Mhcc brian drent rude condescending irresponsible and just unkind human being
 

IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW ME BY USERNAME, THIS IS ANDY GELLER. I'm a pre-war and Mantle collector. I'm very active on Ebay as And_Gell I have 100% user feedback with tons of feedback. I'm also very active on FB in Harmon's, 1985 Deal or No Deal, and all the Pre-War Groups (Mainly TR).


Guys, I hate to post something like this but I just had the absolute WORST phone call with an Auction House and it's the 2nd awful call I've had with them in 2 years. Here is what happened this time, and below you'll see what happened last year. If any of you know Brian Drent of MHCC well, please reach out to him and tell him who's an upstanding person here. He was rude, arrogant, condescending.
Current Situation: I won an auction for under 3k and got an invoice on Dec 2nd at 1:40 pm. By 2:04 PM I wired him and replied to their invoice with my wire confirmation (as I do with all my auctions). 8 days later I received the invoice again, to which I replied, "Quite positive this was paid for last week. I did send confirmation".
Brian instantly replied, "Andy,
I have gone through PayPal and I don’t see the payment. Is there another name it may be under."
I instantly replied saying, " I sent you a wire" and sent a pictured screenshot of the wire. NO REPLY
The next day I emailed them, "Find the wire? No reply.
31 minutes ago I get another invoice from them. I replied "guys, I sent a wire". I then picked up the phone and called Brian's cell.
Brian tells me he is headed into the mountains and can't look now...but nobody saw a wire. I asked if he has gotten any of my emails to which he replies that he hasn't gotten ANY of my emails....apparently not even the ones he's replied to!
He couldn't even just say, we'll find it...or let me get on it and have someone look. He just needed to be right...about what I have no idea...and he was so condescending and rude....that it reminded me that I had an issue with him once before....which was a DOOZY!!!
Last year I won Multiple Lots from an auction totally over 20k. Of course I paid right away and the cards were shipped....but what showed up was just 1 card....for like $500....and I was missing over $19k in cards. I called Brian and he was super rude and defensive. He insisted he shipped all the cards and that he had proof that I signed for them. He said, there was NOTHING he could do. I signed for it and my insurance would have to cover it. He was also pretty accusatory, making me feel that he felt I received the cards and just was filing a false claim. It was a terrible phone many phone calls we had.
Guess what happened the next day?! Brian called to say they didn't ship the cards. They had printed out the label for all the cards and packed 1 card into the box...so what I signed for was 1 card with the tracking of all the cards. He hardly offered an apology.
After our call this morning when I told him to, "listen, just find the money and send me the cards....I don't need to keep going back and forth and....and it was getting heated....I finally hung up on him....Brian felt the need to call me back and and YELL AT ME "You don't hang up on me...and guess what...you're done buying from me".

I followed the rules...I bid...I paid...and twice now Brian Drent not only has failed, but acted like a complete ASS. Yelling at me. I paid...I'm out the money.
And guess what will happen....He'll find the money in his account. It's been there since December 2nd.
Emails for backup available upon request.

Sorry to hear this Andy!

Not a great look for Brian and his brand. No doubt in my mind you're in the right here and I'm wondering why he didn't just say he'd look into it and get back to you.

I'm hopeful they'll figure it out but guessing a few of us may not bid much or work with MHCC going forward.


Troy Rambo
TRambo Collection

That's rough
 

Hopefully they get it sorted out for you soon enough. Because not losing your payment is about as basic as it gets for an AH.

Not to defend Brian, but I'm guessing he's juggling a few things right now, plus probably on his guard for people looking to take advantage of his shop by making wild claims. Naturally, when we have a valid claim, all of the goons making stupid claims just make it more difficult, just because everyone is all so accustomed to having to defend against the goons and their spurious nonsense. But still, the response you received seems unnecessary, even if you were one of those goons peddling spurious nonsense trying to take advantage of the AH.

I'm fortunate enough to say that I have only had good experiences with auction houses, with one notable exception that I also documented on this board (as my first post to boot). To the credit of the AH in that case, the situation was quickly resolved, albeit with what seemed to me to be a little unnecessary drama due to some communication failures.

Not that they're looking for my advice, but it does seem like some AHs might benefit from having a team in place to handle special customer situations/disputes. Even if not a full team, just one person who can take it, instead of the big man. With any luck, they would be a bit better trained to handle such situations with tact and grace. That way the big man (who might be less graceful/tactful) wouldn't have to get personally involved, which seems to be the common denominator between your situation and my one negative AH experience.

I agree after hearing this, Mile High is one to stay away from. People can defend him all they want, but bottom line is this. He has chosen to run an auction business, and guess what it is like any other retail business, if you have crappy service you're going to have less customers. If you're running an auction business and have been for quite some time, the 2 mistakes listed above are mistakes that should have been eliminated by having a good process in place after the auction. Sounds to me like they have a fly by the seat of their pants process in place. The sealer for me though was it doesn't matter who you are, when you flat out lie about never getting emails or lie about anything else, I'm done doing business with you. You are only as good as your word in business and in life.

I’m sorry to hear about your experience, that sounds really frustrating.

I live in Denver and have participated in Mile High auctions since 2017. Their old offices were located very close to my restaurant, hence I pick up winnings from them to save on shipping. They even ordered some pizza from me one night during their closing of an auction. I thought that was a nice gesture. I’ve never dealt with Brian, my contact down there is Ben. He’s a great guy, that I have always enjoyed talking with on my visits to their offices. I’ve never had any issues, but instead I’ve only had great interactions with Ben. I will also add that their old and new offices were always very well kept, everything looked organized and everyone I’ve met there has been nothing but friendly.

It’s a bummer to hear about Brian’s response to this situation and I hope it comes to an appropriate resolution.

Jeff Rogoff

I get the frustration of the OP but I must be missing something because I am not seeing what exactly he has done wrong or how he was rude, condescending, irresponsible, etc etc, other than the OP assertions that he was.

I consider Mile High a pretty big operation and the fact that the owner has handed out his cellphone means he is pretty accessible. When things are not resolved to our satisfaction it is annoying but sometimes we need to place ourselves in other peoples' shoes to gain the proper perspective. Brian might be the owner of the company but I am confident a business of his size has people there more qualified to handle payment status of invoices, no?

And finally, I have done wires in the past and they have bounced back a week later because some minor thing was wrong on the wire instructions. Wondering if the OP has verified with his bank that the wire went through. Maybe the wire was initiated and it truly was not received by the Mile High.

I'm not a huge fan of the "customer is always right" canard. . . . having had public facing jobs in my life. . . . .and the customer isn't always right . . . sometimes he's totally out of line obnoxious dick . . . . but this interaction sounds like the business owner just assumed from the git go that this guy was full of it or misinformed. Sort of a weird tact to take.





QUOTE=Lorewalker;2296994]I get the frustration of the OP but I must be missing something because I am not seeing what exactly he has done wrong or how he was rude, condescending, irresponsible, etc etc, other than the OP assertions that he was.

I consider Mile High a pretty big operation and the fact that the owner has handed out his cellphone means he is pretty accessible. When things are not resolved to our satisfaction it is annoying but sometimes we need to place ourselves in other peoples' shoes to gain the proper perspective. Brian might be the owner of the company but I am confident a business of his size has people there more qualified to handle payment status of invoices, no?

And finally, I have done wires in the past and they have bounced back a week later because some minor thing was wrong on the wire instructions. Wondering if the OP has verified with his bank that the wire went through. Maybe the wire was initiated and it truly was not received by the Mile High.[/QUOTE]

This sums it up. No excuse today to be ignorant cor condescending (which Andy's post clearly shows). There are plenty of auction houses that know how to treat customers right. This is not the first issue I've seen with Mile High. I'm sure some have had decent experiences but for my money, I'll spend it elsewhere.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

How was his record on removing trimmed and altered cards from his auctions?

It doesn't really speak to the overall question who he takes consignments from, but when I pointed out an obviously altered Tiger Woods RC he did take it down.

Andy - sorry to hear about your experience with Brian. I had a similar experience with him and Mile High earlier this year. Seems like a reoccurring theme.

I know neither of the actors here, but it sure sounds like a business I would not want to work with. Mistakes happen and it sucks. But, how you fix the mistake says alot about you. I also don't excuse a business because they have to filter out other "bad actors." The OP says he has spent over $20K in a previous auction and had to fight to receive what he paid for after being accused of committing fraud himself. If I was in the same situation, upon discovering my company had royally screwed up, I guarantee you (1) the customer would receive a heartfelt "mea culpa" and promise to do better; and (2) that customer's name would go on a list of folks that deserve the benefit of the doubt in the future.

The only benefit of the OP's experience is that he hopefully has been burned enough by this guy to never deal with him in the future. Nobody deserves to be treated like that when pursuing a hobby they are supposed to be enjoying, especially when they are the ones trading their hard earned cash for a couple sheets of cardboard.

I have only had a couple problems come up while pursuing this hobby, and the big shops have bent over backwards to make things right. That is how you keep customers and grow your business.

If there is another side to this story, I would love to hear it, because the information presented so far paints a pretty bad picture of the AH.

Stuff trumps all

Sorry to hear about your experience.
Hopefully after the holiday that find your wired transaction and get you your card.

Would love to hear from Mile high and see/ understand there side.

I guess I am fortunate as I have had only good experiences with them. I to have his cell which I thought was impressive for his accessibility

Jeff,

If it was Ben Gassaway, he passed away this year. It’s on their main page.

Andy,

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Hopefully this will get resolved quickly.

All due respect, this sounds exactly like a defense of Brian.

If a guy is claiming he didn't get emails that he actually responded to, then his business has a serious issue.

I've always had a good experience with MHCC and will continue to use them.

Less a defense, and more a recognition of the realities associated with running a HA business. Not that it makes it right, and certainly the unprofessional AH behavior described by the OP isn’t defensible, even in extenuating circumstances.

Thanks for letting us know Andy, best of luck with icky situation. Hope all(else) is well

C

Is this when we start posting about the AH that have great customer service and the AH primary will go above and beyond to keep the bidders happy? If so, I'm starting off with Al at Love of the Game. Incredible customer service, great person to deal with!

Getting back to the OP - wow, sounds like someone was having a real bad day.

Andy,

I've won a few lots from MH but the transactions were simple and completed without further communication.

Did you verify the transaction went through and the funds were actually transferred? If so, then we're back to "wow".

My guess is that if the transaction was completed and things are as you posted, then I'd be wondering what's up with MH. Sad to hear about the issue and you can only hope that things somehow can work themselves out. If the transaction did go through, then Brian will either have to ship the auction winnings to you and eat a little crow or refund your money and think hard about what occurred and perhaps learn something from this.

People forget its the 2,3 and 4k items that were bought and consigned over the years that help establish some of these AHs. Now, if you dont have 50k or 50 luka rcs, they wont even call you back or care to help you. The day of reckoning is coming

It's not really a card or auction house issue, it is a basic customer service issue. AHs are a service business. The customer most definitely is not always right, but there are ways to deal with customers PROFESSIONALLY in these situations. There are right and wrong ways to approach it, and many (most?) in this business need to learn that. Drent gets a completely different response from Andy if his reply is: "I'm really sorry there is an issue, I will take a look at it when I get back to work Monday. In the meantime, could you email me a copy of the wire confirmation?" I find that sort of approach, asking for proof of the assertion while reserving judgment until later, weeds out the frauds without ticking off the legitimate customers with real issues. Andy wants his cards, Drent wants his customer base; they are not really at odds in their goals, they just had a bad interaction that could have been avoided.

This is it....

Funny you should ask. I did once buy a 1971 topps rack pack that he apparently was already told was not real. When I got it I emailed Steve at BBCE and he told me it was fake. MHCC offered for me to send it in to get authenticated. I told him I already spoke to Steve and was alerted it was fake. He did take it back.

Yes. As long as all goes well, you’ll be fine. It’s when something goes wrong that you will see this terrible side. But I hope that doesn’t happen to you. I do use literally every auction house and have never had an issue with any of them. Ever.

Agree about LOTG and Al. He’s the best. I actually did post a thread on FB yesterday praising Al and LOTG, coincidentally enough!

An update to the fiasco is the later in the evening yesterday I got an automated email with tracking of my package and then a human emailed me giving me my tracking number (so two emails). So clearly they found the money.

MH
 

Andy, thx for sharing your experience and updates. This and the other sources you share online are read and folks do take note.
Thx,
Cory Weiser

Andy its an unfortunate situation you find yourself in with them. Best to take your delivery and wish them well and move onto another AH.

Bingo! On the contrary however, he was adversarial from the get go, as if I was trying to pull one over on him. It wasn’t until he started saying “Andy, I don’t know what to tell you…” that I remembered him from the previous year’s issue. He kept saying jt. “Andy, I don’t know what to tell you…we don’t have your money.” “Andy, I don’t know what to tell you, I’ve never received any of your emails”. It was the same wording from last year, “andy, I don’t know what to tell you, we mailed your cards”. Anyone that knows this guy likely can attest that this must be his go to phrase.

If I were Brian, I would come on the board to tell his side of the story and if necessary, apologize for his behavior.
IMO Net 54 carries some weight in the hobby, and I don't believe he needs any adverse publicity.

Considering how many auction houses are guilty of or run by fraudsters and thieves (some convicted), I doubt bad publicity does much harm to an auction house. It's always forgotten and ignored by the next auction.

Sadly, this is the truest statement in the entire thread. :(

Accurate

I doubt he even cares. Based on a lot of feedback I’ve received, this is his MO. Fortunately there are many AH’s around and I use them all.

100% agree with Al and LOTG. I've only ever had fantastic results when working with them/him.

As for Brian and Mile High? I'm won't bother ever looking at another of their auctions again, regardless if he comes on the board and tries to defend himself. I work in a customer service based industry and his demeanor, arrogance and lack of tact has no place in business.

PLENTY of other AH's to bid at.

Thanks for sharing Andy, and happy to hear your cards are en route.

Bill

For sure. Same here. I always treat customers and suppliers with respect, regardless of size.

I hope they find the wire and the OP gets his cards soon.
Aside from that, MHCC still gets quality consignments and I'm sure will continue to do so in the future. With that being said, Brian Drent really has nothing to gain by posting here and defending himself as someone suggested he do; so I'd be shocked if he did.

Paul,

You must have missed Andy's post #27 where he mentions how he ended up finally getting an email with the tracking number for his cards. So apparently the AH did find the wire money he had sent them, and has now forwarded his cards. But sadly, no follow-up apology it seems came his way from the party at the AH he originally spoke with about his winnings.

Ed, thank you for letting me know.

I last spoke with Ben in March when I had won some items. I remember picking up the items with my son, Sam. Ben was so kind to take the time and ask Sam about himself and they talked baseball and golf. I’m really saddened to hear this news, he was always someone I looked forward to seeing and enjoy some friendly banter. You’ll be missed Ben, sending prayers to your family.

Not a chance, not his style.

I'm not surprised to hear this about Brian. I had 2 back to back bad experiences with him after recent auctions. And very similar scenarios to what you explained. I sure hope you get this worked out. David Wilson

I saw this on Tobacco Row and my only comment is I have no idea how you can 'miss' a wire if you are actually paying attention to your business. When one of my auctions is done, I take payment via PP, Zelle, Wire, Check, MO, etc. I'm hawking the account hourly to see what has come in and what needs to go out. I realize my auction is a pittance of MHCC but I have notifications set up to send me texts when a wire or Zelle comes in and they are 100% accurate. Sounds like the cards are on the way and it's in the carrier's hands now. Hopefully there's no issues there......

I have had nothing but excellent experiences in my dealings with Brian. In fact maybe 5-6 years ago, on Christmas Day, a customer of mine let me know of an issue he had in one of Brian’s auctions. I sent Brian a note and he responded to me on Christmas and called my friend and fixed his minor issue. I am very sorry you had to deal with this it seems unfair but I just wanted to put it out there that this has not been my personal experiences with Brian who has always been friendly and professional in all my dealings with him. Glad this seems to have been resolved. I understand an apology would be nice but if it were me I’d be happiest the cards were coming. My bruised feelings would get over it.

+1. Grossly out of character for the Brian I know.

One of the things I've learned in life is that people treat different people very differently. My experience with someone may be 180 degrees from your experience.

This wasn't the OPs first experience with Brian. So I suspect there is history here that colored this latest interaction a fair amount. Prob on both sides.

For transparency MHCC is an advertiser and Brian is a hobby friend, the latter for 20+ years.
I think it was just a crappy conversation, no more and no less. Brian doesn't rip anyone off.
If he saw an email or wire transfer, why would he say he didn't? That doesn't make any sense. I am glad the situation got worked out.

Reminds me of this card....N354 Consolidated and Paxi Cigarettes
.
https://luckeycards.com/n354turnargument.jpg

How Fitting
 

Love those two cards. Great job of matching the situation covered in this thread to the hobby. This was an interesting thread to follow. A couple of years ago I wrote a couple of columns about how when it comes to dealing with auction houses, do not judge them by how much money they bring in for one of your consignments. That's completely arbitrary and not in their control. Judge them by the customer service they provide and give them your business accordingly. Peace.

I realize there are always two sides to every story, but the OP sure seems to have done everything right and is a big spender. You can't run a business dumping on the good customers- you have to make it right 100% of the time!

Honestly, Mile High is off my list now. When I hear things like this, I remove these sellers from consideration. Too many choices to put up with horrible customer service. What a tool....

But it's ok to dump on us little cheap guys? :p Just pulling your leg, I'm sure we all know what was meant. I just couldn't resist. :)