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Catawiki Reviews

1.3 Rating 546 Reviews

5 %

of reviewers recommend Catawiki

Company Reviews

1.3

Based on 546 reviews


Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service, Courier
Average Delivery Time	Over 7 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 44%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 50%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Telephone, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

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Catawiki 1 star review on 23rd April 2024

Catawiki 1 star review on 23rd April 2024

Catawiki 1 star review on 23rd April 2024

Catawiki 1 star review on 5th April 2024

Catawiki 1 star review on 5th April 2024

Catawiki 1 star review on 15th March 2024

Catawiki 1 star review on 15th March 2024

78

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 2 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“And just wanted to express my opinion on this drama that has continued for over 2 months now. Your action surely protects only buyers. I'm sure if I would be not an honest buyer I could imitate the amp that is faulty and send the video that confirms this, it's so easy to fabricate such evidence I received. I don't even have any official repair service doc or quotation about the so-called repair. I just give up and agree to refund 100e because I need my money paid. Its a shame how you treat sellers. And you just keep a massive amount of cash in your pocket with no paying any interest. If I'm wrong please correct me. Regards”

Posted 1 month ago

“No refunds, no respons on complaint, they keep payments for days on end without responding on legit claims. Really bad service. Bought for 250,- vinyl, but the package from Greece was a disaster, no protection at all: money gone, no service, no respons at all. Never buy vinyl again on catawiki.”

Posted 1 month ago

“Tax double payment You can make some good deals. But preferable if within Europe to avoid any purchase from outside that zone, particularly from Japan as you might have to pay the tax twicexto Catawiki and the transporteur such DHL (for instance if happen twice to me with Euro 110 to Catawiki and over Euro 170 to DHL & the second time with over 50 Euro & with 48 Euro for DHL. Despite receiving the confirmation from Catawiki that they will reimbursed, which they dont & afterxa month askingcyou to deal directly with the seller which will not. So better avoid exept if you do not mind to take the risk of paying more +/- 10%.”

Posted 2 months ago

“It depends on what you buy. Ancient items (Roman, Medieval, etc) are so often very obviously fake or mislabelled (e.g. there is currently an ancient Roman ring on offer which is vintage Islamic - probably Yemeni, 20th Century). Where are their much trumpeted experts? And you can no longer write for clarification. Good to buy old books, though make sure to browse elsewhere, modern design items, some ethnic stuff, household, but rely on your own knowledge, not what is written.”

Posted 3 months ago

“When the seller is decent, everything goes fine. When not - about one of ten - the problems begin and persist. The "support" of Catawiki is overwhelming slow, or it just doesn't exist. No matter how many times you try. You'd better think twice before bidding any expensive items, you may never see it or your money again. Never pay more than is ok for you to lose. Many sellers are selling fake "historical artifacts" from year to another. The name of the company just changes maybe once a year, but you can recognize the seller from the same fake objects and similar stories. It would be easy to block these sellers, but Catawiki doesn't do that, because its their business to sell anything, I mean anything. It's sad to see people losing hundreds or thousands of euros to chinese cheap copies. Some sellers keep on not sending products, if they don't reach price good enough, altough they had no reserve price. And Catawiki just lets this happen. Are the representatives just smoking weed? Do your job! I have bought many good things in a good price, but also lost some money and time in this modern bazaar of stuff and scum.”

Posted 4 months ago

“Catawiki has got a sketchy, unreliable, unresponsive support and a failing website that is often missing important functional parts that are necessary to contact the support and to view account features etc.”

Catawiki 2 star review on 8th November 2023

Posted 6 months ago

“1. If you bid with under 60 seconds remaining, Catawiki, automatically tacks on another 1:30 seconds. Is that legal? Certainly, highly unethical. 2. I placed a Maximum Bid with 10 seconds left. Catawiki reset the Bid Clock to 1:30 seconds and automatically took my Maximum Bid even though nobody else had bid since I placed it. They will take the Maximum Bid and not increase in set increments. So, you cannot bid and forget it, they will immediately take that Maximum Bid. They present it as increasing in increments but that is not the case. Fraudulent? Certainly, highly unethical. This is a corrupt auction/bid house. Be very careful!”

Posted 11 months ago

“Here you’ll find originality. If there’s a good record out, if there’s a special edition you did not think of, like the weird edition of a 1923 book ; you might find it here. What, there’s an OPUS Michael Jackson book ? There’s something like a treasure hunt on catawiki. But don’t expect to safe money or find real authentic, as they are not checking up both. It might not really be like the picture, or it might not really be signed, it might not even be gold. Is that Egyptian piece really 2500 years old ? I wouldn’t count on it. What seems like a good deal a the first might end up the worst deal ever. Financially of course. But then, isn’t the piece pretty ? It certainly is. Welcome to the jungle.”

Posted 1 year ago

“My experience with Catawiki In addition to many pros and benefits not mentioned here that Catawiki provides to a buyer and a bidder, the following are my observations, experiences, suggestions and comments where there is space for improvement. While some of these issues may be how Catawiki chooses to run their auctions, so not everything below are to be improved and are not necessarily cons. While Catawiki considers my review a negative review, I consider it a review and a constructive criticism, while in many cases such consumer reviews help companies improve their UI/UX and are otherwise costly if the company had to hire a consultant. After a recent "upgrade" in the autumn of 2022 it has become harder to get around the Catawiki interface. Now there is more secrecy and inconvenience for buyers (bidders) since the auction bidder and winner can no longer see the sellers name and address nor contact each other even after the buyer pays for their order. Why was this change made to HIDE sellers name and address? The descriptions of many of the lots are lacking grading (condition) for numismatic items and even when asked some sellers fail to provide grading (condition) information in an appropriate manner, not just write "it is in nice" condition. Catawiki experts say that they don't want IBNS grading in the item description if the item is not graded by an independent party (slabbed, encapsulated) such as for instance - PMG or PCGS. Thus Catawiki gives preference to independent graders (which often make mistakes in identifying and grading paper money and banknotes) rather than IBNS grading standards. The imposed 51 word limit in the item description for Sellers does not always allow to explain the condition of the item and to include detailed description in some cases when the item is not new. No wonder sellers write "it is nice" instead of describing the condition in very detail since the 51 word limit often prevents to fully describe the item. And if you are trying to begin selling on Catawiki, keep in mind, the seller sign up process may be long, slow and even dysfunctional in places. Catawiki requires the seller to provide their ID that shows both sides of the id such as drivers license or a passport, but then when they are provided a large image of the id both sides they reply they are unable to read it! Then they ask for a second document proving your residential status and street address and you are also asked to register for German LUCID number even if you're not living in Germany and even if you are a private seller just wanting to sell off some of your collection or a single car. Registering for German LUCID is extremely complicated process with confusing instructions. Catawiki finds something to deny you like the size of your ID photo which is 1000 pixels large and yet they are unable to read it!? Finally after providing like a 5th or 6th document, which was an el. Power bill, they finally approved the sale. One seller's money are not being released and I wrote to the support asking why they are holding to his money since I received the goods already a week ago. Catawiki just released his money after a week after the shipment was marked as DELIVERED. Another seller's money were on hold for about 2 weeks after they completed delivery of their under-delivered products. That's a long time for the seller to wait to have their money released. There seems to be too little discipline among some sellers and buyers at Catawiki. Some sellers take many days or weeks to ship out the sold items and some buyers are slow to pay for their won items and take weeks to do that. One buyer took entire 3 weeks to pay and they paid on the very last legally allowed day, thus causing some relisting problems to the seller. Yet most buyers and sellers seems to be just fine with dispatch. If a buyer (winning bidder) does not receive their shipment within 25 days after payment and does not submit a "CLAIM" to Catawiki, Catawiki pays the seller even if the goods are NOT delivered to the buyer yet. Then the buyer has to contact and deal with the seller instead of being protected by Catawiki all the way until the goods are delivered. Although Catawiki assures the seller that they will pay the seller only after the gods are delivered, but on the contrary a buyer seems to only be protected against non-delivery for the first 25 days! And how about those buyers who live in more remote destinations and if there is slow delivery of mail that takes months? There are also the following issues at Catawiki: 1. Catawiki software is adding 1:35 min of extra bidding time once the Auction clock reaches around 00:50 or even 00:30 till the end of each auction. Sometimes they add 1:35 min once and sometimes twice and even three or many more times. It's frustrating to see the bid you have placed and then you have to wait several more minutes again and again and you are late to participate in other auctions or elsewhere. I am no auction software expert, but this feature clearly serves Catawiki and the sellers to extract as much profit as possible, while they forget that without bidders there will be NO auctions at all. I personally do not like the Extended Bidding feature, especially when it is extended multiple times, because it looks a bit shady and I am often late to participate in other auctions. Bidders should be encouraged and not discouraged by repeat Extended Bidding functionality. 2. Many photos on Catawiki are way too small in order for the bidders to see the items in fine detail before they bid. One of the sellers I bid on is reusing the same photos for his next auctions and as a result I received some really bad quality material that was not reflected in the photos or in the description. Catawiki were notified and agreed that sellers should not reuse photos as that borders on fraud, but Catawiki did nothing about it and the seller keeps reusing the photos for his other auctions. 3. There are numerous broken links leading to dead pages or dead ends on Catawiki. After being notified Catawiki did nothing to repair those links and pages. One of the broken page examples: On the Buyers Terms page the highlighted MY WON LOTS link at the bottom of that page leads to the URL: /buyer/orders but that page says PAGE NOT FOUND. Catawiki support blames my browser for their broken link. 4. Some of the tracking links on Catawiki are malformed and create unnecessary tensions between sellers and buyers and time is wasted because wrong information is provided by Catawiki. 5. While the Buyer (bidder) is expected and is required to pay within 3 days, the Seller is allowed much longer time (3 business days or longer) in order to ship the goods (some sellers take a week or 2 weeks or longer to dispatch the goods) and some sellers even manipulate tracking numbers in order to gain more time to ship the goods to the winning bidder (Buyer). 6. Some Catawiki sellers do not combine shipping charges on multiple won lots, as they are allowed to do that, adding up to some fantastically large amounts for shipping! Some charge way too much and make profit on shipping and some sellers do not want to refund the excessive part of their shipping charges. 7. Catawiki requires the buyer (winning bidder) to pay for the won lots within 3 days. Not 3 business days, but 3 consecutive days! The PROBLEM is that if there is a problem on a Friday evening, a buyer has until Monday to pay for the won items, while Catawiki Support replies to messages after 48 hours or after several days. By then the Buyer becomes delinquent with his payment, while still waiting for Catawiki support's reply since the seller can not be contacted before payment is submitted. It becomes a closed circle. Seller can only be contacted after payment is submitted by the buyer and buyer is unable to pay if a problem arises, while the support can not be contacted by chat within 24 hours or within minutes. 8. Seller can not be contacted (to request to combine shipping costs, to clarify condition or description of the items etc.) until the auction is over and the winning bidder submit their full payment. That's extremely inconvenient and unfair to the bidder. 9. Catawiki begins to send PAYMENT OVERDUE notices to winning buyers 24 hours after the auction ends! While the winning buyer must pay within 3 days of the auction ending, they have 3 whole days to pay, but Catawiki considers they can begin sending DAILY emails to the buyer starting with day one! Even on weekends! Catawiki sent me an OVERDUE email only about 15 hours after the auction ended! The email said that my payment is now 1 day overdue! That's ridiculous and borders on extortion. 10. BEWARE VAT (Sales Tax)! You will have to pay extra (often 25% more or less) VAT (or sales tax) in addition to shipping charge and 9% seller's fee. 11. You can not cancel your auction bid even if you made an innocent mistake. 12. Some winning bids (sales) have "PROVIDE FEEDBACK" button activated, while others don't, while they are all not received yet. What's going on here? 13. There's a possibility to receive an empty box (or envelope) or only part of your goods, so my advice is to always make a video of unboxing your package. Happened to me a couple times already. Catawiki support did not help me at all. They took 7 days to reply to my urgent case where an empty envelope with contents missing has arrived cut open with postal person as a witness! They instead IGNORED my submitted evidence and demanded unreasonable number of photos, ignoring that it was not a box but an envelope with just one small paper collectable inside of it that was missing. They demanded me to weight that envelope as if you can weigh a 1 gram item? Post office does NOT accept claims form recipients! And Catawiki ignored the document provided by our Postal Service with signatures and statements and a live witness from post office delivery staff! 14. A frequent event is when you submit a "claim" to Catawiki in order to keep on receiving their delivery support beyond the 25 days you get blocked form Catawiki for at least 5 minutes and Catawiki has not fixed this problem after s many times they were notified about this: "Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.catawiki.com/en/fulfilment/buyer/orders" on this server." 15. Catawiki support now takes weeks to reply and many questions and inquiries as well as complaints are left unaddressed. For example, my inquiry regarding overcharged and overpaid EXCESSIVE shipping charges by Catawiki sellers remains unanswered by Catawiki even that in their rules they state that sellers can not overcharge for shipping and that all significant overcharges should be reported to Catawiki and they say they will make sure the sellers refund the excess amount, but lately - No reply from Catawiki, just plain ignorance and silence. For example the seller has charged €15 but spent just around €6 which incliudes also envelope and even some money for driving to the post office. Why would I be paying extra €10 for nothing? What I like about Catawiki is a low 9% bidder's fee and the support is quite responsive. UPDATE (JANUARY 2023): Now the support has become non-responsive at all! I also like that the money is paid to the seller only after the goods are delivered although now Catawiki take a week to pay the Seller after their shipment is marked as Delivered and some sellers complain to have never received their money. Yet I hope that in case of non-delivery the goods are fully insured and the seller is fully compensated for the loss. My research is still in the making since I am quite new at Catawiki and I will frequently update my review. Tip for consumers: Do not bid on the seller's listings who do not combine shipping charges for several winnings or you will end up paying a huge and very unreasonable shipping charge which can not always be refunded! Also do not bid on sellers who are outside of your country or you will be paying a huge VAT! There is no way to ask the seller for a larger photo, to tell more details, for the mail service or speed courier name or anything else, before you bid!”

Posted 1 year ago

“After describing to customer service that my package was delivered to the wrong address, I received a response many days later. But in response I only received that the package has been delivered and the matter is closed. I have also written to the seller but he does not respond to my messages. The carrier has a picture that they left the package at a white house, but I live in a red house. So badly handled by both seller and customer service.”

Posted 1 year ago

“The site claims to have experts who evaluate the lots but I've seen certain sellers selling fake antiques at exorbitant prices there for literally years. They allow no communication with the seller at all so you can't inquire about lots prior to purchase or ask for additional pictures. Basically they are just another ebay, minus some features. And for this you pay a 9% buyers auction fee. You can find some real stuff there, but buyer beware!”

Posted 1 year ago

“Here follows my letter of complaint to Catawiki Customer Support. I am waiting for a reply. ( Their messaging system does not accept attached photos. I include photos of 3 out of the 4 suspect paintings here.) Dear...., I wish to bring to your attention an extremely serious matter, regarding two of Catawiki’s “PRO TOP” sellers, which I am sure will be of interest to you. These two sellers are: Ditta Caiazzo and Rosa. My suspicions were first aroused in 2020 when two years after my purchase of a painting, lot number 22018945 from Ditta Caiazzo, I removed the glass from the frame and found traces of paint which was still wet (!) adhering to the inside of the glass. Another painting from the same seller bought at around the same time and purporting to be by Giuseppe Aureli, lot no. 22408477, I recently find to be mere copy of a finer work. I decided to take works sold by Catawiki which claimed to be Giuseppe Aureli (1858-1929) as a sample and research them as being potential frauds. The two sellers, amongst others, which seem to be most guilty of criminal misrepresentation in this respect are the above-mentioned Ditta Caiazzo and Rosa. Here are some of the results, in chronological order, of my findings: 02.12.2018. Lot number 22408477. Ditta Caiazzo. Painting entitled Odalisca signed G . Aureli (this the painting I unfortunately bought) is a COPY of Fatima by Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911). See attachment 1. Link: https://arthive.com/it/artists/3360~Jules_Joseph_Lefebvre/works/551292~Fatima_1883 20.01.2019. Lot number 23502477. Rosa. Painting entitled Figura della Classicità signed G.Aureli is a COPY of Cleopatra by J. W. Waterhouse (1849-1917). See attachment 2. Link: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cleopatra_-_John_William_Waterhouse.jpg 13.02.2019. Lot number 24341055. Ditta Caiazzo. Painting entitled Figura Neoclassica signed G. Aureli is a COPY of Sappho by Alexandre Isailoff (1869-?). See attachment 3. Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexandre_Isailoff_-_Sappho.jpg 12.01.2020. Lot number 33346639. Rosa. Painting entitled Ritratto di Donna signed G. Aureli is a COPY of Dejando el Harèm by Vicente Palmaroli y Gonzales (1834-1896). See attachment 4. Link: https://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_370212/Vicente-Palmaroli-Y-Gonzalez/Leaving-The-Harem We can exclude any fantastical notions that Giuseppe Aureli copied famous paintings and signed them as his own work. He was a successful artist in his own right. I refer you to an exhaustive and illustrated list of 184 original works by Aureli: http://www.artnet.com/artists/giuseppe-aureli/ None of the above Catawiki listings used the words “copy” or “after”, none of them mentioned the works’ original artist and all of them bear the words “Signed G. Aureli”. The descriptions neglect to say that the signatures are false. I repeat that the above examples are the results of research into works claiming to have been painted by only one artist. If in just one morning’s study I have found 4 clear examples of blatant fraud, I hate to think of how many others remain undetected. Probably dozens and dozens. My suspicion is that the Catawiki sellers, both Ditta Caiazzo and Rosa (perhaps in collusion?) have a ‘stable’ of artists who produce copies for sale on internet bearing false signatures which the unwary or gullible buyer will bid for. In the past I was myself amongst those incautious buyers. I am annoyed with myself, but also angry with Catawiki for allowing these situations to continue. Two “Pro, Top” sellers are obviously favoured clients at Catawiki: money-makers extraordinaire! But the Catawiki promise, “Experts you can count on” and Catawiki’s claim of “commitment to trust and safety” are apparently nothing but empty slogans. Such disregard of buyers’ interests, whether by negligence or design, infuriates me. I am considering taking further action regarding Ditta Caiazzo, Rosa and Catawiki, but await your exhaustive reply before making my decision. I wish to be informed of the action you take. Regards, Stephen Barley Rome.”

Posted 2 years ago

“The "experts" of the fossil section are unable to identify fake items, and forgeries or cheap reconstructions plague their entire catalog. Species are misidentified, and almost every entry is labelled "museum quality" or some non-sense along those lines. This is to be expected on eBay, but not on a supposedly curated site. The recommended prices are always ludicrous, most of the time over triple the real market value. Not too surprising considering the hefty commissions Catawiki charges. They try to artificially drive up the price. Incidentally the items with jacked-up price estimates tend to be of the same sellers. Interpret that as you will. Shipping fees are absurd. Small items located in a city 100km away which could be shipped insured for 5€ have shipping fees of a minimum of 18€, and frequently into the 30s. Catawiki operates more like a mafia than a curated auction house. Please do not take their curated information by face value. Make sure the price is fair and that the items are authentic.”

Posted 3 years ago

“High shipping fees, not reliable experts, seems that the experts put high prices on a list of sellers which is relatives of their own. Fake prices. I have seen fake items or items sold twice with the same photos. No reaction despite my intervention. They accept cheating by not doing anything. Only buy gemstones with a GIA or IGI certificate (which I did). It somewhat saved me from fraud.”

Posted 3 years ago

“Its so difficult to get hold of customer services when something is wrong!!.”

Posted 3 years ago

“Catawiki made me sell chinese antiques from the 18th century as 19th century and did not care about proof of age or comparable items (luckily buyers have a better idea of the item, as the selling prices show). An other object was under review for more than one month! After several emails, nobody cared and I deleted it from the list of submitted objects. A new one is already in Limbo for 3 weeks again... Pre-Columbian Objects from a collection established in the 1960's... said to be fake !? Two month later I resubmitted them. This time they got accepted... by the same expert... I have seen items where more then ten years of experience screamed: fake... sell for hundreds of dollars! Hands off this platform! If you are a seller and you are sure of what you got to offer! When you are a buyer, you either get fooled by them, or find a nice antique for a small price, because they have no knowledge of what they sell or knowingly sell everything including fakes, in most of the antiques departements!”

Posted 4 years ago

“I sold my stuff via Catawiki, all went well. But since my subscription my mailbox was overflowing with their mail, although I had been very witholding with my choices of what to receive. Then I found out that they had changed ALL my choices, without my consent. I do NOT like behaviour like this, so I unsubscribed .”

Posted 4 years ago

“Catawiki does not permit questions directly to the seller prior to bidding. Shipping is not predictable. Even items within the same country can take weeks. Catawiki’s auction process sucks; resets with increased bids. Very seller biased. Catawiki is unresponsive; virtually no customer support.”

Posted 4 years ago

“One bid worked out OK and I got what I expected. Second time I bid for some wine and the shipping costs were outrageous so I objected as this had not been made clear before the purchase. They refused to accept my argument and set a debt collecting company on me which I ignored as they expected me to pay for this also! Then I got a letter from a firm of lawyers which I also ignored. Last I ever heard from them! Not a good company but you can be lucky”

Posted 5 years ago

“As far as buying is concerned, I have received all items as described, and promptly. I have not used this site for selling so I am unable to comment on that process. However, unlike ebay, Catawiki has a fundamental problem in the way that they have no buyer protection, as you are unable to pay by PayPal, which is a must if you are using these auction sites. I have had previous problems on ebay and PayPal have always resolved the issues, and I have been refunded, but I have heard that there are lots of problems with Catawiki when things go wrong, and Catawiki Customer Service does not provide an adequate solutions to deal with the problems, so you need to bear this in mind if using this site - things do go wrong and you may well be left to deal with the issues yourself, and what a nightmare this could be, so be warned. Until they allow PayPal to be used to pay for the auctions, this is going to be the major downside of using this site!!!!!!”

Posted 5 years ago

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Catawiki is rated 1.3 based on 546 reviews