LiveAuctioneers

This website does not help its customers. It not even possible to find a help contact form or help email address on the site. One simply uses the info email address (after assuming it's the only way to do it when finished searched to no end) to move forward. LiveAuctioneers appear extremely untrustworthy. I have tried to close my account multiple times and each time I am told the account is closed, but after waiting a week or two, I login to the account, no problem. It still has all of my information on it and works fine. Customer service will reply and tell me it isn't open, it is closed. They are worthless and likely a scam to collect personal information. Beware.

Press the button and buy - it's a pleasure.
The problems start with sending - in my case - from USA auctions to Lithuania.
Example (there are not only this):
I bought a Japanese picture at the Cedaburg auction.
It cost about $ 98.
I transferred money.
And more - no contact. Nobody reply to my email.
Just write: parcels are sent by our companions - PostNet.
Ok.
PostNet sends a sending offer: 1263 dollars for shipping to Lithuania!
What do I have to think? That I'm - stupid for this buying - because - maybe before an auction i already had to know the shipping cost (?)
Conclusion:
I would - but I'm afraid to buy - because i could get into similar situation again - when the shipping cost is ten times more than the value of the item.
I think - If you are not satisfied with the shipping price - it must be possible to cancel this buying.
When LiveAuctioneers send an invoice for the item, the amount for shipping must be provided in the same invoice.
I had no problems with sending pictures from Peru - Lima, also from European auctions.
But to buy more at US auctions - don't want more.

I used liveauctioneers for 2 weeks. 1st week and auction went fine. Bids were accepted and posted in a timely fashion to win 1st item in 1st auction I used them for. 2nd week and biding on 4 different auctions on several items my bids never made it. Bids were higher than highest bid and even said it was sent before item closed. I did not win and bid didn't show in my lost item bids. If you are serious about your auction DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE. As I see it, LiveAuctioneers can't handle the bid traffic on their server so the service isn't worth the hours of wasted time watching and bidding. After having this happen to me I searched about customer complaints. Ranked 93rd in online auction services by BBB, personal info hacked from their server, no help when auction house doesn't ship after paying invoice, charges and collections for customers that never bid on items as account was hacked. DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE.

As a new novice to the world of online bidding, I share my story and email exchange with Live Auctioneers (LA).

After discovering a couple of prints that peaked my interest and felt I would like to bid on, I created an account with LA and clicked on a link to be approved as an official bidder. After a day or so, I was declined for no stated reason. I responded to the initial email, inquiring what information was necessary to be approved, only to receive a second email that stated I "was approved." The email agent, 'NIMA", replied that a picture ID and a copy of your credit card was needed to be approved. #RedFlag While I was semi OK with sending an ID, I was not with so casually sending CC information. And so, I explored the website a bit more and found an area under my profile where I could "safely" input my CC information and so, I did. I informed Nima of this and she kept responding to me to send picture ID and credit card number. My consistent response was that I had already place my CC info on my profile on the website and then went on to express my concern about alternate ways to seek approval. Consistently, Nima suck to her response as requiring facial ID (no problem) and CC information to which I went further expressing my concern over that as I didn't feel comfortable with providing digits and expiration date over unsecured email. I asked if there were alternate ways to address the issue, but never did Nima acknowledge the question. Finally, Nima left the conversation without any willingness to work with me to find an acceptable solution. Maybe LiveAuctioneers are so good and successful with what hey do, they don't need to spend countless time with small bidders like me. Who knows. But, what I am taken with is what seems to be an antiquated way of approving bidders and a frankness of "you're not worth my time." I personally don't feel good with the whole episode and email exchange as it gives me pause of what kind of operation they are running. Maybe this was an isolated incident, but it still smells of something not on the "up and up." So, based on this, I'm not giving them a high rating at all. The prints I wanted to bid on are not worth compromising my personal identity and credit rating.

Timothy

Bought/ won object that had high"professional" appraisal & purportedly owned by famous historical figure. Milestone Auctions- auction house promoted by Live Auctioneers.
The object provenance was a complete fraud. - No Proof of provenance.
I provided proof of fraud and registered a complaint with Live Auctioneers. Was assigned a case number. Was told repeatedly "we also believe that all sales should be based upon accurate and transparent descriptions such that there is no tolerance for intentionally misleading information on our site"
Well. To sum it up succinctly - It's all B. S... and in other words- LiveAuctioneers are guilty of condoning and enabling crooks.

To read my correspondence with LiveAuctioneers.com illustrates that this companies policy regarding fraud is B. S. is attached in Jpeg form (edited for extraneous material). What more Proof do you need?

I stumbled onto LiveAuctioneers during a quarantine late night search for sterling dollhouse miniatures.
The selection was amazing, almost too good to be true. I was very skeptical but the items offered in the
Various auctions were too interesting to pass up. I took the plunge, providing as little personal information as
Possible in case the site was not legit. I am now hooked. It is great entertainment to browse the various auctions
Looking at other people's fabulous treasures. I have actively bid in two auctions and I am thrilled with my choices.
The experience was very professional, shipping was easily arranged and I will now call myself a regular.

I have carefully watched the bidding on this site, for various auctioneers that LiveAuctioneers represent. They keep relisting the same items again and again, because they don't sell. There was a print that had been "auctioned" several times before. Minimum bid was $1. I bid $10, and it showed the bid at $1, with 1 bid. My reserve bid was the $10 max bid I entered. Just before it closed, a "bid" came in at $250. After the close, it showed 1 bid at $250. Had this been a real auction, you would see 2 bids, my original one and then the "$250 bid", which of course was a sham, designed to make sure a minimum floor was established that they'd "sell" at. This exact same item will show up again in a few weeks (they don't even change the # out of # of the print, so you can tell it's the exact same print). Same thing happens in the live auctions. You go in and bid $100 on something, it shows it, and then the next bid is $1500. Who would just come in and bid $1500 on something with a $100 bid? A shill, that's who. With some of the auctioneers, if they don't get the price they want, they just post "Lot Passed" after the auction. No mention is made of a reserve. Stay away from these shysters - there are no deals to be had here.

I've been in many live auctions on eBay, and the bidding activity on liveauctioneers.com looks so unnatural. It looks like sellers can generate artificial bids that magically reach a prespecified target price. The items don't actually sell, but then get re-listed again.

I never see reviews for these supposedly "sold" items. And the "final" prices are 5x higher than on eBay. Totally unrealistic.

This site is a total scam and LiveAuctioneers should be sued for price fixing.

LiveAuctioneers deal with unethical auction houses. They offer no customer support-except placating emails. I recently won an item, was very clear that I wanted signature delivery-and was shipped without signature delivery or insurance. The package is lost and I'm out the full amount.
They are also clueless regarding fakes and make minimal to no effort to enforce. Selling fake antiques across state lines is a federal offense.

So I thought I would share several experiences with Liveauctioneers.com with you in hopes that those out there heed caution. First off, Liveauctioneers.com is a platform for auction houses, LiveAuctioneers do NOT personally run auctions, they just have a site that auction houses go through to do their auctions. I bid on several pieces of jewelry and an autographed guitar from the auction houses, 1st Asset Collections, IRS Liquidations, Federal Government Liquidation, US Auction Gallery and High End Memorabilia (none of these are true United States government run auction houses, it is JUST a name). Here is what I can tell you: The pieces of jewelry from 1st, IRS, US Auction and Federal were new. They have their "estimates" in the thousands and their certified appraisal for replacement in the thousands as well. Long story short, the estimates mean nothing, and their appraisals are done my a gemologist company that no jeweler or other gemologist has ever heard of and they aren't worth the piece of paper they are written on. Every single piece of jewelry that I purchased was of lower quality than what was stated in the listing. For example a ring that was "appraised for replacement" at $7K-8K, was worth $600. Three of the necklaces that I purchased were completely scratched (the auction house said I had unrealistic expectations of what I was receiving?). Some of the pieces that I received were not even the pieces that were in the photos. A lot of the times their descriptions for the quality of jewelry put a range on it. So it could be a near flawless diamond to an average diamond, and more or less you are going to be getting the average diamond. I purchased a 1 carat ring that was listed as a D (which is colorless) and SI (which is the affordable grade of diamonds, nice, but not overly expensive). It came back as a. 9 carats, G (which is way lower) grade, and an I3 (which is as low as you can get for inclusions, or spots in the diamond). Lastly, I "won" a guitar signed by the Foo Fighters for $900. It was a cool looking guitar not like many autographed ones out there. It had been 17 days since I won and other than the invoice to pay within 24 hours, I did not receive any contact info about when my guitar would be arriving. I looked back at the listing and it said it could take up to 30 days! I also noticed on Liveauctioneers.com that the next week there were two auctions for the exact same guitar. The photos for the guitars were exactly the same as mine. Not one difference. Everybody's signature is always a little different, but these guitars were the same. How could this be? I contacted the auction house and asked why it takes so long for them to send it Fed Ex, did they even have the guitar?!?! They replied that they did NOT have the guitar and they "auction" off items for cheaper prices in the hopes that they will "sell" a couple of them and then go to another seller and get a discount for the quantity they are buying. So basically they are auctioning off something they do not have, and I don't know how they could get that exact same guitar with the exact same signatures from the Foo Fighters on 3 different guitars. Do they personally know the Foo Fighters and ask "hey, can you guys sign these 3 guitars real quick"? Completely shady.
So what did I do about all of this? I put up a F*&@ing stink about it to the auction houses, Liveauctioneers.com, and the BBB. You can check out my reviews there. In the end, I did get refunded by every single auction house, but after many emails and saying that I would not at all mind bringing legal action because of fraudulent and misleading practices (as I would easily win). Though they have a Buyer's Fee which is around 19-25%, so you are not going to get that back most of the time. Liveauctioneers.com and the BBB did help with mediating between the auction houses for resolution.

I do feel that Liveauctioneers.com is somewhat responsible for these auction houses and their practices and should do a better job at weeding out quality auction houses and questionable auction houses. The bad ones make the good ones look bad as well.

What did I learn? For what I have experienced it is the old saying if it is too good to be true, then it probably is. Make sure you read the entire listing description. Contact the auction house for any questions about quality and guarantee of the jewelry and refunds. Look up on the BBB and online for reviews on these auction houses, you won't find many good ones. Realize you are not able to handle and see the items up for bid personally, so you have no idea about the authenticity. If you want to buy something at auction, then I would say go to a live auction.

I hope this helps with your questions and concerns about Liveauctioneers.com. If you would like to contact me personally, please do so. If I can help out just one other person, then I have done my job.

John
Java
388@
aol.com

Stay far away from this group AND their affiliate Austin Auction Gallery - the online bidding closes and it shows you have the winning bid- then LiveAuctioneers use your high bid to bid up other bidders on Live Auctioneers site - NICE TRY - my eyes are WIDE OPEN to your predatory practices - at the close of bidding on Austin Auctioneers own site I had the high bid on six lots - all six lots had no other bidders bidding on the items against me which is how I usually bid - MAGICALLY overnight SOMEONE on LIVEAUCTIONEERS apparently won the items - my gut feeling they didn't want to sell the items that cheaply for bottom reserve price so they faked sales to other bidders - SCAM SCAM SCAM don't waste your time on either site - I have photos showing I had the high bid on all six items - it just isn't humanly possible for me to have lost all of them to last minute bidders

I have been a customer of Live Auctioneers for over five years and spent thousands of dollars through their web site with auction houses., without problems. Recently I bid on an auction hosted by Imperial Auction of FL. Since this was an auction house I had never bid with before I was very careful to read their terms and conditions regarding payment and shipping outside of the USA. I saw no problems in their Term & Conditions other than I had to pay Live Auctioneers rather than them directly. No big deal. So I proceeded to register for the auction using my Canadian address. Everything went fine and I was accepted to bid. I bought around $700 worth of goods and promptly paid the Invoice sent by Live Auctioneers. I separately mailed the auction house with shipping instructions. After hearing nothing from the auction house I mailed again after about a week, again nothing. After mailing them a third time inquiring about shipping I was forced to contact Live Auctioneers. On Nov 17 th I got a nasty phone call from Imperial Auctions telling me the don't ship to Canada because LiveAuctioneers can't get insurance! I don't know what the hell they are talking about as every other auction house in the US I deal with can. I told them so, and if they can't be bothered to learn their own USPS system just cancel the transaction. Joe, (I think that was his name) acted like I was trying to rip him off and told me if I wanted my goods I had better send him a money order and then maybe he would refund my credit card. Since the credit card transaction was made out to Live Auctioneers I know that he can't issue a refund. Blatant lies and an attempt to extort more money.
When I pointed out to Live Auctioneers that they are responsible for this mess since they were the ones who I paid, they stopped responding to me as well. I hope I can get the money back from my credit card company buy doing a charge back.
I will not longer deal with Live Auctioneers who seem to be in league with backwater auction houses who want international coverage but don't have a clue how to deal with anything but their own little backwater, side of the road auctions.

LiveAuctioneers don't vet their auction houses. Dont go anywhere near these guys. I bid and won on a watch and what was delivered was something straight off Canal St. When I asked them what I could've done differently to protect myself (apart from trusting them) they said I should've paid closer attention to the auctioneer and their history. Maybe THEY should've done that before allowing criminals on their site?
DO NOT GET RIPPED OFF LIKE ME. STAY AWAY

My experience with LiveAuctioneers: well it can be described as the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good is the grand variety of items available to bid on. The process of signing up, entering an auction, following along, clear instructions on the specifics of the policies/shipping methods/cues for notices/details of items are all first rate. I also utilized a personal phone contact and I received professional and swift response to my questions and comments.
The bad is the unfortunate wait for the item to finally get to me as shipping is a long process and timeframe.
The ugly is my interaction with two of the auction houses where with the bids I won an item was cracked. The auction company did replace the item, I was surprised when their rep stated to me that that is part of the character of the item. I also encountered a long wait time for an item I won, and when I called the auction house --two separate times, I was told LiveAuctioneers would send out the next day and overnight it to me. Well, that was not done and I was disappointed by the lie within their shipping department. I finally did get the item, five weeks after my first call.
But, with LiveAuctioneers, I have trust and confidence in their practices.

All accounts were hacked in June, including personal details, addresses, last 4 digits of payment details, passwords(that were encrypted) but I was only told about this in August as LiveAuctioneers decided only to tell those who had most recent activity. This is shocking behaviour and they should have told everyone. But of course, there is comeback on them, they will continue as usual and its only the customer who suffers.

After calling liveauctioneers about a dispute concerning a "late" fee on a purchase from a auction. LiveAuctioneers did absolutely nothing about me being charged 75.00 late fee even though I called the auction house many times following the auction and got no answer nor an answer machine. I believe it is a scam of the auction house. The only thing liveauctioneers said was for me to call the auction house and if I walked away without paying it would be a non-payment on my record. Liveauctioneers customer support is the pits, there is none. I had to pay this $75.00 out of no fault of my own because liveauctioneers would not support the very people who keep them in business.

My experience is wonderful over all. But the site could be improved. First you need to get rid of the auctions houses that are rip offs. I've seen 2 of them (one has auctions every day). Then there's the add on costs that I guess go to live auctions? Example: I won an auction for a pretty good deal. By the time the auction house added their part, & another $40 for live auctions & shipping it turned out to be a really bad deal. Here I'll say that shipping varies a LOT from place to place. I've seen it super cheap all the way to super expensive.

I've bought two items from LiveAuctioneers, the first went well and the second was a horror show.

The purchase from Pacific Global(which appears to be affiliated with Liveauctioneers in some way) was for an 1834 Capped Bust Half Dollar(the first pictures.) The coin LiveAuctioneers sent which is hardly worth its weight in scrap has no resemblance to the pictured coin.

So I requested a refund. After sending the coin back and 20 emails, a refund was processed. I told Pacific Global that I'd write a review, but guess what? When Liveauctioneers processes a refund, the coin disappears from your "Won Items" list and it then is impossible to write a review. So all the people who have been scammed by Pacific Global can't speak publicly about it on Liveauctioneers.

Further, Liveauctioneers shows reviews in a way to maximally benefit themselves and the auctioneers. To wit: The 5 stars reviews are listed first, then the 4 star, then the 3 star, and so on. To get to the one star reviews, you almost always have to click "Show more reviews." So if an unscrupulous auctioneer sells ten good items, they're in the clear- they can rip off people until the cows come home, because those 1 star reviews will never show at the top, they'll always be behind the ten people who actually received legitimate merchandise.

Buyer beware! Avoid Liveauctioneers and Pacific Global(a fly-by-night company.)

Well what can I say? LiveAuctioneers don't mind their sellers peddling fakes and imports and they don't mind taking your money, but they do mind giving it back and do absolutely NOTHING to help you. In fact they keep sending emails promising that they are "looking into it", while doing SFA. While ultimately the auction houses are responsible for the shopping experience, my view is that the platform also has a role to protect customers from unscrupulous vendors. They do not, and I will NEVER use them again. Utter rubbish. EBay is better! Shop with them at your own risk.

The best thing you can do is go to a credible dealer pay a little bit more money LiveAuctioneers are selling refurbished watches they don't come in their original packaging and with no operating instructions they give you a one year warranty card with no phone number and hard to find the company in order to get the number if you complain or try to return an item they do nothing but harass you you are buying refurbished watches it's saying that the one hundred percent authentic and brand new all they do is clean them up a little and make you believe so nothing but problems I'm going to report this company to the better business bureau in my state and as well as in Texas stay away stay away stay away stay away one more thing they give you an estimate OverWatch they say some of these watches are $800 to $1,200 can go on eBay and buy them for $50 and their original packaging and all the proper paperwork this is a b******* company stay away stay away stay away stay away stay away stay away stay away stay away.

I was participating in an auction by NY Elizabeth on Jan 10th 2-021--one lot came up and it was displaying in red 2K USD. The amount lingered on, and I bid on 2K, but nothing happened and then suddenly the bidding jumped to 17K on the side tab, and then site flashed 18K and that I won it for 18K. I did not ever bid on 18K, and I was completely dumbstruck.

Usually when we click on an amount on this site, the site says "bid has been sent", and then it says "you are the highest bidder", it then exhibits all bids on the side tab. In this case, none of these happened, it did not say my bid has been sent either. Then suddenly said I won for 18K.

I immediately within seconds contacted both the NY Elizabeth and the Live Auctioneers. Explained exactly as above, wrote several emails. Both washed their hands off. Now, NY Elizabeth has put it for collection and collection agency is sending me letters. I have submitted a complaint to Federal Trade commission and consumer protection, as I should not be responsible fo their problems.