Man, I'm pissed off and I'm not even a party in this transaction!
Clearly, Superior Galleries is at fault and should have done more to rectify the situation. However, your anger has perhaps pushed the issue further than it needed to go.
ANR made a similar goof with me 6 months ago. I gave them until June to fix it, but despite agreeing to do so, they never did. I'm upset about it, but I'm not going to burn any bridges over it.
Beepy: First, welcome to the boards. I've read all the posts (WHEW!). I must say that I agree 100% with cornhusker 1 comments:
Beepy, I commend your persistence, but I think you are a little short on patience. Some comments:
1. Superior may not have intentionally lied to you. Yes, they bungled this order very badly. However, it appears the biggest mistake they made was telling you the order was shipped (which they honestly may have thought was the case) without checking the facts. Superior clearly has some administrative problems.
2. Superior was trying to work with you, and was not ignoring you. I would have given them some more time (say 2 or 3 more weeks) to find you a replacement coin. This is not a life or death situation. After the additional 2 or 3 weeks, if it was clear they were dragging their feet, then proceed with escalating the situation.
3. Why did you find it necessary in your correspodence to trumpet that you are an attorney? While you might think that strengthens your position, more likely it gives the impression you are a troublemaker. Communication handled in a polite, businesslike manner, which you did for the most part, should be sufficent.
4. You should not have left any feedback until the matter was completely resolved. Since you are suing (or threatening to sue) Superior, the matter was not resolved.
If I were you, I would give Superior some more time to find you a replacement coin, and then agree to mutually remove the feedback once Superior delivers the coin to you. That, to me, would be preferable to litigation. I would have the patience to give Superior another 3-4 weeks to resolve this ---- I would NOT have patience to engage Superior in litigation.
Good luck, and welcome to the boards.
I'm the Proud recipient of a genuine "you suck" award dated 1/24/05. I was accepted into the "Circle of Trust" on 3/9/09.
Baseball: I guess (9) separate auction records alone this year in 2005 with a hammer price of a low of $140 and a high of $240 on each and every sale is not enough information for me to form an opinion that the coin has a value of around $250 (not to mention a 10th auction sale right before those (9) where I was the high bider at $220 hammer, but had to stop buying that particular issue because there was no money to be made IMHO paying $220 hammer)?
Wondercoin
Please visit my website at www.wondercoins.com and my ebay auctions under my user name www.wondercoin.com.
This is an example of the power of the internet. One disgruntled customer can voice his/her displeasure and thousands (I assume) of potential customers will read it.
Two years ago I bid on a coin from a different auction company for the first time. I did not do my research and paid about $1900. thinking it was a bargain. There were other similar examples selling else where for under $700. I realized my mistake until after the auction. I felt it was right to take the loss in my oipinion. My pockets aren't as deep or even close to that of any auctiom firm. But I made the mistake and was willing to take the loss. I paid for the auction and learned a valuable lesson.
A few months ago, I placed a bid over the internet on behalf of my client, on a coin offered by a major, well respected auctioneer.
The five figure coin was awarded to someone else for several hundred dollars below my bid, due to a programming snafu.
This is what I did about it:
1) I immediately contacted my client to let him know there was a problem.
2) I immediately contacted the auction company (face to face) and made them aware of the situation.
3) I asked them to get the coin for me if at all possible under the circumstances.
It turned out that another dealer had won the lot for his/her client and already informed the client of the purchase. The dealer was nice enough to see if his/her client would relinquish the rights to the coin, but the client refused.
At that point, realistically, there was nothing to do as far as I was concerned. My client was understandably disappointed, as was I, and I was out a nice commission too. However, I didn't yell at or threaten the auction house that had made an HONEST mistake. I asked nothing of them - they had already tried to remedy the situation. By the way, they were going to pay the consignor the extra $ the lot would have brought, had my bid been executed.
Sometimes it's really ok to be understanding and forgiving of human errors, depending upon the nature of those errors, of course.
A few months ago, I placed a bid over the internet on behalf of my client, on a coin offered by a major, well respected auctioneer.
The five figure coin was awarded to someone else for several hundred dollars below my bid, due to a programming snafu.
About a year ago a similar thing happenned to me with a less well-known auction house. I bid in person at the auction house's office $1500 for an 1857-S $20 SSCA Gold-label PCGS-55. When I saw that the coin hammered at $1350, I figured that I had won the coin. I drove to auction company's storefront, which happens to be 15 minutes from my suburban St. Louis home , to pay for an pick up the coin. They told me that they had no record of my bids, despite that the auction director remembered that I was in the shop looking at lots and that I had left bids.
What did I do? I left annoyed and vowed that I would not do business with that rinky-dink firm again. I started a thread about the occurrence so that hopefully others would know not to consign to the kind of place that would lose high bids. And I moved on. (I never did get my 1857-S $20, but if Julian will let me have his for $1500 plus 15%, I will take it. .
Seems to me like there are 3 people in this thread that have had basically the same thing happen to them. They get a good price on a coin through Superior's auction and then oops, so sorry, we had a "software mistake". I wonder if it ever happens when someone pays several hundred dollars too much for a coin ? Somehow I guess those get delivered every time. I won't be doing business with this company.
Over the last few years I have had similar things happen from some of the major coin auction houses where for some reason I was high bidder and did not get the coin I won. To me this is one of the most serious rules an auction company can break- no matter what the cost the high bidder should alway's get the lot he won! I have alway's had excellent dealings with Superior and just love their color catalogs but I say they messed this one up. Sounds like they knew they had some technical problems that SHOULD have been followed up by a real people and not just left to chance in a system that was known to be faulty. All it would have took is a physical check of the coins verses the auction listings and I think this would be done even in a system with no problems? Superior does appear to be making an honest effort to fix the problem and I commend them for that. If it was me I would be happy if they gave me $50-$100 on the next lot I bid on. mike
<<< Over the last few years I have had similar things happen from some of the major coin auction houses where for some reason I was high bidder and did not get the coin I won. To me this is one of the most serious rules an auction company can break- no matter what the cost the high bidder should alway's get the lot he won! >>>
<< <i>To me this is one of the most serious rules an auction company can break- no matter what the cost the high bidder should alway's get the lot he won >>
Mike, what should an auction comapny do in the event that the item has already been delivered or shipped to another bidder (because, for whatever reason, the high bidder's bid wasn't executed)?
Superior made a mistake and tried to make it right within reasonalbe limits. Since there is a full refund that should be it. Did you honestly think they were going to loose $350 to make you happy on one sale, take a reality check. And the $500 price is far too much for that coin and you know it. Superior did not lose a customer, they lost a headache. They don't need customers who make a federal case out of a simple mistake. Suing is another joke, what venue are you going to use, one in your home state, California where Superior is located or Utah where ebay now resides. And suing over a mistake is why the legal profession has such a bad reputation.
The rest of us would have to suck it up but since he has a law degree he can kick some ass. I sure hope that degree is worth it.
"Truth is a torch but a tremendous one. That is why we hurry past it, shielding our eyes, indeed, for fear of getting burned." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Superior made a mistake and tried to make it right within reasonalbe limits. Since there is a full refund that should be it. Did you honestly think they were going to loose $350 to make you happy on one sale, take a reality check. And the $500 price is far too much for that coin and you know it.
I bet Superior would gladly pay $500 to make this thread go away.
Hey, Superior has the -alls and dough to stand their ground. This puts them in a positive light as far as I'm concerned.
"Truth is a torch but a tremendous one. That is why we hurry past it, shielding our eyes, indeed, for fear of getting burned." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
<<< Superior made a mistake and tried to make it right within reasonalbe limits. Since there is a full refund that should be it. Did you honestly think they were going to loose $350 to make you happy on one sale, take a reality check. >>>
Total BS in my opinion. The amount of money involved should not be a factor in making good on your part of the contract. And I can assure you that 350.00 to a large auction company is a meaningless spit in the bucket........chump change.
Most major auction catalogs now have about 3 pages of legal mumbo jumbo to insure that all prospective bidders understand the terms and conditions and how THEY are responsible for living up to THEIR end of the deal if they bid on items in the sale, and how they will charge the maximum interest allowable by law and all kinds of other legal jibberish, but I guess they don't feel they have the same obligation to live up to actually HAVING and DELIVERING the items they auction off huh??
I am semi-serious. There are people who never knew Superior existed until this thread. Months from now, there will be a vague recollection about a thread about Superior, but there will be name recognition forever.
I bought one of my favorite and most valuable coins from a dealer that I learned of when he was trashed in one of these threads.
A couple of years ago I believe it was Superior, maybe Heritage, there was a most beautiful Swedish gold piece I loved. It was a mint state coin but had almost DCAM fields. I'd never seen one like it. Krause for MS65 was like $300. I was willing to go $600 because of the unique nature of the coin. I won it on a live auction thru ebay for like $260!!! I was ecstatic. I paid immediately, as soon as possible. I received the confirmation and tracking number the next day. A nervous week later, NO COIN. I called. They had "mistakenly" sold it on the floor to another bidder. I was FURIOUS. I got a refund check two weeks later.
Let me tell you, a refund is totally inadequate. The auctioneers screw this stuff up on the regular and always get away with it. It makes me angry as hell. One good thing I can say about Heritage though is this past winter on a live ebay auction I mistakenly clicked a $1500 Hudson commem. I really screwed up there. I let them know. Due to my long history with them they said "no problem." They're good people (Heritage) in my opinion. I also won one of their survey giveaways and got a $250 check!!
"33. Neither Superior nor any affiliated or related company shall be responsible for incidental or consequential damages arising out of any failure of the Terms and Conditions of Sale, the auction or the conduct thereof and in no event shall liability for any such failure exceed the purchase price, premium, or fees paid."
My interpretation of the above, is that in this case, Superior would/should not be liable for more than the stated $153.29 purchase price. If that is correct, to those of you who are talking about honoring a contract, etc., the bidder/buyer, by bidding in the sale, has agreed to the above.
<< <i>Under Superior's terms and conditions of sale:
"33. Neither Superior nor any affiliated or related company shall be responsible for incidental or consequential damages arising out of any failure of the Terms and Conditions of Sale, the auction or the conduct thereof and in no event shall liability for any such failure exceed the purchase price, premium, or fees paid."
My interpretation of the above, is that in this case, Superior would/should not be liable for more than the stated $153.29 purchase price. If that is correct, to those of you who are talking about honoring a contract, etc., the bidder/buyer, by bidding in the sale, has agreed to the above. >>
<< <i>The fact that Superior was willing to pay $300 should be the main reason why this is unacceptable. If they can pay $300, then they can pay $500. >>
And if they can pay $500, they can pay $700.
And if they can pay $700, they can pay $900. Rinse, lather, repeat.
<< <i>How many times have I seen members complain that bad behavior on the part of dealers hurts the entire hobby. >>
By definition, "bad behavior" would be a deliberate act. This was not a deliberate act, it was a mistake. A mistake that they tried to rectify by going in to the market and offering double the money that the coin sold for in order to try and satisfy their buyer. That effort is good behavior.
The counter to that, of course, is that this was an eBay auction and eBay's TOS conflicts with Superior's TOS. Since it was eBay's venue, etc., etc. >>
Russ, I don't recall having asked for a "counter".
<< <i>But Mark, doesn't ebay have it's own "terms and conditions" that sellers are buyers are obligating themselves to >>
However, now that you and Baseball have raised a good point, what is Ebay's policy regarding a situation like this?
<< <i>This was not a deliberate act, it was a mistake.
Was it? There seems to be a pattern of mistakes. >>
Like I said earlier in the thread, I was skeptical about it myself until Wondercoin posted that they had contacted him trying to locate the coin for this buyer and offering $300. In this case, it does not appear to be deliberate.
Good point. I would be really steamed if they failed to deliver a seated quarter or coronet quarter eagle. The way I see it, they did the guy a favor by sending him his money back.
<< <i>..you are obligated as the seller to complete the transaction with the highest bidder upon the auction's completion >>
Baseball, if the seller, through an honest mistake, no longer has the item, what are they to do under Ebay's policies? I can't imagine that Ebay would require more of them than their real-life efforts to find a replacement at considerably more $ than the item sold for.
<< <i> I can't imagine that Ebay would require more of them than their real-life efforts to find a replacement at considerably more $ than the item sold for. >>
<< I can't imagine that Ebay would require more of them than their real-life efforts to find a replacement at considerably more $ than the item sold for. >>
<<Why not ... any court in the United States would.>>
That is incorrect, especially if you include the words "any court". If it went to court, which it shouldn't/wouldn't, I believe the buyer, at best, would be entitled to be "made whole" through "specific performance". That would probably mean receiving a replacement coin of the same date, grade, etc. - nothing more than Superior was already working on.
I collect color commems and about two years ago a collector I know was trying to sell a nicely toned NGC Lynchburg to Larry Sepherd for 750 at the Santa Clara show. Larry did not buy the coin and at that time I happened to stop by Larry's table so Larry told the collector that I might be interested in that coin. I looked at the coin and I knew it was once the retired color commem dealer Jack Zumbo?'s coin. After I said "I buy" before paying 750 cash, I realized I made a big mistake... somehow I remembered that coin was in MS66 but in fact it was only MS65. At that time I could just back off the deal but I was thinking " MY WORDS is worth much more than a couple hundred dollars" so I still went ahead to pay that collector 750 in cash without even mentioned that I made a "Honest Mistake". After that I did tell Larry privately that I made a mistake. Luckly after a year or so I was able to consign that coin to a dealer and sold the coin with a 10 dollars "Profit". My point is even I am just a small color commem collector I still honor my own words, this is why I look down "Superior " they made a mistake, they should fixed it and we are not even talking about thousands. To me Superior they just do not have any commom sense and should be very ashamed about theirself... (They even dared to Neged... Amazing...)
"Truth is a torch but a tremendous one. That is why we hurry past it, shielding our eyes, indeed, for fear of getting burned." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Beepy, good for you! I hope you receive EXTENSIVE damages in your lawsuit. Sure, Superior made a mistake, and we all do--it's human. But they had the opportunity to rectify the mistake and save their reputation, but they did not. I read a post on this very same message board a few weeks ago where an eBay seller (board member who posted the question) said he sold the wrong item (he intended to sell a cheaper type of proof set and inadvertently listed a more expensive type) and asked what he should do: refund the buyer's money or buy the more expensive coin out of his own pocket and send it to the buyer. The response was overwhelmingly "buy the coin you advertised and make it right." I'll tell you, on that day, I was proud of this forum. I said "you know, we have some honest, ethical people of integrity on this message board." Then tonight I see this comment,
<< <i>That's a lot of emails back and forth for a $150 dollar coin. I'd say be more patient in the future. >>
and I realized that if it's a little nobody part-time eBay seller who does maybe $1,000 volume a year, he is expected to do the right thing. But if it's a multi-million dollar corporation, they shouldn't be expected to make it right. A few weeks ago I was proud, today I'm ashamed. Members' views of ethics are apparently directly proportional to the net worth of the entity in question.
I heard they were making a French version of Medal of Honor. I wonder how many hotkeys it'll have for "surrender."
<< <i>and I realized that if it's a little nobody part-time eBay seller who does maybe $1,000 volume a year, he is expected to do the right thing. But if it's a multi-million dollar corporation, they shouldn't be expected to make it right. A few weeks ago I was proud, today I'm ashamed. Members' views of ethics are apparently directly proportional to the net worth of the entity in question. >>
Yes and no. It is clear that they ARE trying to make it right within some parameters. They may not think the customer should be dictating all the terms in how that happens. I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with the size of the entity selling it.
No one here is saying Superior shouldn't try to make it right. But some think the tone and the demands of the would-be buyer leave something to be desired, too.
Frankly, my biggest disappointment with Superior in this whole fiasco is their clear use of retaliatory negative feedback. That was bush league, and I might expect that (unfortunately) from some small, two-bit wannabe eBayer but not from a large business like theirs.
<< <i>To me this is one of the most serious rules an auction company can break- no matter what the cost the high bidder should alway's get the lot he won >>
Mike, what should an auction comapny do in the event that the item has already been delivered or shipped to another bidder (because, for whatever reason, the high bidder's bid wasn't executed)? >>
Mark, simply put, any company in any industry should make good in such a situation, IMHO.
Comments
Clearly, Superior Galleries is at fault and should have done more to rectify the situation. However, your anger has perhaps pushed the issue further than it needed to go.
ANR made a similar goof with me 6 months ago. I gave them until June to fix it, but despite agreeing to do so, they never did. I'm upset about it, but I'm not going to burn any bridges over it.
Beepy, I commend your persistence, but I think you are a little short on patience. Some comments:
1. Superior may not have intentionally lied to you. Yes, they bungled this order very badly. However, it appears the biggest mistake they made was telling you the order was shipped (which they honestly may have thought was the case) without checking the facts. Superior clearly has some administrative problems.
2. Superior was trying to work with you, and was not ignoring you. I would have given them some more time (say 2 or 3 more weeks) to find you a replacement coin. This is not a life or death situation. After the additional 2 or 3 weeks, if it was clear they were dragging their feet, then proceed with escalating the situation.
3. Why did you find it necessary in your correspodence to trumpet that you are an attorney? While you might think that strengthens your position, more likely it gives the impression you are a troublemaker. Communication handled in a polite, businesslike manner, which you did for the most part, should be sufficent.
4. You should not have left any feedback until the matter was completely resolved. Since you are suing (or threatening to sue) Superior, the matter was not resolved.
If I were you, I would give Superior some more time to find you a replacement coin, and then agree to mutually remove the feedback once Superior delivers the coin to you. That, to me, would be preferable to litigation. I would have the patience to give Superior another 3-4 weeks to resolve this ---- I would NOT have patience to engage Superior in litigation.
Good luck, and welcome to the boards.
Wondercoin
This is an example of the power of the internet. One disgruntled customer can voice his/her displeasure and thousands (I assume) of potential customers will read it.
The five figure coin was awarded to someone else for several hundred dollars below my bid, due to a programming snafu.
This is what I did about it:
1) I immediately contacted my client to let him know there was a problem.
2) I immediately contacted the auction company (face to face) and made them aware of the situation.
3) I asked them to get the coin for me if at all possible under the circumstances.
It turned out that another dealer had won the lot for his/her client and already informed the client of the purchase. The dealer was nice enough to see if his/her client would relinquish the rights to the coin, but the client refused.
At that point, realistically, there was nothing to do as far as I was concerned. My client was understandably disappointed, as was I, and I was out a nice commission too. However, I didn't yell at or threaten the auction house that had made an HONEST mistake. I asked nothing of them - they had already tried to remedy the situation. By the way, they were going to pay the consignor the extra $ the lot would have brought, had my bid been executed.
Sometimes it's really ok to be understanding and forgiving of human errors, depending upon the nature of those errors, of course.
The five figure coin was awarded to someone else for several hundred dollars below my bid, due to a programming snafu.
About a year ago a similar thing happenned to me with a less well-known auction house. I bid in person at the auction house's office $1500 for an 1857-S $20 SSCA Gold-label PCGS-55. When I saw that the coin hammered at $1350, I figured that I had won the coin. I drove to auction company's storefront, which happens to be 15 minutes from my suburban St. Louis home
What did I do? I left annoyed and vowed that I would not do business with that rinky-dink firm again. I started a thread about the occurrence so that hopefully others would know not to consign to the kind of place that would lose high bids. And I moved on. (I never did get my 1857-S $20, but if Julian will let me have his for $1500 plus 15%, I will take it.
I wonder if it ever happens when someone pays several hundred dollars too much for a coin ?
Somehow I guess those get delivered every time. I won't be doing business with this company.
I agree 1000% darktone!
<< <i>To me this is one of the most serious rules an auction company can break- no matter what the cost the high bidder should alway's get the lot he won >>
Mike, what should an auction comapny do in the event that the item has already been delivered or shipped to another bidder (because, for whatever reason, the high bidder's bid wasn't executed)?
I bet Superior would gladly pay $500 to make this thread go away.
Total BS in my opinion. The amount of money involved should not be a factor in making good on your part of the contract. And I can assure you that 350.00 to a large auction company is a meaningless spit in the bucket........chump change.
Most major auction catalogs now have about 3 pages of legal mumbo jumbo to insure that all prospective bidders understand the terms and conditions and how THEY are responsible for living up to THEIR end of the deal if they bid on items in the sale, and how they will charge the maximum interest allowable by law and all kinds of other legal jibberish, but I guess they don't feel they have the same obligation to live up to actually HAVING and DELIVERING the items they auction off huh??
<< <i>I bet Superior would gladly pay $500 to make this thread go away. >>
<< <i>I bet Superior would gladly pay $500 to make this thread go away. >>
You're delusional if you think that they actually care at this point.
Russ, NCNE
I am semi-serious. There are people who never knew Superior existed until this thread. Months from now, there will be a vague recollection about a thread about Superior, but there will be name recognition forever.
I bought one of my favorite and most valuable coins from a dealer that I learned of when he was trashed in one of these threads.
Actually I was just continuing the conversation to make sure I got off of 666 posts.
Let me tell you, a refund is totally inadequate. The auctioneers screw this stuff up on the regular and always get away with it. It makes me angry as hell. One good thing I can say about Heritage though is this past winter on a live ebay auction I mistakenly clicked a $1500 Hudson commem. I really screwed up there. I let them know. Due to my long history with them they said "no problem." They're good people (Heritage) in my opinion. I also won one of their survey giveaways and got a $250 check!!
Looking for alot of crap.
<< <i>Actually I was just continuing the conversation to make sure I got off of 666 posts. >>
I do the same thing!
Russ, NCNE
"33. Neither Superior nor any affiliated or related company shall be responsible for incidental or consequential damages arising out of any failure of the Terms and Conditions of Sale, the auction or the conduct thereof and in no event shall liability for any such failure exceed the purchase price, premium, or fees paid."
My interpretation of the above, is that in this case, Superior would/should not be liable for more than the stated $153.29 purchase price. If that is correct, to those of you who are talking about honoring a contract, etc., the bidder/buyer, by bidding in the sale, has agreed to the above.
<< <i>Under Superior's terms and conditions of sale:
"33. Neither Superior nor any affiliated or related company shall be responsible for incidental or consequential damages arising out of any failure of the Terms and Conditions of Sale, the auction or the conduct thereof and in no event shall liability for any such failure exceed the purchase price, premium, or fees paid."
My interpretation of the above, is that in this case, Superior would/should not be liable for more than the stated $153.29 purchase price. If that is correct, to those of you who are talking about honoring a contract, etc., the bidder/buyer, by bidding in the sale, has agreed to the above.
Then they better find the same coin for $153.29
Looking for alot of crap.
In that case, let's keep it rolling. I need to get to 9000!
<< <i>The fact that Superior was willing to pay $300 should be the main reason why this is unacceptable. If they can pay $300, then they can pay $500. >>
And if they can pay $500, they can pay $700.
And if they can pay $700, they can pay $900. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Where, exactly, do you draw the line?
The counter to that, of course, is that this was an eBay auction and eBay's TOS conflicts with Superior's TOS. Since it was eBay's venue, etc., etc.
Russ, NCNE
<< <i>How many times have I seen members complain that bad behavior on the part of dealers hurts the entire hobby. >>
By definition, "bad behavior" would be a deliberate act. This was not a deliberate act, it was a mistake. A mistake that they tried to rectify by going in to the market and offering double the money that the coin sold for in order to try and satisfy their buyer. That effort is good behavior.
Russ, NCNE
And if they can pay $700, they can pay $900. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Where, exactly, do you draw the line? >>>
I didn't know you were supposed to 'draw the line' when it comes to living up to your end of a deal and your name and reputation are on the line.
Again, 300.00 or 500.00 means NOTHING to a large auction firm, absolute chump change, yet look what happens.
I expect that given enough time, based on the information from wondercoin, they would have.
<< <i>Mark,
The counter to that, of course, is that this was an eBay auction and eBay's TOS conflicts with Superior's TOS. Since it was eBay's venue, etc., etc. >>
Russ, I don't recall having asked for a "counter".
<< <i>But Mark, doesn't ebay have it's own "terms and conditions" that sellers are buyers are obligating themselves to >>
However, now that you and Baseball have raised a good point, what is Ebay's policy regarding a situation like this?
Was it? There seems to be a pattern of mistakes.
<< <i>This was not a deliberate act, it was a mistake.
Was it? There seems to be a pattern of mistakes. >>
Like I said earlier in the thread, I was skeptical about it myself until Wondercoin posted that they had contacted him trying to locate the coin for this buyer and offering $300. In this case, it does not appear to be deliberate.
Russ, NCNE
Good point. I would be really steamed if they failed to deliver a seated quarter or coronet quarter eagle. The way I see it, they did the guy a favor by sending him his money back.
SD, do you like that better?
<< <i>..you are obligated as the seller to complete the transaction with the highest bidder upon the auction's completion >>
Baseball, if the seller, through an honest mistake, no longer has the item, what are they to do under Ebay's policies? I can't imagine that Ebay would require more of them than their real-life efforts to find a replacement at considerably more $ than the item sold for.
<< <i> I can't imagine that Ebay would require more of them than their real-life efforts to find a replacement at considerably more $ than the item sold for. >>
Why not ... any court in the United States would.
<<Why not ... any court in the United States would.>>
That is incorrect, especially if you include the words "any court". If it went to court, which it shouldn't/wouldn't, I believe the buyer, at best, would be entitled to be "made whole" through "specific performance". That would probably mean receiving a replacement coin of the same date, grade, etc. - nothing more than Superior was already working on.
I collect color commems and about two years
ago a collector I know was trying to sell a nicely toned
NGC Lynchburg to Larry Sepherd for 750 at the
Santa Clara show. Larry did not buy the coin and at that
time I happened to stop by Larry's table so Larry
told the collector that I might be interested in that
coin. I looked at the coin and I knew it was once the
retired color commem dealer Jack Zumbo?'s coin.
After I said "I buy" before paying 750 cash, I realized
I made a big mistake... somehow I remembered that coin
was in MS66 but in fact it was only MS65. At that time
I could just back off the deal but I was thinking
" MY WORDS is worth much more than a couple hundred dollars"
so I still went ahead to pay that collector 750 in cash without
even mentioned that I made a "Honest Mistake". After that
I did tell Larry privately that I made a mistake. Luckly after
a year or so I was able to consign that coin to a dealer and
sold the coin with a 10 dollars "Profit". My point is even
I am just a small color commem collector I still honor my own
words, this is why I look down "Superior " they made a mistake,
they should fixed it and we are not even talking about thousands.
To me Superior they just do not have any commom sense and should
be very ashamed about theirself... (They even dared to Neged... Amazing...)
4
<< <i>That's a lot of emails back and forth for a $150 dollar coin. I'd say be more patient in the future. >>
and I realized that if it's a little nobody part-time eBay seller who does maybe $1,000 volume a year, he is expected to do the right thing. But if it's a multi-million dollar corporation, they shouldn't be expected to make it right. A few weeks ago I was proud, today I'm ashamed. Members' views of ethics are apparently directly proportional to the net worth of the entity in question.
<< <i>and I realized that if it's a little nobody part-time eBay seller who does maybe $1,000 volume a year, he is expected to do the right thing. But if it's a multi-million dollar corporation, they shouldn't be expected to make it right. A few weeks ago I was proud, today I'm ashamed. Members' views of ethics are apparently directly proportional to the net worth of the entity in question. >>
Yes and no. It is clear that they ARE trying to make it right within some parameters. They may not think the customer should be dictating all the terms in how that happens. I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with the size of the entity selling it.
No one here is saying Superior shouldn't try to make it right. But some think the tone and the demands of the would-be buyer leave something to be desired, too.
Frankly, my biggest disappointment with Superior in this whole fiasco is their clear use of retaliatory negative feedback. That was bush league, and I might expect that (unfortunately) from some small, two-bit wannabe eBayer but not from a large business like theirs.
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<< <i>To me this is one of the most serious rules an auction company can break- no matter what the cost the high bidder should alway's get the lot he won >>
Mike, what should an auction comapny do in the event that the item has already been delivered or shipped to another bidder (because, for whatever reason, the high bidder's bid wasn't executed)? >>
Mark, simply put, any company in any industry should make good in such a situation, IMHO.