Message from Stack's Bowers Galleries

Teletrade

Dear Forum Members,

First and foremost, please accept my apologies for the confusion relating to the incorrect issuing of invoices at the close of our recent Americana Auction. As touched on in some of these posts, we experienced a large influx of bids online just prior to the close of the auction as well as mail bid sheets near the bidding deadline. For anyone affected by the initial incorrect invoices, please accept my personal apology. I will also be contacting each of you individually to come to a satisfactory resolution.

In order to ensure that this does not happen again, effective with our upcoming Official Auction of the Portland National Money Show, all Showcase Auction internet only sessions will close with a live auction using our iBid Live platform. Bidders will recognize this format as the same used in our Showcase and Rarities Night Auctions. Each lot will be offered in lot order, one by one starting at 3pm pt.

Again, please accept my sincere apologies for the problems caused with the close of this auction. I would be happy to address any questions you might have and can be reached directly at bkendrella@stacksbowers.com or at my office line 949-253-0916 x291.

Sincerely,
Brian

Justacommeman

It's a start.................Good luck Brian.

Mark

Unknown

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RYK

Here's what I would said:

"Dear Forum Members,

The following letter will be sent to all of the bidders in the recent (contested) auction:

We at Stacks-Bowers experienced some technical difficulties at the end of our last auction. This resulted in bids manually entered late, incorrect invoices created (and some paid), and the inability for many coins to sell for the proper auction market value. It also created the perception that perhaps one party was being treated more favorably and to a disadvantage of other bidders.

As a result, we plan to redo the entire auction in two weeks. All lots will be re auctioned, and the bidder's fee will be 10%. We feel that this is the only fair way to treat competing bidders and the consignors, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

(Furthermore, we have hired RYK to be our collector liaison. He will interact with the coin collecting community, our consignors, and oversee the auction process, from the collector's perspective, and provide additional assurance that we are doing everything possible to create a positive experience for our collector clients.)

We truly value our relationship with all of you. Please contact me any time at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Sincerely, Brian"


Okay, I was semi-serious about the third paragraph, but someone needs to step in and provide credibility to the collecting community if S-B wants to continue with that relationship.

bjamin

I don't really have a pig on the fire with this one. I won my two coins at prices that I thought were phenomenally low but I could have easily received a notice later that after paying for my announced winnings that I was not the winner in the end and be in your shoes.

So when SB writes an apology that states what they stated ie they received numerous bids at the end that wasn't input until after invoices were mailed out which btw their system is already late on reporting winnings and in creating invoices so one would think they would definitely have gotten it right being already delayed.......I am troubled. That means there is a huge problem ie their internet system is not working effectively at all. I mean what is the point of having internet bidding if it isn't in reality a truly internet bidding system and all that it entails.

Then for SB to say they want to make it write for each customer that was fooled into believing that they won (late), were invoiced (late) and payment accepted and later the payment was reversed or credited because SB they didn't really win.....well how can SB make it right? The only way that I see it is to across the board establish that anyone who received a win notification will be deemed the true winner, nothing else will be acceptable imho.

I can easily put myself in the so-called winner's shoes and feel betrayed, taken, played with, manipulated and screwed. Nothing else will come close to making it right and to re-establish SB's credibility than reversing this decision and making these so-called winners the TRYE winner. I don't care what happened, the only way to right this wrong is to honor the already late invoices/win notifications. And then dump their long messed up system and copy HA.COM's glitch free system and call it a day. Stop reinventing the wheel and use what is proven to work for other auctions houses!

winky

Better than saying nothing. Thanks

okiedude

Brian, thanks for coming and speaking to the community. It is a shame that we discussed the faults of your computer platform quite a while ago and yet here we are, still grappling with problems. As others have mentioned, maybe an entire new platform is in order. I still get some form of an error message just about every time I log in and view coins, either for iAuctions or Signature auctions. I hate to see SB "throwing good money after bad", as my father would say. This is a big picture problem, not just the mishandling of bids in the last week.
Good luck, and yes, change your username. Or better yet, bring back the Teletrade platform, I never had any issues there-sigh!

TopographicOceans

I wasn't affected but to me it seems like it is a technology issue and the online bidding platform needs to be upgraded.

Perhaps the iBid Live Platform will resolve it. I'd suggest doing some stress testing internally, reviewing the results and implementing whatever fixes are necessary.

The eBay platform can handle hundreds of auctions closing every second with bids coming in during the last few seconds.

The US Mint site would crash during the start of popular offerings (which seems to have been fixed with their new site) and the ObamaCare web site was a disaster, but those are government projects. The private sector should be able to do better.

I'm glad SB will be addressing the issue individually with those affected and I'll still be watching and bidding on coins that interest me on their site in the future.

BryceM

Nice of Brian to come here and explain.

Like others have said, it's a start. I guess I'll look through the auction lots in Portland and bid if there's something I've got to have. I don't really know how to guarantee the end result though. I don't think I'll be a regular until whatever system they come up with has a proven track record for a while.

Come to think of it, I did a telephone bid (for the first time) on a lot at the Summer ANA the evening I got home from the show. As the lot came up, my previously placed Internet bid held. I asked the guy, "So I got it, right?" He said, "Well, probably. It won't be finalized until later." I didn't think anything of it at the time, and I eventually received the coin (after a few phone calls to get the invoice straightened out). I can't even conceive of the possibility that someone else might have ended up with the coin that I'd been hunting for several years.

As has been said elsewhere, I'd like to see two healthy, well-organized, big auction houses. Competition is good and is the single most powerful motivator of good customer service and innovation.

BG

I also wish you much luck Brian.

I've been a fan of the company since I first learned about coins in the 90's. I was late to start in the hobby, 57 now.

You will not be able to please the masses here. If you can, you're a better man than I.

I believe it's your duty to do a search of the forums for your company name and put a team together to work on each concern noted in those threads.
Important to let us know the team and the problem/resolution.

Word of mouth as far as a company prospering or failing is huge as I'm sure you're aware.

I personally have not had a concern with bid's or anything else on your website.
A suggestion would be be to incorporate TT images and lot's in your search function.

Most coin collectors want instant gratification, but we all know that's a pipe dream.

Information is the key to improvement as your company moves forward and also to keep the hounds at bay.

dbldie55

<< <i>I don't really have a pig on the fire with this one. I won my two coins at prices that I thought were phenomenally low but I could have easily received a notice later that after paying for my announced winnings that I was not the winner in the end and be in your shoes.

So when SB writes an apology that states what they stated ie they received numerous bids at the end that wasn't input until after invoices were mailed out which btw their system is already late on reporting winnings and in creating invoices so one would think they would definitely have gotten it right being already delayed.......I am troubled. That means there is a huge problem ie their internet system is not working effectively at all. I mean what is the point of having internet bidding if it isn't in reality a truly internet bidding system and all that it entails.

Then for SB to say they want to make it write for each customer that was fooled into believing that they won (late), were invoiced (late) and payment accepted and later the payment was reversed or credited because SB they didn't really win.....well how can SB make it right? The only way that I see it is to across the board establish that anyone who received a win notification will be deemed the true winner, nothing else will be acceptable imho.

I can easily put myself in the so-called winner's shoes and feel betrayed, taken, played with, manipulated and screwed. Nothing else will come close to making it right and to re-establish SB's credibility than reversing this decision and making these so-called winners the TRYE winner. I don't care what happened, the only way to right this wrong is to honor the already late invoices/win notifications. And then dump their long messed up system and copy HA.COM's glitch free system and call it a day. Stop reinventing the wheel and use what is proven to work for other auctions houses!
>>



This is hilarious. (uninfomed and wrong on so many levels, but hilarious at the same time)

jhdfla

Talked to Brian this afternoon and he made things right. Complete resolution of my present issue and consideration in a future auction. More than fair and a real gentleman... they are lucky to have him on their staff.


I'm happy to see the changes happen this fast... some neat stuff coming up in ANA sale in Portland.

FanOfGoldCoins

Mistakes happen and as long as you continue to correct them, I'll keep bidding and buying. Y'all have accommodated me on prior snafus, a few of which were my own.

lablover

I don't have a dog in the fight (no pun intended - see avatar) but it's nice to see someone concerned enough to offer an apology, and resolve an issue.

MsMorrisine

it's a start

next up - fixing things that you find instead of needing users to spell it out for you ... over a year later.

EastonCollection

Brian, Thank you for recognizing the issues that the Company experienced and implementing a plan to bring your company to the level that us collectors expect. Personally, I never had any bad experiences with Stacks and I think very highly of Stacks. Clearly, you have alot of coin talent, knowledge and experience within your Company. I hear of bad experiences that some of us collectors experiences. I am confident that you guys can overcome these IT issues. Great luck and if you ever need advice from the collector community, I will clearly assist and I am assure others will want to assist as well.
Good luck and I look forward when only good words will be posted in these message boards about Stacks. Stacks have a long standing reputation and it shouldn't be tarnish in any way due any back office stuff taking the fun from us collectors.

crazyhounddog

<< <i>Better than saying nothing. Thanks >>



I agree.

Bochiman

As said, it's a start.
I used to bid on teletrade, until they went away. I have NOT bid at SB as I am a watch and wait type of person.....and the watching showed me too many potential issues I didn't want to chance.

I do like BK and wish him the best. I am glad he came on here and spoke up. I hope that these issues do not reoccur, for, if they do, that hurts his credibility. Someone in their IT department needs to be held accountable for the issues, as well as whoever handles the mail bids.

For the moment, I will continue to stay back and not risk having issues. I don't need the potential stress.

braddick

Although what Stacks did may have been ungentlemanly, Brian apologized like one.

amwldcoin

It will be interesting to see if I need to call to get treated the way some have. I printed out my invoice late morning the day after the auction and mailed it with a check. Now there is 1 coin missing from my invoice that was emailed to me the second day. Not to mention the coins I was trying to bid on and sat there and watched the spinning circle for around 2 minutes before it turned into a fatal error has occurred message!