One & only dealing

I do not recommend dealing with this auction house.

As an online bidder, I recently had an experience where 5th Ave reopened bidding after the hammer fell. The reason I was given was that “they allow for bidding to reopen after the hammer drops for online auctions, to allow for internet delay.”

Interestingly, from what I saw online, the bidders after the hammer fell were not online, but on the phone & floor - so an internet delay does not apply.

5th Ave claim there is no recording of the livestream auction to refer back to.

UPDATE:

The auction house isn’t happy with receiving a bad review - so they retaliate by blacklisting the bidder for not liking the way in which they conduct business. They have yet been able to provide any evidence to prove the contrary. I even paid the higher hammer price...

Their msg to me:

“The comments you are posting on public platforms are factually incorrect, untruthful and defamatory. In order to protect the industry at large I have added your account to the global blacklist of bad bidders – I intend leaving it there as a warning to other auction houses.”

Ironically they’re calling me a liar, which is defamatory & are acting with malicious intent.

FURTHER UPDATE:

48 hours later and 5th have now sent me some form of written proof of an online bid