Live Auctioneers

This company has a culture of pro-seller and anti-consumer bias. The culture there encourages abuse of the consumer and some serious violations of consumer rights and privacy. There is a dispute process for the sellers if an invoice goes unpaid, but if one of the auction houses engages in bad behavior, the consumer is left with no recourse and is simply ignored. The terms of service the way they are written do not necessarily support this, and you don’t find this out until you have a bad experience on their site. In my case, I was told they would not remove an unpaid invoice dispute against me even though the auctioneer was harassing and untrustworthy, but when it came to the auction house violating website policy there was no reporting mechanism and no dispute process. Yet they also tell you in the terms of service to report policy violations. It is only when you encounter those policy violations you figure out that it only for the benefit of the auctioneer sellers, not for the consumer who is buying thing on their website. The auction house in my case had violated my privacy and was misusing my private information outside of the liveauctioneers website. When I tried to report it, I got little help, and eventually LiveAuctioneers terminated my account and deleted everything to cover it up. The dispute process on the site is used to force consumers to give up their consumer rights or to accept abusive behavior by the sellers, because if they don’t the website will stop them from participating in other auctions or else terminate their account completely. Even if you have a great track record buying regularly from another auction house, if you don’t accept the abuse of one bad auction, that bad auction can report you to liveauctioneers who will suspend you. The support staff says that they will work with the buyer to find a resolution, but they don’t- what they do instead is to refuse any resolution that doesn’t fit with what the auction house already wants you to do. In one chat session the rep said she would help mediate, but as soon as I recommended a compromise her immediate response was “No they don’t do that”. there was never even an offer to go take my suggestion back to the auctioneer. there was no back and forth or reciprocal effort on the part of the LiveAuctioneers to actually work for a resolution. Instead they misconstrued my request and deleted the bad review I had left for the auction house, which was not what I asked them to do. The auction house who is still there on LiveAuctioneers had taken my information and started to engage in cyber-bullying by posting my information in unflattering light in fake reviews on the google listings for my workplace. I reported this to LiveAuctioneers who said they asked the business to take it down, but instead what they did was delete my account to cover it up. The support staff is difficult to reach and almost never calls back. If they write you back 2-3 days later, you are lucky. A chat window can be a faster way to reach someone, but it is often useless, because the support is so poor and so one sided. The dispute process against bidders is so one-sided against the consumer that it makes people give up their right of rejection under normal circumstances at any other kind of retailer and forces them to accept inferior or non-conforming goods. I felt that I had to accept an item that did not match the description, because the auctioneer filed a non-payment dispute, and I had no recourse with LiveAuctioneers. I reported the non-conformity to LiveAuctioneers and sent photos but never got a response from them. I felt that I had to complete the payment and take the damaged item against my will just to get LiveAucioneers off my back and let go of my account. And then I went to my bank later and filed a chargeback. Without the pro-seller, anti-consumer policies of LiveAuctioneers I normally at any other business would have had a right to reject and not pay for that item. LiveAuctioneers won’t let consumers do that. I have filed complaints with numerous consumer groups this week over how poorly I was treated on this website. I would point out prior to this I had made dozens of purchases from numerous other auctions on the site and never had a problem until now. LiveAuctioneers would rather throw me under the bus than have to confront one of its auction houses for abuse. it’s just sad.

Stopped receiving emails from LA a few weeks ago. Tried to email/ phone to get it rectified, only to find that customer service is virtually non existent. They claim to have Live Chat available from 9-5 on weekdays, but there’s no way to access it. No response to emails, phone call ended at an extension that “wasn’t available”. When an auction is won, communication with the seller is essential- recently, all of them have filed disputes because I hadn’t paid, which is a direct result of LA not sending out automated emails. From what the auctioneers told me, there have been other complaints about the same issue. They’re not getting paid because customers aren’t being invoiced. They don’t even go as far as reaching the Junk/ Spam folder. I have added them as a safe sender/ contact as they told me to the last time this happened. Very unhappy.