Dishonest, condition reports cannot be trusted.
My experience with Mander auction house proves yet again that there’s a reason why they have one of the lowest review rates for an auction house in Britain. That alone should have been a warning as should have another review which echoed what had happened to me and shows that it’s systemic and not a one-off. Ignore it at your peril.
I buy a lot of antique furniture all over the UK using the-salerom.com, easyliveauction.com and invaluable.com. The sites allow me to easily find what I’m looking for even though it might be not in my local area. As is standard practice when buying something hundreds of miles away and impossible to inspect in person I always ask for a condition report. With Mander auctions it’s a complete waste of time and effort. Their condition reports are dishonest and deceitful and caused me to lose £311 through no fault of my own. When buying antique furniture, I always ask whether there is any woodworm present in the piece, whether the joints are solid, and whether there has been any damage, repairs or any other issues. I did exactly that when buying an antique work table from Mander auctioneers through the-saleroom.com. Their answer was: possibly a few woodworm holes, no other issues. Which I took to mean “definitely” a few woodworm holes, however, it’s not unusual in antique furniture to have a few old wormholes and I decided to go ahead with the bidding and purchase. Imagine my shock when on delivery I discovered a few thousands wormholes! I can honestly say that that’s the worst infestation I’ve ever seen in my two decades dealing with antique furniture. Especially the legs were so bad that dust and beetles were coming out of them when touched! Some areas were spongy due to woodworm damage and lacked strength to support the table so it was seriously wobbly. Also, there were a few areas of crudely done repairs where the wood was reduced to dust and replaced with filler. So basically, the table was affected by all the issues I asked about in the condition report and the auction house chose to mislead and outright lie to me when answering my questions.
Upset but hopeful that the auction would put their mistake right I immediately emailed Mander and offered to forward them a video of the table’s inspection. They wrote back denying all liability and offering a “goodwill gesture” - to take the table back and refund me as long as I returned the table to them. I explained that I already paid £76 for the delivery of a table I couldn’t use because of their error (couldn’t even keep in the house as it would spread the infestation onto my other furniture and woodwork) and I would need to pay at least the same again to get it back to the auction house. Which would mean I would only get back £80 out of £235 I originally paid for the table. They ignored me. I gave them a couple of days and benefit of the doubt and emailed them again. They asked if I’d prefer them to collect. I said yes. Never heard from them again despite emailing once again asking if they are ignoring me and letting them know they are leaving me no choice but to approach my bank for a chargeback. Which I am currently in the process of doing. It’s a massive waste of my time but I will definitely see it through after the way I have been treated. They shouldn’t get away with lying to customers and causing them to lose hundreds of pounds. This auction house is a disgrace but fortunately one of very few who cannot be trusted. This is only a second time an auction house provided me with a condition report that was not indicative of the true condition of an item I was buying at auction and the first time when they refused to put it right.
I hope this review will help someone avoid making the mistake of trusting the word of these people.
