Langton's stuff-up

Aussie Jonny · Post by **Aussie Jonny** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:46 pm

Couldn't get on last night, and missed bidding for several wines.

If I was a seller, I would be really angry.

Check out the number of passed-in wines, especially the French Burgs. I reckon the clearance rate is well below 50% for those.

Guest Barney · Post by **Guest Barney** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:11 pm

As a buyer was quite pleased with the lack of action even though I couldn't track my bids, won a few I expected to be outbid on so was pleased even though as usual spent more than expected.

Barney

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:55 pm

Not a bad time to be a buyer and its going to get better yet!

Scoobinski · Post by **Scoobinski** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:22 pm

I was furious.
I was bidding on the 1965 Lindemans 3110 for a friend's 40th in 2 weeks - prepared to pay whatever was required, and then couldn't bid for the last 15 mins!
At 15% in and out, you'd think that they could afford some decent servers!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:39 pm

No sympathy from me - everyone has the opportunity to put in a maximum bid days/weeks before closing time.

bacchaebabe · Post by **bacchaebabe** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:18 pm

Mmmm, definitely going off Langton's - 30% on each wine they sell and you have to pay them to join as well.

All their transaction are conducted online giving them very low overheads. If you are late with an account they won't even write to you or ring you to let you know but just sell the wine from under you when you may not have logged in for a while and don't even know about it. Slack on my behalf maybe but I got very busy last year and one letter would have resolved my situation.

I've been a member, getting the catalogues posted since 1996, well before they went online and have just let my membership lapse. A lot of the decent wine seems to be in Melbourne, or they certanly have bigger auctions, and when you put the commission on top of the shipping, insurance, etc, it's all just too much. If I could see that they earned their money I would not begrudge it but now it just seems to be huge margins to me and I'm not financing them any more.

I used to enjoy the live auctions and you could get some bargains but the prices are a lot higher with the online version too with the whole world being able to bid. There's pros and cons to that but I'm over it. Might just rely on TORB's Trading Plonk instead.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 9:58 am

Kris,

Just politely decline to pay membership, if you've bought or sold in the past they will no doubt give you free membership. They did for me, even before I'd bought or sold, they just use the charge to discourage people from registering frivilously.

Due to the stuff up I got some wine for $25 (+commission etc) that I expected to be outbid on, it was selling for $70 retail until fairly recently and was on the wine-list of a Melbourne wine bar / restaurant for over $100, so I guess I can't complain.

Cheers
Brian (RB)

n4sir · Post by **n4sir** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:11 pm

I let my membership at Langtons lapse last year for similar reasons. Although I'm not a member, I still look over the site to keep an eye on the auction prices in general, and the servers seem to be even slower/less reliable than when I left.

With the added disincentives of 15% commission, unreliable descriptions, bad customer service and shitty freight interstate through McPhees, I can't see myself rejoining anytime soon. Maybe if enough (ex-)members complained about this shambles they may actually do something.

Mark Wickman's auction website also has live bidding and is quite reliable (less members/bidders could have something to do with this), and the commission is 10% with no membership fee. The auctions are less frequent and the quantities of stock much less, but if we can get enough defectors maybe this will change?

http://wineauction.wickman.net/wineauction/

Cheers
Ian