Comments on: Christian Braun on Clockworx going into administration

By: John Robertson

John Robertson — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:25:48 +0000

Re: location – agree with Christian; I found this thread by accident looking for London warehouses and the same factors apply more strongly to London drop-off points. I was a picker-up of a very useful printer from Action a couple of years ago, thanks to this firm!

Re: labels and eBay’s close-downs: this is part of the politician’s love of America and their need to copy its faults. In the US they only make such a fuss about trying to trade mark words like “McDonald”, “Nike” and the rest because nobody important makes anything any more; consumer goods come from China and services come from Hispanics while the urban poor just have to shoot each other for fun. It’s a dying gesture of a dying economy and recent falls in the dollar, pound, and Icelanding crown show just how much people have to concentrate on making things rather than labelling them and their rather nasty efforts to stop others doing the same.

When the UK government and eBay get sane about intellectual property, it sounds as though auction assistants can do a useful if hard-working job and save a lot of waste at the same time.

By: Mark S

Mark S — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:58:47 +0000

Chris , sorry to hear it didnt work out.
Mark in Norwich !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Christian Braun

Christian Braun — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:08:55 +0000

FranchisePick: Those “users” did use, the acquisition cost were just too high, I am sure somebody will eventually offer a solution that works and makes money – we did not

Amir: Sorry to hear that you might have made a loss

Dan: I call this a typical “no better post the fact” as well as “not knowing what you talk about” response – management invested a great deal of cash and time, we did not buy companies with cash (more the reverse) and transportation costs from the centre where the goods are, overall logistics networks, availability of experts and many other factors are important factors for a location decision, it is not just a price per square foot matter.

By: dan

dan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:34:56 +0000

auctioning4u, never had a chance to survive. as soon as money was invested in the company they take on warehousing in the most expensive place in the UK, London….why not the middle of linconshire or some other low cost area…its a mail order company so location is not important….why take on so much space 45,000 sq. ft. take what you need and expand on it as neccesary…why take on all of the staff….spend money buying other loss making companies in the same field….this is a typical “I have my hands in someone elses pocket so lets spend it and hope for the best”. to loose �4,000,000 of investers money in 2 years is at best iresponsible. It shows a complete lack of business skills. Just reading Christian’s response above shows that his business plan was flawed from day one, and the time running the business before he managed to get investors must have shown up these flaws. I don’t feel sorry for the investors in this company, they should have known better, I do feel for the people who lost money trading with this company.

By: trevor

trevor — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:56:18 +0000

The company went into liquidation some time ago. I think that your money will be lost.

Pricewaterhouse are the liquidators

By: Amir

Amir — Sun, 25 May 2008 08:59:53 +0000

Hi, I used auctioning4u before and I sold 4 items. I am due just over GBP 200 from them but they haven’t paid me (this was in Sept 2007). I have been trying to reach them but no-one seems contactable. Does anyone know how I can claim back my money? Thanks

By: FranchisePick

FranchisePick — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:32:47 +0000

CB says Consumer Acceptance In our experience there are principally two groups of users: those who don�t want to pay for a service they could provide themselves (even if more often then not do not follow through) and those who value their own time and therefore have no problem paying for services. The latter group however is time poor and/or cannot be bothered to bring their unwanted possessions in. The only attractive consumer segments are those that undergo a life changing event such as a move, relocation, death in the family or children leaving the house. Most of these are hard to market to; we found only the relocation market to be attractive � the target market is affluent, time poor prior to the move and everything has to go before leaving the country.
CB is basically saying “There are two groups of users, neither of which exist.” Isn’t it oxymoronic to call them “users” when they don’t “use”? I don’t think desperate rich people who are running late for their plane is a viable market segment. Why not just say: “We came up with a great solution, but unfortunately hadn’t checked to see if there was a problem.”?