Auction Software That is Actually Easy to Use!
December 07, 2022

Auction Software That is Actually Easy to Use!

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with OneCause

We use OneCause for special events ticketing and auction management. The main problems addressed by the product at our organization are: 1) offering of ticket sales and sponsorship packages at different price points; 2) silent auction bidding and auctions; 3) live auction promotions and publicity; 4) information management about the event itself; 5) easing the process of making online donations in honor of the special event.
  • Ticket set-up. Extremely easy to manage and change as needed.
  • Sales tax collection on eligible product/package sales.
  • Silent auction and bidding management
  • Day-of event registration and payment processing
  • Options to personalize the text descriptions used in the registration process. Some of the wording is confusing and there's no option to edit those text boxes.
  • The set-up for the silent auction options is not exactly the easiest to follow for new users. Having some concrete examples or use cases to consult when first setting up would be helpful.
  • It would be great to have a "check for errors" functionality when you're going through the auction set-up. For example, for some reason when our live auction was set up, two items didn't have "Apply Sales Tax" checked and so they got erroneously listed without the sales tax. Given that ALL the other items had sales tax applied, it seems like it should be easy to have something run in the background that flags potential errors for review.
  • Definitely saved us a fair amount of time in terms of individual ticket sales and managing guests on the back end. Did not save us that much time for sponsored tables as most of our guests did not purchase their sponsorships through the site.
  • OneCause doesn't seem to have a function for entering a "Reserve Value" for auction items--i.e., while it allows for a minimum bid, it doesn't allow for having a minimum sale value, which meant that a few of our auction items sold for far lower than their value, which was unfortunate.
  • Having the support package on the night of was critical for our organization, particularly as ALL of the full-time staff had very limited experience working with OneCause/Bidpal. Knowing that there were experts there to help liaise with the auctioneer and to troubleshoot with any guests experiencing issues was really essential.
Once you figure it out, you realize how easy it is to manage. I found that the various terminology used on the site (particularly for set-up) takes some getting used to, but once you've done it, it's way easier than other systems that I've used.
The service was absolutely wonderful-- we interacted with a number of staff in executing this event and using the platform and every single person was super helpful and willing to walk us through the most basic of steps.

Do you think OneCause delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with OneCause's feature set?

Yes

Did OneCause live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of OneCause go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy OneCause again?

Yes

Great for smaller organizations that really have to rely on a third-party system to help them manage special events, as they lack the permanent staff to handle all the ins and outs that accompany special event planning. Also really great for events that you know have a regular cadence and format to them and where you can duplicate the core content from one year to the next and then just update the copy/details as needed.