword like that??