Martin Autioneers

Do not do yourself the injustice of going to this auction house. Not withstanding the fact that the owner is rude and obnoxious and treat all customers like they have a grade 5 education, I also think that their business practice is *****.

Let me start by stating that I don't know the legalities or rules governing auctions and what I experienced might be normal and correct for the industry, but this is my take on what is going on based on my experience, therefore this review is without prejudice.

First the auction has no reserve prices so you might think that you can pick up a bargain if there is not too much interest in an item, but no the auctioneer has a trick up his sleeve. If he believes that the current bidding price is not to his liking he cancels the bid stating that the item is worth much more and hes not going to sell it at that price, and you will see the item back on auction the following week.

Normally if you have a specific lot of items up for auction only the people that bid on the lot are allowed to purchase at the winning bid price if the person who won the bid doesn't want to take the whole lot. Image my surprise when I was the highest bidder and opted to take only 8 of the 40 chairs in the lot, came back the next day to load my chairs and found that someone who wasn't even at the auction the previous day are busy loading 32 chairs before I even had a chance to select which 8 of the 40 chairs I wanted. As far as I am concerned I should have had first choice as I had won the bid, and someone who wasn't even at the auction should not be allowed to purchase said items.

When I queried this I was told that they can sell an item to anyone as long as it is at the same price as the winning bid. If you try to question the owner/auctioneer he generally gives you the "my company my rules" answer. As far as selling at the winning bid prices I also don't have much confidence in this, as I know for a fact the items in a lot went for R1800 per item and when returning the next day I wanted to purchase one of the items I was told that the price is R2000, and you can guess what the response to my query was... You guessed it "my company my rules"

I will not be returning to this auction house, ever