Anyone else having problems with B&M internet auction?

WalkerGuy

Curious to see if I am the only hiccup here.
Here's my story.
B&M auction had a 34S Walker for sale, MS67. Very hard to find and harder to buy. Put a who's interested bid of 5000 on the coin and later decided to up the max bid to a more reasonable winning bid - I hoped!
Received an email confirming my updated max bid. Next day, checked "my lots" function, and low and behold, there was no update to the max bid.
Sent and email explaining and ask what gives? Answer was no update despite the email they sent me that I referenced. Ask again what gives and by the way why were they representing the coin as a pop 2 when it was a pop 3?
Boiler plate answerfrom them, that there was no update to my bid despite the mysterious email confirming it and the comment if I was concerned with pop #'s I should check before bidding.
Responded that I had and that was why I was asking the question on the pop of the coin.
Response was that coin was listed before the pop was updated. Folks this is the #3 coin they are selling. Auction pictures of the other 2 are very different. So I say why don't you qualify the pop with a date like the other auction houses. And by the way your bidding process is broken and you might sell the coin for less than what I bid and have confirmation on. BIG SILENCE from the guy in charge of the auction.
Story continues, I'm now trying to check my "lots" bid on, and the on line function of the B&M auction says I never bid on any lots!
This was my first bidding try with the B&M auction crew, and I would be hard pressed to try to buy from them in the future, systemic problems and no interest in fixing them.
If I had coins at the auction, I'd be asking some hard questions of the folks in charge. They, from my experience with this auction, are costing their clients money.
Sorry for the length of this, but has anyone else had a similar problem.
Dick

Typetone

Hi Dick:

I had a bad experience back last January. I put in a max bid on a 42 in 67 Walker. The "My Lots" function confirmed that I was bid. Well, the coin sold in auction for $100 under my bid. Yes, that is adjusting everything for buyer's fees. I called Bowers and asked what happened. Christine told me that indeed I had bid, but that a clerk had failed to move my bid from the internet system to the actual auction system. So, I asked if I would get the lot. They said no, even though it was their error. Complaining did no good. What the heck, don't they have a contractual duty to the seller. OK, they didn't want to offend the buyer, but the seller lost real money due to their error. They should have called the buyer, and asked if he would pay my price. If not, they should have sold me the lot. In any event, they should have paid the seller the difference. Do you think they did? Right!!! That experience makes it difficult for me to consider internet bids in Rarities sales, or for that matter to consider consignments. I have had better experiences with Kingswood auctions where everything is internet.

Does Bowers wonder why the Heritage auctions are gaining share, and are now in my view the premier auction venue? If our experience is typical, I think they have the answer.

Greg

RGL

Whoa, something seriously amiss in Collectors Universe (NASDAQ) land ... Heritage screws up, as well, but at least seems to give a damn and tries to fix things ...

sonofagunk

Yea, I had a problem. You have to pay an extra "fee" to win their auctions when you bid online. If you bid on line and someone else bids the same amount AFTER YOU through the mail or on phone, they win. To win on the internet you have to be willing to pay one "bid increment" higher than you do if you do it on the phone. They had no answer when I asked about this.

BowAxe

I had a problem participating in one of their auctions last year. I had registered for the auction in advance, just to bid on a single lot that I wanted pretty badly. When I logged on during the auction and was asked for my password, I entered my email address, which is the password I'm asked for when I check the PCGS pop reports--I figured the same password should work for any PCGS-sponsored activity, right? Well, the auction program "welcomed" me to the auction but would not register my maximum bid, saying it exceeded my bidding limit. I thought, "What bidding limit?" I had never been informed about any bidding limit. When I phoned B&M to try to get my limit raised, the lady who answered said that my email address was NOT my password for the auction and I should not have been able to log on with it. But she would not tell me what my "real" password was. She sounded quite irritated, but she finally agreed to raise my bidding limit to the amount I wanted to bid on that lot. Unfortunately, after all that hassle, I got outbid anyway. Needless to say, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

Dell

leothelyon

I called Bowers and asked what happened. Christine told me that indeed I had bid, but that a clerk had failed to move my bid from the internet system to the actual auction system.

So much for computers, eh! They acknowledged the bid, they should have honored it. The question that comes to mind, How can I get in touch with the clerk before the auction so my bid gets honored, because it's sure a waste of time talking to the other clowns.

Leo

Zerbe

I don't like their entire internet bidding setup. I admit I am used to Heritage's and I think Heritage's setup is so much better. In this last B&M auction, I had bids on two coins. I was the high bidder when the internet bidding closed, but unlike Heritage, when the actual auction closed I cannot find information anywhere telling me if I won the two lots.

PTVETTER

I'm not happy with any of the internet bidding sites. They all seem to have problems, only a few are willing to try to give a feeling that they atleast care. Looking more and more like a scam helping others.

beartracks42

I, too, had a problem with them last year. I bid on a lot via their internet site. My bid was high bid when the auction came up on ebay-live, and closed at my bid. Later, when I had not heard from B&M, I called and was informed that I was outbid!!! After some discussion with the lady, I was told that it was Ebay's fault!!! I have not bid on any of their auctions since.

keithdagen

Several months back, I had an auction where I was the high bidder on the internet pre-bidding (from B&M's) website, with a bid of $100 (max $125). I turned to E-Bay the next day and watched the floor bidder (me) open the bidding at $125, and the lot closed with no other bids.

I called the next day, asked what happened, and it could not be explained to me. To be fair, the Customer Service department did sell the piece to me at the original $100 bid instead of the infalted $125 bid.

DesertLizard

B & M are clueless when it comes to internet auctions.

I placed several "hold" bids so i could go back later and raise my bids on the ones i really wanted. Well after raising just 2 bids I was told I had exceeded my bidding limit! What the *^%# !!!

I called and was on hold for more than 20min. I hung up and called back the next day and left "Laura or Laural" a message asking to be bumped up higher much higher and to call me back if there was a problem. No call and you guessed it, no increase. I was out bid on every single lot, not even close. Now I just have alot more to spend with Heritage. Duh, gee, I wonder why Heritage is taking market share? Oh wait, isn't NGC also gaining share? Hmm, do we see a pattern here?

You would think they would be better staffed just before a major auction. Small service mistakes cost them thousands. How on earth do they expect buyers to one day be consignors when the buy side is so bad?!!