Bidder Reviews for Bonhams (227)

I just want to say special THANK YOU TO "Eric and Toby" FOR YOUR HELP!!!

10 minutes of music before you get to a real person who probably cannot help because of the internal bureaucracy. After winning the item I tried several times to call and gave up after 10 minutes of music, finally bonhams filed a dispute for non-payment after the only email I received was about setting up an account, which I did. This was fruitless, no further communication from this new account setup … finally I waited 16 minutes out of desperation to get to a real person out and I was told that I needed to jump through a lot of hoops and physically mail paperwork to pay for embroidery … I was able to break through on some common sense level and managed to pay for my item on the phone with a credit card. I was told that the in-house shipping department would contact me, of course they did not. After more waiting on the telephone I finally got someone who told me that the item is too large. it is not too large. it is a piece of fabric, it folds up, if you can’t ship that you can’t ship anything. This commonsense statement of fact did not impress the employee, all they could see was the dimension on the computer screen and that dimension disqualified it from shipping even though it is a piece of fabric and it folds … I just very much wanted to be done with the whole thing and did not want to wait listening to the music on the telephone answering system again so I said please send me the release form for a third-party shipper so that I do not have to call again, this did not happen, also when I asked for recommendations on a third-party shipper the employee had nothing to offer. I am a dealer and collector of many years, although the problem is obviously rooted in the organization of bonhams I suspect the average retail consumer for live auctioneers wouldn’t understand. If was live auctioneers I wouldn’t want to represent bonhams as all this drives away regular business. Chris

NOT HAPPY

This was the first time I participated in one of Bonhams 'auctions. The experience was very successful.

This was the first time I participated in one of Bonhams 'auctions. The experience was very successful.

Top notch! Really appreciate how inviting and welcome I felt while reviewing this auction. I look forward to many more auctions to come. A real pleasure to deal with.

My experience with Bonhams is: No customer engagement Discourteous engagement A complete lack of customer service Attempting extortion Rudeness Incredibly frustrating This auction house is to be avoided T all costs

Bonhams is a huge auction house. I was approved to bid through LiveAuctioneers. I asked questions, no response. Could not pay through LA. Was not approved to bid at Bonhams on their website, so I had to fill out information and provide payment info on their website after I won my item on LA. They didn't accept payment through LA. Would not accept credit card or personal check for payment for 1st time buyer. Had to get Bank check or do wire transfer. Shipping I felt was expensive and the recommended UPS was unresponsive. Bonhams is worldwide and all in all a great company. People I spoke with over the phone were always pleasant and helpful. The experience trying to buy one piece of art was frustrating for me. I think they deal mostly with art dealers, which I am not. I will take some responsibility for not following through filling out all the questions on their website, but when I got approved on LA, I thought I was good to go. Maybe, it might be easier the second go round, but I doubt if there will be one for me.

Poor communication, note respecting engagements, unfair dispute open never closed despite payment maid and all requests fulfilled.

Perfect accessory. Beautiful condition. Very happy.

It took almost a week to get photos of the interior, after repeated requests. When the truck driver (who had an appointment) arrived to pick up the armoire, it had been loaded onto another truck to be taken to a warehouse. Then someone at Bonhams claimed that the armoire hadn't been paid for (which it had 2 days prior). Then they tried to charge a fee for taking it to the warehouse where it wasn't supposed to go in the first place! It's hard to believe that Bonham's is an international auction house, they are so disorganized and badly managed!! I've had much better experiences with small auction houses.

In times of COVID they were totally unwilling to bend their payment and process rules dispute being willing to take credit cards for repeat customers. Their registration process has glitches in it and I spent well over 6 hours trying to pay for my items and get registered. I would not recommend them not worth the hassle I

this was my most disappointing experience of over 100 auctions in the last year. This company needs to work on some interior levels of management and dealing with customers..

Items arrived in a timely manor and the three heavy but fragile items arrived in good condition.

A Fine auction house should know what it's selling. Neither of the two Leica cameras purchased were functional although from the photos the cameras looked fine. You did not have to actually take pictures to note the defects in the shutter operations or the fact that one of the two cameras was totally useless.