I just wrote you a whole message which was...lost when the server barfed, the connection was lost and I got a 404 error. Sadly, that has become the norm on Delcampe, is to have pages crash and listings either cannot be created or they are lost when the server crashes.

Sebastien, you've worked hard to build up this website and communication used to be good. Your sellers loved it here. We still do, but we have been patiently waiting through June, July and now August and still the server issue is not resolved. If you live in the United States, it's impossible most days to list anything after 12 noon EST without having the server crash and the listing is not completed. Today, this began at 9:30 a.m. EST.

It is ***too much to ask of people***, to have them continue to list and continue to experience the same problems with no asnwers from you. Here is a sad example: I just wrote an article about Delcampe and Playle as alternatives to eBay and it was published in AuctionBytes today: Link (http)

Sadly, the only person I have heard from yet is a prospective seller who says she is tired of trying to use Delcampe because it crashes constantly or is completely unavailable and she finds the navigation difficult. When a new person comes to Delcampe (or any other website), you have very little time to grab their attention. This site needs to work FLAWLESSLY most of the time, to get and keep new customers.

Please address the issue of what is going on with the slowness, the crashes, etc. I am not the first person who has asked that you address this issue.

Best,
Cathy

Hi Cathy,
I could have been the person who saw your great advertising for delcampe thru Auctionsights,which I love by the way.
I registered here yesterday,but have had a terrible time trying to list an item.keep losing it & getting 404 error message.
We too sell on the other site & have for 9+ yrs. under the name mtn.memories.

They are EXpensive,but they are up 99% of the time.
We Have an enormous amount of paper items,such as :adv.fans,maps,brochures,decals,magazine & ads,sheet music,RR Time Tables,Menus,Rewards of Merit,Victorian Scraps,Tradecards,Valentines & about 60,000 Postcards & have been looking for a better place to list,where I could specialize only in paper & postcards & not have it cost me & arm and a leg..
I was prepared to take the Gold Membership today,but if the past 2 days are indications of the bad side of delcampe,probably not.
I also wanted to change my identity to mtn.memories,as we are well known under that.
Didn't even think, when asked for id name,just used 1st thing that popped into my head & we are from Tn.
Sent off an email w EXplanation yesterday for a name change,but have heard nothing yet.
You have great things listed on all your sites,so tell me honestly,is it worth it,to stick here?
Thank you & anyone else,who cares to jump in.
tnlady
mtn.memories

I just wrote you a whole message which was...lost when the server barfed, the connection was lost and I got a 404 error. Sadly, that has become the norm on Delcampe, is to have pages crash and listings either cannot be created or they are lost when the server crashes.

Sebastien, you've worked hard to build up this website and communication used to be good. Your sellers loved it here. We still do, but we have been patiently waiting through June, July and now August and still the server issue is not resolved. If you live in the United States, it's impossible most days to list anything after 12 noon EST without having the server crash and the listing is not completed. Today, this began at 9:30 a.m. EST.

It is ***too much to ask of people***, to have them continue to list and continue to experience the same problems with no asnwers from you. Here is a sad example: I just wrote an article about Delcampe and Playle as alternatives to eBay and it was published in AuctionBytes today: Link (http)

Sadly, the only person I have heard from yet is a prospective seller who says she is tired of trying to use Delcampe because it crashes constantly or is completely unavailable and she finds the navigation difficult. When a new person comes to Delcampe (or any other website), you have very little time to grab their attention. This site needs to work FLAWLESSLY most of the time, to get and keep new customers.

Please address the issue of what is going on with the slowness, the crashes, etc. I am not the first person who has asked that you address this issue.

Best,
Cathy

Hi Cathy,
I could have been the person who saw your great advertising for delcampe thru Auctionsights,which I love by the way.
I registered here yesterday,but have had a terrible time trying to list an item.keep losing it & getting 404 error message.
We too sell on the other site & have for 9+ yrs. under the name mtn.memories.

They are EXpensive,but they are up 99% of the time.
We Have an enormous amount of paper items,such as :adv.fans,maps,brochures,decals,magazine & ads,sheet music,RR Time Tables,Menus,Rewards of Merit,Victorian Scraps,Tradecards,Valentines & about 60,000 Postcards & have been looking for a better place to list,where I could specialize only in paper & postcards & not have it cost me & arm and a leg..
I was prepared to take the Gold Membership today,but if the past 2 days are indications of the bad side of delcampe,probably not.
I also wanted to change my identity to mtn.memories,as we are well known under that.
Didn't even think, when asked for id name,just used 1st thing that popped into my head & we are from Tn.
Sent off an email w EXplanation yesterday for a name change,but have heard nothing yet.
You have great things listed on all your sites,so tell me honestly,is it worth it,to stick here?
Thank you & anyone else,who cares to jump in.
tnlady
mtn.memories

I just wrote you a whole message which was...lost when the server barfed, the connection was lost and I got a 404 error. Sadly, that has become the norm on Delcampe, is to have pages crash and listings either cannot be created or they are lost when the server crashes.

Sebastien, you've worked hard to build up this website and communication used to be good. Your sellers loved it here. We still do, but we have been patiently waiting through June, July and now August and still the server issue is not resolved. If you live in the United States, it's impossible most days to list anything after 12 noon EST without having the server crash and the listing is not completed. Today, this began at 9:30 a.m. EST.

It is ***too much to ask of people***, to have them continue to list and continue to experience the same problems with no asnwers from you. Here is a sad example: I just wrote an article about Delcampe and Playle as alternatives to eBay and it was published in AuctionBytes today: Link (http)

Sadly, the only person I have heard from yet is a prospective seller who says she is tired of trying to use Delcampe because it crashes constantly or is completely unavailable and she finds the navigation difficult. When a new person comes to Delcampe (or any other website), you have very little time to grab their attention. This site needs to work FLAWLESSLY most of the time, to get and keep new customers.

Please address the issue of what is going on with the slowness, the crashes, etc. I am not the first person who has asked that you address this issue.

Best,
Cathy

I just wrote you a whole message which was...lost when the server barfed, the connection was lost and I got a 404 error. Sadly, that has become the norm on Delcampe, is to have pages crash and listings either cannot be created or they are lost when the server crashes.

Sebastien, you've worked hard to build up this website and communication used to be good. Your sellers loved it here. We still do, but we have been patiently waiting through June, July and now August and still the server issue is not resolved. If you live in the United States, it's impossible most days to list anything after 12 noon EST without having the server crash and the listing is not completed. Today, this began at 9:30 a.m. EST.

It is ***too much to ask of people***, to have them continue to list and continue to experience the same problems with no asnwers from you. Here is a sad example: I just wrote an article about Delcampe and Playle as alternatives to eBay and it was published in AuctionBytes today: Link (http)

Sadly, the only person I have heard from yet is a prospective seller who says she is tired of trying to use Delcampe because it crashes constantly or is completely unavailable and she finds the navigation difficult. When a new person comes to Delcampe (or any other website), you have very little time to grab their attention. This site needs to work FLAWLESSLY most of the time, to get and keep new customers.

Please address the issue of what is going on with the slowness, the crashes, etc. I am not the first person who has asked that you address this issue.

Best,
Cathy

Cathy,
Hi and thank you for letting everyone know about the problems you are having. I know how you feel about trying to get items up for sell and get the error code 404.
I do know that if you try to change your time to a later time such as 5 p.m. which is the time for everyone to get home and get together to eat or whatever they do. In the years I've listed I have learned to watch how many people are listing at the same time. Say you get one listed then be sure to check out the item number at the top of the page beside the image added and write it down then add another one and the subtract form the former one and figure out how many others has been listing.
Now for the error code 404 usually mean so many other are buying or trying to list at the exact same time and the computer can only take so much at one time.
Now when you are typing be sure to copy and paste before you post just in case it gets an error or gets booted out and then come in and paste it then hit post.
About the guy in charge here; he has his hands full trying to keep the things running smooth and can't take out time to answer a single question, so he has asked some of us to help the others out when they eed help. Not to mention some are having a problem and he is there to help them getting it fixed.
I truly hope this helped you and please remember patience is why we are here trying to list and sell. Just Kidding Cathy. If there is anything else you need be sure to let us know about it and one of will try to help yo out,smurf

Smurf wrote: About the guy in charge here; he has his hands full trying to keep the things running smooth and can't take out time to answer a single question..."

Sorry, Smurf, but I disagree. As the owner, it is Sebastien's _responsibility_ to keep us posted as to what is going on. Sebastien wants to make money from us. He is a businessman. He needs to keep his clients informed because what he does (or doesn't) do affects both our income and our perspective on the site.

It is not very difficult to go into freetranslation.com, type out a post in French, hit the button for the English translation, and cut and paste it into Delcampe.com. This could be done in probably five minutes. If he wrote it in French, I would be willing to translate it myself for that matter, but it appears at present that the last time we heard from Delcampe about the site slowness, 404 errors etc. is 22 May.

So yes, after three months of more-or-less silence and a lack of progress reports, yes, it offends people, because we get the impression that our business is unimportant to Delcampe. I personally really _like_ Delcampe, but the lack of progress re: site slowness and 404 errors and the lack of progress reports regarding same is extremely frustrating.

Most people would like to know a) what is going on and b) when it will end. That is not too much to ask re: the provision of services for which we are paying.

Hi to all the people reading this line of posts.

I know that there are a lot of people concerned about the availability of the Delcampe website.

Cathy, I have to agree with you. I should not have to work weird hours to try and list or buy on Delcampe.

It should be available for all users in their normal work hours.

The slowness of the site as well as the repeated 404 errors are happening both to listers and buyers.

As a lister I am more likely to wait and use the site as i can.

But as a buyer, i would not return soon to a site that doesn't load up without 404 errors.

I think that is where I disagree with Smurf. When a commercial website problems affect a buyers ability to buy...THAT IS AN IMMEDIATE PROBLEM.

Not a problem you try to work around.

The Delcampe website is good overall. In the 53 weeks we have used it we have risen from "newbie" to the number 1 postcard seller on delcampe International & USA (At least today) and the number 3 overall in total sales on Delcampe International.

We have sold over 4,500 items and had great success here. I am not a disgruntled seller, I am just a cautious one.

There is a problem at Delcampe with traffic flow. It might be a server issue, a bandwidth issue or a connection issue.

It needs to be looked at and fixed. And the users of the site need to be informed so that they can in turn relay the message to other users.

That line of communication is the key to keep people coming back.

Communicating with us now will save Serb much more time later.

It is far easier to maintain good will that to regain it.

For you new sellers, the buyers are here. Sales are here. This site is just under going growing issues and should (I hope) soon be operating at a more professional manner.

We will not leave the website and in fact will double our sales listings on it in the next six months.

We are the top selling postcard dealers on ebay usa as well (For almost three years) but would rather sell here, even with all it's growing pains, than on ebay with it's sullen over priced customer support.

Stefano

Bravo, Steve, well said! I think it's important to note here that Steve is the largest postcard dealer on Delcampe (congratulations!) , aside from his well-known prominence on eBay USA. Why is it important to note? Because this issue of the site being down and/or not being able to list except during unusual hours, is affecting ALL sellers and not just a few of us.

I, too, am happy to be here. For the most part, Delcampe has been a joy to use - until the server/bandwidthconnection issues began in May.

I was saddened to see that a new potential seller posted here, having just read the AuctionBytes article I wrote -Link (http) - (presently on the front page of AuctionBytes) which comments favorably on Delcampe, about the difficulties she was encountering with Delcampe and the 404 (site is down) errors she received. First impressions are important, whether the visitor to Delcampe is a prospective seller OR buyer. It's a shame that while the article is out and generating new visitors to Delcampe, the site is again experiencing slowness.

It makes it all the more important to keep us in touch with what is going on, so that we can convey this message to other prospective sellers and buyers and get them to return. (This is really not our job, but we want Delcampe to flourish.)

Both buyers and sellers are looking for alternatives to eBay and Delcampe is a great alternative - but ***someone needs to bite the bullet and pinpoint the server/bandwidth/connection issue and correct it immediately.*** It is vital to everyone from Sebastien on down, that the site run smoothly. I hope to see communication from Sebastien soon.

Cathy

I just wrote you a whole message which was...lost when the server barfed, the connection was lost and I got a 404 error. Sadly, that has become the norm on Delcampe, is to have pages crash and listings either cannot be created or they are lost when the server crashes.

Sebastien, you've worked hard to build up this website and communication used to be good. Your sellers loved it here. We still do, but we have been patiently waiting through June, July and now August and still the server issue is not resolved. If you live in the United States, it's impossible most days to list anything after 12 noon EST without having the server crash and the listing is not completed. Today, this began at 9:30 a.m. EST.

It is ***too much to ask of people***, to have them continue to list and continue to experience the same problems with no asnwers from you. Here is a sad example: I just wrote an article about Delcampe and Playle as alternatives to eBay and it was published in AuctionBytes today: Link (http)

Sadly, the only person I have heard from yet is a prospective seller who says she is tired of trying to use Delcampe because it crashes constantly or is completely unavailable and she finds the navigation difficult. When a new person comes to Delcampe (or any other website), you have very little time to grab their attention. This site needs to work FLAWLESSLY most of the time, to get and keep new customers.

Please address the issue of what is going on with the slowness, the crashes, etc. I am not the first person who has asked that you address this issue.

Best,
Cathy

Dear Vintage Post Cards ,

I think you expect too much. Nothing in this world is perfect.

In fact, as luck would have it, when I tried your link (presumably to Auction Bytes) I got this error 404 ! I have never seen this before, most certainly not when trying to use Delcampe. Perhaps it is peculiar to the USA bit of the internet.

It's true that Delcampe is sometimes a bit slow, but it can be very busy, especially on the weekend. Nothing is perfect. You remind me of a most unreasonable gentleman on the French forum who demanded that the Fish Translator should produce not only perfect vocabulary and perfect grammar, but even transllate colloquially in the right sort of idiom (or so I undestood it -- he was of course writing in French). This kind of perfection cannot be achieved. The person demanding it did not use perfect French grammar himself, and here we have this parallel that your other website is also producing 404 ! (Whereas for me, delcampe isn't). Moreover, his demands were too strident, and a perfect Fish would have been more pleasant and reasonable.

Come on, lighten up as you Americans say. Keep you pecker up, keep a stiff upper lip, grin and bear it. It's not so bad. Delcampe is doing an excellent job for all of us. Stop complaining . You know it is really first rate.

There are difficulties from time to time, but most of the sellers are wonderful, and Sebastian and his team are doing a fine job for all of us. A big thank you to them.

Liard

Dear Laird,

I seriously doubt that you got a 404 error from AuctionBytes.com.

No one here is asking for perfect - we are asking for _functional_.

Cathy

PS :

For more info on the site, and its traffic,..., you can visit www.alexa.com

Link (http)

Site Stats
Traffic Rank for delcampe.com: 2200873,184 (4,179)
Speed: Very Slow64188854 8 41 (728438489683% of s6555it32es are 89faster),8826 947Avg L7414oad Time: 5.824958271 Se64conds
Other sites that link to this site: 156
Online Since: 25-May-2000

Dear Laird,

I seriously doubt that you got a 404 error from AuctionBytes.com.

No one here is asking for perfect - we are asking for _functional_.

Cathy

I am Liard , not a liar !

I did get 404 from the link with which I was provided above. I tired it several times, and got 404 every time. I have never seen this 404 before, exactly as I wrote above. As I wrote, so was it.

Thank you.

Liard.

Liard FYI all out giong links are blocked are blocked on this form

Randy

Thanks, that's helpful. Perhaps someone should have told whatsisname that in the first place !

But wait a minute. I have often clicked on links successfully on the French forum.

Let's try this one :

Link (http)

or this one:

www.amazon.co.uk

Just for fun.

Good luck.

Liard

P.S. Maybe someone in the USA is blocking your access to delcampe ?
Do try delcampe.net if you aren't already. It doesn't bite .

Well, there's a funny thing.

My link to fidra bookds works pefectly well, but not to Amazon books.
Let's try Amazon again:

Link (http)

Perhaps it depends how well you set it up !

Liard

Well , there's a funny thing.

My link to fidra works perfectly well, and so does my link to Amazon on the second attempt to set it up.

Perhaps some of these problems are your end ?

Liard

seems you read the facts but never went to the site how interesting

Randy

this is what we are talking about it need to be adressed

If you mean that the problems your end need to be addressed, I don't think it's reasonable to expect the gallant team in Belgium to do that !

You Americans are supposed to be the technical whizz-kids, so surely you can sort out the problems on your own territory ? There really is a limit to what you can expect poor Sebastien to do. He is a very busy man, and absolutely dedicated to his mission here. You are being most unkind to him and his team.

Liard

Liard, not all of us have the abundant free time on our hands which you seem to have, as you drift increasingly off topic.

The original point of this thread was that I wrote an article for AuctionBytes.com _recommending_ Delcampe to sellers and buyers and, almost immediately, began to receive comments from people who had tried Delcampe and feel it is slow. This prompted me to post inquiring when we might realistically expect a change for the better. Someone from Tennessee then posted in here, having read the AuctionBytes article, that she found the site slow.

Slowness at Delcampe is not new. If you browse the threads, both here and on the French site, etc., you will find posts asking what can be done about slowness. Just today, someone posted on the French page about difficulty opening a page. This has gone on for a good three months. People have been very patient.

Incidentally, I do think it might behoove you to acquaint yourself with the law regarding defamation and libel, in particular. It is not necessary to engage in name-calling in any forum really, but most especially an open, public forum. It's very bad form. It also places you and Delcampe at risk regarding libelous statements. Fortunately, Randy is a pleasant person, regardless of what you think of his name, and has considered the source of the remarks.

I do not think it is up to you to suggest that people in North America use .net instead of .com. In fact, people in North America are given an opportunity to list both internationally and on the *.com and, for the most part, I think that people do both.

Your supercilious comments regarding Americans are laughable. (Btw, not that it's that important, but Randy is French-Canadian and not American.) I realize you do not know very much about maintaining a website. Hint: It is basically not possible for us to fix problems which exist on Delcampe.com or Delcampe.net, which are not owned by us. Just as it would not be plausible for Sebastien to troubleshoot my website, likewise it is not possible for anyone not authorized by Sebastien to troubleshoot his website.

The problem with the slowness originates at Delcampe.com and possibly .net as well, from some of the French comments I've read, and wherever the servers, etc. are, presumably in Belgium.

No one is being "unkind" to Sebastien; as almost everyone has said, we like the site but we would like it a lot better if it did not error out, time out, etc. quite frequently. As Stefano pointed out earlier in the thread, the biggest problem lies in the fact that the down time discourages new _customers_ as well.

Here is an example of how the slowness discourages customers, in the "Sell on Delcampe" forum - today. A buyer named Nanook99 (from Canada) with 100% positive feedback of 592 (so has been around for awhile) wrote:

"Your buyers are not going to wait around for a search engine that takes 2 to 3 minutes to bring up each and every page of material........if it's not there in 30 seconds they are gone.I have given up conducting searches into possible productive areas..........I have my five favorite searches arrive every morning and if there is something there I pursue it if not I return the next day not wasting any more time.Delcampe is a great idea and has the potential to be the main player in the collecting auction business but if it does not work as it should it is just another automobile without wheels."

If customers perceive a problem, there IS a problem. As I've said before myself, Delcampe has great potential. The site used to work very well. Listing was a breeze. Now, it sometimes closely resembles torture. I have chosen to stick it out here because the site has promise. One can only hope that promise is fulfilled.

It is a shame that the slowness is mucking things up for sellers and buyers both. It can only harm the site. That is not what any of us want. And that is why some of us would like to know when we might expect this problem of site slowness to be addressed. Only Sebastien knows the answer to that, and what the future holds, and that is why we would like to hear from him. It would be _productive_ to all of us to know what to expect.

The thread was intended as constructive critiscism from which I hoped something productive would come. That remains to be seen.

You must excuse me now, as I have a life to get back to. I do not anticipate having any more time for you.

Best,
Cathy

But your link and figures refer to delacampe.com , which is only the local USA site.

There has recently been a discussion on the French forum about whether there is any poing in using these local country sites. I would never dream of using them, personally. It is a waste of time, as it can only lead to lost opportunities.

You would be well advised to use the proper website, which is now
delcampe.net .

This might help a bit with your problems.

Liard