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

[bcornell]

Originally Posted by Hooliganlv

A technical difficulty to my knowledge is not an outage, just an auction house error.

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".

[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?

[bounce]

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".

I disagree that it was an outage. The site was not “down” - I was able to still login and out and look at my account, etc etc.. It simply stopped accepting bids for this auction, and was showing all lots “closed”.

Within minutes, it was back to accepting bids in the extended format with a 30 minute countdown clock on all items - I and others know this because we bid in that period - I’m calling that period of time as the “interim”.

It was during that “interim”, when the clock went from counting down from 30 minutes to suddenly counting down from 24 hours.

All of this occurred PRIOR to receiving any communication from them, which came in the email others noted they received, and I also received.

Ultimately, I have nothing to gain by arguing “legality” of their decision, blah blah blah. The Vice President of Common Sense at my house says they fell short, so for now at least I’m voting with my feet and choosing not to participate any further.

[Hooliganlv]

Originally Posted by bounce

I disagree that it was an outage. The site was not “down” - I was able to still login and out and look at my account, etc etc.. It simply stopped accepting bids for this auction, and was showing all lots “closed”.

Within minutes, it was back to accepting bids in the extended format with a 30 minute countdown clock on all items - I and others know this because we bid in that period - I’m calling that period of time as the “interim”.

It was during that “interim”, when the clock went from counting down from 30 minutes to suddenly counting down from 24 hours.

All of this occurred PRIOR to receiving any communication from them, which came in the email others noted they received, and I also received.

Ultimately, I have nothing to gain by arguing “legality” of their decision, blah blah blah. The Vice President of Common Sense at my house says they fell short, so for now at least I’m voting with my feet and choosing not to participate any further.

Totally agree. Outage is defined, in rule 20 of their terms and conditions, as an internet or server service outage. Right above rule 21 which stipulates that employees may bid on auctions...

[AddieJoss]

I’m not an IT guy and neither are our contacts at Heritage. I asked that they convey the details of the IT issue from thier IT department. I get the feeling that explanation will not be coming. Will it happen again? How do we know if it wasn’t addressed? If it was addressed, it’s easy to explain to give comfort for those bidding.

Cory Weiser