Grrrr...

lordmarcovan

Well, I am mildly miffed with Pegasi Numismatics.

I now have to remove this from the roster of my Roman set, because it was sold before my money order arrived, apparently.



<< <i>


LEO I, 457-474 AD. Gold Tremissis (1.49 gm) of Constantinople. Diademed and draped bust / Victory advancing holding wreath and orb. RIC.611(S). VF+. Scarce. >>




What makes me angry is the whole exodus I had to go through to buy it, only to get the bad news more than three weeks later. Not only do I not get the coin, but the transaction has wasted almost a month of my time.

I pulled the trigger on it through their VCoins page, saw a PayPal logo at the top of the page under their payment methods, then discovered when I went to checkout that they do NOT offer PayPal as a payment method.

I then had to transfer my PayPal funds to my bank account, which took four or five days, thanks to an intervening weekend. I emailed them to explain that it would take me a while to transfer the money and snailmail a money order, and told them they should remove the PayPal logo from the top of the page if they do not offer that as a payment method.

Furthermore, there was no address listed on the checkout page (or anywhere else I could find) to say where the payment was to be sent. Clicking their contact info, I found TWO addresses, as they apparently do business in two locations. Neither was flagged as the one that payment should be remitted to, so I had to guess, and chose what I figured to be the "main" office.

After my funds had transferred to my bank from PayPal, I called them to tell them payment via money order was on the way. Nobody mentioned a thing to me about the coin being sold.

So I sent the money order.

And waited.

And waited.

The day before yesterday, an envelope from Pegasi arrived in the mail. But I knew something was wrong because it was a thin, light, envelope with only paper inside... obviously no coin! Inside was my money order, with a post-it note attached, saying the coin had already sold, and that they had emailed me right after the purchase. I never received any email. Maybe they did and maybe they didn't- if they did, it is possible the email ran afoul of my "junk" filter.

But it sure does seem like somebody could have said something when I called them, a week after I'd pulled the trigger, to save me the trouble!

Now I have a money order made out to "Pegasi Numismatics", and I don't know if I can take it back to my credit union or not to get the money back? I would guess so, but I am the endorser of the money order and not the payee.

Anyway, these folks have nice coins and they're probably OK to do business with overall, but I'll definitely think twice before I do business with them again. If they have something I really want, I might try again, but ... geez.

This has been the first bad experience I've had with a VCoins dealer. It's not the first time something I tried to buy has been sold, and it isn't the end of the world, I guess... I'll get over it. It could have been worse.

I'm just disappointed and mildly annoyed with the sloppy handling of my order and the contradictions and omissions in their checkout process.

And I still see a PayPal banner at the top of their page.

Oh, well. My mother just sent me a VCoins giftcard, so with that and the refund from this coin (if I can get the money back from the money order), I'll have at least 500 bucks to put into the Roman set soon.

Guess who probably won't be getting any of it.

TwoKopeiki

Sorry to hear that, Rob I can't believe they didn't put the coin "on hold" for you after your initial call.

lordmarcovan

Well, it showed "SOLD" on the VCoins page automatically, as soon as I bought it. But it has happened before that I bought something off VCoins only to find the dealer had already sold it at a show or something and had not yet gotten around to updating his or her VCoins page and/or website. Yeah, well, OK... that happens.

But what's rather baffling is that I called them a week AFTER the sale, once my funds had been transferred out of PayPal (to satisfy their unstated requirement, since they don't honor PayPal, despite the banner at the top of their pages), and nobody told me it was sold THEN.

Sloppy business on their part.

Oh, well. Their loss, I suppose. I'm not the biggest fish in the sea, but I was looking at some of their other stuff, too, and now, unless they later turn out to have something I really want, they've lost me as a customer.

Each of the problems I had with them were tiny, nitpicky little things, taken individually. But stack enough little tiny aggravations up, and you lose customers.

Scavenger

Last night I was driving home and the low fuel light came on. After a couple of miles I see this gas station on the other side of the highway that has a blue and red neon sign "OPEN". Not wanting to chance finding another station open late at night, I took the next exit and went back. I pulled up to the pump, removed the gas cap and right about the time I lifted the nozzle this voice comes over the intercom "WERE CLOSED". Yes, things like this stick in your mind for future reference.

lordmarcovan

There's exactly the sort of "grrr" I was talking about.

In a perfect world we wouldn't have so many, but c'est la vie, I suppose.

satootoko

Don't worry about getting your money - less the fee for issuing the MO in the first place.

Speaking as former attorney for a money order issuing bank, I can tell you that the two people who can cash a money order are the payee and the purchaser.

Resplandor

I it was me I would just stop giving them my business. I'm sorry about your experience with them. Search for it somewhere else.

Meiji

This has happened to me 2 times on Vcoins. I place an order and they tell me the coin has already been sold but not updated on Vcoin shop. It's very irritating, and I feel your pain.

Bailathacl

One less seller I will deal with. Very sorry for your aggrivation, Rob.

lordmarcovan

I'm only venting. I'm not trying to blackball them. I'm annoyed with them but I wouldn't boycott them or anything like that.

olmanjon

As always Lord M is one class act. We should all pattern our character after him. Thanks Lord M, Olmanjon

savoyspecial

Rob,
sorry to hear of your experience.....i had a similar one with Northeast (for the record, i have since bought from them so they are in no way blacklisted)......cant remember all the details but i do recall that the coin was priced quite a bit below market.....well, i pulled the trigger adding it to my cart and checking out......sent payment only to have it returned with and email that the item had already sold.....it may have genuinely sold to another buyer, perhaps on site at a show, but i always got the feeling that they didnt want to sell it that cheap and pulled it back

oh well

greg

lordmarcovan

I suppose I can't really fault them for selling the coin out from under me, as there is a disclaimer on the front page of VCoins that states all coins are subject to prior sale. That's the breaks. I just wish the communication had gone better.

I have forgiven them now.