Experience with Roma Numismatics?

I have participated the first time in the auctions of Roma Numismatics and so far I am not very pleased. It started that I bid on this coin that I was interested in, however, later I noticed something odd about the coin and I suspected it looked tooled/modified. I sent an e-mail to them, no response back, but all of a sudden my bid is removed. I send them obviously an e-mail why my bid is all of a sudden removed without notice, they responded that well the coin indeed looked tooled and thats why they removed my bid. Okay fine, but maybe actually notify me before and also say that my suspicion was right, maybe an apology as well?

Afterwards I got an invoice from other coins I won in the auction, but I had a question about the invoice since the price was more then I calculated myself. I sent them an e-mail about it, and after 6 days (4 working days) still no response. I did pay the invoice in the meanwhile because I figured out there was an additional VAT I did not notice. However, after those 6 days I still e-mailed them to ask them first of all if my bank wire arrived after 4 days (it should clear after 1 day in European transfers) and second of all why my e-mail got ignored and that I am not happy this happened (bad impression while participating in their auction for the first time). Their response: "I am sorry that you feel you have not received the attention you deserve". Seriously? You ignored my e-mail and rather than an actual proper explanation and apology, I get this sentence.

Long story short, the same day they said my bank wire arrived, I thought ok finally I can get over this. Now it has been 1 week after I paid and still my coins are not shipped. I am slowly losing my patience in the lack of communication and service. I am actually not in the mood sending them an e-mail again when my coins will be shipped finally. Really a shame in this all because they got some interesting coins sometimes. Eventhough I am not collecting for a long time, I mainly participated in German and Swiss auction houses (Like Leu Numismatik, Nomos, Savoca-coins, Dr. Busso Peus Nachf etc) so far and their service and communication is superb in my opinion.

Anyone else having bad experiences with Roma Numismatics? Or am I the only unlucky one out here.

 

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I have not delt with them before and certainly will not now! That response they sent you was nothing short of uppity and condescending. YOU are the customer. They needed you to tell them that that they were selling a tooled coin. Didn't respond immediately. And then that rudeness. I would think of cancelling the transaction...though I've put up with similarly bad service for coins I REALLY wanted.
I hope your coins show soon and you share them with us

 

Luckily I have had nothing but good experiences with the various dealers and auction houses I have dealt with. Sounds like this one might be one to avoid!

 

I have found Roma to be among the best firms. They just switched software so maybe that is part of the issue here. I am quite surprised your total didn’t match theirs- these are all computer calculated so that shouldn’t happen. Frustration sucks but unless they have changed ownership or something, I would be patient.

 

I have bought items from ROMA a few times and never had an issue. However, I have also never had cause to contact them.

 

I have dealt with Roma many times. I just had an issue with grading on one occasion. The coin in question was in previous CNG Triton Auction where it was graded EF-supberb/ in Roma auction it was Mint State. But then again CNG coins that are EF, turned up later as slabbed NGC MS-65.
However, the five coins I won where all rated as FDC/ MS and all where better quality/ eye appeal then NGC MS-GEM examples.
John

 

Well they really are in no hurry for correspondence.
I've always had good report with them until the last time I participated in one of their auctions.
I had a difficult time paying my invoice (to this day I still don't know why) I telephoned them and emailed them. I finally just gave up and haven't bid in their auctions since.
I had a simular problem with another known auction house and did the same. But that one I paid but never recieved my coin.
There's plenty of other good auction houses that want your business and have good customer service to bother with the ones that don't.

 

Oh wow. I just won a fairly pricey auction and while I got the invoice right away I haven't received an email saying when it'll ship. That's a little worrying after reading this.

Regardless, that email response (which I have no reason to disbelieve) is absolutely inappropriate for a business of this stature. Whoever wrote that should know the value of how much effort it takes to create a solid reputation and how little effort it takes to ruin it. Especially in this day and age.

 

I have dealt with them. I tried to communicate with them a few days before the close asking if someone could send me another pic of the group lot. They waited three days to respond, then said "of course we cannot, the lot ends tomorrow!". Other than that, good coins generally, but agree shipping confirmations sometimes are slow. However, I bought my Cleo VII tet there, so cannot be too mad at them.

 

I have generally had good luck with them and have no major complaints. I have noticed however that they are slow to respond to inquiries.

 

I posted this a year and a half ago, describing my second bad experience with them. My first bad experience was in December, 2016. I haven't participated in any of their auctions since.

 

I have had several issues with auction houses but Roma was not one of them. I have done business with them but I tend to avoid them because I felt they we not good deals regarding their coins.
The one that really upset me was Numismatic Naumann when I was the high bidder on two coins they denied me the win, they put both coins up at Vcoins at much higher prices, to add injury to insult both coins showed up at coinarchives at my winning bids.
I wrote an email to them and they said they outbid me, in other words they shill bided the coins. I have done business with them after that but very frugally. The letter they replied d with.

Dear
Thank you for your message.
We regularly buy coins in our auctions, which were delivered by external suppliers for our Stock.
kind regards

I still have a coin from Agora auctions that I never received, After several correspondence emails thaey always say they will get back to me , they never do. It is a shame because it was a nice coin. The correspondence delayed me long enough to be unable to file a claim with paypal.

 

I have purchased several coins from Roma and never had an issue; however I have not had a need to communicate with them on anything extraordinary.

 

The owner of Roma is a member here and I would not be surprised to see him respond in some manner at some point. Most dealers try to make situations right.

Coin auctions can often have some unusual terms which lead to unusual situations (and uncomfortable as noted). Many auction houses allow consignors to bid on their own coins. Some will say this is shill bidding (and I cant totally disagree). Basically if the consignor ends up being the high bidder they have to pay the auction house the commission on that lot as if it changed hands (though it in fact did not). Its one reason why you will see a coin 'sell' at auction with a published price of say $400, but it appears later on someone else's website for $1,500. Often times a consignor (sometimes another dealer) has a group that fails to sell. They are then offered to other dealers for higher prices or stay on their own site for whatever retail they wanted in the first place.

Its often confusing, convoluted and a minefield to navigate, especially when there are so many sites out there that list prices realized from various auction houses. It can give us a false sense of the market in general.

Anyway, personally I dont do any of those things in my auctions. I list the starting price of what it takes to make a coin change hands. I also dont buy consigned coins out of my own auctions or sales. If there is a coin I am interested in (for my own collection and never for sale) I simply make the consignor an offer prior to my offering it to anyone else.

 

I've bought from them a number of times. I've never had a problem with the coins, but from my experience dealing with a customer service issue, they were very rude. But I still deal with them because sometimes they have coins I want.

 

Ditto. Same thing happened to me there about a year ago.

 

A general comment on the coin auctioning business - it isn't customer focused enough, and it is WAY behind almost every industry I can think of. Customer service, terms and conditions, the sign-up experience, the fee structure, payment methods they will/won't accept, everything about it is painful for the end user.

It's a business ripe for disruption.

As for coin dealers, the customer experience with some dealers is going backwards
I've recently purchased coins from dealers in Israel and Italy ... and i have to wait excruciating periods of time while they deal with some crazy bureaucratic maze with the authorities before I can get the coin released.

There is more, but that will do for now.

 

I have seen many coins on sites like Ars Classica. Their grade is FDC, yet if you research previous auctions they list as provenance, you see it was CH-EF (CNG) stempelglanz/MS Gorny&Mosch Gutes Vorz. /goodEF Kunker Then if you see slabbed examples, EF becomes MS-CH?????
For ancients CNG is by FAR the best in grading, listing small faults/ authencity

 

One of the principals of Roma Numismatics is a member and responds on this site. I will be very interested to hear his response to your experience, especially the email that you quote below:

This is an inexcusable non-apology apology, regardless of the circumstances, and I would hope that no world-class auction site ever treats their customers this way.

I have only once acquired coins from one of their auctions, over seven years ago, and the bidding was handled by my dealer in person so I can't comment from experience about their online service.

I would caution bidders in any auction about relying on any site's grading of ancient coins. This is not just because of the potential variance in auction sites' grading of coins, but also because grading of ancient coins is (in my personal opinion) mostly irrelevant; I regard it as not much other than a curiosity. If you're considering the purchase of an ancient coin, make your decision based on the features that are meaningful to you, and don't be distracted by someone else's opinion of "condition."

 

Absolutely!