Regarding the Halloween Auction

[Alismora 9,436]

Hello Haveners!

 

I wanted to touch base with all of you regarding our recent Halloween auction and the numerous rumors/misconceptions floating around that have been sent to us by concerned members.  Before I do that, I want to give a big shoutout to @Demonand @Annafor handling the very first auction with the new system as well as they did, considering the issue we had with invoices.  They stayed on top of everything and we were able to resolve things within a matter of days!  Please show them some love as they deserve it!

 

That being said, let's jump into the things we've been hearing/seen screenshots of:

 

"There are rumors going around Discord servers that none of the artists are getting paid and that you're scamming them."

This is false. Every artist that participated and sold their listings can confirm this as well here if they like. Yes, there were issues with some invoices not being sent, but not everyone was effected by this, especially those who sold their listings early.  Only 21 listings out of the 100+ were effected by this invoice issue.

 

We have a few ideas of what went wrong near the end there, one being the changing of the minimum sale price after the fact, which will be investigated thoroughly before we attempt to host another auction using this system. There was also one instance where a user was sent an invoice for a listing that they were not highest bidder on, something else we will be looking into, although it will be much more difficult to troubleshoot this particular issue since it only happened to one person. 

 

All invoices that were not sent on Wednesday night when the auction ended were sent out promptly in the following two days, meaning everyone who won a bid were able to fully pay by no later than Saturday.  All withdrawals/payouts, with the exception of one due to a security flag which was communicated with the member, have been sent within 24-48 hours of receiving the request.  If you still have not received your payment from the winner, you need to report your buyer immediately to Demon or Anna as any excuse that they give claiming they cannot pay due to Art Haven having issues is simply dishonest.  

 

"I heard that artists who sold their pieces for less than $50 can't even get their money!  How is that legal?? Can't they file a lawsuit against you??"

This is false. We released a topic announcement and linked it to everyone via Discord and a banner at the top of the website with the Auction countdown that explained anyone who sells a listing for less than $50 will receive a courtesy withdrawal for free as we understood that the limit would prevent them from receiving their funds if they did not have a revenue stream coming from anywhere else.  Every member who sold a piece for less than $50 was contacted by me personally to receive their PayPal information, and I processed these withdrawals myself the same day I received a response from them.

 

"My piece didn't sell for nearly as much as I wanted I should just sell it off-site."  "I feel so ripped off, nobody bid more than minimum price on my pieces."  "Art Haven sucks, none of my art sold they lied to me/scammed me." ... and any other type of similar comments.

I understand that some of you did not get bids or did not receive the bids you thought you would receive, but I would like to make this perfectly clear. Art Haven has never in the history of hosting these public auctions guaranteed that your art would sell, that it would sell for a specific price/high price, or that you were guaranteed any bids whatsoever. 

 

The purpose of hosting these public auctions is to help bring more awareness to the artists within our community who may not get the recognition by themselves.  Our auctions never have and never will be about who can make the most profit on a listing.  If you are unsatisfied with your listing not selling, or you were led to believe that it would sell at a higher price than it did, this is honestly a conversation you need to be having with yourself and/or your supporters/community.  While we can direct traffic to the listings page in hopes that someone sees your art, it is ultimately your responsibility to advertise/promote your listings to generate bids.  Put simply, we have zero control on what gets bid on and we can't force users to bid if they do not want to.

 

For those who have threatened to sell your piece off-site, I would like to remind you that your dissatisfaction with the sell price is not an excuse to scam a member who bid, won, and paid their invoice.  Anyone caught doing this will be banned as per our guidelines.  Of course, if your piece did not sell due to the minimum not being reached, or not receiving bids, you are free to sell it as you see fit and this warning does not apply to you!

 

"I don't want to pay my invoice on Art Haven.  I don't want my bank information on the website and prefer to pay on PayPal so I'm not paying."

Firstly, PayPal is our payment processor for every transaction outside of debit/credit, and you are paying the invoice on PayPal.  PayPal keeps your information, we do not.  The reason we are switching to on-site transactions is so that we can handle disputes and fraud directly instead of sending our members to a third party and just wishing them luck.  

 

If you have ever purchased a name change, Elite, merchandise, advertisement, or item in the marketplace, it is the same exact checkout process.  We will not accept this as a valid excuse to avoid paying our artists, and it is disappointing to see that some have already tried to use this as a way to skip out on their bids.  I'll remind you that similar to scamming buyers by reselling pieces you sold to them, we also ban users from participating in future auctions for this type of behavior and will not grant any exceptions.

 

---

 

I want to wrap this up by reminding you that if you have any questions regarding our processes or updates on any ongoing issues, you are more than welcome to message anyone on the staff team at any time or submit a support ticket.  As long as it's not a request for information about someone else's account, we are more than happy to answer your questions and do not want you to get your information from people who are not involved in the situation they claim to have knowledge on.

 

Thank you to all the artists and buyers who have been patient during this ordeal!  Besides a few stragglers, most of the auction business has been handled and we hope everyone is enjoying their new art pieces for Halloween!  Thanks!

[Luxor 2,531]

I feel like this is something that doesn't need to be said honestly, and its sad people come to these conclusions without *trying* to obtain any facts first. A simple message could've put these things to rest.

 

We're here to better the community and provide a safe and pleasant environment for artists and buyers to thrive on, not the opposite. 

[Trash 1,223]

Thank you Auction Mods and the team at AH for hosting this Halloween auction!  New experiences are good for everyone, and I'm excited for further AH hosted auctions in the future using the marketplace :) 

[Robin 1,144]

My pieces didn't sell through the auction but I'm not upset about it at all! I enjoyed the experience and I really like the new system. There are definitely tweaks that can make it a better experience but it's the start of something very promising.

 

I'm excited for this new system, and may try using it in the future for auctions!

[euntae 2,057]

Compared to the majority of the users on this site, I am pretty new, I'm about to have only 2 years on April. But I've already seen a gigantic growth on the site, and I experienced myself a quick, responsible and committed solution of problems. Always showing progress, fixes, improvements of any kind, for the best of their users.

 

I always love all of the upgrades, but the auction system, the marketplace itself and the idea of the AH wallet are my favorites, I really want to use them again ♥

 

I am very thankful of all the admins and moderators here. Thank you for everything! ♥

Edited October 28, 2020 by euntae

[Kookyan 1,995]

I just waited for them to solve it, and they solved it. 

They paid me and everything went well, it was just a matter of having patience with the admins.

[dwrhmi 50]

My auction piece was sold for less than 50$ and the mods and admins were really making sure that i got the payment, and i got it! Respect.

 

 

[McDolly 859]

I got paid by ArtHaven fairly from my auction profit

and I'm thankful for this auction and the mods

for giving me the opportunity to showcase 2 of my art piece 

[Pey 2,864]

Well done @Demon and @Anna

You guys worked so hard and it was a huge success! I'm excited for the future of auctions. 

[LiLMooMoo 1,181]

Can I just say this auction was lot easier to found art and when get bid on i could see. Also like how it emailed me I was outbid on so why I was work that help lot I really hope you guys do this auction  like this again! 

[Cupsu 287]

Good job @Demon and @Anna! You guys did such an amazing job with this auction. 

I personally wasn't lucky enough to snatch one of the pieces I loved but that is okay! I really enjoyed this was of doing auctions compared to how it was before. It's a lot easier now to keep track on who bids on what, when you get outbid, etc. Like MooMoo mentioned, it was nice to receive an email whenever somebody outbid you, in case you don't have the time to actually get on to frequently check up on the auction. Good job staff! 

also personally very excited for the next auction already lmao .. 

[wickedteatrickster 21]

Thank you to @Demon and @Anna for all their help during this auction! I received payment for my piece with no issues a few days after the auction ended, so it was a great experience for me. Thanks for letting me participate in this year's Halloween Auction!

[HIT0SHI 619]

@Demon and @Anna Thank you for the swift and detailed replies to my questions and issues faced during the  Halloween auction. Despites there was a lot of hiccups here and there, the auction went through. Please don't be discouraged by the negativity and keep up the good work :)

[Yandere 34]

I thought I was the last bid on two pieces but I wasn't contacted by either artist, I'm at a lost.

[Demon 1,022]

On 10/30/2020 at 9:35 PM, Yandere said:

I thought I was the last bid on two pieces but I wasn't contacted by either artist, I'm at a lost.

 

It's possible you were outbid during the week the auction went on for, I can't find you as the highest bidder for any of the pieces that won. If you believe you were not outbid, please pm me the name of the pieces you bid on and I'll look into it for you!