AST goes live w/ soft launch

[TurboLS]

Hey guys and gals,

We flipped the switch today from the development environment to the "live" one and encountered some unforeseen issues w/ express checkout on the site. But, we are trying to introduce folks to the concept.

We've produced this video to show how to post a tool to lend to others through Automotive Specialty Tool.

Post a Tool Tutorial

We are trying to build up the tools database with those tools which you'd like to lend and on which you'd like to make money...

Let us know what you think! We're working furiously to correct this Paypal issue, but we think you'll find the site quite intriguing!

Thanks!

[TurboLS]

So we did have our soft launch at SEMA and, of course, encountered hiccups... But, to our surprise, it wasn't our math with the checkout that was wrong... It was Paypal's newly implemented fee structure (as of August 10th, 2010). They no longer allow merchants to refund customers for free... This annoyed us a great deal and as such, we're working on alternative payment processing vendors that will keep the site as cheap as possible AND bring value to the service at that cost.

I should note that the site remains ABSOLUTELY FREE for lenders. You will never get charged a dime by us. We designed it this way to encourage folks to post tools up and build the P2P database.

We have a short tutorial video on how to post tools up located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49GS25EIRmw

We learned a lot at SEMA and also discovered there was even more interest than we thought. With that said, we do have a lot of work to do to incorporate requested changes, address concerns, etc.

We hope we can still depend on your input as potential users of the site as it develops.

Thanks a ton, guys and girls!

- Ramzi

[cheezthis]

Glad to hear SEMA helped you out!

[TurboLS]

Yeah.... what's more is that once we incorporate shipping into the site, we may be able to save you guys anywhere from 33 to 70% on shipping costs!! This makes shipping some heavier tools way more affordable. We hope to get that feature up early next year.

[coolhandluke]

Exciting stuff Ramzi.

[cheezthis]

I really wish this was around a year ago when I rebuilt a lot on the Integra. Let me know what else we (Expo/ITRCA) can do to help you out, Razmi.

[TurboLS]

Well I was shooting the idea around w/ Wes about raffling off a Novice driver spot in the race car or perhaps another donor vehicle... However, I ended up selling the stock GSR I had to pay for some SEMA expenses, so I dunno...

Essentially, what we need to do right now is tell people about the site and let them know that the can post their tools up and lend them out at NO CHARGE!

We're not like Ebay or Amazon in that we do not charge listing fees or memberships or anything like that...

We're not like craigslist in that I'd like to think we're a lot more organized.

In any case, I'm open to thoughts, suggestions, etc.

[cheezthis]

Well, for now, maybe we can get some banner ads going for you on here and itrexpo.com. We want to do that with all sponsors as a thanks for contributing to Expo. It sounds like it's time, or probably even overdue, on getting that process going. That can help get the word out somewhat. Does AST have a page on facebook?

[TurboLS]

Yes we do! Just go to our homepage and you can see links to all of our social media accounts in the top right corner of the page

[TurboLS]

AST social media listings:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Automotiv ... 6103350156

http://twitter.com/TurboLS

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/autom ... y-tool-llc

http://www.youtube.com/user/AutomotiveSpecialty

http://specialtytoolarama.blogspot.com/