Bonanza review: Unethical Business Practice 45

This site is functionally unstable for sellers. The support staff regularly harrass and delete posts by members who pay for the use of the site when they complain about this, or when they report issues with search, check-out, messaging and notification. Originally billing themselves as an alternative to ebay, they have adopted isolationist policies that limit what sellers are able to share with one another about malfunctions on the site. They do not disclose their sell-through or traffic stats and are nasty to members - paying customers - who have issues with the site's practices and malfunctions. Sales are slow, response is rude, and the seller forums are stalked by censors.

This post is dead-on! Unfortunately the site has spiraled downward and the lack of response to genuine concern is alarming. I have been "banned" from Bonanza.com. I was a regular seller and paying member there. Why was I banned? for commenting on other's blogs (outside of bonanza.com) agreeing with the author's viewpoint about the various issues with the site's poor functionality and a rude / immature staff member. I also made the mistake of commenting on another seller's forum post about the same checkout issues I was experiencing and asking about next steps, offering professioanl advice (as an ex-geek) to help resolve or troubleshoot said checkout issues which personally had cost me over a hundred dollars in sales in two days. This site is run by a group who has lost their - keep it simple - vision and can't code their way out of a pac man game.

@Main Street, @ yeshuazgirl we are sorry that you feel that way. We would be the first to agree with both of you that we are far from perfect. We receive many emails and feedback from our community about how we can improve and we truly do work on a daily basis to fulfill many of the reasonable requests we receive. Lets face it though, no matter how hard we try (or any other business for that matter), we are not going to be a good fit for everyone (except maybe Google because they rule and they are everywhere :) ). For whatever reason, or for many reasons as you note, Bonanza is no longer a good fit for you. Though we disagree with many of your comments above, we respect your opinions. Wherever you both decide to "hang your hats, " we wish you well. For all others we invite you to visit Bonanza.com and form your own opinion.

Cheers,
Mark Dorsey
Bonanza.com

This is not true! Bonanza.com is a great community. They are never rude and are ALWAYS helpful!

My complain is the items (cameos)you purchase and go through paypal as though they are accually there and your money is taken. Then only to find out there are no items available or partial if multiple items, afew, but which ones!. My first and last time on there doing business. I could not get a reply from them about the topic and they said they did not understand! Well, I speak good english! They do not want to hear it. I got my money back, I think it is pending in my banking acc. But, what about the hassel and upset of something you searched for hrs. and checking out. My time is worth money. also! It sucks and I am finished with places like that! Thanks, Winterlace

We are sorry for your experience. When you make a purchase online or offline, the experience should be the same. You should not have to jump through extra hoops or spend extra time to make a purchase online. It should be quick, courteous and meet all of your expectations. Sounds like this seller made it really difficult for you and we are sorry for that.

Sounds like you got your refund back so we do not need to address that. What we need to do is reach out to the seller and see if there is something that we need to address with them. We will be sure to do so. You should also leave appropriate feedback so that others will be aware of your experience with this seller. Just be sure to keep it professional and non attacking so that we will not have to remove it.

We hope that this one seller does not cast a shadow over the rest of the Bonanza community. The majority of sellers who sell on Bonanza offer a fine service and great products at a reasonable price.

Regards,
Mark Dorsey
Bonanza.com

Ok, Everythings great, except for my hassel and time. Not good! My time is worth money and this person did damage to bonanza.com because it was my first purchase, so I made it right under a hundred bucks. The next one would have been for alot more if this had worked out! But, unfortunatly it will be my last! Each seller is a representation of the company and I am sure he is not the only one. Its sad for all the good sellers and hard workers. Ok, now to other places for my complainst. I will NEVER shut-up about this because I stll want those cameos!

We understand and again apologize for your experience. In the case you change your mind in the future, we have over 11, 000 Cameos on Bonanza. Here is a shortened link for a specific Cameo search on Bonanza http://goo.gl/5Taua

I was about ready to open up a booth on Bonanza and was getting the word out by posting on forums, asking questions, etc. The people on Bonanza, (not necessarily the staff) are rude and 'stuck-up' and not helpful at all. I closed my booth immediately and will look elsewhere to sell my items. Not something I want to be a part of at all!

@crayzibeautyful, I am sorry that you did not have a good experience. I can tell you with confidence that your experience is the exception in our community. Bonanza is one of the most friendliest and helpful communities online. We work hard to foster a positive and constructive community. It would be very helpful to have the details of your experience, along with your user name, so we can have a closer look at this. You can send it to support@bonanza.com or if it is more simple for you, you can just post it here and that way we can get to the source of friction. We also hope that you do not let one or two persons cast a shadow over the entire Bonanza experience. Currently Bonanza has over 500, 000 users, most who are positive, constructive, friendly, and helpful.

@crayzibeautyful, I just had a closer look at this and found your forum post that you started. The only thing that we have found is what I stated above, positive, friendly, helpful and welcoming community members. Here is a link to your forum post: http://www.bonanza.com/forums/2/topics/165545

I am a seller there, and have been there for more than a year, had thousands of sales already.
Sold since booth opened: 1765 items, 4 sales per day on average.
You may think I am doing well, but I don't like this site now.
Look at the story below, if you meet some bad buyers, Bonz admins are not going to help, nor at least take time to read your emails. They just want your subscription fees & FVF !

Here is the story:
I just received a bad feedback comment from a buyer, saying he did not know item is coming from overseas, and have expected it arrived within 3 days.
When I looked into the listing, it did tell item location coming from aboard, and shipping time frame quoted ( 1-2 weeks ).
Eventually it arrives a week after, ( 6th working day ) he still left a bad feedback to complain.
I immediately reported this to Bonz tech, and a admin there " named Mark " says :
" Our decision is final to leave the feedback as is. We apologize that we are unable to do otherwise.
Mark
Bonanza " .

WYF ? Without giving a reason !

So does it mean everyone can complain a shipping time no matter it was written on ad or not ? Or should I be spending time on writing a ad in the future? And what for ?
If that's true, everyone must have negative feedback(S) received if they post internationally, and which was exactly Bonz started last week by expanding its sub URL to Germany, Canada, Mexico UK .. etc
Are you kidding ?

It seems Bonz does not even know a listing is a biding contract and need to be followed.
What the hell ? I spent time on writing a listing and you ignored that ?
Indeed EBay & eBid do better and would have removed that without my second request.

It is Sep 2011 and Bonz is still having so bad customer service. I even paid them the premium membership every month !
I should be leaving very soon.

I have accounts on all other sites, but I don't like to be treated that way !

@btdownloads, sorry you feel that way. Glad to hear that you are having success on Bonanza. Feedback that is retaliatory, dishonest, or attacking will be reviewed by admin and is grounds for removal. Any other feedback will most likely remain. We have received 20+ requests from you to remove feedback and most of the time we are able to due to the circumstances but in this case we could not because we did not feel that the buyer was being unreasonable. The buyer gave a true statement regarding their experience with you and future buyers should have access to that information. What might be a better way to approach this is to get to the source of why buyers are inclined to leave you negative feedback. If a buyer does not read the listing or does not pay attention to the shipping time, then it would be a good idea to make that more clear on your listings.

Mark Dorsey
Bonanza.com

First, I never had 20+ request at all.
It is the responsibility for seller to write info on listing, and buyer;s responsibility to read that. Why do you think such a complaint is " reasonable " while it is totally buyer's problem of expecting an item arrive within 3 working days ?
He knew its becuase of his mis-reading, and it is obviously a dishonest feedback because he is blaming a seller !
Also, why we had no problems with otehr buyers but only him ?
If you believe his comment is true, than all buyers left me a positive would be false!
Others alwyas write fast shipping on my comment, and one bad buyer did not read listing & wrote slow shipping, and you also consider it is right ? huh ?
a buyer mis-reading a listing is still consider reasonable ?
I should ask more people to help now !

@btdownloads, we understand that you are including this information (shipping) on your listings. Based on the amount of buyers who are leaving you feedback regarding the transit time, that would lead us to believe that not just one but many of your buyers are not seeing that. That is why we suggested that you move that information to the top of the listing so that your buyers will be able to base their purchase decision on the transit time that they are not seeing.

The precentage I had with non reading / picture shoppers buyers is 1-2 %, check the overall transactions I had and you will know.
Again, I had 1765 items sold, and i have not had even close to 17.6 bad feedback received ( which is 1% ).
and I believe every seller on internet had similar experience.
For you suggestion,
good idea, I can try that. But again, I can NOT guarantee everyone read text when buying. You never know how your next buyer behaves.
And it is your job, to remove such unwarranted feedback comments, to keep the site healthy.
But please remove this unwarranted comment now. Sellers on internet love good buyers, not picture shoppers.

P.S. is less than 1% of buyer's complaints still be considered as " many of your buyers " as you said ?
I thought having like 20%, 30% is more true to say so.

I had never heard of bonanza.com until I did a google search for children's fairy costumes. The one I want is through bonanza.com. So next, I did a google search for bonanza.com reviews. I was nervous about buying from this site to begin with since it was all new to me, and now I am a little more nervous after reading all these comments. I was a customer service manager for 7 years before I became a stay at home mom. Mark, I think maybe you could work on your approach with customers. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue to make the customer happy. Honestly, these seem like pretty simple complaints and instead of trying to fix the problem, you want to argue. I would be impressed if instead of trying to prove the customer wrong and you right, you sincerely apologized and did what you could to fix the problem. I'll go ahead and order the cute fairy costume I want and just hope I don't have any problems to complain about ;)

@Brookster, We are so glad that you did proceed with your order. You are 100% correct with some of the comments, I agree with you. There is no victory in proving your customer wrong, no matter the circumstances. I will be sure to keep this in mind in future communication. Thanks again and if you need further assistance, please do contact us at support@bonanza.com

How do I know if an item is still for sale

Mark,
I'm a 20k/mo seller selling on Ebay and have had it up to "you know where" lol I'm searching for a new site to sell on and researching differant sites. The reviews for Bonanza.com took my interests and I began researching, I come upon this site and see some "wonderful" comments.
Then I see responses from you Mark (I know your reading this). At first I thought how nice your looking up to see issues that are happening with your company and trying to correct them-everyone makes mistakes. Yet you simply agree with each one and say "bonanza.com isn't for everyone-good luck on your ventures". I see that in your responses. I read you explaining "why" your company did what you did, all out in the open for EVERYONE to read. Sure your explaining yourself and saving face for your companies image for people like me researching it. But this is what I hear as a researcher:
I come to the conclusion that the complaints about your company are true otherwise why would you even be here saving "face"? You do ABSOLUTELY nothing to fix the problems YOUR CUSTOMERS are telling you about your company! When someone tells me my feet stink...I say: Your out of your mind!, but when five people tell you your feet stink...I think: Well I didn't change my socks yesterday, I better go do that! Your not doing anything for your company by "arguing" with them.
I wonder why is he not fixing this? Your not able to look at your reflection and admit your having some issues, having this huge ego saying "my ca-ca doesn't stink" is going to cause you to crash and burn real quick! Sure you can have zillions of satisfied customers/sellers, but it's those few that are going to bring you down!
Why is it that bonanza.com is even in business? Because it's things like this that ebay did to it's few upset customers and sellers, now ebay might be the biggest and badest bad boy on the market right now, but look what happened to myspace when they did't give to it's members-facebook.
So far from what little I've used your site I love it's simple to use interface, features etc, your fee's are about half/third of ebays & caution me. I do not like these reviews or what I'm reading you say AT ALL! I'm going to do some more reviewing, but I'm taking EXTREME caution before I decide to use your site. Take a look in the mirror, try to "fix" your issues before you make a comment! And just fyi...your comments should only be: "Hi, I'm Mark with Bonanza.com and I apologize about your recent experience please feel free to contact me at 1800###-####, and i will do my best to take care of your concerns. Thank you for the feedback" plain simple to the point! If I had seen that I would have just signed up and transfered my 2k items to your site!
Lost customer for now.

This initial post and ones after, are completely DEAD ON TARGET about their (Bonanza)'s 'Little Hitler' organization. Run by a few thugs of elitist do-gooders who are so blanketed by mindlessness and pompous attitudes, that it reaks of the highest form of intolerance and shame. They critique and micro manage their forums and watch every single post that is placed there. EVERY ONE. All this as if its a chapter in 1984. They dont allow ANY constructive criticism, UNLESS it falls within the guidelines that have established, which is peace and love and tranquility amongst Bonanza users. Mind you, nearly every post I made, the vowels were removed and/or the post were wiped off and I was sent warnings. I never used horrible words or the like, until much later, and it was because it went against the grain that their site DOES have problems. They don't want new comers to see that.. They claim no dissent or bad moods, awwww, yeah it will affect the overall image of the site, which is what exactly? That after a year there with STELLAR Items, most if not all my sales were BUNK. Fake accounts, those CL flakers on bunk emails who never respond to multiple emails and/or invoices. You think the site, as convoluted as it, and as spastic as the info is on there, considering the traffic 'THEY DONT HAVE', would be more concerned with the amount of nonsense sales that go unpaid, rather than HIGH regard to censoring its users. Orwell/Grave/Rolling

This liaison of happiness, or whatever novel phrase he describes himself as, the co-founder I see upon further reading, a Mr. Mark Dorsey, is one of the most ignorant ### I have encountered in some time. Apparently he monitors the site like a hall monitor with gavel or cattle prodder in hand, quickly scolding those who speak ill will towards ANY topic. Remember the proximity police in The Island or of course, this excerpt from Orwell's masterpiece fits in nicely here: 'In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy.'

He claimed I was circumventing the fees that BONANZA survives on by asking people to pay via outside means, LOL. Well I did have alternative payment means listed in my auctions for a YEAR, and there was no issue. Had sites like serve.com (American Express online payments site_ listed and the amazing DWOLLA. It makes no sense if someone were to buy the item on Bonanza, since THAT IS WHERE IT WAS BLOODY LISTED, and said buyer used ANY means to pay, (some people sent me cash in the mail), how it would circumvent anything. Bonanza gets paid from the SALE of the item, not from the means used to make such a sale. If a person paid me with a DNA cheek swag, Bonanza would get paid. I wasn't selling it from a buyer who SAW it on Bonanza, THEN said, well just send me the 150 PP and we can call it even. WHAT? HUH? the fees are so low there I didnt even think about it twice, christ, I WAS HOPING for sales, wanted them, they never came. Circumvent? Talk about this dude stretching, and why did he do this, because the little girl got his panties in a bunch, read on.

Our friend Mark, was probably thinking he was dealing with a shutzpa, This HOLD (which is now a perm ban, WITHOUT an email saying so) was only AFTER I went on one of their forums where a girl was upset when she most likely got bilked after waiting ten days for a package. I said, responding to her in kind, [Quote] 'sad, but I am sure it happens all the time, especially here where the rules are lax. Anyone that cant provide a tracking number in 24 hours or the like, and have that item out of their respective hands no longer than 48', shouldn't be selling PERIOD.' Then I posted another post about how someone who said, 'give the buyer a chance, and consider the weather and the national holiday' Say WHAT? PLEASE... [Personally]: ok I shipped five items on Tuesday, five; the first class from Boston got to Sacramento in TWO days; the more expensive items, Priority, are at the destinations or pretty close to them for delivery tomorrow. Ok, three days tops and I am in Boston. In all my years selling online, I only have lost 1 package out of 100's, and that was to Mexico. So if you cant provide your buyer with a tracking number or a personal email (or if your a huge seller automated one), you shouldn't be selling and wasting other, genuine buyers time. That's it end of story...

All this aside now, mind you, after I posted this info, I got my Fourth warning on Bonanza and then this SS guard henchman went ahead and looked at my auctions IMMEDIATELY AFTER I sent him a nasty email, and then HE sent this, REMEMBER AFTER I told ABSOLUTE truths about waiting ten days or over for an item to arrive:

""""While reviewing your Bonanza.com account we noticed a violation of our user agreement, your circumvention of seller fees by directing buyers off site to pay directly via PayPal or via bank transfer resulting in us losing much needed fees. Bill and I have worked really hard building Bonanza (side by side with our community) and we continue to do so today. When you have a chance, go have a look at our What's New section (http://tinyurl.com/WhatIsNewOnBonanza) which is basically a programming diary of what Bill adds to the site. Bill updates that page each time we update Bonanza so it is an insiders view to what we are up to.

One of the cool things about Bonanza is that we do not have many rules. I guess you can say that we strive to have as few rules as possible. Our fee structure (http://tinyurl.com/BonanzaSellingFees) is set up to where a seller does not have to pay a fee until they sell an item. Sometimes we see sellers that are directing buyers to checkout outside of Bonanza. We would prefer to not have this happen if at all possible. In addition to taking away much needed fees from Bonanza, it will confuse buyers and could potentially foster fraudulent sellers to set up shop on Bonanza and do the same. Circumventing checkout and directing buyers outside of Bonanza is a direct violation of our user agreement and is grounds for permanent removal (suspension) from Bonanza. For your convenience, we offer three payment options, PayPal, Google Checkout, and Checkout by Amazon.

Your account will remain on hold until you respond with your confirmed understanding of our process and a firm commitment from you that you will immediately cease from directing buyers off of our site.""""""

Sadly, or maybe not, I responded with vehement anger towards this acerebral dolt and all my auctions were suspended and all the offers awaiting approval (which I had never seen most of these said orders [maybe the emails went to SPAM...oh but no because I would have seen the orders on my main page...oh we could go on and on with this site) WERE AXED. Scary as I have two buyers who successfully sent me PP payments from the site and what will they think now, oh dear oh dear Mr Happy Man, look watcha did. (their packages went out of course)

I received no email stating I was banned from the site. As you know it takes a long time to list all that stuff on there. But let me not digress, Go back if you will to Mr Happiness email, and then see what I am referring to when I say this to him:

"""""""""""Look at your own ignorance mark, ready, want an etch a sketch you said in the first paragraph:

(quote) ' your circumvention of seller fees by directing buyers off site to pay directly via PayPal or '

READY: Second to last paragraph you say: (QUOTE)

For your convenience, we offer three payment options, PayPal, Google Checkout, and Checkout by Amazon

So whats the issue Mark? I don't circumvent anything. People buy the items OFF your site, DUH, because well, ready, 1, 2, 3 that is where they are listed. Do you think someone sees the item with ****in smoke signals MARK, huh mark and then 'WOW I guess Ill go on Bonanza and see if its there'? Come on man, dont be a ### ok.
YOU are just angry because I POINTED OUT ABSOLUTE TRUTHS about people. It is the truth: 'DONT be a seller, if you cant provide tracking.' HOW DARE YOU GUT that post..."""""""

So to end this long winded post and I appreciate it if you are still with me, the person is right who started this threat. There is a nice air there at Bonanza when you arrive, a little too nice, like weirdsville nice, then you see its kind of like ebay for ###s. The people are overtly pleasant to the point of it being sketch comedy or even better disgustingly condescending. I once stayed at a really swank hotel in west hollywood, Petite Ermitage, really swank, top class, ya know, and they had this dude there called the 'Liaison of Happiness', and he was really one giant turd. They had him because so many people complained about their rude staff and horribly demeaning manager. It's just another way of saying 'Our ****up Fixer'

Originally poster 'mainstreet' went on to say: [QUOTE]: 'they have adopted isolationist policies that limit what sellers are able to share with one another about malfunctions on the site. They do not disclose their sell-through or traffic stats and are nasty to members...'

THAT ABOUT SUMS IT UP ENTIRELY and poster main street nails the coffin shut: [QUOTE] 'Sales are slow, response is rude, and the seller forums are stalked by censors.'

That my friends should be Bonanza.com new slogan, NOT, 'Everything but the ordinary'

LOL ^

I was only a seller for about 2 years, very lightweight, as I have another main website and business that I have run for 20 years. The very first time I have a customer dispute, which was essentially a "Buyer's Remorse" issue, they intervened, took the customer's side completely without ever hearing all the facts, and just pulled the plug on my shop with the statement "when you resolve this with the customer - we will get you going again" - so how does shutting my shop help this situation exactly? I was working on a settlement with the customer, which by all rights, I didn't really have to do. She special ordered an item, I bought and paid for it, then she cancelled right before I was ready to ship - total time less than 3 weeks from the date of the order. So I have to sit on the item, but still promised to refund her. It took longer than I had hoped. She went to Bonanzle, and they just shut me down. Little Hitlers is about the best description I've seen up there. Absolutely no respect for a seller that had been with them PROBLEM FREE for over 2 years. NOT A SELLER ADVOCATE. Do not put a lot of time into a Bonanza store, because they have no qualms at all about just pulling the rug right out from under your feet unless you kneel before them and submit to their will. You can have your own website, for next to nothing costwise, and nobody there to pull your plug without a trial. Contact me and I'll tell you how. I've been doing this for 20 years! Sellers rule!

Bonanza Is SCAM! Tricky trick to suspend an account by Bonanza

To you who want to buy item and sell items from or to Bonanza (bonanza.com), think twice!

This marketplace claim their website is alternative of eBay, iOffer, eCrated, eBid, etc and claim that this website is better than other. WTF!

This marketplace is ###, usually for seller. They don't protect the seller, even you give shipping detail to buyer, they still protect the buyer.

Let me share important information for you..

I have register 3 account on Bonanza, 2 account as seller and 1 account as buyer.

1 account as seller is suspended because there is bot/robot bonanza that make an offer to your item that you sell and then cancel it. It happend more than 10 times, so you get 10 emails. Bonanza claim that your account is againts terms and condition. It's very clear that it is robot.

1 account as buyer, they close it without confirmation and information before. When you try to login, it appear error. You forgot your password, they resend it but when you try to log in again, error happen, again!

My last account as seller, I put real credit card on that. A Buyer claim that item not yet received, NOT YET, not never received! But he is not patient and wants to get refund. I said, it is USPS.com responsibility, please call them to confirm why the package not yet arrive. But bonanza team (Angelica, Judy, Tom, Mark) didn't want to know. They protect seller, and deny my win win solution that I gave to him. They push me to refund the buyer money, immediately or they will suspend my account. Before that, they did remive all items that I sell on my bonanza (my booth).

After I refund buyer money, they suspend my account. They also charge my credit card for large amount. It should charge only $3, buy they charge more than it and they didn't refund my money. What the hell!

After that I submit ticket to restore my account, restore all item that they delete, but what I got? They suspend my account.

The case is same.. many bonanza bot/robot make an offer to item that I sell, but they cancel it. Bonanza claim that your account is againts terms and condition. I tell them that it's very clear that it is robot. As they know.. all items in my booth is zero, no one item that I can sell because bonanza delete it all, but why someone can make an offer and cancel it? I got more 10 email than show bonanza bot user made an offer and cancel it. It's impossible, since I have no item to sell.

And to cut conversation with someone who submit ticket to bonanza, they robot Judy will write

Hello
Our system recently notified us that a security issue is associated with your account(s).

We apologize that we are unable to provide further details in this matter or our actions. In our efforts to keep Bonanza the safest possible marketplace for our buyers and sellers to use, it is our mandate to be proactive in suspending accounts that have been associated in any way with site misconduct or possible security concerns, In matters like this, we choose to err on the side of caution due to our concerns for user safety.

It is our policy not to notify other users of our suspensions when possible. We strive to keep this matter as private as possible to preserve your reputation on Bonanza.

If you have any further questions, please see our terms of service, which provide complete details about our user policies, including our right to suspend an account at any time.

If you are interested in moving to another marketplace, we recommend ioffer.comor ecrater.com, both of which have strong monthly traffic and a good base of buyers and sellers. eBid.net is a good site for those who wish to deal in the auction format.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Kind regards
Bonanza support

Is this way by bonanza using bot/robot to suspend bonanza user account without explanation?

What the support ticket system for if they only have template to cut conversation like that? Not answering the question!?!

What kind of non professional marketplace that give suggestion to sell item to another seller?

I agreed with you whole heartedly about Bonanza. I was in the same situation as you. Just because someone bought 34 items from me and later cancelled, my account was permanently suspended because of security issue. Why is it that the seller is punished and not the buyer? Simply a ridiculous and low class site! I'd rather advertise at eBay for their high fee than to even have anything to do with Bonanza. Stupid reply and no real answers.

Bonanzamark, (I know your still reading these)
Looks like you took my hint...some of those socks are still dirty though! Tide with a little bleach will wash them out!
Cheers

I agree..
I had same experience just like you.
My account is suspended without notification and explanation. I pay extra to be gold member for a year and they suspend my account.
They steal my money, bonanza.com thief!

BONANZA STUPID REPLY AND NO REAL ANSWERS!

TL;DR ^

Mark, I hope you're reading some of these comments. I had a store long ago that I closed due to moving away for medical treatment. Any shipping issues from when I was quite ill were resolved satisfactorily. I now have staff working for my store, have a very successful eBay business, and went back to Bonanza. After entering credit card info and paying $$$ was immediately suspended with no explanation and given no opportunity to respond or appeal. This is nonsense. My newest hire has just been tasked with pursuing the matter with the Better Business Bureau and legal counsel. What a shame that Bonanza has come to this. As a totally legitimate seller with a glowing reputation, I didn't try to mask my identity. Bonanza staff long ago were aware that I was closing shop due to serious medical issues and had indicated they looked forward to having me back. Not so, apparently. As there is nowhere to appeal unjustified "immediate suspensions, " we are forced to pursue other routes.

We are sorry for the not so good experience you have had on our site. We are dedicated to doing our utmost to assist you in anyway that we can. If we can be of further assistance to you, please contact us at support@bonanza.com so we can properly assist.

Thanks,
Bonanza.com

I was about to lay out $2, 700.00 on a camera listed on this site. That is till I started reading all the negative reviews. It was a bit of a gamble to begin with as the seller had a 0 (zero) feedback, but I guess you have to start somewhere. I could have lived with the zero feedback but this site seems to have too many issues. As far as this Mark person goes... If your site is so great, they why the hell do you spend so much time on damage control ? Seriously, don't you have anything better to do with your time ? I cant recall Meg Whitman doing this while she was president and chief executive officer of eBay for 10 years. But then again, she was taking a company of 30 employees and $4 million in annual revenue to more than 15, 000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue in that 10 year period. There is the perfect business model for you Mr. Mark. So instead of acting like some little pinhead, and having a hissy-fit over anything negative said about your company, maybe you should focus on something more constructive and meaningful.
My guess is your company will still be small and insignificant, in the future just as it is now.

Would have to agree with the Bonanza Seller. We've been on their site for 4 months, never had a customer complaint, had about 700 products listed. Then this Sunday got an email from Mark stating we needed to pay for free that were not due and we had to update our credit card information. Trying to be a responsible seller we went into our Bonanza Seller account and paid for the fees immediately upon when they were asking for them. The second we paid them, we went back to Bonanza to add more items and found that all 700 items were not longer being made avaiable. They placed it on what they call a "reserve" awaiting adminstrative review. They claim to have it resolved in 24 hours, but its been 4 days and they have been giving us the BS runaround. Updated to a card tht we knew was valid and then they come back and say that my credit card company blocked them from trying to chargeback my account. This was a bunch of ### made by Bonanza, when it was the same credit card I justed used to pay for the feeds the other day and for 4 months straight. Then they respond back with the same exact email word for word the first time. So we right in a 6th time since Sunday, and all the support representatives blew us off, saying it had to go to this rep and then it had to go to that rep. They were trying to charge my credit card again for something that wasnt even owed. My Bonaza account was paid in full and they were still trying to charge my account for who knows what.

All we know is that we've had it with this crap and have gone elsewhere. We'll be filing fraud charges against Bonaza since our corporate headquarters is also in Washington and we'll be contacting the attorney generals office.

I find this site easy to use. Find it stable. Find that the customer support time is superb. I can't complain about this site. There is good people on this site selling merchandise and they are doing well. Perhaps some of you had one bad experience but does that mean you have to damn the entire group of sellers and site?

Magster2013,

Simply because this topic is for sellers/buyers complain against the site, thats what we called complaint board.
While some individual buyers do NOT even know it is a marketplace and posted here to file a certain seller.

They simply don't know the differences between Walmart and eBay :(

They probably thought Bonanza is a person name selling stuff online...
Scroll up I LOL-ed

@Magster...Actually, I think those of you who are doing well are only doing well because you help Mark play cheerleader. Yes, I've seen you post your rah-rahs on other complaint boards or wherever you find a bad review of Bonanza.

There are many long-time sellers who have left or are wanting to leave because of all the problems and you call it a stable site? Even long-time sellers who were doing well have left because they realize they're just being used for their listings so the company can make money from referral ads while their sellers suffer.

When a marketplace starts making it impossible for its sellers to sell by hiding their listings from search engines, wiping out their traits so they're not picked up in internal searches just so they can encourage shoppers to click on an Amazon referral ad, messing up their Google feeds and blaming it on Google, etc., it's time to move on to greener pastures.

Then, a seller hides all of their listings or closes their booth and moves on, only to find that there are now dead links on Google for their items that are no longer listed on Bonanza when they WEREN'T there before when they were still TRYING to sell there. All to compete with the seller's live listings elsewhere using the seller's own copyright protected material just so Bonanza can lure the seller's customers away from their live listings to a page full of Amazon referral ads.

Bonanza is worse than a scam -- they're breaking federal trade and antitrust laws, which would make them felons. They care nothing for their sellers -- only the listings that give them another page to post referral ads on, whether the item has sold, was deleted, or was put on reserve. They had the sellers build up their site just so they could use their listings to become a referral site.

It's no wonder they never wanted to spend any money on advertising, because they never intended for their sellers to do well. They were just concerned with putting every penny in their own pocket and looking for ways to make even more money off of sellers' listings that sit there for years. When a sellers gets wise to their ways and vocal about it, they harass them, hide their listings from search engines (until the seller puts them on reserve), and even shut down their booths for no reason.

I'm glad to see some of the objective opinions about Mark posted here. He's really showing his true colors and it's being picked up on by people who haven't had the misfortune of personally dealing with the so-called Director of Happiness. His attitude reflects everything that is wrong with Bonanza and I will never sell there again.

I also find Bonanza.com a stable site and it is fun to shop and sell on. Anyone who visits the site can see that it is a top notch alternative to eBay.

DolphinLady's comments crack me up, lol. I am pretty sure that Bonanza is a private business and in their user agreement it clearly states that they can choose to do business with whomever they like (Just like you can choose who you do business with). Quite frankly, if I had someone enter my business and start rattling off, threatening lawsuits, telling me how to run my business, etc, I would boot them out of my shop too. Who do you think you are to tell them how they can run their business? If you do not like how they operate their business then find another business to patronize, It's as simple as that. Yet you spend time writing a thesis filled with conspiracy theories and have a mission to post them everywhere on the net. The people who run Bonanza must have some degree of smarts because from what I have read, marketplaces do not easily succeed (remember Yardsellr who got 5 million?). So while it is easy to create conspiracy theories on ones business, until you have hard access to information that they do and you are able to see what they see, anything you say is your opinion and should be viewed just as that, your opinion and nothing more.

I don't believe, just because a few have had a bad experience, this is a bad site. There is no pleasing some. I'm new to bonanza, but so far, everyone has been helpful. I'm looking forward to selling on Bonanza.

I just had them remove all of my listings on my seller account because they linked me to another account that still owed them $7 in fees. I have never heard of this other account and tried to tell them this but they were not hearing it. They even refunded my gold membership fees minus the $7 from the other account. What a scam, this is theft and I already am in the process of filing a BBB dispute and if that does not take care of it the next step will be small claims court. I don't care if I have to pay a $25 filing fee as long as companies like this don't get away with being immoral. I have posted the response from Mark which im guessing is the only employee of the site.

Mark, Jun 10 14:10:

What a bummer. The last thing we want to do is lose a customer but on the same hand we cannot afford to have users abandon accounts that have balances and then open new accounts. We understand that it may not be you directly (per your statement) but it was someone who had access to you computer. In any case, we have issued a refund of your membership (per your request) minus the $ 7.00 seller fees from the other account (receipt below). We have also removed the membership from your account.

So the account no longer has an overdue amount. The other account will remain on hold until the reinstatement fee is paid. We can reactivate this account for you, just let us know if that is what you would like.

Regards,
Mark
The Bonanza Team

How ridiculous is that look he even admits that even if its not me directly they feel they can still do this. So if someone else logs into their Bonanza account from your IP and owes Bonanaza money be careful because they will try to put those fees on you.

My first dealing with this site, will ultimately be my last. Wish I would have read the reviews before I went on to purchase. The company I dealt with was to send 100ct bottle and only sent 30ct bottle. Normally I would think this is just an honest mistake BUT after reviewing my order I noticed the tag line did not indicate the amount of the bottle count. So before even placing my order I sent the seller a message (THROUGH BONANZA) Making sure it was in fact the 100ct bottle that was for sale. Was assured it so went ahead and purchased. What I do I get in the mail? 30ct bottle. I immediately put in a dispute with Bonanza and waited. Nothing after 5 days so I put in a dispute with Paypal. 30 days after my sale Bonanza finally sends me an email telling me, to contact PAYPAL for resolution. They never even offered to help and it is their company. USER BEWARE! The sellers on this site must know they will not be harmed for duping customers so why not do it.

I make about 6, 000 sales on ebay and about 3, 000 on amazon every month. I listed 8, 000 items on bonanza, spent about $2, 000 paying for some extra help and have a nice store on Bonanza. First, I had to paid for a pro membership because they were hiding my items from their searching engine. Later, that " Bonanza Mark" emailed me saying I had too many items on my booth and I was required to upgrade to their $300.00 monthly membership, otherwise, I would be suspended immediately. I told him I didn't think $300.00 was worth on bonanza since I was not making that many sales. I refused to pay $300.00 a month plus seller fees so Mark suspended one booth. At that time, we had two booths on Bonanza. A customer filled a case through the resolution center, I never got any notification about that specific case. One day, one of my employees tried to add more items when he find out our booth was on Hold. I emailed the customer ( I had to use his paypal email address ) and apologized for any inconvenience cause and we would send him the item for free and he would be getting a full refund. I even sent the customer a thank you note with a $25.00 start bucks card. For my surprise, that customer told me he never filed any case against me so who filled it then? Answer : Bonanza Bonanza resolution center is a joke, I refunded the customer, and I had to email Bonanza support asking why the case was still open ? They accused me of lying and saying I didn't have any intentions of refunding the customer. three days later, I send them a screen shot with the refund information. hahaha Bonanza Judy didn't beleive me again and wanted to have access to my paypal account. Omg I guess she was really high that day, there is not way, I will provide my paypal email address and password to a random person ( my PP had about $14, 000 at that time) They didn't want to close the case for two weeks and my account was suspended. After my account was suspended they charged me $98.00 on each card ( each booth had to different credit cards) I sent a email to support@bonanza.com and it went unanswered. I see mark is always saying email us attttt blah blah @bs.asss but they don't care. I had to file a complaint with my credit card issuer and a few weeks later, I got my money back .

Bonanza runs illegal business practices. People talk crap about ebay but they provide sales every day.

Another good site is Ioffer, they have a decent traffic every month as well and their fees are low. Customer service is not bad at all.

Thank you for reading my review, hope it helps. Do not waste your time and money on Bonanza. Worthless site for selling your items.

David