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PAYMENT
POLICY

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON OUR PAYMENT POLICIES

Forms of payment we accept: We reserve the right to change or modify our payment terms at any moment with any buyer if we feel it is necessary to protect our company against a possible fraud or other problem. At present, you may pay for your purchases at our auctions in the following manner, no exceptions please:

Cash .
Cashier's Check as long as we can verify its issue with the bank.
Personal or company checks as long as we can verify funds available over the phone, or you have either a bank letter guaranteeing your check or a Teller / ATM statement dated the day of the sale with the account number and balance. In some cases, for large purchases made by buyers we do not know, we reserve the right to delay removal of purchases until the check has cleared, or either request the buyer to pay cash or make a wire transfer of funds instead.
Direct wire transfer to our account. This should be requested and approved prior to the auction. Wire transfers must be completed by noon the following day. No items may be removed until the transfer is complete. A $20 service fee will be charged on wire transfers.
Major brand Traveler's Checks. If you are unsure of the brand, check with the auction company before purchasing the checks.

Check acceptance: Some banks have stopped verifying funds available over the phone. If your bank is one of these, you will need a bank letter of guarantee or a Teller / ATM statement with the account number and account balance dated the day of the sale. We reserve the right to require payment in cash from any buyer whose check we cannot verify as funds available. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we suggest if your bank is one that has stopped verifying funds available over the phone that you express your disapproval to your banker. Although the banks claim this is a privacy issue, it is an even more obvious effort to force vendors to take check cards by creating an unsafe environment in accepting personal and company checks. If your bank has a branch local to the auction, you may acquire your total due from the cashier after making your last purchase, go to your bank and withdraw the cash or purchase a cashier's check, and return with payment as long as you settle for your purchases the day of the sale and within a reasonable time of the end of the auction.

No credit & check cards accepted at this time: Our company is supported solely by the commissions earned on our sales. The majority of our auction business is conducted off-site. The vendor fees associated with a guaranteed card system or reliable wireless card system are high. We elect not to pass this expense on by raising our Seller's commissions or increasing the Buyer's Premium. Unable to off set the loss in revenue from accepting credit and check cards, we are unwilling to do so at this time. In the future, if a card system becomes available to meet our needs at a reasonable rate, we will add check and charge cards to our payment terms.

We apologize for any inconvenience our present payment policy may cause, but we remind all of our present and future customers that the great deals you will receive at our auctions are well worth conforming to our payment terms.

MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION ...

Defaulting on purchases (walk-outs): A legal and binding contract is created when a buyer places the high bid at an auction on any lot or quantity of lots and the auctioneer accepts the bid and declares the lot(s) sold. The buyer is bound by commercial law to pay for their purchases and remove them from the auction premises under the terms advertised. Failure to do so is Breach of Contract. The auction company is entitled to pursue a judgment against a default buyer for the amount of their purchases, including Buyer's Premium, Sales Tax, and any legal fees and court costs associated with pursuing the judgment. Since the default buyer is in direct violation of Commercial Law, it is virtually certain a judgment will be obtained. Legal fees, court costs, and other associated fees can greatly increase the amount the default buyer will owe. Upon being awarded judgment, the auction company may pursue various legal avenues for full recovery to include the filing of liens if the default buyer still refuses to pay.

A GROWING EPIDEMIC: The problem of walk-outs has grown at an alarming rate in the auction industry. Besides people who are basically honest, but are stricken with a bad case of buyer's remorse, and think they can just walk out without paying for and removing their purchases; there are certain people and groups of people who attend auctions with the intention of walking out and defaulting on their purchases. There are several faces on this scam, but they are all intended to cheat the auction company. This problem threatens all auctioneers and the auction industry like no other. In many cases, auctioneers have elected to simply liquidate the default items for what they can get and absorb the loss between what they recover and what they owe the seller (the auctioneer is ethically responsible to the seller for what the items sold for at the auction). Since the auction is over and most of the buyers have left by time the auction company realizes they have a default buyer, it is very difficult to recover what was bid at the sale. A common face on this scam is the default buyer will send his friends in after the auction asking if there is anything that didn't sell. They, in turn, try to buy it for much less, knowing the auctioneer is in a tough spot to liquidate the merchandise.

DEPOSITS AT REGISTRATION: In an effort to deter buyer's remorse walkouts and those who would try to pull the walkout scam, some auction companies have instituted a policy whereby they require a cash deposit from all bidders at registration. The theory is that no one walks out on a large cash deposit. It is a very effective defense against this scam, and one that we may find necessary to institute in the future. At present, rather than require all of our customers to put up a large cash deposit at registration, we have a time and cost effective legal service to pursue judgment and recovery against default buyers.

KNOW WHOM YOU ARE DEALING WITH: As the walkout scam has grown to epidemic proportions over the past several years, Alliance Auctioneering & Equipment felt it was our duty to pursue those who would try to cheat any auctioneer and threaten our industry. Not wanting to institute a deposit requirement at our auctions, we found a time and cost effective means of pursuing judgment against default buyers and criminal scam artists. If any buyer defaults on their purchases at one of our auctions, we will, through easy access online legal services, pursue and be awarded judgment against them. All legal fees and court costs will be attached to the judgment. If default buyers do not pay the judgment, our service will pursue all legal means of recovery to include the filing of liens, and continue to pursue recovery until the judgment is satisfied. This is not a threat to the people attending our auctions, but rather a promise we make to our industry. We invite any auctioneers who read this and are looking for a time and cost effective means of pursuing default buyers, to contact us for information on these easy and affordable legal services.

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ALLIANCE Auctioneering & Equipment • Columbia, SC • 888-468-8125 • Email: allianceae@aol.com