@Cabin Fever Auctions posted:...lots 895, 896, & 913 because he disagreed with our auction terms...
One Gauge items. Darn. I was hoping it was something I missed out on. 
I will say based on dealing with other auction houses I was used to getting an invoice and calling in/making a payment. I was a bit surprised when I got the email that my card had been charged. then I went back and read the terms closer and realized I should have expected that - my fault for being surprised, no one else's. The only difference this makes to me is to make sure going forward that I register with the card I intend to pay with.
Sorry you had a bad actor.
I'm sorry to hear this Jared. I have been to many train auctions at your warehouse and Shady Maple. I have purchased from those locations and on your new app since Covid-19. I find the app to work great. You guys are doing a great job.
It's a shame someone is claiming the forum is bashing your company. I am a Keystone Member and know how supportive you have been in keeping our train meets going here in Lancaster, PA. I know you support other trains meets too. Keep up the great work. Don't let one person speak for all of us.
In regards to the auction, your terms and conditions are clear when registering.
Excellent Response to him and us and KUDOS to keeping the door open for him. Your terms are clearly stated. It is not your fault if people can't or will not read. As for me Sir I can only say I was greatly impressed with your auction house and you when I ask a simple question. FAST AND CLEAR RESPONSE! I have seen people saying you have to figure in the terms and tax BUT (Yes we all have them and use them mostly for pooping) ALL AUCTION HOUSES DO IT and your are fair! Count me as one very satisfied and returning to hopefully purchase more (If my tree doesn't die from being over harvested or the Boss doesn't bury me. The dog and I are currently sharing his bed).
Thank You Jared for being here for us and to answer our questions. I'm wondering if it would be at all possible to have some better pictures taken of auction #217, the UP Big Boy? The cab is hidden by the tender and the overhead lighting shadows the details of the lower half of the engine. Other steamers have additional photos taken of the engine laying on their side and photographed from above so that the details are well lit. Also, the description has no item number or cab number, although it has it's original box which would tell us if there was a photo of the lid. Thanks again.
Thanks everyone for the praise and great responses! We deal with SO many wonderful customers but we can not make everyone happy. It's unfortunate that occasionally the unhappy ones stick in your head the most but these kind words really help! I hope this bidder comes around and corrects his lack of understanding of the terms.
Dave - I've made note to get more picture of lot 217 listed for you. This goes for anyone and any item, if there is a detail you are interested, please ask!! It's best for our tracking and response time to send us an email with these questions as well - cabinfeverauctions@gmail.com
Thanks!
Jared
We had another bidder inquire asking to "push his lot to the front of the shipping queue because I paid a lot for an item". Well, I hate to tell him that there were 40 some other clients who spent more than him. We are a fair and honest company and treat everyone the same. His request to ship his greater than $1000 purchase before all the $40 purchases is just not how we handle business. Every shipment is handled in the order in which the request is received, no matter how big or small.
Again our terms are clear that shipping is handled in house and it may take up to 10 business days for your shipment to go out. We have been working HARD following the weekend sale to ship fast (while taking care to pack items well!) and packages are leaving every day. We appreciate everyone's patience and are again always happy to answer questions anyone has. Thanks!!
Jared
Jared, how do I delete my favorite or watched items? from the last auction.
Will these delete automatically at new auctions start?
Engineer-Joe - In our system, the "My Items" section is sale date specific. So you don't have to delete them from a sale date, they will only be in that sale when you are viewing it in the completed section. The next sale will have it's own "My Items" section for that sale date.
If you would still like to remove items from any sale date in your My Items, if you click on the star it has options. The top "toggle" will remove it. There is also some options for reminders to be sent when the items is closing, etc. Thanks!
Jared
I have not seen anyone bashing Jared and his auctions. Whomever it is that's unhappy is just throwing mud at the wall. I know it's most likely not, but it sure made me think of Pink Ruler guy
I was impressed with the way everything was handled and will be bidding on future auctions. I have a few questions, I placed a fixed bid on an item and then decided that I wanted to raise that bid even higher but I could not figure out how to do it. Second question, is there more standard gauge coming in future auctions and how much ?
Thanks again, Keith K
I bid on several items and won 4 of the bids. I found your terms very clearly stated (not sure how you could be anymore clear). Perhaps the guy spent more than we wanted so he has created an excuse.
Regarding shipping, why would any policy be based on "$ spent determines shipping priority"? Absolutely asinine.
Two questions regarding your auctions:
First, how do I cancel a bid if I change my mind during the bidding process? (not talking about the final seconds)
Are there handling fees in addition to the standard shipping fees?
Lastly, are train auction items ever tested and rated per standard TCA or LCCA standards? I am comparing this process to club for-sale listings.
Thanks, Scott
Thanks again for the ongoing comments and questions!
Keith - Sorry I don't have a real clear answer for you on the amount of STD Ga, but there will be more for certain. O Ga is far and away the most quantity that we'll be selling but there is A LOT more of everything to sell. The "Specific Amount" to use the platforms wording allows you to raise the bid up to a direct number. This is the equivalent of an in person sale where if the Auctioneer is asking for say $200 you raise your hand and holler $500! to "scare people away". So the specific amount, even if the next increment is say $50, bidding $150 in specific bypasses all the increments in between and you are now the top at $150. You can't however "bid again" to raise it further either by the increment or specific amount as it won't let you outbid yourself. If you are the high bidder in an manner, you only option is to add a "Max Bid" option and let the system bid on your behalf (eBay Style).
Scott - There is no option to cancel a bid once place. The bid is basically a contract to buy the item at that amount so we urge everyone to know what you are bidding on before you place the bid. It can not be retracted because of a change of heart. Same goes for live in person auctions and pretty well all auction houses I have ever dealt with. If you could, the auction process would break down. So again, please be certain when you bid. For the shipping, The minimum handling fees are between $3-6 depending on item value/size. The more realistic fee once the packing time is calculated is more like $10-15 on average for time, packing materials, box, etc. and then obviously the carrier cost on top of that. ALL items are insured when shipped, not option cancel insurance. We can't post a cost to ship all items, but if there is any specific item someone would like to have a shipping quote, we are happy to get a rough estimate for them prior to close. Please just email us.
I will also be posting another topic for the 2nd Auction which is already live on Oct 24th. Thanks!
Jared
@Cabin Fever Auctions posted:Everyone - I just had an unpleasant conversation with a bidder I currently won't name. He's refusing to pay for lots 895, 896, & 913 because he disagreed with our auction terms. It states right in the terms that
- "If you are a successful bidder in one of our online auctions, the credit card you provided at registration will be billed shortly after the auction closes, and a receipt/invoice will be emailed to you."
We are not asking everyone to like our terms, but this is what has been setup and it what must be followed if you'd like to bid. A couple hundred people have no problem with this and have no complaints. Their cards were charged and all is well, pickups are happening already and shipments are in process.
This Bidder went on to tell me how we are being bashed on this forum. I have not searched high and low but I am certainly trying to respond to all questions, concerns, or complaints. After he told me how we are being bashed about how we do business he told me I should change the terms which he doesn't like. I told him it was ridiculous to be told to change my terms by a bidder when so many bidders can follow the terms without issue.
So look for these trains the bidder is refusing to pay for to be resold in a subsequent auction and PLEASE - Read our terms and conditions and ask any questions prior to signing up or bidding. We are quite reasonable people are always open to suggestions, but we are not going to deal with being told we are wrong or we aren't doing business how we should be (references other auction houses) etc. Should this gentleman change his mind, he's welcome to contact us.
As always, we appreciate your support. Thanks!
Jared Schoenly
Well, I thought I might update on this situation. I gave the buyer the benefit of the doubt and since his bank closed a card for him, we quoted shipping and arranged an alternate payment to rectify this purchase. It has been since Oct 1st now that I was told "Payment was sent" for the items/shipping and this buyer's payment has not arrived, nor has he had the courtesy to respond to a few voicemails or emails. That's 25 days now with no communications. We certainly like to work with everyone and do our best but this type of buyer makes it hard for us not to call them out by name. I do hope that the person is OK, but I feel some response could be made about this matter by now. Guess these items will be on the market again in the future.
Thanks to everyone who has continued to support us and MTH on these sales!
Jared
@Cabin Fever Auctions posted:We had another bidder inquire asking to "push his lot to the front of the shipping queue because I paid a lot for an item". Well, I hate to tell him that there were 40 some other clients who spent more than him. We are a fair and honest company and treat everyone the same. His request to ship his greater than $1000 purchase before all the $40 purchases is just not how we handle business. Every shipment is handled in the order in which the request is received, no matter how big or small.
Again our terms are clear that shipping is handled in house and it may take up to 10 business days for your shipment to go out. We have been working HARD following the weekend sale to ship fast (while taking care to pack items well!) and packages are leaving every day. We appreciate everyone's patience and are again always happy to answer questions anyone has. Thanks!!
Jared
Well, I posted previously about this customer with the problem coming back again. I got a series of complaint emails from him today trying to tell me how to run my business. Now, right or wrong, we have chosen for customer service to attend to each customer in a neutral manner and everyone is treated equal. As far as shipping goes, as I previously stated we work on the shipments in the order in which they are requested. Following a large sale like these MTH auctions we get a significant number of requests.
Here is where we disagree. He once again feels that because he spent more money than some of the other bidders he should be bumped to the front of the line for shipping. He ignores the fact that he waited more than 24 hours to make his request for shipping. In that time nearly 140 people made the request as the terms and our communications ask – following the rules – and we have shipped nearly 100 of those packages to date. This keeps us within our 10 business days for shipping we state in our terms for most everyone. We have had a few occasions going over but most all shipping requests are happening within the called-out timeframe. I hardly feel we deserve his comments that we are “ill prepared for the volume”.
Now I mention again we keep it fair. Just because he paid more for items should not afford him special privileges he is asking for. We cater to buyers with a range in budgets. We do not discriminate buyers who may have a $5, $50, $500, or $5000 budget. We sell all secondhand goods to collectors as well as resellers and its in our best interest to treat everyone the same, its simply good business.
I frankly do not have time for this type of back and forth communication and bickering with a problem customer so as our terms also state, we can also refuse to work with any bidder at our discretion. Therefore, we have refunded this gentleman and we wish him a good day in his collecting and business (Great to see he is a Forum Sponsor). I hate to make this type of post as I do not want to bad mouth anyone, but in this case – I had to say it.
Once again we do thank all the faithful, patient buyers who are able to read our terms which you agree to prior to bidding and let us run our business how we have chosen to do so rather than try to tell us how we should do it. Constructive criticism is welcome, but we follow our policy and work hard for our buyers AND our sellers. Thanks!
Jared
I think you guys have done an excellent job with handling these auctions. Your terms are clearly spelled out and My items for the last auction arrived in a timely fashion with good packaging to protect the items. I agree that no matter how much you spend there should be no preferential treatment for large vs. small spenders.
Keep up the good work!!
