Live Auctioneers review: Scam 15

Live Auctioneers is definitely a scam. Well, most of the auction houses on the site are fake and selling items with illegitimate certificates from questionable sources. Most of which have numerous claims against them. The auction houses use a terms of service agreement that, simply put, says what ever you read about the items is strictly not to be believed and will not hold up in the case of any authentic certifying authority appraising the value of the item upon which you are bidding. (or something to that effect) I would not use them if I were you. There are one or two auction houses that have live auctions, but you really have to do a lot of research before you attempt to bid on anything from live auctioneers. I purchased some fine jewelry that they stated was valued at $24K in an auction with a certificate showing the appraised value. I will tell you what this one comes up with. However when I contacted the auction house they stated outright they do not stand behind the certification and appraisal. It is sent to a third party for appraising and certifying. For that reason they believe they should not be held accountable.

Auction houses to steer clear of:

SMRJ Auctions
Windsor Auction House

I will update with more information later.

abarnettceo

Smrj auction house stated items were of certain caret weights and items were not even close to statex weight. Said i could return but was gonna end up costing almost more than it was worth.

I bought a disney poster off SMRJ with estimated value between $600-$800. It cost me $100 and I've just found it Allposters for $14... DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THEY SAY! See photos for proof.

I was defrauded by SMRJ Auctions as well. They advertised some bank notes that I purchased as "Crisp Uncirculated" and after hours spent on the phone just to get my items shipped when they hadn't shipped after an unusually long period of time, I received treasury notes that looked like someone had eaten their lunch off of them. After weeks of effort, LIve Auctioneers has been no help at all, I have managed only a partial refund. SMRJ are definitely criminal fraud artists and are to be avoided..

As far as Live Auctioneers is concerned there are some decent auction houses but significantly more con artists who will rob you blind. You may not be aware of a couple of things so I will tell you here. There is a forum, on Live Auctioneers, hidden to buyers where auction houses can malign people who don't pay even when they have legitimate reasons. This can prevent you from participating in other future auctions because other auction houses will think that you are the scammer and not the offending auction house. Also, shilling of bids is rampant on Live Auctioneers especially in coin auctions. You watch bids fly past inhumanly fast until the bid hits the melt value of a coin and then wham the brakes go on and 1 bid over the melt value the coin sells.

There is no way of knowing prior to going into an auction, whether or not the auction house is reputable and this is problematic because there are more criminal con artist auction houses on Live Auctioneers than there are good houses. Buyer Beware.

I bought old coins from U.S. Asset Forfeiture & Seizures, Inc. ..afsaucion at 26910 92nd Ave. NW ste.#209, Stanwood, WA

This might seem petty, but I bid on 20 (twenty) Indian Head pennies...they only sent 19 (nineteen) . After all the add-on fees, each penny cost approx $!.50 each. I contacted the company by phone and email over and over again asking them to simply mail me another penny. They didn't respond. They never answer their phone and they don't answer emails, unless they think you are a new customer/sucker. I asked Liveauctioneers to help, but also, no answer from them.

Earlier, I bought a Roseville Bowl from Skinner for $90. It arrived with a chip in it. Skinner would not answer my emails about the bowl's condition. Liveauctioneers spoke to Skinner about it and found out that it did not have a chip in it in the description. So then I have to deal with the shipper. The shipper quoted a price of $30 for shipping two tiny bowls to me, but actually charged me over $60. The shipping included insurance. But the shipper refused to apply for a refund through the shipping insurance. The most I could get was a $40 refund. I wouldn't be surprised if the shipper went ahead and filed a claim and received the price of the bowl and shipping in return.

I have bought jewelry from USAuction gallery. My "egg" earrings, 2 pieces of GENUINE 6X4mm oval citrine. 24 pieces of GENUINE single cut diamonds .11 carat tw. 3 grams of sterling silver layered with 18K Gold---well, after wearing the earrings a couple of times, the "diamonds" have turned green---emerald green...but they're not emeralds.

I advise everyone to save their money. Only buy stuff in person, not on this auction site

I bought $20, 000 worth of items from SMRJ AUCTIONS and to my surprise the package arrived in a very timely manner after 3 days of making payment. All items were as described and advertised. I would like to commend an excellent customer service who patiently answered all my queries. So far this is the best auction house I ever dealt with. Very good value of money and excellent service, this company is highly recommended specially now a days that it is very hard to establish trust in dealing with online purchases. I will be making more future purchases with SMRJ since they are proven and tested.

Wish I would have done my research beforehand. Rip off. Items are not what they show in picture. Frauds.

If you use Bing to get to Dean Richardson Artist, the painting on the top row, first one on left, is one that is hanging on my wall next to me, now. This is in an assertion by Live Auctioneers. I bought this painting, called "The Man" from Dean back in 97 or 98 and I have many letters I saved from our conversations and the sales.

I can't imagine where they got this picture, although I wonder if I put it up at Eldred's in around 2007 and it didn't sell. Eldred's has a habit of showing paintings as sold for the reserve I placed on them and which the sale did not meet. I found some paintings on artnet or one of the other computer research companies which Eldred said they sold but they didn't. I still have them. They were nasty people to me and tried to steal 5 of my paintings that I brought in and they didn't put up. I had to look everywhere in the their building and found some on the floor leaning against a clerk's desk in the front bull pen where clients are greeted. They never did return one painting and were rude and unapologetic.

Anne Cotton

Avoid SMRJ Auctions, I won a ring and when it arrived it was different than the picture, way cheaper looking. Was supposed to have an appraisal certificate, never got that. This auction is a scam...

U.S. Asset Forfeiture & Seizures, Inc. 26910 92nd Ave. NW ste.#209, Stanwood, WA

This outfit - Aspen Bryan or Bryan Aspen is a fraud.
Runs auctions under multiple names and essentially bids his items
Up. When he made a mistake and allowed a coin to sell below market value he refused to honor the hammer price. This is illegal and he will be fined heavily for it.

Hi everybody, I am a rug collector and many times autioneers even famous ones list junk itema as persian rug and try to inform them by calling them or Emaling them, but no often changed were made in the listing and description, be awar they don't accept the return or cancel the purchase, so you will be responsible for their fault as I was even I tryed to contact Liveauctioneers management team but no answer from their side also. Chandler, hutter New York, Charleston and many others insist to the this fraudulent activity, there should be some way to legally go after them

I have patronized many different auctioneers on the site. $45k in purchases, and I'm still happy.
A wood grain serving tray appeared differently. $300 mistake.
An art restorer was refused viewing Egyptian pieces which turned out to be fakes. $2k mistake.
A gallery list a sold item at $3000, then it showed up on ebay for $1500. $1500 discount.
I bought a collection of mis-identified haviland. $1000 profit.

The list goes on and on... I feel it has balanced itself.

I have had worse problems with ebay carnival glass being misrepresented.

Have bought antique/ collectible jewelry items for great prices and they have all been appraised as genuine. These were inexpensive and not in style at the time, and I would bet that they paid $5 per charm and we're thrilled to get $150 for them and so I did very well. These same type of charms, which are now back in style, are now listed at starting prices of 1500- way overpriced. I guess I'm saying that if you know about the category, while they don't, you can get some great items. I buy British deco era porcelain pieces but only from the US, as th auction houses often don't have a clue what the pieces are. Some are way overpriced, otters underpriced. Also agree about cindition - gave bought a bunch if pieces which were in much worse shape than they had described. Was told that since I had not, specifically, requested condition reports, they were under no obligation to refund thevitem ir reduce the price. When I did, or had, requested these reports, they still did nothing - told me that my idea of a scratch and their idea of a scratch must be different ! And last, there is a system with notes that they use to comment on buyers. Someone must have said I'm ok, because I am getting approved more easily than was the case for the past 6 months. I have bought about 150 pieces from live auctions and invaluable with no issue. One British auction house- barrington cooper - stay away as they made it impossible for ne to pay for their item. They wouldn't give me the information I needed for wiring, wouldn't take my paypal payment, called at weird times when I had given them a time to reach me. They cancelled the sale and opened man unpaid item strike on me. When I questioned them about it, they said they did it because it was the only way they could get back the fees live auction charged them, but would remove it once they got their fees back. They resold the item almost a year ago, but won't remove the strike. Every auction house which tells me I'm "pending" because of this strike, gets a response from me stating that I will no longer bid with them given how many pieces I've purchased, which they totally discount because of the one strike.I spoke with one auctioneer about the situation, at length, who confirmed the 'note ' system and about how much the auction houses are resisting creating a fair feedback system. I told him that I was really frustrated because of how much time it was taking to deal with the pending issue. He must have indicated I'm okay, because it's happening less often. I now advise auctioneers that if they want to choose to reject my money because of this one ridiculous strike, I'd find another site to spend my money with - and that if they want to try to build their internet bidding, they need to fix this or they'll be out of business in a year or so. Others who feel like me (as so many seem to based in this site) should be vocal about it like i have been. Contact live auctions, invaluable and let them know that if they want to stay in business, they need to make changes because they're loosing their buyers. Refer them to ebay, which has dealt with this issue. ebay now has a very robust feedback system, demands naccuracy of descriptions and a return policy for every item.

The North American Auction Company, Bozeman, Montana

This Auction Company in one of the Most Dishonest that I have ever seen. I got scammed with a North West Company Token, listed as an Original, but turned out to be a Copy worth about $10.00. They would not agree to a refund, even though they Listed it as authentic. Stay away from their Auctions!

Liveauctioneers & Jasper52 (same company and same employees) HR department always neglects its employees. Yesterday, I came to know one of the organizational bad behavior and ethic with their employees. If an ex-employee put negative reviews about them on the internet they threat their existing employees to try to remove the bad reviews from old employee otherwise, they'll kick them out too. Yesterday, the same thing happened to me. I made a bad review last week and their existing employee contacted me and requested to please remove the negative review otherwise the client will end their contract. I removed their review but somehow, I have to mention it again because of behavior with me today as they didn't communicate with me. I am going to mention the manager name here. "Jessica Mizrachi"

I am hopeless about how they can manage their customers if they don't care about the employees. Having to work or make relation with these toxic and negative people daily - is draining, unpleasant, stressful, abuse and far from good.

Titles and desks don't make great managers or loyal employees.

I never recommend this company for having any business relationship where no respect is given to employees.

I have all the proofs and if someone wants to see let me know.