what's going on with Vcoins ?

I get that. Your comment may have been more open to interpretation than I realized, so there are probably more charitable interpretations that I could have made, and I didn't need to use such an accusatory tone. (I'll edit in a comment to that effect momentarily.) In years past I've had buyers complain about import duties/customs declarations, so I was reacting as if you were them, which isn't fair. It does sound like those charges are unusual for any 100 Euro coin, though, and I'd be displeased about it.

 

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This sort of scenario is typical through many sales venues and is not restricted to this seller, not even restricted to coins.

Some sellers quote you the shipping fees, which covers the cost of shipping. They place a customs declaration on the package and then this is inspected by customs at the destination country. If the customs officer examines the declaration and deems a fee is due they tell the shipping company to charge you and then pay the duty that they have recovered from you. The shipping company often adds an administration fee to the duty as well.

If the cost of the item is relatively small then it is things like the handling fees that make the overall cost seem prohibitive. There is the facility for the seller in most countries to charge you the duty and to ship the coin with the duty paid but this inevitably increases the base shipping cost but avoid the handling fees.

I was looking at buying a coin from a dealer in the USA for $75 and I am in the UK. The cost of postage is $21, the cost of the import charges come in at an additional $24. This makes the total cost of shipping as $45 for a $75 coin. This is all clear and declared up front and so I moved on to look for a different coin.

Admittedly I will not be buying from the USA for quite some time given the current shift in the exchange rates but that is another conversation. The shift in exchange rates over the last couple of months combined with the above would have changed a coin with a price of $75 (about £56 about 6 weeks ago) to $110 including shipping (£82 about 6 weeks ago) would be £103 today....

 

Here's my experience: purchased in August and still not shipped. The screenshot below is from today, showing paid but not shipped. My messages to both the seller and VCoins have gone unanswered. Avoid.

 

Went through the FedEx issue a few years ago. The auction houses who I deal with in Europe know in advance that they do not ship anything to me by FedEx. Straight standard post. Haven't had any problems. Dozens of packages and never a problem with standard post. No FedEx for me. I take the legal amount of insurance allowed by their country. Have I mentioned NO FEDEX for me.

 

I just received yesterday a coin from this particular dealer. Took more than two weeks to send it but eventually I got it. Very happy with the coin.

 

I had a recent "issue" with a VCoins dealer. I am in the UK and so felt quite at ease purchasing form a VCoins dealer based in the UK, not expecting any issues with international postage or taxes etc. I bought a batch of coins and paid immediately.

I waited for a week and still nothing had arrived. I checked the status on VCoins and it had not been updated post my payment. I sent the seller a message to ask if the coins had shipped - no response. I waited 5 more days, tried again, no response. I waited another few days, tried again, still no response. I then escalated to VCoins who emailed the seller on my behalf and copied me in on the communication. After a few days I received a notification that the coins had been dispatched and 3 days later they arrived. This meant that I had waited just under four weeks for the coins to arrive after payment was made.

I didn't receive any communication from the seller about what had happened. No form of apology whatsoever.

The coins are fine but I am not happy with the experience I have had from the seller and I will be very reluctant to buy from them again (I have a very long memory on such things). It was not a very pleasant customer experience.

I had bought a few coins from dealers in other countries after placing the order in the UK and they had all arrived in less than a week.

 

It's more than a month for mine, seller hasn't replied to communication, coins haven't been shipped.

 

VCoins says they reply within 48 hours. Nothing yet after more than 48 hours. The VCoins code of ethics states, "I will promptly deliver items I sell unless other arrangements are made with the buyer."

If a sellers ignore the code of ethics, why does VCoins allow them to continue on their platform? Makes me reluctant to make any more purchases using this platform.

 

Not all Vcoins dealers are the same; but there have been other topics about this dealer...a recent one--

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/athena-numismatics-communication.384076/

 

Obviously. I've purchased from several different VCoins dealers, most I haven't had a problem with. Some have been outstanding, like Ken Dorney.

But another dealer I bought from misrepresented their item. I received a badly tooled coin that the seller admitted he tooled after taking the photos shown on VCoins. He accepted the return and refunded me, but I still had to go through the disappointment of discovering the damage — was it me? did I miss something in his photos? — then the hassle of taking my own photos of the coin to show him the damaged area, contact him for an explanation, go back and forth with him over email, and package and ship the coin back to him. Lots of my time and effort to deal with one inept seller, and after all that, no coin. He should pay me an hourly rate for my service to him.

Athena, aside from their fake patinas, may or may not ship. VCoins may or may not respond to problems. Dealers may or may not respond to reasonable offers — another issue discussed in the linked thread.

I mean, not responding to reasonable offers of -10% is a problem — seller's don't anticipate that most "inquire about this item" inquiries might be offers? Don't have the option then, or say, "no offers accepted" right up front in the item descriptions. Or respond with "Thanks for your inquiry, but I don't accept offers." Copy-and-paste response, really easy.

So it's kind of a Russian roulette game as a buyer, because apparently VCoins is hit or miss with responding to customer inquiries and doesn't seem to require member dealers to uphold the code of ethics or even a bare-bones level of customer service. Sure, many do of their own accord, but others don't. Buyer beware.

MA-Shops is a good alternative, many of the more reputable VCoins dealers are also on that platform along with lots of European dealers who aren't on VCoins. I've never had a customer service issue with MA-Shops yet, although certainly it doesn't mean I won't in the future. But so far so good.