I bid on an auction at Daniel's Auction House through Icollector.com. The shipping info tab on the auction stated that shipping is to be arranged by the buyer. I won the auction and was sent an invoice for $52 ($40 for item and $12 buyer's premium). I contact the seller's "preferred" shipper and informed them I wanted the 8x10 print I won to be sent via USPS in a flat rate priority mail envelope, cost $5.15. I received an email back from the shipper stating that Daniel's Auction required items to be sent via courier, aka Fedex, which would have cost me $40-$50. I reported this to Daniels Auctions, and since it was obvious that I didn't really have a choice on the shipping method, I was not going to pay for the item and to cancel the sale.in my opinion, if the buyer is responsible for arranging shipping, then they should have the choice of the shipping method.
I immediately received an email back stating" you will pay or be sent to collection". After a few more emails, they relented and said since I was a new customer, they would ship the item for free. I then paid the $52 invoice through Paypal. As soon as my payment went through, I received an email from Daniels Auction saying the print I purchased was torn and that they were sending me 2 other prints as replacements. I didn't buy this story for a minute, as if there was damage to the print, it would have been noticed beforehand. I informed them I was not interested in other prints and that I was opening a dispute with Paypal, which I promptly did. Apparently paypal contacted Daniel's and the charge was reversed within 30 minutes. My advice would be to avoid Daniel's Auction House at all costs. I have purchased other items through Icollector.com (which I also notified about this issue) without incident. There have been instances where I was quoted inflated shipping charges after the auction closed. So I would recommend only bidding on auctions where the shipping charges are clearly disclosed up front to avoid similar problems.
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