ReadySetAuction Software

ReadySetAuction has enabled us to raise money for significant growth projects at our school.

Pros

ReadySetAuction allowed me to lead a team of excellent high school students to complete our auction checkout very quickly, after only a couple of short training meetings (1 hr or less). Data entry also went very quickly and with minimal errors, thanks to good software design.

ReadySetAuction allows many people to share the load of data entry, check in and checkout. It is not 100% foolproof but has good safeguards. It has all the features I needed to manage and present our auction data and take payments. The instant email receipts are my favorite feature, because they are useful and look professional to our guests.

This system is very well designed and has been tested over years with many customers. We have had no serious problems in 3 years of use... no lost data or payments. Thankful for reliability!

For 3 years we used the Complete plan (paper bid sheets, self checkout option), and it has gone so well that we are hoping to upgrade to mobile bidding next year!

Cons

Event website design themes are limited and look a little dated. (Yet it's functional and we can't make it too ugly either, which I appreciate!)

Guests must create an account before purchasing tickets or even seeing ticket price options. We finally realized we need to put prices into the main text of our event website to shrink this barrier.

Both of these problems were true for us this year, but could be fixed before next year... a great thing about a web application!

Organizational improvement, improved event management and customer enjoyment. Would not do an auction again without it.

Pros

It provides a good overall framework for managing an auction. There are little things that can be and in fact are being done by their design staff to simplify processes which encourages me even more about using the software next year. The event showcase was great and the general organizational focus of the software was very helpful. I am sure with a year under our belts it will be even better next year! The Highly recommend to anyone!

Cons

When RSVPing, one sees guests as part of a party, so whatever name they are registered as (e.g. guest 1, etc.) it corresponds to a party. At checkout, you may only see "guest 1" and have to match things up on the fly. The display pages seemed to print upside down if using as a table tent. Essentially little things but not great problems.

Saved us time and money!

Pros

Just about EVERYTHING! My company switched from Greater Giving to ReadySetAuction this year for our Fall Festival and Silent Auction and what a difference did it make. RSA saved me so much time this year, all I had to do was put the correct information in and the software did everything else for me (no more days of having to type the same information 3 different times in 3 different places). This software is EXTREMELY user friendly, their customer service is top notch and the price is right. Another benefit for me was it's compatible with DonorPerfect! I would highly recommend this to anyone!

Cons

I really have no BIG complaints about this software. My only hiccup was that you can't have 2 packages with the same name (for instance, we do a silent auction of gift certificates and if you have 2 gift certificates for the same place and same amount but you want to separate them, you have to change the name of the second one slightly, even if that means just putting an extra space).

Made the entire organization of the event run smoother. Ease in reconciliation, integrity of guest information, totally painless check-out and closing out the event.

Pros

Guests registering online so that their contact information was entered by them. The receipt feature of the system is fantastic! They could send us notes on any dietary restrictions, request a specific table, etc. The management of the credit card transactions at check-in and especially at check-out was terrific! I was able to wrap up our event in less than a half day when typically it took several days to close-out. We received many compliments from our guests on the ease of check-out. Also liked the process for tracking donations and having the ability to package them into one single package with the automatic fair market value calculated. I was ready to step down (mostly because of the hectic check-out and reconciliation process) from my chair responsibilities after managing five previous Galas manually. I researched and found ReadySetAuction and said that I'd give it another year. I have to say, it almost made it fun. It certainly reduced my stress level!

Cons

I didn't like the fact that guests had to set-up an RSA account before they could even browse our event website. It would be nice if a guest could visit the website and make purchases without setting up an account if you're not going to use the mobile/online bidding feature. I don't know if this would limit the ability to store credit card information. If so, the requirement is worth it. I would also like to see more flexibility in the email communications to guests. It would be nice to be able to split payments at check-out rather than requiring that all purchases or total amount be charged to a single credit card. Many guests like to split a package or pay a portion by check and a portion by credit card. I would also like to have the ability to split a package between guests (eg. Trip for 8; be able to split it among four bidders rather than 1). Lastly, there is no way to issue a refund in RSA. Note with regard to SafeSave: When I inquired about the fees I was not told about the extra processing fees charged above the initial % per transaction and .30 processing fee. There is actually a .30 fee every time a guest saves a card in addition to the initial .30 transaction fee. For example: Bob purchases a ticket on line with a cc. +.30, Bob registers his credit card at the event (no purchase) +.30, Bob decides to use a different credit card at check out, +.30, etc., etc. This does increase the total credit card fees and should be disclosed.

I thought the software was great, with a few exceptions. Overall the customer support was amazing. I wish there was more flexibility and options in packaging pricing. I feel like if there were more options and price points available, it would improve.

Pros

Great customer service.

Cons

Not enough packaging options.

Advice to Others

I would recommend more packaging options.