Louis Palafoutas emails.(Superior screws up)

netrubicon

Im posting these emails in response to the fiasco I created yesterday. It was a lot of fun for the first ten minutes. Since then its just made me dissapointed in Superiors business ethics, and in my opinion, lousy response to their error. Take it for what its worth. Lou handled the situation poorly in my opinon.

Hello,

You recently bid on items we had posted on eBay and our site. Due to a technical glitch, we had many rare coins list at $1 that obviously were worth much more and not available at that price. Below are two emails I received from two eBay bidders and I want to thank them for their efforts and comments;

I bought 2 items from you (items #8401898641 & 8401898699 that were obviously mistakes. I have not sent payment. If there is a way for you to just remove them from my won list please do so. If you need me to do anything to release them up to and including paying for them and then doing a refund please let me know.

I just did a BIN for three of your items. They were listed at $1. I assume this was a mistake. I wanted to help out and get them off of the available items listings. We all make mistakes. I would be glad to follow through with the sales, but I completely understand if they are cancelled.

We will assume the rest of these bids were in the same spirit but if not please accept my apologies. All payments received have been refunded in total. Please contact me if you have any questions related to these bids.

Sincerely,

Louis Palafoutas
Vice President Operations
Superior Galleries, Inc.
9478 W. Olympic Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
E-Mail: louisp@sgbh.com
Web: www.sgbh.com
Tel: 310-432-4551
Cell: 310-404-3430
Fax: 310-203-0496

From: Alan Weigand [mailto:netrubicon@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 7:04 PM
To: Louis Palafoutas (x251)
Subject: Re: Superior Galleries

These are your auction rules for live auction bidding are they not? If I bid to much on an item, Im sure you wouldnt be sympathetic so why should I? Its not my mistake, its yours. It is a binding contract. Here is Rule# 19. to refresh your memory. I wonder how many people read this rule after it was too late.

19. SUPERIOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS IN BIDDING. A Bidder should make certain to bid on the correct lot and that the bid is the maximum plus the Buyer's Commission (15% for non-internet bids, 20% for internet bids) that he or she is willing and able to pay. Once the hammer has fallen and the Auctioneer has announced the winning Bidder, the Bidder is unconditionally bound to pay for the lot, even if the Bidder has made a mistake.

You should make good on this auction.

Netrubicon@yahoo.com


Lous Response:
That's not going to happen Alan as described below. Also let me say here is some responses from others who bid as a result of this technical glitch;

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

I bought 2 items from you (items #8401898641 & 8401898699 that were obviously mistakes. I have not sent payment. If there is a way for you to just remove them from my won list please do so. If you need me to do anything to release them up to and including paying for them and then doing a refund please let me know.

I just did a BIN for three of your items. They were listed at $1. I assume this was a mistake. I wanted to help out and get them off of the available items listings. We all make mistakes. I would be glad to follow through with the sales, but I completely understand if they are cancelled.

I placed the bid just to get the coin off Ebay to save you grief from some bidder that might have expected the coin for the one dollar. Obviously it was a mistake having the coin at a one dollar Buy It Now. I completely understand that you cannot sell the coin for the price I won it at. No problem here. Has anyone mentioned that many of the coins were taken off the market by members of the PCGS coin forum. We all knew a huge mistake was made and figured it was the correct thing to do. Let me tell you those guys were fast with bids. I checked about 10 coins and only found the one that had not already been deep sixed. Anyway I hope this does not happen to you again.

You might(or might not) know that many of us who took those coins off of eBay came from the same coin forum. Most of us consider it quite amusing and didn't expect that there would be any kind of transaction. So..... I guess if I doubled the amount to $2 each we couldn't come up with a happy medium?

There were a large group of us that did this in order to remove the items so you didnt receive any repercussions. I highly doubt we removed all of them, however I think we did get a large portion of them.

No problem...I just wanted to get them off the Ebay site.

No Problem. As I posted on the CU Coin forum, I had every intention of trying to get them off the market for you (only got to 1 before they were gone), and then figuring out how to help you fix the mistake. Looks like everything is resolved now (money refunded and auctions pulled).

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Seven people understood the situation and were trying to be helpful, two did not, that's not a bad ratio. Please don't hesitate if you have any further questions.


My Response:

From: Alan Weigand [mailto:netrubicon@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 7:13 AM
To: Louis Palafoutas (x251)
Subject: RE: Superior Galleries

Yeah, no kidding its not gonna happen. Im really not interested in the
coin and could care less. I wouldnt take the coin if you offered it. I
know mistakes happen, while listing on occasion. At the same token, had
the ball been in your court, and the customer had bid too much, I dont
think you would give them a break. Right or wrong Louis? Im sure anyone
with any respect wont hold you to the auction price, at least I hope
not
anyway. You might want to correct your sub headings also Louis, so
people looking for "GOLD", wont find search terms for "GOLF".

From Lou:

Thanks Alan,

Please know I don't collect coins but I am obsessed with creating web
tools and I have no doubt if someone over paid I wouldn't let them,
broken is broken to high or to little.

I don't see golf anywhere, where do you?

Louis

My Response:
Louis,

If you go to the main Superior Gallery storefront
page, on the left side in the sub-headings, you have
GOLF.

Alan


END OF SUBJECT

KoinDawg

G O L F

TommyType

Don't know about anyone else, but I found the original Superior email perfectly acceptable.

netrubicon

I would have also, had he not copy and pasted other peoples email responses, and then shrug it off as a Glitch, with not even a short explanation. Thats what ticked me off. He went immediately on the defense, figuring he didnt have to explain anything to anyone. He
didnt have to tell me it was a "Glitch", I already new that. Tell me something I dont know.

tradedollarnut

Dude - you really need to get over it. You've perceived a slight where there is none. Superior made a mistake... they fixed the mistake. Trolling for a 'token of appreciation' is so very little of you.

netrubicon

Um, not trolling for anything Tradedollar nut. I bid on the auction as a joke. I wasnt looking to rip off a well renouwned coin dealer because of a listing error. Im just trying to say that it annoyed me how he answered the email about what took place with their error. Im not a theif. I never
have been. But I hate getting a BS response from someone whos supposed to hold things in high regard tward others. Hes not gonna answer a question like that to anyone who buys a 10,000.00 coin from him is he? Why should his response be any less professional.

Oh yea...TDN...I was asked by other people here to post it when I got a response, not to start anything tough guy. Your the one that should get
over it. Everyone knows it was a mistake. You dont have to prove anything here, or do you?

tradedollarnut

You should make good on this auction.

Netrubicon@yahoo.com


Um, not trolling for anything Tradedollar nut. I bid on the auction as a joke. I wasnt looking to rip off a well renouwned coin dealer because of a listing error

These two statements are at odds with each other.



Hello,

You recently bid on items we had posted on eBay and our site. Due to a technical glitch, we had many rare coins list at $1 that obviously were worth much more and not available at that price. Below are two emails I received from two eBay bidders and I want to thank them for their efforts and comments;

I bought 2 items from you (items #8401898641 & 8401898699 that were obviously mistakes. I have not sent payment. If there is a way for you to just remove them from my won list please do so. If you need me to do anything to release them up to and including paying for them and then doing a refund please let me know.

I just did a BIN for three of your items. They were listed at $1. I assume this was a mistake. I wanted to help out and get them off of the available items listings. We all make mistakes. I would be glad to follow through with the sales, but I completely understand if they are cancelled.

We will assume the rest of these bids were in the same spirit but if not please accept my apologies. All payments received have been refunded in total. Please contact me if you have any questions related to these bids.

Sincerely,

Louis Palafoutas
Vice President Operations
Superior Galleries, Inc.


How much nicer did he have to be for you not to get your panties in a bunch?

30AnvZ28

Children please.

netrubicon

I said he should make good on the auction to evoke a better resoponse to the situation. I thought he could say hey," Netrubicon, One of our associated made a mistake in the listing. The auction was listed with a BIN of 1.00 when the starting price should have been a dollar. We listed
30 or so other auctions and the same thing happened. We are sorry if this has caused you any inconveinience and appriciate your business". Maybe something with some real information. You can continue now TDN.

tradedollarnut

Nah. His letter says it all. It's fine.

Still waiting for smoeone to take me up on that $5k!

netrubicon

Hilarious.

sinin1

If you really want to be a jerk, you could always file a complaint with safeharbor and PAYPAL


I noticed they have a store on eBay - Australia -> I wonder if they get much traffic from down under

tradedollarnut

I said he should make good on the auction to evoke a better resoponse to the situation.

Well, you certainly evoked a response ... but it wasn't a better one!

ColonialCoinUnion

Let us all hope that we never make a mistake on something when Mr. Weigand is present.

goose3

He certainly never makes any I'll bet.

I am honored to be in the presence of Perfection.

VTCoins

Looks to me that Superior handled it quite well.