Bidder Reviews for Five Star Auctions & Appraisals (4)

UPS has possibly lost the item I won@ Auction and UPS is currently trying to locate it.

I was winning bidder for Lot 0248A in their August 19th sale. I received notification and an invoice for $307.50 CAD on 20/8/16. I was on vacation by then and attempted to make payment on my return to UK on 6th September. I made four attempts to wire payment but their account details do not work. I then phoned same day and spoke to a Chinese woman with very poor English. She told me she was only person in office. She took my credit card details for payment (They have no secure payment system). Several hours later I received an email from a woman calling herself 'Lucy'. She claimed that their small print stipulated that payment and collection had to be made in 5 days and that this is stated on their website. She then claimed that they had returned object to consignor. I have been a prominent Asian art dealer for 25 years and normal practice is that an auction house will grant thirty days for payment and send reminders to successful bidder (this was not done). There is no mention of a five day deadline in company's invoice to me or in their payment instructions. Even without fact that August is holiday time it is almost impossible to arrange and deliver an international wire transfer in five days. What I suspect happened is that this company discovered that they had sold lot cheaply to a dealer (me) and decided to use small print in their website to keep it for themselves. I note that they have been prosecuted previously for dishonest practices involving ivory. I hope that my feedback will be logged-if they have done this once they will do it again. Best regards, Jonathan Tucker Jonathan Tucker Antonia Tozer ASIAN ART 37, Bury Street St James's London SW1Y 6AU Tel. (44) (0) 20 7 ********** Fax. (44) (0) 20 7 ********** Email: ********** Website:asianartresource.com

very reliable

Currently we are experiencing issues with payment via my DEBIT/Credit Card. The Bank of Nova Scotia card doesn't work as it should, and we are working at it. I don't know for sure whether the card is at fault, or if the technical connection between the auction house and the bank is the problem. So far the auction house has been very accomodating.