My original lot said: Belgium - Early 19th century
No. of items: 3
Object: Candlestick, Crucifix (More lots)
Material: Iron (cast/wrought)
Estimated Period: Early 19th century
Country of Origin: Belgium
Condition: Good condition - used with small signs of aging & blemishes
Set of two candlesticks and a crucifix. The crucifix has a height of 39 cm and a width of 17 cm. The foot is 12 cm by 12 cm. The candlesticks are 15.5 cm high and have a diameter of 5 cm at the top and a foot diameter of 7.5 cm. The foot shows the country where it was made, namely West Germany.
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I'm hard pressed to give this even a 1 star review. I replied to the buyer and catawiki the same day I got the items, with pictures of truly fake claims. They were chrome plated items, painted with some gold antiquing to make them look older. The crucifix is not cast iron, it's some heavy metal with chrome and paint. No way to know if it was actually "from Belgium", and the candlesticks obviously did not match (I knew this from the picture) and had maker's marks from West Germany (in English!). If there had been a picture of the makers marks (which any expert is completely unable to evaluate without this), they would've easily seen the cast molding, chrome plating and modern maker's mark from either the late 20th or early 21st century. A piece of tape lifted off the gold paint from the object, to reveal the chrome.
Catawiki wrote: Thank you for getting in touch with us. Due to an unusually high volume of requests our aim is to reply to your message within three business days, our sincere apologies. We will contact you as soon as possible.
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They've now taken over 2 weeks, and claimed they never received the original email with pictures, but I have proof I sent the complaint to the buyer, with pictures on the same day. The buyer told me he "didn't know" and said he'd contact Catawiki to refund my money. He never did so (of course). Catawiki leaves no paper trail on their own website. You can't access anything you wrote to them. But you can access what you wrote to the buyer.
With the 3rd Catawiki email they sent me, they did not include the first email complaint I sent - only the 2nd and 3rd, claiming they "never got the pictures." Then they said they needed pictures and a response, in ONE DAY, or they were closing the case.
This case is still unresolved, and it's now been 19 days.
5 years ago
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