Brand new auction house. Literally Auction #1. And it was THEIR accounting department that made the error. You have to wonder if the fledgling firm ever considered whether 7.20 EUR was worth the bad publicity to ask a customer this.
Errare humanum est. You say they are just beginners in the business, they are likely to make errors. What bad publicity? It's not like they had sold a fake and refused to refund the disappointed customer! Did they say before the sale there would be a buyer's commission? I they did, I don't find their email dishonest. BTW I like the "Dear," . They could have said "Honey," or "Duck,"...
Oof. I wonder if they left the BP off everyone's bill. If so, I can imagine the feeling of horror when the mistake was realized. If not, then yeah... seems like letting it go might be the best way to handle it. If they mistakenly left the BP off everyone's invoice, I'm not sure what I think is the "right" way to handle it. Eat the loss? Send an apology and ask for voluntary payment? Send an unapologetic second invoice, as you received?
Well... I don't understand. They did not forget the buyer's commission, after all? Their error is they mistakenly believed they forgot it, and they are now asking you to pay it a second time? I think their accountant needs to take some vacation...
I don't think this is a new auctioneer, 99% I believe it is one of the existing exclusive biddr ones who changed their name and company seat. Language may seem impolite but it's because they don't speak English well. They were not dishonest in my experience.
I would pay the 7.20 EUR and forget about the house. Especially since from what I see, the buyer's fees ARE included. In my opinion this is a sign of amateurism (forgetting to add a fee or forgetting the fee is actually added). Being beginners is not an excuse. For me, this kind of mistakes could mean they might "forget" to ship all the coins or, by human mistake, they swap coins between packages or other beautiful things. Some years ago I had a bad experience with an auction house. Funnier in fact. As you can see, my 250 EUR prebid (accepted by the house in a separate email) should have been the winning bid. In the live auction, a member of the house staff presented all the lots, live, speaking Polish and the bids were in Polish currency, not EUR so I didn't understand a thing. But, having the prebid over the winning bid (even converted in EUR) means I won, right? Wrong. After an email ping pong with the house, initially assuring me that 230 > 250, they finally acknowledged their mistake. My compensation? ... ... wait for it... ... Unfortunately we can only apologize you. We decide to give you an discount 2% buyers fee for our next action. My decision was to forget about these idiots, even if the possibility of "an discount" (quite large, 2% of the fee? wow) for the "next action" was tempting.
I thought the concept of the buyers fee was to compensate the house for professional services rendered. This reminds me of being seated in a restaurant near the kitchen door and ignored by a waiter who spilled someone else's food on you and later complained about his 15% tip. Is it really necessary to buy from every auction? Are there no houses that earn their 20% rather than bellyaching over 15%?
Yeah, at first I read the OP and thought, "come on RC, it was an honest mistake that they forgot." Knowing now that they already charged it I'm like You better not pay those price gouging suckers mcs! I hope you've emailed them and let them know that they've now made two mistakes.
Some years ago I had a bad experience with an auction house. Funnier in fact. View attachment 1411611 As you can see, my 250 EUR prebid (accepted by the house in a separate email) should have been the winning bid. In the live auction, a member of the house staff presented all the lots, live, speaking Polish and the bids were in Polish currency, not EUR so I didn't understand a thing. But, having the prebid over the winning bid (even converted in EUR) means I won, right? Wrong. After an email ping pong with the house, initially assuring me that 230 > 250, they finally acknowledged their mistake. My compensation? ... ... wait for it... ... Unfortunately we can only apologize you. We decide to give you an discount 2% buyers fee for our next action. My decision was to forget about these idiots, even if the possibility of "an discount" (quite large, 2% of the fee? wow) for the "next action" was tempting. [/QUOTE] I wonder if this is the same Polish Auction House that sent a couple of coins by UPS with an invoice made out in Polish Zlotys. UPS then decided to interpret the invoice as Pounds Sterling which gave me an import duty charge larger than the value of the coins. I refused to pay the charges as an obvious error had been made. The Auction House refused to repatriate the coins to mail them to me as they said it would incur a charge for themselves! These coins sat in a UPS depot 35 miles from my home for more than eight months until I finally found a UPS official with some common sense who unravelled the mess. In the interim UPS were billing unpaid fee charges penalties which increased the amount owed. Fortunately all ended well as UPS reversed the Zloty/ 20% import duty to Pounds Sterling 5% import duty which could have been sorted by my first email. It would have to be an exceptional coin that filled a big hole in my collection before I would bid with them again.
Update: It was biddr's fault. I contacted Simon Wieland at biddr to complain and he explained what happened and also why my invoice stated that not only was the buyer's commission added, but also that I had paid in full (the invoices were subsequently changed when the error was discovered).
@Dafydd - usually I avoid mentioning action houses names, I would make an exception if I receive fake coins or coins missing in the package or not receive at all. Didn't happen. I like working with certain auction houses due to excellent experience, but I also avoid mentioning as I don't want anybody to say I am associated to those houses - I am just a happy customer and that's it. The Polish house that managed to do that miserable job with that coin is no longer listed on Biddr. The auction was from 2019. If they changed their name or they were banned as probably I wasn't the only one with similar issues or if they are simply not using Biddr anymore- no idea. @Roman Collector - I am glad this was clarified, however I still think the house should have checked with Biddr first rather than emailing the end users.
I agree that not mentioning an auction house or dealer is good policy @ambr0zie as they would be unlikely to want to enter into a debate on a public forum and of course my experience could be unique. My comment was not a request just personal curiosity. I have my own preferred auction houses too and my business is based on good descriptions and after sales service.
They charged 25 Euros to ship one coin. The way I see it, they already got more in fees than they deserve.
