Hello,
first of all I would like to introduce myself: I am Antonello Galletta the owner of Power Coin company from Rome, Italy.
Sometime questions about our company are posted on public forums, and I think that an official answer from us is necessary to further clear some topics.
@Neil
"The coin sucks now, just like Powercoin sucks charging your CC 5 months before they will even have the coin in hand. Then if you cancel, many months before powercoin has the coin, those idiots charge you a cancellation fee."
I usually don't answer such unpolite (to avoid another term) post, but for the benefit of others:
About charging CC earlier:
In this thread we are talking about the Great White Shark coin, that was supposed to be issued in June, and we listed it as pre-order just a couple of weeks before foreseen launch, that was continuously postponed. That is not our fault if after 5 months WE ALL are still waiting for this coin.
Yes, we charge credit cards immediately, because that confirms the order and fix the price. Isn't it the same when payment is sent through paypal? Do they charge at a later time? Or when you send a payment with bank wire transfer, do the bank charges it at a later time? It is just how the system works: you place an order by putting items in cart, choose shipping and payment method and check out, at that time the system charge you to confirm order. We don't make any kind of reservation without full pre-payment, and by the way we don't store any customer Credit Card data to charge at a later time: during check out the visa or mastercard circuit process the payment and funds our account after that, we don't know anything about customer CC.
And, on the other hand, we never cancel an order already paid, or raise the price meanwhile the price on the market get higher.
In a few words this is our pre-order: you pay in advance, we don't change price, we don't cancel order, we ship when available from the mint. Simple.
About cancellation fees:
Yes, according to our terms of sales, we charge 5% (ONLY FIVE PERCENT) fees for cancellation of orders (not always), and there is a reason for that. Many very well known websites charge 20-30% restocking fees. We charge cancel fees only when the order is cancelled after a reasonable time and we can't get back the fees from paypal or credit card company cause it is too late. So we are OK to cancel an order, but if we paid fees for receiving the payment, and it is too late to recover those fees (usually after 45 or 60 days) it is correct that the buyer, that changed its mind, pays for them.
BUT, on the other hand, we don't keep these fees for us, but give as credit on next purchase. So, if the customer never show up again, he goes away with 5% loss. If he returns, and place another order, the 5% fees paid is discounted. What can we do more than this?
By the way, like many other sellers, we plan our order at mints according also to pre-sale quantity, so if someone orders 50 pcs for white shark coin, and we increase our order quantity at mint including this order too, and after that the customer cancel the order, isn't it a loss for us, in case we don't need those coins?
When there are Group of Buyers on numismatic forums, and orders are collected, no one complains that in this case order is definitive and you will never see your money back, not even with a cancellation fee applied?
@ RogerD
"Issues with people not getting their orders and such."
Did you ever buy anything from us? If not, don't talk about something you don't know. Tell me just one name among our thousands customers that didn't receive their order. Just one! Competitors post on scam boards are only pathetic.
Instead, for our reputation, check the
ebay feedbacks from our
ebay account: "powercoin_italy". About 11,000 of 100% positive feedbacks left with very high satisfaction (stars) from our worldwide customers. That is the real meter of how we work: the independent
ebay user feedback which is public and we can't manipulate in any way!
@rekun
"Stay away from them unless you have no choice. Nevermind the fact that everything ob their site is overpriced"
First of all you can't compare what is overpriced and what now, especially when is about websites in different part of the world.
For example, in Italy we have 21% VAT on coins, in Germany 7% and in Canada 0% for some pure silver coins.
So, beside what we charge, our price can be 21% more expensive than a Canadian seller only because of VAT. Who is happy with our prices will buy, we don't force anyone to buy at our price.
And by the way, say that we are overpriced to all buyers that ordered the Great White Shark coin at 89.00 euro when the official mint price is still much more higher.
Or tell to who bought the Mongolia Hedgehog at $149.00 when other sites were already selling about $500.
And tell it again to who will buy the 4th coin in Mongolia series, after "Gulo Gulo", "Ural Owl" and "Hedgehog", soon in our store, at a very interesting launch price way below the prices that will reach on
ebay and other marketplaces.
We are overpriced only for who still didn't find the right deal at the right time.
@tocoins
Please tell me your name or order # so I can check my records and tell how we treated you, if we charged you fees or not, if we gave you credit for that and so on.
@dialog_gvf
"Sell a bunch of low mintage candidates before release. See which sell out and pop in value. Cancel the orders of those successful coins, and fill the other orders."
I think you didn't read carefully about the problem. It is not us cancelling the order, we never do that. Is the customer who want to cancel its own order.
@traevin
Thank you very much Jennifer for sharing your good experience with us, very appreciated.
For personal questions please PM me. For general questions I will be happy to public answer on this forum.
Antonello.
Posted 08/14/2012 05:02 am
