A new auction house tactic?......

[cordovacollector]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

Cordova........OK, you really got my curiosity peaked....by all means, tell us (me)!

Snafu is an anacronym from WWII. It is actually "S.N.A.F.U." which stood for:

"Situation Normal: All F$^%*d Up!"

So an "honest snafu" would mean it was just a normal situation for the auction house ... happens all the time. --- Not good.

I nearly fell out of the chair one time listening to a White House briefer trying to say a mistake Bill Clinton had just made was "just an innocent snafu."

[suicide_squeeze]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

Sorry to hear that Bill.....what a weird way to treat a nice ball like that.

Cordova........OK, you really got my curiosity peaked....by all means, tell us (me)!

If you can't say it here, please email me...

suicide_squeeze@roadrunner.com

Thanks, Steve

[schubert1970]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

Bought an 8k signed Ruth ball from HA and they sent it regular mail dumped on my doorstep. I was so pissed, will never deal with those idiots again... my item wasn't worth certified mail or delivery confirmation. I sent a few letter to HA and never heard a word....just writing this pisses me off all over again.

Jerkoffs!

[cordovacollector]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

I'm sure it was an honest snafu in their system. I truly honestly like Heritage Auctions a lot.

Oy!

Sorry gotta razz ya on this. My Dad was WWII Navy vet and I learned very early on what "snafu" means. Suicide, yer just gettin' in deeper with every step here.

[suicide_squeeze]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

Steve, is your goal to be banned by all auction houses?



(Just kidding you ).

.

You know, I never looked at it that way...

Next time I'll just zip it, and pay the tax.


(Just kidding you too ).


Just doing what I can to look out for my fellow collectors. It's better to put it out there if there is any question. I'm sure it was an honest snafu in their system. I truly honestly like Heritage Auctions a lot. I have purchased quite a few of my favorite pieces from them over the years, so I'm sure if they read this, they'll forgive me.

[suicide_squeeze]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

I tend to vote for 'honest mistake' based on all of my recent dealings with Heritage.

Nearly every auction invoice I receive from them has no shipping amount, and then they ask you pay ASAP... so I pay (minus the shipping), the item gets shipped to me, and then I get a 'revised invoice' from them weeks later telling me that there was no shipping on the original invoice. I then pay the shipping.

I think that they might have done something similar in your case (but in error of course).

Yes, that is their general practice and it works fairly well.

To be honest to you all......I too vote "honest mistake". But I thought I'd just throw it out there to see if it was happening in other cases. You just never know.

[TNTtoys]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

I tend to vote for 'honest mistake' based on all of my recent dealings with Heritage.

Nearly every auction invoice I receive from them has no shipping amount, and then they ask you pay ASAP... so I pay (minus the shipping), the item gets shipped to me, and then I get a 'revised invoice' from them weeks later telling me that there was no shipping on the original invoice. I then pay the shipping.

I think that they might have done something similar in your case (but in error of course).

[ballofbases@hotmail.com]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

Sylbry is right. I doubt Heritage would risk their business with something as foolish as that. I have done a lot of business with them and have never had an issue. I'm sure an auction house of their size has emails automatically sent at times and there is always a possibility of something like that occurring. I'm glad you got it figured out without having to pay anything else.

Michael
Ballofbases@Hotmail.com
Studyofsports.com

[David]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

One thing to keep in mind is that many sports memorabilia collectors and bidders are lawyers, and if there was illegal charging they would be the first to catch on. In fact, I belong to a baseball card collecting group and one member is a judge.

[sportscentury]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

Tough times bring out tough measures. Maybe it was an honest "error" caused by who knows what or whom.......or maybe it wasn't.

Steve, is your goal to be banned by all auction houses?



(Just kidding you ).

.

[sylbry]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

It is unlawful to collect and not remit sales tax. No business would be foolish enough to pad their pockets by charging and not remitting sales tax.

Plus what does it really matter? If you don't pay sales tax on the purchase in Texas you owe use tax on the purchase in California.

[suave1477]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

Seems more like a an honest mistake.

I don't think it was a tactic although it would be an interesting angle to squeeze out a few dollars more from unsuspecting people.

[ironmanfan]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

A couple years ago I won an item from an auction house located in the state where I live. I picked up the item in person, paid by check and they called me like a week later and told me that they neglected to add the sales tax to my invoice. After thinking about it and reading their auction rules, I truely did owe the tax and while I could have probably blown them off, I didn't want to ruin any future transactions with them, so I paid it (which I realize is a bit different situation than yours).

[jonincleve]

Re: A new auction house tactic?......

i vote honest mistake BUT i would like to say thank you for bringing it up just in case it happens to a bunch of people.

it could be that they just hired someone new or put somebody new in charge of invoicing and a mistake was made. i had something similar happen at my workplace. i had to miss work suddenly for a week and somebody had to take my place without knowing what was going on. we had just completed an auction(an industrial auction) and just before i left i got all the invoices sent out. the person who was covering for me re-sent out everything will different invoice numbers and doubled up everything. some people called up and the situation was resolved. some sent in 2 payments and we issued refunds. we also gave out 10% off coupons for any future purchases due to our mistake and for the extra effort involved.

with a lot of different customers, things were probably being done in bulk and that is why your details were missed. as a side note i have no affiliation with the auction house above.

i just vote honest mistake unless it keeps happening. chalk up 10-15 minutes of your time to sort it out. if it was me or my company i would do something for you as a customer. discount on next purchase, discount on shipping, free shipping, coupon, etc... it does not have to be something big, little things go a long way.

just my .02

take care
john

[suicide_squeeze]

I was wondering if any of you have had this happen to you....

I received an email very recently from Heritage Auctions regarding the item I won in their last Sports auction in April. It stated "They was a glitch that created (my) invoice to go out with the sales tax excluded. Would you like us to charge your credit card on file for the $520 (and change) or would you prefer to handle it in another manner? Please contact (so and so) to let us know how you would like to handle this at (phone number)."

No, it wasn't a fake email, as that was my first thought too. I answered it with "Do NOT charge my credit card on file with ANY charge of ANY kind. I will contact (so and so) in your office in customer service first thing tomorrow morning."

Now keep in mind, this was for a pricey bat that I had won, paid for, had it shipped to me via Fed Ex, and had already received. Now this?

I called, asked for the lady who had sent the email....she wasn't in. So I got some young guy on the phone and expressed my dismay over this obvious error in their records. I asked him how this could happen as I live in California and the auction took place in Texas. He asked me to hold while he researched the situation. After close to 5 minutes, he got back on the phone and said "Our records indicate you picked up your winning item in our corporate office, which means you must pay the tax on it."

I laughed, and asked him for his email address. I emailed him the tracking confirmation email THEY had sent me showing what day I would receive my bat coming from Fed Ex. This is also in the face of my request for a call on a reserved phone line so I could bid on the item via phone since I couldn't be there.

He corrected their records.....end of problem.

It just seems to me that......if an auction house sent out 1,500 or so of these after an auction, and maybe 30-40 people who don't know better just sent them a check......that's pure profit. Other companies have been doing these types of things for years (banks come to mind, charging unwarranted charges to accounts in the obvious attempt to charge people bogus fees simply because they don't reconcile their checking or other accounts. A lot of banks were fined for this type of practice years ago). And in the event they get called to the carpet on it (as I did), they say "We're sorry, it was a computer glitch."

Hmmm.

Anyone else had this happen to them? Tough times bring out tough measures. Maybe it was an honest "error" caused by who knows what or whom.......or maybe it wasn't.