Alban Shipping, crooks of the auction house trade?

I once bought a small antique naval officer's dirk (dagger) at Fellows Auctions in Birmingham via email and they recommended me to get Luton based Alban Shipping to collect, pack and ship the item to me; Alban Shipping did virtually all of Fellows work.

When I contacted Alban Shipping they said they would collect the item the following week along with other items. I have dealt with a number of shipping companies, mostly Mali Boxes Etc. with other auction houses and it was always the case of a free collection unless stated, and then no more than £10. Alban Shipping told me they would collect the item and then give me a price. Generally speaking Mail Boxes Etc and others charge around £15.00 to pack a full sized sword, so I was expecting less for a dagger, especially as Alban were so slow. The cost of sending a sword to where I live costs around £40.00 normally, so I was epxecting that to be lower too. Insurance is normally optional at around 2% of the item value; in my dirk's case this would equate to about £3.00

When Alban finally got back to me they wanted £65.00 for collection, £35.00 for packing, £55.00 for shipping and £10.00 for mandatory insurance! A total of £165.00 for what should have been about £60.00 top. So I said no, so I said I would arrange for someone to collect the dirk from Alban. Alban Shipping's director Andrew and manager Mary May then got nasty with me, saying the dirk could not be collected unless I paid the £65.00 collection fee. I answered that as they had not advised me of a collection fee, they had no moral or legal right to charge me one now. They made it quite clear unless I paid this, the dirk would not be released. Living outside the UK, I was basically being blackmailed into using them, but I battled on threatening legal action.

Alban Shipping then offered me a deal where I paid them a reduce amount if I arranged and paid for a carrier to collect it myself, which I did. Then Alban Shipping promptly unpacked my dirk after I had made the deal and arranged / paid for ParcelForce to collect it; Alban did this knowing ParcelForce will only collect packed items, so they well and truly turned me over. In the end I had to pay Alban everything except the insurance fee in order to get my dirk.

However, that was not the end, oh no. Alban Shipping then went and over-charged my debit card; I did not know but there is less recourse when you use a debit card and you have to claim the money back via your bank if the merchant refuses to refund. Of course, Alban Shipping refused to refund the over-charge, so I had to write to my bank Barclays. I actually managed to get all of my money back in the end (I have the letter from Barclays to prove it), but only because I went through the long process and had to wait for my money to be refunded.

I say Alban Shipping are malicious, dirty, cheating, defrauding low-lifes and anyone who deals with them on a one-off basis (I am sure they suck up to their regular customers) are best advised to count their fingers.

SFI (Sword Forum International or Sword Fantasies & Incest)

Looking to get your sword identified? I say "Best avoid SFI".

Beware of Sword Forum International; Although many of the members are non-affiliated and helpful, many more are grouped in little "Do not argue with us" gangs and most are out to make a buck off unsuspecting sword owners who go there for identifications.

I have proof, a screen grab of an internal SFI email between one of their "respected" members, one Ian Knight of Brighton, AKA swords_of_honour (yeh right - Ian Knight sells Indian swords as English), and someone I had a business arrangement with (a partnership to buy some French swords). This respected SFI member used the Sword Forum International mail system to approach this business partner of mine to try and get them to renage on our agreement, claiming I was not ethical! Claiming I had a bad reputation on SFI (I was not one of the little gang and I did my best to help others unselfishly).

What most of the members of the antqiues section of SFI do is a) down play a particular sword on the public forums and then b) make a "generous" offer to the poor unsuspecting sword owner abusing SFI's email system. When you catch the little buggers out and provide a screen shot of their email to prove it, what do they say? Why, they say "The internal emails are private and copyrighted, so you should not be doing this! A bit like religions, which is what these jokers think they are, where the BS pundits say you can not ask where God came from because that is not allowed, then go to say they are acting in God's name and doing nothing wrong. Mark McMorrow, the un-god like owner of Sword Fantasies & Incest dodges all of this by hiding his email addresses and not replying when you find them, like a common thief is prone to doing when faced with the facts!