Experience with Roma Numismatics?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Pavlos, Jan 21, 2019.

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  1. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Pavlos, I'm currently having an unsettling experience with Roma Numismatics too. After winning a coin in their last E-Sale 52, I paid for the coin via PayPal & after five days got no response. I sent them another e-mail inquiring about the payment & they said they didn't receive anything & asked for proof of payment. I did send them a copy of the PayPal receipt & they responded by saying they did locate the payment with no explanation, that was 5 days ago. After receiving no info on shipping or tracking number I sent them another e-mail this morning requesting that info. Hopefully we haven't been duped.....
     
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  3. Fugio1

    Fugio1 Well-Known Member

    I agree completely. If anything, CNG undergrades its offerings. Although they have ventured into the "FDC" description realm a few times they tend to use "Superb EF" for the highest quality.

    I agree to some extent, but rarely do online images tell the whole story, and there is some need to consider the condition description of the dealer, and at the same time considering the reputation of the dealer.
     
    panzerman likes this.
  4. Pavlos

    Pavlos You pick out the big men. I'll make them brave!

    The worst of all is that Richard, the director of Roma itself, sent that quote to me.

    I had exactly the same issue, they said they didn't receive my payment, and when I showed them the proof of payment they said that they located the payment and had to manually verify it.

    I sent them an e-mail before about when my coins will be shipped, I got a response from the Customer Service Representative today saying:

    "You will be emailed a confirmation of your tracking number, once your package has been shipped out of our office. We’ll be aiming to ship all remaining packages today, and it should arrive within the next 3 to 5 working days."

    So let's hope our coins will be shipped today and we both receive our tracking number.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2019
  5. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

    I've not had any bad experience with Roma, but Agora is another matter all together. I won a bid there a few months ago. I received an invoice and paid forthwith. After waiting for nearly two weeks, I made an inquiry regarding when my coin would be shipped. Another week went by without response, so I made another polite inquiry. This time, they responded that they would refund my money seeing as how that coin was not suppose to be auctioned in the first place. Whaaat? So after writing two more times within two weeks asking about the return of my payment, they finally posted a refund. I won't say that I will never deal with them again, but I'm not so disposed as of right now. Perhaps in the future......maybe!
     
    Nicholas Molinari likes this.
  6. IdesOfMarch01

    IdesOfMarch01 Well-Known Member

    It's true that online images might not represent the coin as accurately as examining it in hand would, but in these cases I haven't found that the auction house's grading/condition provides any more useful information since, let's be candid, it's just the auction house's opinion of G/F/VF/EF, and not necessarily of those factors that will influence your own evaluation of the coin.
     
  7. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    I know one thing, I only ever have had one bank draft that went MIA. It was sent to Roma. After 3 weeks, they sent me a very polite e-mail, asking if I had sent payment 2500UK Pounds. I then replied yes, 3 weeks ago, even sent scan of bank draft. They then sent me another letter 2 weeks later, that the letter must have gotten lost. Long story short, I got my bank to replace draft, and sent it registered to Roma. In 14 days, they said they received funds and would send coin. I got my coin 12 days later, all ended well:happy:
     
  8. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    ;)?????
     
  9. Pavlos

    Pavlos You pick out the big men. I'll make them brave!

    Just saw that comment as well. Did a moderator delete it?
     
  10. DeLaFe

    DeLaFe Active Member

    Can you email me with your invoice number or name and I can look into it?
    I am one of the owners of Agora. I very rarely check this site, so please email me at alfred@agoraauctions.com

    Best,

    Alfred

     
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  11. jamesicus

    jamesicus Well-Known Member

    I wholeheartedly agree!
     
    panzerman, TIF and Orfew like this.
  12. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I feel sorry for those here who are so addicted to buying every coin that comes to market that they feel obligated to throw money at people who provide no service, lie about their material, sell fakes and treat customers like trash. You will not be likely to put these scam artists out of business by yourself but you might just enjoy the hobby more if you patronize dealers who would rather have your business than that of money launderers who do not really care whether they get the coins or not. The first time you have a problem with a seller might require a little compassion but, when you see a pattern as laid out in this thread, ask yourself if you really want to encourage such shenanigans by being a sucker over and over again. I have a short list of dealers I will never again touch and more that I have considered friends who add to my enjoyment of the coins. I do not have more money to spend than can be covered by honest and reputable sources. If you have surplus money to throw at known problem sellers, consider, instead, giving it to charity (preferably an honest one that will put it to good use).
     
    svessien, PeteB, randygeki and 6 others like this.
  13. PMONNEY

    PMONNEY Flaminivs

    I, personally, only had good experiences to report !
     
  14. PMONNEY

    PMONNEY Flaminivs

    I peronally only have good experiences to report !
     
  15. Pavlos

    Pavlos You pick out the big men. I'll make them brave!

    Anything back from them so far? It has been a week since I have paid and still I have received no shipment confirmation or tracking number, it's unbelievable. For me it is even an European shipment, no customs papers have to be attached or anything.
     
  16. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Pavlos, No one at Roma Numismatics responded to the e-mail I sent them yesterday at 08:27 am Eastern time. I feel my blood pressure is going up :arghh:. I'll give them another 24 hr. & if I still hear nothing from them I'll contact PayPal.
     
  17. Gavin Richardson

    Gavin Richardson Well-Known Member

    Ugh. I categorize these responses as "weasel apologies," or non-apologies, such as, "I'm sorry you were offended," as if your hypersensitivity, not their error or offense, is really the problem here. It's the customer service equivalent of gaslighting.

    I want to tell such people that if they don't feel they have erred, then say so. If they have erred, then apologize for the action. The worst thing to do is to imply that the customer is the self-important one, as opposed to taking the L and acknowledging that they missed the mark with respect to their customer service goals this time.
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2019
  18. Rich Beale

    Rich Beale Well-Known Member

    For the benefit of transparency, the full text of my interaction with username Pavlos was:

    "Dear Roma Numismatics,

    This is my first time participating at an auction from Roma numismatics and never I have sent so many e-mails to an auction house before while I purchased many and many times from other auction houses. I am getting really unsatisfied in the lack of communication and service, I have work to do but I keep being busy with my order. If I can not be confident with my money at your company, I won't be participating in the future again, I never had such an experience with any auction house before.

    Yesterday I have selected on the website that I want to "Pay by BACS", I transfered the money using transferwise and on the website it said "pending receipt". Now when I check on the website it says I need to pay again (I need to select from the options Pay by BACS, Paypal or Card again). The money should have been cleared yesterday already and I don't know why it says on your website that I need to pay again rather that it says my invoice is paid. Either there is a problem with your administration or with your website. I hope everything will be solved accordingly. Invoice number is: 17069.
    Regards,
    xxxx"

    "Dear xxxx,

    Thank you for your email. I am sorry that you feel you have not received the attention you deserve. In respect of your invoice 17069, if you have already sent payment by bank transfer, then you do not need to pay again. As I am sure you can appreciate however, bank transfers (particularly international ones) do not clear immediately and they require manual verification to confirm receipt of funds, and that the amount is correct. I can see that as of right now we have not received your transfer. As soon as we do, your invoice will be marked as paid, and you will no longer see it in the ‘pending invoices’ section of your account.

    Best regards,
    Richard
    "

    Let me be clear: my intention was not to make a "non-apology" or passive-aggressive statement. I sincerely never wish any customer to feel as though they are not receiving the level of attention which they do, as customers, deserve from us as their service provider. This is the sentiment I tried (poorly, apparently) to convey, and I do apologise for not wording this better and for formatting it as what was easily mistaken for a "non-apology".

    I am not aware of any further correspondence received in the two and a half business days between when Pavlos received his invoice and sent the email above - to my knowledge we received no other communications concerning his payment sent by bank transfer.

    To also address Al Kowsky's comments, which I hope he also received by email: while our new software can automatically track payment made via a customer's "my account" section of the website and/or payments which use the links embedded in the invoice emails, there is no means to automatically track payments that are sent to our bank account or which are manually sent to one of the company's PayPal-linked email addresses without using one of the links provided. These require manual intervention to identify and reconcile with customer payments. In Pavlos' specific case, the bank transfer was sent to us by Transferwise in whose name it appeared, and it required a phone call to the bank to clarify the reference on the transaction, which was promptly done when we were informed of the payment method. Similarly, Al Kowsky's payment was promptly located when I was informed that he had sent a manual payment.

    I greatly regret that our normal operating processes have been slowed considerably over the past week by the deployment of a new site and new backoffice database which have taken away a substantial portion of our admin capacity to resolve various minor unforeseen issues caused by the website-database communication links, and inherent in transitioning to a superior but less familiar system. While this has meant that our usual ability to ship the 450+ orders within the week after the sale closed has been temporarily hampered, the new processes we are putting into place with the over £100k investment we have made so far into improving the website/database will vastly improve the user experience over the coming months.

    Additionally, in late November we hired a new team member, Gil, who joins us as the company's Customer Service Representative. While he is still finding his feet at the moment, he will soon be the first point of contact for the vast majority of customer inquiries and we hope that this too will represent a significant leap forwards in improving the quality of service we are able to provide.

    Please bear with us this week, the six of us are doing the best we can to ensure the needs of both consignors and buyers are met as quickly as possible. We hope that the improvements we are putting into place will soon become apparent to our valued friends and customers, and we look forward to sharing further improvements to the user journey as the year progresses.
     
    Pellinore, Carthago, Jay GT4 and 7 others like this.
  19. Pavlos

    Pavlos You pick out the big men. I'll make them brave!

    @Rich Beale Thank you for taking your time to respond to this matter. I have however unfortunately not received an answer on everything else that happened expect on the quote. The following:

    First of all, what disturbed me the most out of all is that I had two serious questions regarding both about payment and a coin which I send to your colleague Alex around 2 weeks ago on a Friday/Saterday (to be exact, this is 12-13 days ago) which until the day of today I did not receive a response on. I have mentioned you this way earlier in an email to you saying: "I have sent to your colleague Alex Morley-Smith an email last Saterday about lot ... I purchased, unfortunately I did not receive any response back after 3 working days and I hope this was not intentionally done."

    Both in that e-mail and now you are not clarifying this situation, and as I say again, I hope this was not intentionally done by him. But I hope you understand that if two of my e-mails with serious questions get ignored now for 12-13 days already, I am far from happy with the service and communication. This was the big reason I started to write to you, rather than to Alex. My e-mail you quoted above is that first e-mail I wrote to you, the reason I said "I am getting really unsatisfied in the lack of communication and service" is because of your colleague.

    A second, but less disturbing first problem I had is about the Alexander I tooled coin, which I wrote an e-mail about and all of a sudden my bid was removed. Why was this not first explained to me, and afterwards I got the choice myself to remove my bid or not?

    Also, about the shipping times, after 1 week of payment your Customer Service Representative told me two days ago that my order will be shipped today. Now 2 days further, no reaction on my e-mail or any shipment confirmation. I understand there are always reasons for shipments delays, but let me (and possibly other customers) know and respond to my e-mails. I think communication and service is the key for a good business-customer relation.
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2019
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  20. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

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  21. pprp

    pprp Well-Known Member

    @Rich Beale : It may ease the discussion if you would just say how many emails/requests you are receiving per day/week in your functional mailbox

    @Pavlos : Well, if you are complaining that you placed a bid on a coin which you later discovered it was tooled, I guess anyone would assume you would want to withdraw your bid. You should be glad they acknowledged the coin was tooled and they removed your bid! Try convincing Lanz/Hirsch/Gorny on a similar situation and you will hit a cement wall.
     
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