With the dip in silver prices and most of the online retailers having delayed delivery on smaller silver items, ASEs, 1oz bars, 10oz bars and the like, I'm wondering how many orders will be cancelled. It seems that they all have restocking and cancellation fees, I wonder how much $$ that represents.
I refuse to do business with any company that has a restocking fee. That's a lot of malarkey. I'd also be very leery of a company that charges a cancellation fee. It's one thing if it was a small business with maybe one or two of the item in question. It's possible that they could miss out on selling it to another customer, but if it is a large company with dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of an item in stock, I seriously doubt that they would miss out on any sale. Chris
Good for you Chris, but I'm not writing about the people that do their homework and look at things in the big picture. I'm writing about the "instant gratification" crowd, or WIFM now people. I think there are a whole lot of them that jumped in lately, and am guessing they're jumping out just as fast. (I guess that means they never jumped?)
It's probably more like they jumped recently and then realized they weren't wearing a parachute. Chris
Well, for something like bullion, I would not begrudge a cancellation fee. Think of it this way, you place an order at $40. Now the market goes up, do you expect the company to honor the price? Of course you do, you consider it YOUR profit. Now the market goes down, do you expect the company to lower the price? Shouldn't it be YOUR loss as well? I just think whichever approach you believe is fair in a rising market should be fair in a declining one. If the time lag profit is yours, so should the loss. They cannot stop you from cancelling the order, but a "restocking fee" or "order cancellation" fee is a way for them to claw back that loss you are asking them to take. In this scenario I think they are justified, however if the market is unchanged and they still want to charge me that fee, I would stop doing business with them. Chris
Chris, I agree when a buyer simply wants to cancel because the spot price has fallen. At the same time, I find it objectionable if a seller reneges on an advertised price if the spot price has risen. But, claiming a cancellation or restocking fee in most ordinary situations is nothing more than extortion. Chris, too!
Well, please feel free to disagree vehemently on the next one! Dang, I didn't know I was a flamebaiter here, I will try to tone it down.
Maybe they should change the terminology and go with what banks use? The "lock in" rate? Or the lock in "spot price". This way they can always go back to the customer and say, "hey you purchased this at a locked in spot price of $$"
What you are saying then is that you refuse to do business with the likes of APMEX, Teletrade, and Heritage? APMEX: See the "Cancellation of Orders" about halfway down. Heritage: See page 3, Coins and Currency Term B Teletrade: See "7. Limited Return Policy"
This was my point I'm quite sure many have cancelled orders for the goods that they were told were not available until May 27th. I'm sure the thinking was the difference in loss of the cancellation will be less than the loss they'd take if they take delivery of the goods they paid $50 for when spot is now under $35. The other is the customer that decided to take the plunge after reading some of the extreme bulls and it tanked, so they decided PMs are not for them.
I think cancellation and restocking fees are very reasonable. If they didn't have them, then some people would take so much advantage of this, it would put the dealers out of business.
The people I'm happy for are the collectors who truly wanted the 5 coin - 5 oz set and P-Mint marked collector version, as a numismatic item. They were out there competing for these coins with the vest pocket investors and flippers. This decline in silver prices is having a cleansing affect on the market and is allowing the collector to buy into the program without added competition. By keeping these pieces out of reach, they will enhance their value in the long run. By the time the prices start to rebound, there will be none left for flippers and the like, to repurchase.
I believe the REAL reason teletrade has steep fees for cancellation and restocking is buyers remorse. I have noticed many times when comparing coins in TT's price history, that the same coin is up again for auction. I would bet that they get more returns than you expect. From a business stand point i can see this being very frustrating to them. It may be considered sight unseen buying since the coin is not in hand at the time of purchase, but i find it ridiculous that people would purchase "widgets" at auction in TPG plastic and return them when they had decent pics by which to approximate the coins look in hand. In fact if you purchase a gem coin in say an NGC holder and in your opinion it is over graded than your beef is with NGC, not teletrade.
Cancellation and restocking fees are no big deal. An order should be binding on both buyer and seller anyway.
Yes, it should and in a perfect world would be. You know as well as I though that if someone bought silver at $40 and it declined to $30 they would be looking at some way to "return" the goods to avoid the loss. This is a restocking fee I would not object to, to help the firm avoid this. However, if I order a coin not really subject to a bullion market and am truly unhappy with it, you can bet if they charge me a "restocking fee" that would be the last transaction I would ever have with them. Different markets, different reasons for "fees". For a traditional firm, I think they are our of line if they are dealing with goods the buyer cannot see in hand before the sale. Chris
