McTear's Reviews 501

So I bought a bracelet with McTears recently and unfortunately the whole experience has just been toxic.
Clearly they don’t have a good specialist department for jewellery on staff as it wasn’t until 30 minutes before the auction that they realised they’d incorrectly catalogued a lot. they never bothered to check the serial number of a Cartier piece to correlate it to the certificate.
I left my bids directly with McTears prior to the auction but they never bothered to notify me of the amendment to the cataloguing. A lot without certification can be worth significantly less but they didn’t think it was important to notify their bidders.
Since then they still won’t admit they miscatalogued the piece. I was happy to proceed if they just made a gesture of goodwill but they wouldn’t do that. They insisted I pay for the lot as if it was correctly catalogued and pay for shipping on top!
The girl who runs their jewellery department, Lucy, is clearly very junior and can’t speak with any authority.
I really wanted what I bought but was left feeling like a chump by the whole experience. So disappointing. I gave them so many opportunities to just make small gestures of rectification but they flat out refused. Clearly customer service and retention not important to them.
Very disappointed. Not at all like dealing with a proper auction house.
Amateur across the board. Buyer be warned!

DO NOT BUY THROUGH MCTEARS AUCTION HOUSE. Bought a water damaged Rolex 6538 off them. Entrusted with them that all the parts were genuine Rolex parts even though after market. They Described the watch as being 37mm and the measurement was actually 38mm, which is crucial when buying additional Rolex watch parts. I didn’t check the watch for over a month because I trusted them to have a horologist that knows what they were looking at. Which is clearly not the case because none of the parts were original. Of course they have a standard return policy but may as-well have sold me nothing because now I have paid 11.5 thousand including fees for a watch that isn’t worth 4 thousand the director doesn’t want to know and kept avoiding my emails and calls. Instead three weeks after being notified sends an email outlining the so called rules of the auction house. I am now down at least 7 thousand pounds because of McTears Auction House. They say that this is Scotlands favourite auction house, if so it is probably Scotlands only auction house. STAY CLEAR and if this situation happens to you get a good lawyer. What they have done to me is already breaching the consumer protection act, the sale of goods act and the item is not fit for purpose. They will hide behind their phone and ignore your calls for weeks making an excuse in the hope that no one will sue them. BEWARE!!!!!!!!

Worst Customer Service In the Auction Business. Bought a watch and couldn’t collect because was in hospital. Got a large storage bill and Mctears were totally unhelpful. Just wanted more money or threatened to sell my paid for purchase

Buyers Beware

Sellers - go elsewhere!!
Customer service is abysmal - they do not respond to website requests or messages.

Don’t let this shower anywhere near your goods. My brother spent a lifetime building up a huge collection of Elvis Presley records and memorabilia. We took it to them to get an estimate of its value. I phoned them five times for a reply from James Spiridion. He didn’t phone back. We later found out that they sold it under Antiques and Interiors where there would be no one interested in it. They sold it for £45. When it would be worth thousands. They refuse to do anything about it. It smells to us that someone the know got to buy it cheaply.

McTear's were selling 2 antique military items. I asked VERY specific questions about the completeness of the items. I was directed to the web site listing which stated they were, in fact, complete. I bid and won. I then travelled a 380 mile journey to pick them up as they were too heavy to ship. When I returned home I found that essential parts were missing. McTears stated I had to return them to obtain a refund. I refused and they had to arrange a pick up at their expense. I was eventually refunded. I also requested a refund for my wasted time and huge costs. It was refused. Since then the items have been re-listed (and sold) with very precise details that should have been given to me initially!
I could take Court action quoting the 1979 Sale of Goods Act but why waste more time? My advice: do not but anything from this outfit unless you have seen it in person. The person that issued the false statements should, in my opinion, be relegated to sweeping up and making the tea!

Appalling. Would never use them again. Sold items for a pittance and once charges taken off I got virtually nothing. I should have sold my items privately. Some dealer got a bargain to say the least and will be making a fair bit of money. A friend of mine suffered the same experience in spite of items being valued in his home at approximately £400 but items were sold for £10 and then they wanted to charge £75 for carriage. Seller beware. Since recounting these experiences, others have warned me about McTears.

Ewan @ mctears whisky auction so helpful & experienced. Valuations given were spot on & I am absolutely delighted Ewan made it so easy to sell at auction. You are an absolute star & have no hesitation in recommending mctears. Thank you

Sold items on Friday ,says on their website that payment will be in your account in 3 days after the sale ,contacted them on the fourth day and they informed me that it won’t be until the following Wednesday which in my calculations is 12 days not happy with this service and will not be sell through them again ........ VERY DISAPPOINTED

Second time i have purchased from mctears and every bit as good as the first. Speedy delivery at reasonable cost. Paid a little more than i would have liked but thats auctions for you. Staff are very helpful and informative.

What ever you do! Do NOT use the online valuation service with McTear's. Especially, if the estimation that you received or any correspondence from Roderick Shale.

After several emails and a large collection of close up images and videos provided via Google drive. Roderick Shale, confirmed twice his valuation. Also confirmed, three times that it would incur a charge of £80 to have their preferred courier Aardvark8 to collect the items.

However, the day after the courier collected the said items. I received a rude and insulting message advising me that the items are not saleable. Giving no options on the message, I phoned him back and to say his attitude stank, would be a gross understatement.

On top of that. He then offered no assistance in getting by items back. Then sent me an invoice for £110 and insisted that I can not get what I own back until the £110 was paid in full.

Not only did he accept any responsibility for his wrong valuation. But, he has then forced me to pay more than he quoted for the courier service. Roderick Shale and Mc Tear's, now have my property in their possession and are refusing to assist with any help in getting my items back to me in Chester. Roderick even flat refused to put them back into the packaging that they arrived in so that I could arrange for a courier to collect them.

PUT SIMPLY MCTEAR'S PROVIDE THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED!

Roderick Shale, repeatedly took great pride in pompously pronouncing that McTear's have been in operation for 180 years.

Now, I need to point out that it is the 21st Century now and standards have moved on some way from 180 years ago.

So I say this to McTear's. Thousands of businesses disappear everyday by being stuck in the past and telling the customers that they are wrong. But, in the 21st century, the customer is king and competition is your enemy.

However, with key employees like Roderick Shale as your face and representation. You and nobody else are pushing your business closer to the pile of fossilised 180+ years old businesses that have died through complacency.

AVOID THESE GUYS. DO YOUR SELF A FAVOUR AND GO ELSEWHERE FOR A MUCH BETTER EXPERIENCE. ONE MORE APROPRIATE FOR THE TIMES THAT WE LIVE IN.

The military model and police uniform items I submitted for sale were largely photographed in closed boxes and a closed dry cleaning bag. No estimate or reserve was given and when I phoned to ask for help, they said what reserve do you want. I thought that was their job! They were also put into a general Antiques and Interiors sale instead of the militaria sale I had agreed verbally. I had three days notice of the change to the general sale but missed the email as the agreed sale was a month later. Items were available to dealers to view two days before the sale and only one day for the public. Low price achieved. Very concerning that this can happen and McTears didn't reply to my second email challenging this poor practice.

I purchased earlier this month an album of cigarette cards the item was described as 20TH CENTURY ALBUM OF CIGARETTE CARDS, comprising various cigarette cards by makers including Players, Wills and Ogdens showing an old tattered album with no other photo's and it was cigarette cards I was interested in.
I submitted my bid and purchased for approx £130.00 in the week previous to auction I checked the site for other photos, none were shown and there were none on the sale day, they told me they had put a couple of Photos on the site which I do not believe, but I could have blinked and they were gone!
On receiving the item a few days later opened the album and it was just a scrap book with nearly every single card cut to pieces about 800 cards and all stuck in of no value whatsoever A really horrible collection
I contacted them the same day and asked for the management and was told nobody was available but they would ring me next day, They did and sent James one of there minors to speak with me
who had a stock answer and get out of jail card which they have according to earlier reviews have used many times before .
HAVE YOU REQUESTED A CONDITION REPORT
many people including myself do not have time for all this hassle I just require honest people to give a good report on the item, It looks as if on any damaged items they show as little as possible to enrich their commissions and get more cash from you.
BEWARE OF McTEARS If they show very little of an item and no reasonable report on condition you could be losing your money and find an honest
Auction House who show good and bad with items.
The management of this company have obviously programmed there staff well with complaints.
People like Mctears do not deserve to be in business
there are many honest auction houses who are delighted to deal with you in an honest way and will put things right when a mistake is made,
THIS WAS NOT A MISTAKE IT WAS TAKING MONEY UNDER FALSE PRETENCES
I am always happy to show the advert and Photograph with one photo of Album sold

I had two prints in sales which did not sell. When I collected them one of the frames had been damaged with the back having been removed resulting the contents of the frame becoming loose. I wrote to Mctears asking why the back had been removed but never received a reply. Disappointing service!

Excellent service from start to finish! Communicated with Michelle who gave really helpful professional advice on how to sell and the auction process for a complete newbie like myself. Would deal with again and again!

CAVEAT EMPTOR l was never given either estimates or valuations on my first bargain basement sale of a few original art deco items, all flung in at £20 a pop ...Xmas for some dealers - as well as doing this without informing me, as l would have withdrawn a few item, especially the superb glass/brass ceiling light, subsequently valued at circa £180-350 and some deco glass vases, about £35-70 each. l was told in writing all these items dumped into the £20 bracket as they were not Deco. They belonged to someone who was known to experts, eg such as BBC drama producers, for owning a 100% Deco living room in which they would film. l have no legal recourse. But l am happy to put a case together if anyone is offended. l have a witness to the statement made before collection, but l assumed the statement would be sent/emailed in writing to me as accepted then that these were reputable auctioneers. Caveat emptor.
PS I have spoken with Michelle and further detailed items which were indeed sent for the above sale to me but minus any estimates of price. I still have this letter. I stupidly assumed the Deco items had not yet been appraised and estimated. I was wrong. That £20 PER ITEM LOT went on sale without any attempt to appraise me of that low low low estimate per item. Obviously the most original collector's Deco item even then although estimated at only £20 went for over £100, proof enough that this was a silly unrealistic £20 estimate of its true value. As the item was incorrectly described I assume genuine Deco collectors were not alerted, ipso facto some dealer had a very good deal that day! During my discussion with Michelle, I was unable to discuss the finer points of the Art Deco buying world, as she is a Director of the company.

Been going to this auction for years and never had a problem. Great service, polite and conscientious workers

still waiting to recieve my auction item!

First class service, online site is used friendly which makes checking auction items, bidding etc very easy.