The following information was sent to me some time ago.
Now I know why I have hung on to it. Makes for interesting reading.
31st of October 2011
An eyeopener!
"ANDA considers this matter to be closed and will not enter into any further discussion on the matter."
The following is hard to comprehend, but it is 100% true and all can be documented: (*)
1. *Noble Auction, Sale 95, 23-26 Nov. 2010 Sydney; R03b VF, (N138036C) Estimate $1,500, Sold for $1,400 + commission.
2. The R03b would have been inspected and evaluated by scores of dealers, investors & collectors alike prior to the auction, and
the price at which it eventually sold would have been a fair reflection of its value.
3. *Only 3 days later a member of ANDA advertised the R03on
ebay; 29/11â€"5/12 2010 as EF, Catalogue Value $65,000.
4. About 3 weeks after purchasing the note for $8,113, (for me the grading EF was the lure, for many other, misled/misinfor-
med bidders the bait was the inflated CV of $65,000, thus considerably, unfairly and obviously intentionally pumping up the
final bid) and the seven day money back guarantee no longer applicable, I became aware that the banknote has been bought by
the seller a mere *3 days earlier!! graded VF with a CV of $ 1,500.00. Little did I know at this stage that ANDA, with the
help of their "fair & ethical mediation process, will give their member happily and willingly the thumbs up; or in other words,
total impunity!
5. *Seeing his webside which included the Logo of ANDA, I asked ANDA to appraise my purchase and if they confirm the
grading EF is correct, then I will NOT lodge a complaint against their member. (Misleading & false advertising, engaging in
conduct which brings disrepute upon the Association etc.
6. *ANDA refused my request, advising me instead to ask my own trusted ANDA members to evaluate the note's grading.
7. *My 3 trusted ANDA members agreed with Noble's grading of VF: THE R03b IS NOT EF! I decided to lodge a complaint.
8. *Subsequently I was reminded by ANDA that the very same R03b has been sold at Noble Auction Sale 83, 22-24 Nov 2006
also graded EF for $11,000 plus commission.
9. Why the downgrading now? In 2010 the note was described by Noble with a ‘top right corner expert repair' - there was
*NO "expert repair" in the description of the R03b in the year 2006 â€" the damage must have happened AFTER 2006!
10.. In scores of exchanged letters or emails ANDA made not even once a reference to the Catalogue Value of $65.000! To this
day I still don't know who decided on this CV of $ 65.000, was it ANDA or their member who advertised the note on
ebay?
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11. *Another example of his ‘fair & ethical trading'; on the 21st Dec 2010 this member of ANDA acknowledged having received
2 predecimal banknotes I returned because they were not as described (upgraded). The refund of $5,938 was not deposited
into my bank account until Feb 2 2011*. Yet ANDA defends their member and insists I was ‘successfully refunded' and......
12. *At the beginning of Jan 2011 the same 2 banknotes were advertised on
ebay and sold again â€" but I still had to wait for anot-
her 3 weeks for my refund! Why ANDA insists this is successful refunding has also NEVER been explained to me !
13. *I lost my complaint and my appeal was also dismissed - again with not a single reference to the CV of $65.000 or the delay
in the refunding of my $5,938; They just kept ignoring their own CODE OF CONDUCT they like so much to crow about!!
The delivered *letter had my surname misspelled, name of street misspelled, name of suburb misspelled, wrong house-
number... good enough for ANDA's Secretary, pathetic to others! But credit to Australia Post, as I did eventually get the
letter informing me that in ANDA's opinion their beloved ethical member did absolutely nothing wrong:
14.As the Chairman of the Ethics & Good Conduct Committee at the time that a Mr. AW requested mediation in this
dispute, I am quite prepared to state publicly and in writing that ANDA's mediation process was correctly followed
to the letter in relation to this dispute, and that the finding made by the E&GCC subsequently ratified by ANDA's
Management Committee, was both just and correct". Is this a joke? Is E&GCC serious? Do they mediate every
complaint from the public in this manner? Have they ever resolved a dispute in favour of a member of the public?
15. So I am the liar and I am the one who is airing incomplete truths about the manner in which E&GCC's officers have handled
this complaint! In order to resolve this longstanding dispute, I was prepared to pay $4,000 for the R03b, and a refund of
$4113 would have ended this argument. The ANDA member would have still made a handy profit for his initial outlay of
$ 1,400.00 plus 16% commission, but didn't agree and the E&GCC was unwilling or toothless to mediate a settlement!
16. If a member of the collecting public stands up and questions the ethics of an ANDA member who refuses to subscribe to the
agreed code of conduct he signed, does this amount to defaming the ANDA officials and misappropriating ANDA's intellec-
tual property? If a collector dares to disagree with the grading of an item, its CV or length of time taken to refund thousands
of dollars, does the collector come close to defaming this dealer? E&GCC thinks I came very close.....
17. I was told more than once and for years not to expect any help from ANDA:. "They will not even lift their little fingers! An
80 year old man on one leg has more chances of winning Olympic gold in the 100m dash than a member of the public
winning a complaint against one of their members!" The 66 ANDA members must sorely miss Ray Jewel - pity about the
odd bad eggs ruining the good work of the 64 others......
ANDA's Constitution, ANDA's Code of Ethics and ANDA's ETHICS & GOOD CONDUCT COMPLAINT MEDIA-
TION PROCESS can be found via GOOGLE. Good reading, (recommended!) but unfortunately light years from reality!!
My dispute with ANDA's E&GCC.
The consensus among a number of ethical ANDA members known to me is that it was clearly daylight robbery and it should have been, without a shadow of doubt, resolved by amicable mediation.
In my opinion (and I am not alone in this) the real problem is that today's E&GCC lacks a member with resolve who is serious and tough enough to remind an erring member to toe the line or else. This is something which should and must be addressed without delay - there are enough ANDA members with impeccable track records - and most importantly - who know the difference between right and wrong.
Right now ANDA's E&GCC exists only on paper, their one and only aim is to protect a dishonest member ‘because he is one of us!!" To say ANDA is a serious organisation, established for the benefit of both, their members and the collecting public, borders on insanity. This member bluntly disregarded E&GSS's Code of Conduct â€" not once, but several ti-mes â€" yet he is almost portrayed as a model member who, in ANDA's view, has done absolutely nothing wrong! Nobody of the E&GCC can convince me that their member did not know how to revise the CV of the note in question, a task not taking longer than 2 minutes â€" it is obvious WHY he choose not to.....
They are unable to enforce their own Code of Ehics, which undeniably states ‘I will avoid misrepresentation and misleading advertising' and ‘I will immediately refund on any item sold by me where the description was either inaccurate or misleading, within a reasonable period od time after the transaction'
Posted 08/14/2013 04:20 am
