US Mint response to formal complaint regarding Silver Eagle Enhanced Reverse Proof ordering process
pointfivezero
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A well-connected friend of mine wrote a formal letter to the US Mint to complain about the inequities and inefficiencies of their order platforms. With his permission, I am posting their response. He was able to place a coin in his bag/cart at 12:00 PM only to suffer through the same frustration as thousands of us for the next 17 minutes until it became unavailable. Note the Mint completely avoids the bag to checkout issue he experienced in their "explanation".
From: US Mint Support
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2019 4:39 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: Product 19XE 2019-S $1 Silver Reverse Proof Coin
Dear XXX,
We are in receipt of your correspondence and apologize for any inconvenience experienced.
We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. The American Eagle Silver Enhanced Reverse Proof Coin was released for sale at noon ET on November 14. Because of extremely high demand and the low sales limit of 30,000 units, it became unavailable at 12:17 p.m. This coin’s release resulted in the highest website traffic we have seen to date, with the first hour more than 260,000 users already on the site at the time sales opened and double the predicted number of telephone calls coming into our call center.
Once you add an item to your online shopping bag, inventory is not allocated to your order until you complete the checkout process. If the product sells out or becomes unavailable while the product is in your bag and your order is still pending, a coin will not be available when you subsequently attempt to complete the checkout process, as occurred in your case.
Should additional inventory become available through order cancellations, the coin will again become available for purchase. To receive a notification if and when it does go back on sale, visit our website, locate the product page, and click the “REMIND ME” button to provide your email address. If you receive an email notification but are unable to place an order, you will need to sign up again with the REMIND ME button to receive another email notification later (depending on inventory availability).
The U.S. Mint continues to recommend that customers use our website as a “registered customer” to place orders for high-demand products. This is the fastest and most efficient way to place an order.
Please be advised that your complaint has been forwarded on to upper management for your voice to be heard. We value the opinions of our customers and want to ensure that each customer receives the best experience possible with the United States Mint.
Again, we apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you.
Comments
What was really bad is that stored cc gave people problems. Which gave a better chance for bots to buy because of the external autofill. Really sucks for those who stored those cc on the usmint. People who manually put it in had an easier time at it.
That and those who generally used paypal
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
I think the MINT just told your friend he can Go pound sand! Sorry. LIKE THEY REALLY CARE! Pathetic Mint!
Oooops I am not suppose to talk like that!
This will happen again for a special, limited quantity release..... Cannot be avoided....Win some, lose some...and some get flooded (with website/phone overload) out....Cheers, RickO
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Also note in the front page article is reference to bot interception and "none of the orders attempted through the use of bots were processed"
At least they didn't just reply with, "OK Boomer."
PayPal wasn't available on the first day
Nope.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Next time all those bots will be multiplied by much greater numbers I hope the mint find a way to stop it but they can't really. They use external pay services like privacy .Com etc. Which is hard for the mint to identify addresses and ips.
I think when they have a "limited" amount that they should have a Lottery from established Mint Customers it would be something that being a loyal customer would be thankful for and be "happy and proud" to say look what I got from the mint instead of being put out as so many people have been on this last debacle, what has been done is done but I hope that they correct it for the next "big" release.
Like was posted elsewhere, IMO if they give a rat's hiney about the collector that they should have the same HHL, but open sales for 7 or 10 days and then cut them off ala the 1998 Kennedy set.
Also I have a pet peeve about the ridiculous signed COAs and separate slabbing of COAs. Really? Please enlighten me as to how the coin in the wrapping changes one bit with or without these.
Quick, for those who care, what is the name of the mint director? And God bless him, but who really cares, honestly?
Well, just Love coins, period.
The way they treat their customers you'd think you were dealing with the Government...
Hey, wait a minute....
I had the coin in my cart at exactly 9am PDT and the screen refreshed 4-5 times the next 17 minutes, but in the end the coin was taken (deleted off) out of my cart because it was no longer available. For the first time I felt angry at the US Mint ordering system and will likely never bother to buy from US Mint ever again.
That is a horse hockey response by the goobermint. Clearly they have no concern for their customers.
All they did was explain what happened. No mention of what they would do to fix their ineptitude and arrogance.
In the meantime I stand steadfastly against ordering anything from these nitwits.
There - I feel better. Where's the next bottle of merlot?
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
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I just now checked my cart and the coin is still there, but "currently not available".
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Sour grapes 🍇 every time this happens there is a new group,of complainers. If the mint had no limit they would not have sold 30k yet. it's human nature everyone wants what the other guy wants especially when you can't get one.
Ok- say he was able to checkout with the coin. In that case, somebody else would have been left with a coin in his cart that he couldn't buy. Now what?
Hype, rarity, collectors = rampaging sales... unbeatable combination... Collectors, blame yourselves...Cheers, RickO
I'd be happy to supply any Mint product you normally buy at a slight mark up
All these suggestions do is move the bottleneck around. The only cure is to have overproduced unpopular coins that no one wants to buy. That should solve the problem.
what they should have done is filled everyone's order during the first hour. They might have sold half a million of those buggers, and made $30 million profit.
And with a half a million mintage how many would then say never mind and just return the coin? I would.
I had 9 people & myself trying, out of 10 chances I was hoping to at least get 5 and if not at least 1 for me. I had it in the cart seconds after 10am made it through checkout and it crashed before it confirmed. Soon after I found none of my people were able to order one either, I got zero out of 10. Was I bummed out, yes! Much like everything in life, you win some & you lose some. Life goes on and there is no need to cry over spilt milk. I had to decide how bad I wanted one or if I even did, I decided to buy one off ebay. It would have been nice to get 8 for the price I paid for 1 but that did not happen. I could still make money off the one I bought or I still have one to keep in my collection. Did I really lose anything?
Now I have a whole new set of problems and things to complain about, should I open the box, should I have it graded, should I sell it or keep it, should I sell it now or wait a while and why wont PCGS let me open the box to see if I have a signed cert or the condition of the coin before I send it in.
Maybe I will just be happy that the mint is trying new things to encourage coin collecting, like this and the W quarters.
I was able to get a ASE and I just found a San Antonio & Lowell quarter in a box I got today.
You can get yours too, it just may not be as easy or cheap as you had wished.
Smile, be happy & move on with life.
why?you dont want it?
I’d like to see the mint make it as hard as possible to buy this stuff. Every time they make it harder, they also drop the mintage. Great publicity for them and great fun to read about on the forums!
“I wish to register a complaint!” - Monty python
Who would have bought it? You can get a regular (unlimited) proof for $60. You can get the 110k mintage enhance reverse proof W coin for $140. Why would this have been special?
If you (the Mint) want excitement and hype, you have to create a rarity that makes a splash on the secondary market. Selling another unlimited mintage ASE for $66 that is worth $50 or less the day you get it in the mail will NOT juice the hobby.
It should have been: spend $10,000, get one free!!!
>
What ever you DO NOT GO TO THE OTHER LINK WHERE THE V#### s#### y## h## t# #### t## b## a## c#### i# b### u#.
They should use the San Diego Comic-con badge system. Register for a waiting room, then it’s your turn to buy (with no credit card issues or the coin selling out as long as you are in the room and have it in the basket ready to pay). They handle 200,000 users at the same time.
You do realize that wouldn't have solved the problem. You would have had the 1st 30,000 who got in the waiting room satisfied and the other 230,000 still mad that they got shut out.
I'd think the fact a well-connected potential buyer was unable to get one of these coins is pretty good evidence that the distribution was about as fair as could be expected considering the circumstances.
I bet if the mint stuck to making coins for commerce we wouldn't have such problems. I wonder if they (and Congress who pulls the strings) remember who they're working for and what their mandate is.
I see no legitimate reason the private sector can't satisfy the "made for collector" market.
Sorry, just the way I see it. I've never had much use for "made for collector" shtuff.
I think you will have better luck playing Whack-a-mole.
I made it through and actually spoke to a human, to be told we are not accepting orders for the 19xe at approximately 12:14.
I was so thrilled to get through, then so disappointed seconds later.
Different collector base. A legal tender coin, check if NCLT, is viewed differently than a private medallic issue.
Really, the Mint should not be in the business of making artificial rarities that benefit modern coin dealers/flippers much more than they benefit collectors.
Similar nonsense went down towards the end of the classic commemorative program where games were played and artificially low numbers were produced to benefit dealers and take advantage of collectors.
How many more times will this go on before there is a call for Congressional investigations to dig into why coins like this are really issued and who benefits from them? The bad press, frustrated customers and the potentially millions of dollars left on the table (arguably gifted to dealers) certainly doesn't help the Mint or the taxpayers.
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I was not able to copy the link I only have pictures. Talk about insanity!
Here is one the bid is up to $6,100.00 with 46 people watching. Must be dealer who must of had a good connection of at least 8 people in line. I see there were 46 graded not sure if he graded all of them bulk grading. This is where the Criminal Act takes place.
I imagine he paid them good. But then who lives close to Baltimore. But he is doing well, maybe have the FBI pay him a visit for a interview probably well connected. Maybe give him Immunity right off the bat if talks. Go for the big fish! Mr Ryder??????
Population 46 how many did it take to get 46?
300? Did he get 300 of them to bulk grading? Let’s call the Crime Hot Line!,,,