Customers claim West Berkshire auction house owes them cash

Cameo Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers is at the centre of a storm after many clients claimed they were owed hundreds and even thousands of pounds.
The firm also has a string of outstanding county court judgements against it.
Meanwhile a recent edition of the BBC programme The Sheriffs Are Coming, which follows bailiffs enforcing court payment orders, featured the Midgham firm.
In the programme, local woman Janet Smith was shown resorting to the bailiffs to recoup a county court award against Cameo of more than £4,000.
She told the programme: “Months went by without payment. It’s outrageous that people can proceed like this.”
Other angry Cameo clients have contacted Newburytoday.co.uk with similar stories.
However the firm has largely rejected their claims.
Among them were several clients who said they had been handed cheques which later bounced.
One woman, who asked not to be identified, said: “They owe me hundreds of pounds. I was there on the day of the auction but now they won’t reply to my emails or phone calls. I even sent them a recorded delivery letter.”
And Ian Butcher said: “They owe me for goods sold last year but despite going through the small claims court, they still have not paid.”
Similar allegations have been made against the firm in online customer forums.
Cameo did not return our calls but on Wednesday (March 28), when Newburytoday.co.uk turned up at the auction rooms, sales room manager Glen Norcliffe vehemently denied the allegations.
He said: “If anything, we’re too busy and that’s why we haven’t answered some calls. We deal with around 1,500 customers each month, often with multiple lots.”
Mr Norcliffe denied that the firm was struggling to repay clients and added: “We make mistakes, we’re only human. But the trouble is, people don’t read the terms for vendors and 99 per cent of complaints are down to people not reading the terms and conditions. We try to be fair - some auctioneers have pages and pages of them but ours are condensed into one sheet.
“Also, not many auction houses publish their sale results online. We do.”
Mr Norcliffe said problems usually arose when clients saw items marked as ‘sold.’
He added: “Most people think that when the hammer goes down, their items are bought, sold and paid for. But often the items have not been paid for. For example, one German client bought items months ago and has only just come in to pay.
“Also, sometimes people refuse to pay for items they’ve purchased and in that case we have to ‘unsell’ them and resell them and they often go for a lesser price than the vendor thinks.”
The terms state: “Cameo can only undertake to settle vendors’ after 35 working days after the sale and is subject to receiving payment from the purchaser.....where multiple items are entered accounts will be settled only after all lots have sold or the client has been asked to collect unsold items.”
Spokesman for West Berkshire Council’s trading standards department, Sean Murphy, said: “We have received a number of complaints about this firm and we are currently looking into them. We are in discussion with Cameo. Meanwhile we would urge anyone who has any issues with them to contact us.”
Pick up a copy of next Thursday's Newbury Weekly News for a follow-up to this story.