l love the idea of free bids and cheap postage. Postage is the worst part. This week I had 3 items delivered with seperate cost for each item. If they were combined, postage would be more affordable kind regards Cheryl

Awesome idea - love it!

This sounds great and a great way for X5 to thank its members. Way to go X5

Its really nice to reward customers ....it does not happen every where as far as iv seen

"Developing A NEWS LINE at bottom of page. Means, every news happening, going on will be noted with a rotating line similar to HEADLINES on television. This is expected to help X5 member to keep update with any important changes." This would be great. Helps the unwary or 'the lazy' to at least briefly know what's new in x5. Just as long as it's not too much of a 'attention whore', it should be something that members would welcome, in my opinion. "Introducing FREE BIDS promotion in conjuction with $5 Postage category for limited time only. " oh my gosh! This would be excellent! Just today i was thinking 'if only there's a way to ONLY look at auction items with FREE admin fees! I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks that. "Introducing Watermark Login to improve security, reducing and protecting Member account from unauthorised access by third party. " I'm not too sure what's so special about Watermark, but if it can help secure our accounts. That'd be great. "Introducing Member Customer care and rewards program. Expected to give more care to X5 members with faster response which included email reply up to 1 AM in the morning. Upgrading from current cycle up to 5pm. " Hmm... I'm sure 'nocturnal' members would appreciate this very much, especially if they encounter a problem that they urgently want solved... especially when an auction item is about to end at night. =P "Taking off the LIVE HELP as it is reducing the stability load of X5 server bandwith that reflect to slow loading bidding page during peak time. " I've yet to use the LIVE HELP feature. So, it's fine by me. Not too sure about everyone else. I'd opt for more stability, than quick help, cause I can still seek help through email. "Introducing BUG REPORT link on every single page in order for customer to report any bug, error, slow loading page or any concern of any error." THat'd be super. I just hope this feature won't end up becoming another form of 'prank calling'.

All of your proposals sounds great. I really don't see much problems with any of them, really. The FREE BIDs promotion is DEFINITELY something I'd look forward to. I'd rather have that be available always, instead of just for a promotion period... like the '1c deal' category.

Keep up the good work X5 the members gift area is fantastic, its great to see you are listebing to your customers. Everything in this article sounds great except I don'y understnd the watermark login it would be great to hear more about this.

Yes removing LIVE HELP to improve stability is a good idea. System response seems to be improving slightly so any further improvement will also be welcomed.

Bug report may be useful as have noticed a few glitches, and didn't really know if I should report them.

Free bids promotion is a good idea to keep people interested in the site after the novelty wears off.

The suggested news line sounds feasible but could prove distractive & annoying after time, unless there is a way to disable it after reading the information. Free bids & $5 postage is certainly attractive to bidders and would provide added interest I don't understand a "watermark login" however if it added security it can only be an advantage Email reply time extended will be beneficial as many of the major bidding is in the evenings. Previously there was no way of receiving a reply if a query arises after 5 pm. I understand live help was not successful and could be removed, I never used it. The suggestion for a bug report is excellent, it will enable bidders to note a problem immediately it occurs and saves commiting to memory what you wanted to say at a later time & maybe even forgot. It is a positive move to keep X5 improving and learning from your mistakes and the input from your customers. Keep it up. Customers hopefully will respond with comments as it is in their own interests to see improvements.

thanks for this site it's so much better than those mobile phone ones sheesh couldn't you get into some trouble with them.......i have been waiting for something like this to come onto the net and now it's finally here. well done i think i am going to enjoy it here

I don't think the news line is required, there's a latest news page for this, plus I think it will just chew up more bandwith and slow the site down. Bug reporting is a good idea, it makes it easier than messaging and the having to write down the item numbers. I don't think I ever have used live help, so I won't miss that. Not sure what watermark login is? What I'm really looking forward to is having the site performance improved in the evenings, at the moment it is still VERY slow during peak times (although at least it hasn't frozen recently during bid submission - fingers crossed).

Sorry, but tonight I lost 3 auctions when 2 different sites said auction over. But it was still going. I give up It was fun, thanks and goodbye

Any improvement to stability is good. Have had some probs accessing the site during the day - a bit slow. I think it is great to ask the users for their input. Cheers

is there any puppies product available?

I just thought of a suggestion, which I find may help improve the online shopping experience... ..the ability to sort items according to the time remaining of the auction or remaining bids, etc. The first thing I wanted to do, when I first started, was find out what is ending real soon, but was disappointed when I couldn't sort the items according to the remaining time of the acution. Hopefully this suggestion will be considered in future development.

Oh... sorry... Forgot about this. on the note of bug report.... I did come across the strange bug, that there a notification for me that I have 1 auction item that is awaiting winning confirmation, but I have yet to win any items before then. And when I clicked on the link, it showed a page saying that I have not won anything yet. Just thought that might mean something to you.

my bro just referd me to x5...so far it looks great..am going shopping!

new lines sound great and cheap postage definately big attraction.keep coming up with brilliant ideas.cheers

Is it possible on the timed auctions bid page to show the finishing time and not just 'time to go'. It can be tricky sometimes working out when 17:46 hours from now is so that I can come back to the computer at the right time. I understand that there is potentially and issue with timezones, but time in the PC locale would work. Even if the real time popped up when you hover the mouse of the time remaining. On the bidding page 'time to go' is good and all that is needed.

On your My-X5 page the description that you have below your link for "View Purchase Orders" is not right. Reporting this here until you get a bug report mechanism set up.

Wow, somewhere that actually supports members and rewards them. Thank you.

Hi Guys. I think the News item on the home page is a great idea! it would help those of us who don't have much time to spend on the computer a quick rundown every time we log on. The free gift is also nice but I think there should be a bit more choice, as this weeks is a baby capsule and some of us either have grown up kids or no kids, so its not much use to us. The $5 postage idea would be a godsend as this is what usually costs me the most. But when does this start as there are no items listed today? All in all these ideas are good and would help customers. Keep up the good work. Susy

Good ideas are rare on here sometimes but it seems you have a handle on how to improve the site. I stil would prefer you lose the ET feature but it appears i'm in a minority on that one. Anything to help improve speed and give the users a better deal especially the $5.00 postage section as its quite a change from paying high Aust Post prices.

Your proposals sound good - especially if it will help load pages etc faster. If you haven't had any security breaches, I'm not sure if you need to use watermark - if it ain't broke, why fix it! The bug report is a good idea - especially if live help is going. Keep up the good work cheers

Dear Member Thank you for all the response. We are now working and developing one solution by one solution. In the next 48 hours we will be adding and implementing the category search, Ending Soon and much more functionality. There will be face lift on X5 search functionality. Please comment more as we grow via listening to you all. Thank you for all the support. Without your support X5 are unable to grow this far. X5 Admin

Should have a action catergory for beginners and beat the clock like a time bomb. Once time ends have a graphic display of the page burning or like a fire ball.

Just another problem with the 'old' search that I got to notice for a while now... The Advanced Search, the categories drop-down menu doesn't actually have any other categories listed in it. Once clicked, it shows a list of blanks (with only 'All Categories' at the top of the list). I've tried in Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, both shows the same results. And also, I got to notice that, for some odd reason, I can't see the adverts (the ads usually at the bottom of the page, or at the side, flashing/animated) in Firefox on my Vista laptop. It mentions that I require a flash player for some of the adverts. However, the ads load and displays normally on Internet Explorer as well.

Good work on the new rows that shows Featured Items and Ending Soon items. I like that it keeps changing to show whatever that is available. However, I do get the errors that, when a picture of an item appears (e.g. a projector), I clicked on it, and the page that appears is of another item (e.g. ipod, memory card). Then I noticed that, while the picture is constantly changing, the little yellow label that appears when you hover the mouse over the picture/'bid now' button is constantly the same.

X5 is the best site I've come across! Even better than Ebay! You're doing a great job cause you care about your customers and reward them. Also by keeping us informed of changes etc. Rather than just be in it for the money only and not taking into acount what people want and enjoy most. This is why you're doing well and will continue to! Thanks heaps! Keep up your Wonderful work for this site. You're bound to be very Sucessful.

Beat the bomb WHen times up it blows up the page rocks and burns or runs lines though the site just before it a man lights a fuse and the site burns from on side to another at the end it resets. Begineer actions are for people just joined in last say 6 months and give helps and tips how to bid. I'm only just getting to understand it now been a member for two months approx.

Update from X5 Admin We are working closely with local web designer to upgrade the look of X5. We also decided to work the gramatical error with qualified team member in making X5 Online Shopping a better place. In the next few weeks, we will be introducing few changes, update including X5 Credit Bank Account. In the meantime please take a moment to review the update on search engine, banner feature items that implemented in the last 24 hours. Thank you for all X5 Member support. X5 Admin

i love the idea of the special x5 gift auction to reward members and the bug report is great also !have lost a couple of auctions due to the ET feature as i haven't been able to stay and keep bidding that long so would prefer a fixed finishing time . I do like the $5 postage section ! thank you x5 !

I liked the concept until I had technical problems when bidding on high priced items. I could not access my bidding history as the link wouldn't open and so I had to bid "blind". Then as my bidding progressed, I got the green light and was notified that I had the lowest unique bid. At this point I stopped bidding as the auction was about to close. Then "auction closed" popped up and "you are not the winning bidder". This was very annoying as I had spent $36 on bids and would have proceeded further if I had been notified that I was no longer the winning bidder. It seems like a fast way of losing money for which you can end up with nothing! If these glitches are not rectified, I for one will no longer participate in auctions with bid fees.

Great news re the postage......that's often what causes me to "baulk" at some sites. The postage is often greater in cost that the item itself!! Good stuff :->)

Having a news line is great, it lets me see whats happening without having to read the whole story

how do you find the "real" auction end time? Just when I think I have the winning bid at closing, I find out that I did not win. It is frustrating.

perhaps something should be done about payment for credits via paypal? It seems like credit purchased is not updated immediately and quiet a few of my friends are experiencing this problem.

has anyone out there every had problems with international shipping? or know approx. how long it will take (to europe)to arrive?

Just seen the $5 postage. Very happy to see its also $5 for international postage. Well done X5. Thank you

The new search by closing time functionality is very helpful - thanks. However I do not like the "Featured Items" at the top of this list - they just seem to get in the way and take up too much screen real-estate - you always just have to scroll down past them to see the search results.

I like that you are finding ways to reward members. Big thumbs up. Your blogs are great too. I'm still reading through them all, but nothing beats keeping members up to date on whats going on. nice work!

Thanks so much for keeping us up to date with things and thanks for the credit into my account i really don't know why but i love it.

I'm new to X5. I'm yet to win anything but look forward to the day I do! I think you need to have a better testimonials section, as I am still abit wary about the site and would love to hear from people who have won and also just general experiences with the site.

An Update from X5 Admin Thank you for all value X5 members comments. We will be working on the paypal issue, and other critical issue. We are currently working to fix the search engine functionality and improve site stability. As we know, X5 has grown tremendously and we are working to cope with the grow. We will keep communicating with members along this blog and keep all the update as early as possible. Regarding the winning confirmation shown on the log on area, it due to cache that we implement to load your page faster. Due to using memory cache, it show your previous day cache that lead to previous winning notification. We are working around the clock to get this resolve. Thank you and we apologize for this inconvenience. X5 will keep improving site stability, customer support and customer care. Thank you for all the support. X5

I am another one who thinks the "featured items" at the top of the page are too distracting, the ones at the bottom are ok. Perhaps you could have them in a column at the side?

We all love gifts!! Great idea. Thanks so much X5!

This is very nice of you + a great idea. And the postage is completely reasonable.

All the changes you are making to the site sound really good to me, especially the bug report page. I got a message that told me I wasn't winning on an Auction item, so I made a bid only to find that the particular Auction had already closed, a wasted $1.00. Hopefully the changes will speed the page up as well. I have already noticed a slight improvement in loading speed. keep up the good work. From RabbitRob.

Wow, great site. Love it! Excellent concept and great to see that you are working with the customers to make the site even better.

i think this website is unique and better than ebay. i h avent won anything yet,but hope will win something g8t from x5

x 5 have g8t product, i hope it will grow to the prestige of ebay coz its our own aussie company. we should promote it by refering other people.

The "X5 Ending Soon" button is very useful and I have used it a lot since it has been implemented. Thanks

Noticed a small problem today - logged in fine, then after I do a search there is a message displayed saying "ALERT - you have 1 auction products which require winner confirmation" - but when I click on this message it says that there are no items I have won???

I posted a comment (27 Aug, 2008 - 17:22) about the 'All Categories' blank drop down menu list thing, as well as something about the 'flash player required' problem for my web browser... but I didn't get any form of reply or such... Hope to get some clarity about that. And regarding the search engine in this site, is it possible to add in another column in the search results? that is 'No. of Bids', like is present in the home page of X5? I'd like to be able to see what items I found are popular and what are 'under the radar'... I'm sure other users will be delighted by this feature as well. Thanks, X5.

great ideas x5,keep up the good work

Some feedback re the posted paypal problem comments - I have not had any hassles with this - as soon as I pay for new credits they show up in X5 and are working exactly as expected.

Hi, I agree with the BUG report as I have had a few suspicious activity notices come up from my spyware. Also when is the $5 postage coming in as this would be great. Also I think maybe a 'CLASSIFIED SECTION' would be a good idea as I won a full drum kit which I thought I had a buyer for but it fell through, now this has a RRP of $875.00 but I would be happy with $350 plus postage or pick up, and I have other items that I would be willing to sell cheaply to other X5 members without them having to bid on them. Could you please give some thought to this idea, as with all classified ads I would be willing to pay to advertise my goods on your website. Cheers Susy

sounds great i think these intitatives are what keep us your loyal custrmers

Hmm.. Another suggestion from me.. I've been having this craving to just see what new auctions had just come out (usually through search)... It's hard to remember what's new and what's old... Could help to know which auctions are new, or what items are new, and such.

Another item that would be nice to bid on is vouchers ie $500 for Dick smiths or Big W Chain.

Great Idea

We are currently looking at few issues to be resolved immediately. First cache, has been reported there are some bidder showing up win and not win. Please note, X5 has implementing a memory cache to every member in order for the page to load faster. Means your page transaction will be restored until tomorrow and get refresh every 24 hour. We will be working fasten the memory cache. To all members, it has become a trend that people make a last seconds of bids, please do keep refreshing the button and not relying on page to refresh the page as the bids can change anytime and any seconds. Thank you for the update and X5 Tech Team will keep posted for any changes. X5 Tech Team

ET 3 is good and enough for now. I dont think bid voucher except item is good... hmm... giving out more product is a must with more deals. Your site is rocking, the best ever found, better than ebay. I like it for some reason. Communicating with your buyers, asking them what to upgrade, very rare to find this nowadays, cyaaa keep it up guys.

I 've been enjoying this site, much more better than before. All new feature welcomed

Dear all members As per some comments, we are taking off the X5 Flash banner Feature items. This is to make the page load faster and more stable. In few moments, we will be implementing a new LOGO DIRECT Link to X5 Featured items and X5 NEW ITEM ARRIVAL. Instead of showing up all the items, we decided to go with members suggestion via taking off this flash banner that might slow down the website. Thank you to Mistresskate and other members that supporting progressive comments. X5 Admin

this website is is queit simpler and better other websites , especialyy compared to eabayy, e bay is having toom uchh ad min chargess , this website is awesome i recommend this to all aussiess................

just an idea...why not make a bidder counter on each bidding item,,this will allow bidders to know how many people are bidding or waiting to bid on the same item..thus we can make advance decisions of how much to bid further...like in real life...you are bidding on a table or a car auction...you can see how many people are around u bidding...the risk on x5 is a bit higher coz u might spend all ur $credit and lose da item at the end...so plz make something regarding this issue..thankx

another idea...one way to really make x5 the fastest auction online is to make a downloadable version of x5 program...which customers/bidders download and this program connects to x5 database thus the amount of transfer/download/upload would sharply decrease and the connection between bidders/x5 would sharply increase....check online currency trade/exchange websites for similar applications.

Important Update To all members, it has come to our attention that some members is expecting the Bid Page to AUTO RELOAD. At the moment, X5 do not implement this system due to several reasons. Every of your bid after bid been placed, if you need to know you are winning please refresh the page. If we implement Auto RELOAD, it will be more uncomfortable for most users, imagine your page is auto reload by itself every seconds and it will take more bandwith. We are working and finding other way to make your online shopping more enjoyable. We will keep you posted. X5 Admin

plz fix the postage issue...high cost with delayed/long delivery time is a bad combination for attracting customers.

The special gift is a great idea to enhance an already great site. One thing though about X5 is you can't pay via AMEX. It says you can via paymate but when you go there the option for credit cards does not include AMEX. Other than that great site.

Auto reload is a bad idea as it will be hard to bid if the pages keep changing. I usually keep a page open just for refresh its much quicker that way.

i think the bug report is a good idea. It seems alot of us have had the "you have won 1 item" when we have not won at all. And when i click on the "going going gone", it seems to make the time remaining disapear and i have NaNaNan were the time should be or some auctions will tell me Auction over when its actually still going.

Hi, I agree with the comment about auctioning off gift cards etc, but maybe you can approach these companys, eg - Myers, Coles, Woolies etc, with a proposal of an exchange of cash and prizes for your selves, in return for a bit of advertising for them. You would profit and so would we. Your company certainly derserves a big pat on the back as you always put the customer first. And if you can make a bit of extra money by advertising then you deserve it, also your membership is growing so you would reach more people. Just a few ideas to keep in mind. Cheers Susy

Am an ebayaholic and I much prefer your site,especially love the $5 postage and free bids. Cheers Jane

Thankyou for listening to the feedback in this blog and removing the X5 flash banner. The X5 Ending Soon search is very useful and easier to read now that the extra banner at the top has been removed. The flash banner was not that useful and had a few issues with sometimes displaying the wrong item info when you clicked on it. Cheers

I think auto reload is a terrible idea, there would be nothing worse than the page refreshing whilst you are typing your bids in - you would have to retype them and maybe lose the auction if it's near the end.

There is a small problem with the explanation text displayed for the 'View Purchase Orders' option. When you first log in, under the 'View Purchase Orders' heading there is an explanation "Change your personal details, contact details and security question / answer here" which is clearly the explanation for a different option. Keep up the good vork.

I hate 'Extra Time'. I don't think that it helps anyone. Snipers will wait to the last extra time to snipe regardless. I often see 1 bid going in in each 5 minute extra time just to extend it to the last one, when the majority of the bidding happens. I don't even think that it makes any difference to the total number of bids in an auction. If there has to be extra time, what about just one?

you should put more items....good feature especially the going gone...=)

I referred a friend using the Refer Friends option, and received a message from X5 saying that an email had been sent to my friend - but he never received the email.

Important Update Thank you for all the comments, below is updates from X5 from all your submission. 1. X5 flash banner was taken off 2. It has come to our attention with submission from new members for members to submit bid in the last minute to outbid many new users in a short time, this means ET function to allow people to have more bids has not been fully functional, we are working to resolve this solution as top priority. In the next blog, we will be putting this on discussion. 3. X5 Speed has been increased 70%. Today X5 Tech Team has successfully increase the X5 speed by 70%. We are working to improve the stability in the coming weeks. 4. Bid remaining. X5 has taken into proposal and will be developing hybrid system which will be introduced in few more weeks. That will turn Bid remaining auction to timed auctions. There is a good news for bidder has submit bid on this, as soon as bid remaining turning to Timed Auction, the price will be doubled. 5. Gift card or cash offer is not a good idea in our point of view, as X5 try to eliminate or stay away from gambling or online gambling. X5 is committed as Online shopping in a manner of purchasing goods. X5 has committed to provide a place to buy an items instead of a place to get cash, or matter of X5. 6.Number of bids on the auction, we are working to implement this in the future. 7. Auto reload is not possible for X5, as this will harm your bandwith, connection. X5 has updated REFRESH BUTTON to allow members to manually refresh the page with faster loading. 8. Amex can be accepted thru paymate and our paymate email is paymate@x5.com.au Regards X5 Admin

my bf refer this to me..have a good day

now we really can see X5 fantastic performance...speed and accurate environment for winning ...good luck t every one..i hope my luck increase now

I like the idea of x5 special gift, except they are all baby items that I don't need. Perhaps a variety of items would be good?

I am another one who doesn't like ET. Seems a bit pointless, it doesn't stop people getting outbid all it does is draw the auction out longer. What I have noticed, is that I no longer get the email telling me I have been outbid (when I was previously winning), which was very useful - although it did take a while to arrive. Perhaps you could have a similar message in our inbox? That way we would receive the notification instantly. Because people are bidding 100 bids at a time, you might never see that your bid was winning even if you are sitting and watching and refreshing the page constantly. Maybe not a message for every winning bid, just when you go from winning to losing show the last winning bid.

I also would love to see a category on the home page of newly listed items. I notice the amount of items changes and it takes forever to go through all the listings every day to see what's new. Perhaps you could have a link with "Today's new items" on the home page?

I agree with Basil Brush, i hate extra time, to many snipers out there. If we really need ET then surely 1 is enough.

auto reload is great idea but on if it works properly .i ussually leave page open and refresh as this is much faster.is there anyway possible u guys could let us know wen our items have been shipped,ie;maybe a note just where it says view shipping in our x5 accounts.cheers

well done with the speed - I can really notice a speed increase in the last day or so.

Well done on the products up for auction. New top brand products appear every day. Can't get enough of that lingerie. Keep it up.

Yes the number of bids displayed on the search would be useful - interesting to see what you come up with.

What ever you have done to boost speed has worked. All the pages from logging in to bidding are heaps quicker. I vote for speed and accuracy over fancy graphics any day.

Agree with you guys, ET 3 is still a bit too much. The auction seems never end :(( I think 1 ET is enough. Also sometimes when i bid, i often have problem reloading the page and had to click refresh a few times. The News line seems to be a good idea but I hope it would not slow down the page.

sweet thanks ill have to check out the special gifts :D

This is very generous.

Yes I too agree with Basil - the extra time doesn't really achieve what it was implemented for. It just means you have to monitor a single item for 15 or 20 minutes - and miss out on bidding on other closing items.

My computer is much faster now - your recent updates have vorked vonders. Thankyou kindly

Another suggestion which I think other people would find useful too, is to have an option (under User Information) for whether to receive email notifications for unsuccessful bids. I dont find these particularly useful as by the time you get them it is too late anyway. It would be nice to be able to turn these off if you want. Cheers

I agree with D letter it would help greatly when have placed a bid and knocked out(not winning)that you get an email to advise you so you put another bid on if you want to.

just joined the site and so far i love it what a great idea. Still checking the site fully but so far so good

I agree with Leanne (102) I've been wondering if this was possible. But it would be fantastic to get a email notifications to advise 1) When you are no longer the winning bidder of an item. 2) If one of your bids were not a winning bid but become one. And the option to turn off notifications.

I found this site by accident and enjoy bidding. Could you put up small applicances ie kettle toaster etc.

Just to clarify, my comment (101) was to have the option to turn off all bid email notifications if desired. I can see as a separate issue that people would find it useful to have the option to receive an email when they are outbidded on a particular item. Cheers

Keep up the good work:)

The option of combined postage would save buyers a lot of money

i noticae that in special category only baby thing and ipod are there...it woill be nice if we have more different items

hi...iam new..i notice there is too many product for baby car seat but not much of other electronic...please add more electronics in special gefit section...website is really fast unlike what my referal mate said (he said slow to reload).why if i wi

I am new and feel any new items will keep me coming back. I am finding the site a little hard to navigate. I seem to be searching for the basic info. and I came across this.. still haven't found the info Iam looking for.