Andreas Thies

[Gardereiter]

I won a fabulous non-combatant ribbon bar in his April 9th auction bidding by telephone.

To date I have received no invoice from him. 4 emails to him in both Englisch and German have resulted in no response from him or any of his staff.

[Ludwig]

Yes, he is still in business and every year he attends the Waffenbörse in Kassel (I guess other shows, too).
Just do a search: Thies Auktionen
He is a very arrogant person. I wrote him some months ago, as I was interested in a badge he was about to sell at his auction and he told me to go and **** myself (but hidden in other words).

[chen]

Nice person to deal with.

[Matthew]

dwarf

He is a very arrogant person.

I agree. Interestingly enough he is quite polite face to face.

cheers

Matt

[Leroy]

He has always been extremely nice to deal with, both by e-mails and in person, as far as I am concerned.

[Alan]

Just to update

My Invoice from Andreas eventually arrived by surface mail on the 30th April (Auction finished 9th April).

When it was sent it would have include shipping charges to me here in Australia.

On the 15th April I sent my first email asking about the shipping charges within Germany.

Subsequent emails on the 22nd, 28th and 30th, with the actual shipping information within Germany, have still gone unanswered.

All I want to do is get the correct shipping charges for postage within Germany and pay my account, How hard can it be

He might be the nicest guy in the world, but this is just terrible service and bad business.

I'm guessing the email that I will eventually get from Andreas will read something like " Your payment is late what's happening"

[Matthew]

dwarf strikes again

Just to update
All I want to do is get the correct shipping charges for postage within Germany and pay my account, How hard can it be

Good luck with that. You might get an email with the amount from His Highness sometime in the future but it does not mean that the amount will not change somewhere along the line either.
Sorry to hear about your troubles. While I am not surprised I hope it works out for you in the end.

cheers

Matt

[avensis2000]

I feel a little bit like stepping up for Thies in this thread. I can be wrong, but since I dont have bad experiences which I would complain about, I wish thing keep "steady" instead of just bashing him.

It took me 2 emails over 5 days after the end of the auction to get a confirmation that I had won the item bid on.

Well... The result lists of auctions are usually published within 1-2 days from auction. Everyone should be able to check it by themselves. I am sure he gets a lot of questions from unpatient collectors "did I get it?" which is pointless to ask since you can check it from "zuschlagelist". If you suspect there is two or more similar pre-bids, just WAIT for invoice. If you got it, you will get invoice if you have given proper address.

I had it one time too. The other time is was OK. In Germany we say: Der Kunde ist König.
The customer is king.

I think he makes a lot of money with his high value pieces, so it seems that these bidders are coming first.

True and well know phrase. And I am sure the big bidders come first in line when arranging invoices and shipments. There is no doubt about that. Would be stupid to think otherwise. Better paying customer is a bigger king and they deserve and need to be handled first - at least I would do so.

Yes, his auctions are terrific. I did not realize he was essentially a one-man-show.

Well... I don't know if he nowadays is still just a "one-man-show", but at least it's not a big organized company. It means there's a lot of work to do. I have understanding for this since I work as a one-man-show and if it gets busy, it really is busy and it's impossible to do everything perfectly and in fast schedule. Some call it bad service, I call it "selective customer service according possibilities". He probably is harder working than me since I consider myself pretty lazy anyway

it takes 20 seconds to write an reply. I would have even been happy with a short note: "I am very busy, thank you for your patience. I am working to get your parcel in the mail as soon as possible."

Yep, something like this would be good do from him - at least to let know that e-mail was received.

My question is does Andreas email his invoices or does he mail them out ?

I haven't seen an invoice yet and it's the 25th April, Auction closed on the 9th April.

This is a mystery to me. Why he doesnt send invoices by e-mail - it would be good for everyone - even him. No cost, and quicker received = he gets his money faster. I have also been wondering why the invoices always come by normal mail. Anyway - since the way is that, check the stamp date from envelope - probably the reason for long waiting is just the damn slow postal service. Especially when sent to outside Europe.

He is a very arrogant person. I wrote him some months ago, as I was interested in a badge he was about to sell at his auction and he told me to go and **** myself (but hidden in other words).

I don't find this very trustable statement, you should tell what you exactly asked him and in what kind of way. In our country there's kind of saying that "Mountain will reply you with echo" and I don't think he would reply like that to anyone who would be asking about the items in proper way.

Just to update

My Invoice from Andreas eventually arrived by surface mail on the 30th April (Auction finished 9th April).

When it was sent it would have include shipping charges to me here in Australia.

On the 15th April I sent my first email asking about the shipping charges within Germany.

Subsequent emails on the 22nd, 28th and 30th, with the actual shipping information within Germany, have still gone unanswered.

Mail from Germany to Australia takes a while. Probably no need to explain that. What makes me wonder, why are you trying to ask him about the shipping costs to Germany if you live in Australia??? If you wanted the shipping to Germany, that should've been of course told already when leaving bid. If your invoice address is in Australia, of course the delivery address is being supposed to be there too if you dont give other information.



Of course there might be sometimes problems with invoices/deliveries etc - they cannot be avoided. I guess nobody has left without invoice or delivery anyway??

I'm quite sure everyone will get what they won in that auction, just be patient.

Per Aspera Ad Astra, or how that was said

[Ludwig]

Quote:
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset"> Originally Posted by Ludwig
He is a very arrogant person. I wrote him some months ago, as I was interested in a badge he was about to sell at his auction and he told me to go and **** myself (but hidden in other words).
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
I don't find this very trustable statement, you should tell what you exactly asked him and in what kind of way. In our country there's kind of saying that "Mountain will reply you with echo" and I don't think he would reply like that to anyone who would be asking about the items in proper way.


Are you calling me a liar???

[Elmar Lang]

Hello,

my experience as customer of Andreas Thies' firm is positive: I bought both bidding in person or by the phone many times.

Sometimes, the points of view between Mr. Thies and -modestly- me have been different, but always solved in a very correct way.

Regarding the organization of an auction house, I need to say that I worked for nearly 20 years at different auction houses and I would like to remember that it's not an easy job, especially in the days immediately before and after a sale. One can't imagine how many questions (from the wisest to the most strange!), condition reports, request of additional pictures, etc. arrive, both via email, surface mail(!) and phone; sometimes written/spoken in unusual languages: yes, Kunde ist König, but especially if the people in charge of Kundenbetreuung are one or two only, everything needs its time.

I've always liked to let invoices be sent immediately, to all customers, no difference if buyers of 100 or 10.000 Euro (quite often, an auction's success is done by the mass of 150/1000 Euro buyers).

I agree though, that a simple, polite reply like "Dear Sir, I've received your email, we will process your invoice/shipping as soon as possible" (even as an automatic, pre-set text), would help a lot.

Let's just try to have some understanding.

All the best,

E.L.

[streptile]

I'll just say that I initially started this thread (more than three years ago!) because I genuinely didn't know what was going on with my emails, and I thought there might be some problem.

I've met Mr. Thies many times since then and found him to be a very personable fellow, and every transaction I've had with him since has been just fine, if sometimes a little slow.

I really wish this thread hadn't been resurrected to complain about Mr. Thies because I have no quarrel with him; I was just perplexed.

[nhcoejr]

I do not post very much but am surprised at the negative reaction regarding Andreas Thies. His auctions offer significant and high quality Imperial items and I have been buying from him for many years. Yes, sometimes slow but have never had a problem receiving an item that I won. Always professional to me. Perplexed why he would be different to others.

[Matthew]

who? him?? noooooo, not him

It's not about 'standing up' for anyone, trying to voice positives and wishing the negatives would just go away or questioning honesty of those who happen to have a different opinion than yours.
It always puzzled me that the ones with positive experiences feel the need to question the experiences of those who are less than happy or even tend to downplay those because you know- 'he was always good to me'.
That's great Chief.
He wasn't good to me so just like you enjoy voicing your positive experiences let me voice mine- whether positive, negative or indifferent.
I am yet to see anyone who left with a bad taste in his/her mouth question anyone for being happy with the service or as in this case put a question mark over their credibility (as it has been done to Ludwig on this very thread) but for some reason the opposite seem to be the norm.
Just like Trevor's problem with Thies' service went away, someone voiced similar problem and few decided to answer.
Why that is a reason for wanting thread of this nature to go away I will never understand but trying to downplay someone else's problem because that might upset the dealer in question or because someone else was satisfied is wrong and serves no purpose IMO.
The fact that Thies' Auction offer some high caliber items and hence the man has to be somehow beyond reproach because of it is absurd.

cheers

Matt

P.S.
There is a reason why when one is asked which news he wants to hear first (good or bad), majority will pick bad. If there is any positive to follow it will always have a possibility of ending on high note. But some deem bad to be more important as it affects us more and I tend to agree.

[schoenwurf]

Andreas Thies sold a fake TK ring in his auction in October 2013 !
That bothers me...
My experience with his service : quite nice over the phone but very rude by e-mail

[avensis2000]

Are you calling me a liar???

No, I am not. My sincere apologies if you feel like that. I thought there must have been some sort of misunderstanding or "wrong interpretation/translation". Just like you had based on my comment.

It just didn't fit the picture (in my mind) - normally people dont reply that way in normal correspondence. Especially sellers to their existing or potential customers.