Herefords - LiveAuctions.tv - The National Sale

[Herefords.US]

Here is the text of an e-mail that I sent to 70+ people who are principals in the AHA, the National Sale Management, and the consignors of the cattle in this year's National Hereford Sale:

I am contacting you because you were listed as one of the principals and/or consignors in the recent 2010 National Hereford Sale at the National Western in Denver. By now, most of you have probably rapped up your participation in Denver and Fort Worth and returned home. I have waited to contact you in the hope that you now will have the time to fully consider my complaint and consider promoting a change in next year's event.

I want to inform you of my extreme annoyance when I attempted to register to view this event via the Internet on LiveAuctions.tv and was informed on that website that I would have to pay a "subscription fee" in order to see the event. Nowhere in the sale catalog did I see where a subscription fee would need to be paid to view this auction mentioned and I find this "hustling" of potential customers to not to be in the best interest of our Hereford breed or of your representation in this sale.

When a similar occurence happened last year, I informed liveauctions.tv directly of my concerns and disappointment through their web-site submission form, but I never received the courtesy of a reply from anyone in that company regarding those concerns. So this time I'm informing each of you directly!

Any process where a potential customer is required to pay an access fee up front in order to just view an auction event where they might potentially bid is just plain wrong! If any upfront fee is required, it is up to the sponsors and consignors to pay that fare - as a SERVICE to their potential customers.

I've been a participant in online Hereford auctions via liveauctions.tv since very early in their online existence and I have purchased a number of cattle through their service, including cattle from some of the consignors to this year's National Hereford Sale. I've been a good customer! But now liveauctions.tv is asking me for money upfront each year just to participate in some events like the National Western Hereford Sale.

I am strongly opposed to liveauctions.tv's subscription program, so I refuse to participate if I am forced to pay them up front just to watch - then maybe decide to bid. There are NOW other online auction services available that provide a superior broadcast and online experience to whatliveauctions.tv does and they do not require prepaid subscriptions to view their broadcasts. For next year I urge you to look for alternatives to broadcast the National Hereford Sale over the Internet and promote a change in the Internet broadcast provider.

Regards,

George Wooley

Herefords.US
2668 Redcedar Dr.
Little Elm, TX 75068
(972)668-0704(home)
(972)896-8361(cell)

E-mail Address:
[email protected]

Ranch location:
7830 CR 385
Dublin, TX 76446

I am asking for your help in getting this changed and I suspect I'm fighting a sizable "good-ole-boy" network. If you have any thoughts about this, I'd appreciate your input here...and if you're so inclined, I can give you the names and e-mail addresses of those you need to contact, so you won't have to go through the look-up process like I did.

George

 

[backhoeboogie]

Funny that I have driven right by your place a time or two. Didn't realize it until now.

 

[giftedcowboy]

I agree 100%...If I have to pay to bid on something I would rather give them the finger and take my money elsewhere.

 

[stockman12]

dittos. I won't be watching a few sales because of it. Maybe those auctions will charge a cover charge if you go in person..same thing.

 

[GRTiger85]

Im in dublin all the time. I agree, there is no reason what so ever why you should have to pay any sort of fee to bid online, much less just to view it.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I don't even like it that you need to register just to watch. If I had to pay I would never go back. Rather pay a long-distance bill for a phone bid.

 

[stockman12]

I've got two bulls for this year but will be in the market next year. So why would I pay a membership to watch, even though watching is part of my bull selection for next year. So if they don't want me watchin then I just very well won't watch next year with my checkbook open. Just what would it cost for a breeder to supply this to customers. It couldn't be very much. Even if it cost them a grand, that is a drop in the bucket. I bought a bull a year ago on liveauctions and I didn't even have it planned. If they require subs a sale like that will be lost. They might change their tune if they have bad weather and many bleacher seats open.

Do what you want, just as I will

 

[iowa hawkeyes]

good letter. Will be interested to see what kind of response you get.

 

[SaskHerf]

Good Letter George,

As a canadian i didn't have the pleasure of making the trip to denver but did make plans to stay home and watch the sale only to find the same thing as you. I didn't have plans to buy anything in particular but you never know when a guy gets the urge... i know they would have had to pay liveauctions to be there, but i wonder if they knew it would be by subscription only, maybe they did and got a cheaper fee for putting it on that way. not sure but bad decision either way and something needs to be changed in the future. Hope you get somewhere.

 

[jenran]

Good for you George for doing something about this. Last year I actually paid the fee .. and couldn't watch or hear half the sale anyway .. this year I wanted to watch too .. (stuck in the north with SaskHerf .. haha !) .. hoped to actually be AT the sale .. but when I couldn't make it I decided it wasn't worth paying Live Auctions to view something that I could hardly understand anyway !!!

I am sure that Live Auctions was well paid to broadcast the sale .. and .. even if you are not a Hereford Breeder .. or in the market to boy something from the sale .. it is exposure for the breed .. I would think that we would want as many people to view it as we could ???

Just my 2 cents ..

Jen

 

[CPL]

George, I'm glad you decided to send the letter, and I hope your message is well received.

Last year I paid the fee in order to watch as well, however, most sales had poor video quality and bad sound. I don't know if this has changed because I haven't watched a LiveAuctions sale in awhile, but at that time there were many better online services popping up that were actually concerned about the viewer.

Some say that the $50 fee is nothing because of features like the Lot One catalog and Sale Reports, but the catalog is nothing more than a bunch of advertisements with little information and the sale reports either never come or are incomplete.

 

[Maple Edge Herefords]

2/8/10

George,

Your letter relating to LiveAuctions and their "money-grabbin" fee hit the nail right on the head.

Last year, I had the same challenge (as others have written about getting connected to LiveAuctions for the NWSS Herreford sale) and I finally coughed up the $$ and paid their fee. The quality (audio, video and stats) of their NWSS broadcast, in my opinion, was worthless.

Other LiveAuctions broadcasts of Hereford sales that I have seen recently were just as bad. So, no more fee payments to LiveAuctions from me.

Again, great letter George and thanks for taking the time to write and send it !!

Dave
MAPLE EDGE HEREFORDS
Bloomfield, CT

 

[WichitaLineMan]

Wrapped.

Good letter, George. Keep us posted of any results. Pure silliness if you ask me.

 

[Herefords.US]

Wrapped.

Good letter, George. Keep us posted of any results. Pure silliness if you ask me.

:lol: Yeah, I don't know where that "w" went, it probably got dropped off in one of my copy and pastes and I didn't catch it, like the two words that have no space between them, WL. And here I thought I was PERFECT!

Here is what I can report - so far!

Amazingly, after the owner of liveauctions.tv found out that I sent this e-mail out, he actually found time to contact me via Facebook e-mail. Just a year late, but his excuse for that was that he was "trying to keep online auctions CHEAP!" *LOL* He defends his subscription program and has given me a number of excuses why his service is crappy and not up to the performance of the other services - the others have better Internet connections available in the locations that they service, their service is not secure....blah, blah, blah....

I haven't received any response from any of the AHA staff, yet. It surprises me that I haven't at least received a response from one of them that they received the e-mail. If I don't soon, I'm going to do a follow-up to all of those I haven't heard from. Sending the e-mail out to that many people might have tripped their "spam" filters.

I have received responses from several of the AHA Board members, who have promised me that they will look into this. But none of those were members who actually had consignments in the sale. I understand David Breiner is supposed to contact me about this, at some point.

I've only received a few responses from some of the consignors to the auction, but the few I've received have all been very supportive.

CPL, it is partly because of your experiences with liveauctions.tv that I decided to pursue this. I told some of the AHA Board members, in follow-up e-mails that allowing liveauctions.tv to collect $50 from Junior Breeders, like you, just to watch our National Sale, WITH the sanction of the AHA behind it, makes me a bit ashamed that I'm a member of the organization. As an organization, we ought to be doing everything we can to promote the interest of young people like you in Hereford cattle, not restricting it, and allowing liveauctions.tv to fund their business by holding our National Hereford sale hostage to their subscription fees should not be allowed.

I'll report more when I can! Again, I'd appreciate all the help I can get with this. I'm going to need it! Continue to post your thoughts here...and I'll be glad to provide anyone with the e-mail lists of the sale consignors, the AHA Board members and/or the AHA staff if you want them.

George

 

[stockman12]

There are a lot of peole out there that are disgusted with liveauctions, not just the ones who post here. Liveauctions, the AHA and the breeders need to wake up before they send a lot of buyers down the road. Expand your markets instead of contract them.
Like I said maybe these sellers could charge a covercharge to attend their sale...gotta pay for all those bleachers.

 

[WichitaLineMan]

And here I thought I was PERFECT!

You too?

 

[alexfarms]

I paid the $50 and watched the sale. I think it probably was the first Denver sale I ever watched. It wasn't great video, but it was alot better than my old dial up used to get. I think I had tried to watch sales previously and passed on paying the $50. I also understand the $50 is a 1 year subscription, not just a fee for that specific sale. But hey, free would be better and life like video would be better too...I guess I hadn't expected either one. Does anyone know if the CALGARY BULL SALE will be on any internet video sites? I think it is in early March.

 

[rocket2222]

Good luck George, I'm still in the dog house at the AHA about the letter I sent when they implemented the $100 service fee a few years back, they never forget. :lol: I did watch when I bought a bull there a couple years ago, but had someone I know bid on it for me who was there, because I knew my internet satellite connection sucks for live video, it was free back then, not sure I would have payed $50 to watch. Just a thought, but if there's more than one company doing the live shows, they're probably paying a fee ( out bidding their rivals ) to broadcast it, who are they paying for the right to broardcast it, they have to recoup that to stay in business, maybe they could run commercials.

 

[Baldie Maker]

i know this is off topic but does anyone have a link to the cowtown sale. I'd like to know how that c&m heifer went....

 

[Herefords.US]

i know this is off topic but does anyone have a link to the cowtown sale. I'd like to know how that c&m heifer went....

Only a little off topic, as I watched the Cowtown Sale on SuperiorLive.com and it DIDN'T cost me $50 to watch it!

I can't remember how much that heifer brought though!

George