David Hall T206 Part IV – Auction Ends April 16, 2020!

[Hooliganlv]

Originally Posted by bcornell

No, that's the exact definition of 'outage'. Some failure of the auction platform caused the site to be unavailable.


And it's not unethical, it's incompetent. There's a difference. Some of us may remember that the HA site was completely off-line for 3 days last fall except for a homepage that mentioned "malware".

The problem is we can’t determine if the cause was from incompetence or a deliberate decision by someone without investigation. Seems like a simple software programming for extended bidding not working is rare and least culpable. This raises a huge red flag.

[bcornell]

Originally Posted by Hooliganlv

The problem is we can’t determine if the cause was from incompetence or a deliberate decision by someone without investigation. Seems like a simple software programming for extended bidding not working is rare and least culpable. This raises a huge red flag.

"Simple" is an easy word to use, but there are many explanations how this could happen. You're voting for malice; I bet that's not it.



In the last year, we saw REA have to extend their auction by a day after the site froze up for hours on the final Sunday, we saw Heritage go off-line for 3 full days, and we saw Goodwin shut down his auction at the last minute (okay, that doesn't count since it's Bumbling Bill).

[hcv123]

I think most would understand a glitch or problem and the need for an auction house to address it. Not clearly and rapidly communicating with your clientele about it is really poor business practice. I think the idea of rolling bids back to what they were at 10PM is a good one albeit a little too little a little too late. Sorry to all those affected by this - I placed a single bid and let it go at that - so wasn't affected personally, but I feel your pain and frustration.

[rjackson44]

Originally Posted by hcv123

I think most would understand a glitch or problem and the need for an auction house to address it. Not clearly and rapidly communicating with your clientele about it is really poor business practice. I think the idea of rolling bids back to what they were at 10PM is a good one albeit a little too little a little too late. Sorry to all those affected by this - I placed a single bid and let it go at that - so wasn't affected personally, but I feel your pain and frustration.

Agree

[Santo10Fan]

Originally Posted by hcv123

I think most would understand a glitch or problem and the need for an auction house to address it. Not clearly and rapidly communicating with your clientele about it is really poor business practice.

I agree with this, it's tough to look at such a high-end auction house such as Heritage and see they have literally no one answering phones or emails at such a critical time. Both of these things can easily be done remotely and in fact should be during the pandemic.

We will likely never know what really happened-technical glitch, hacking, etc.-but we can ask the question as to why no one from Heritage was working from home in a support capacity at the close of one of its auctions. I am reserving judgement, but this hobby has been rocked by fraud so many times it's easy to see why some go there first. The fact that some of these cards are so rare they may never be sold again only compounds the agony of those who got screwed by the timing.

[perezfan]

It's really "interesting" how Mr. Calderon comes onto this forum regularly to hype and promote Heritage's upcoming auctions and events. But when you really need a clarification or explanation, he is nowhere to be found.

Very poor customer service, by not returning to this thread for purposes of clarification, or to address their valued customers' concerns.

Same thing happened when Heritage was repeatedly asked about the trimmed/altered Lou Gehrig and Bobby Hull Cards which ran their full courses at auction. Nothing but silence after the initial hype. Hopefully (at a minimum) they reported the consignor to the FBI, but we will never know the truth about what really happened or what parties were behind it.

[ValKehl]

Isn't silence the typical damage-control method used by large organizations, with the expectation/realization that customer furor will soon die down and then pretty much disappear?

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Possibly Val, but I can think of instances where companies, even huge ones, stepped up and took their lumps, and followed up with meaningful change. That always impressed me.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Isn't silence the typical damage-control method used by large organizations, with the expectation/realization that customer furor will soon die down and then pretty much disappear?

All too often, I suppose it is.

PSA is of this same mindset, and it has worked well for them (so far, anyway...)