Invoice Status: “No Show" vs. “No Sale"

When a winning bidder fails or is unable to complete a purchase, the invoice should be marked either as a “No Show" or as a “No Sale" depending on the circumstances.

No Show

No Show means the bidder fails to honor a valid winning bid. When the reason for an unpaid invoice is the fault of the bidder, the invoice should be processed as a “No Show." Bidders may lose their bidding privileges for “No Show" invoices.

Common “No Show" reasons from the bidder:

• Failed to show up on removal day or the agreed-upon alternate removal day.

• Refused to take possession of the asset at the removal. Important: The lot description and picture must accurately reflect the asset to be considered a “No Show."

• Didn’t realize the auction location or decided a low-value item was not worth picking up.

• Claims he didn’t place a bid.

• Decides shipping is too expensive/didn’t realize shipping wasn’t available on the asset.

• A canceled check, disputed credit card transaction or credit card has been declined.

No Sale

No Sale means the purchase cannot be completed due to an issue with the asset. The asset, as described, is unavailable to the winning bidder at the removal. No Sale invoices should be infrequent. “No Sale" invoices typically indicate the affiliate has an issue they need to address to prevent future “No Sale" invoices (the exception being assets damaged after the invoices were generated).

When processing an invoice as a “No Sale," the affiliate needs to indicate the reason.

Common “No Sale" reasons (and guidance for avoiding that type of “No Sale" in the future):

• Damaged Assets – the only time an asset will be a "No Sale" due to damage is if the asset sustained damage after the auction closes. If an asset is discovered to be damaged during the course of the auction, the affiliate needs to contact Equip-Bid immediately and request to have the item halted.

• Misrepresented – the description/picture of a lot doesn’t represent the asset accurately. Either the seller or the affiliate failed to fully disclose material facts about the asset. Affiliates are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of lot descriptions and pictures. Mistakes will happen, but if the misrepresentation is a regular occurrence, the affiliate obviously needs to make the full disclosure clause in their consignment agreement much more prominent, and consider charging the seller a fee for every asset that fails to sell because it was inaccurately described.

• Reserve Lowered – The reserve was lowered after the winning bidder placed their bid. If this is a regular occurrence, the reserves are clearly being set above the “absolutely can’t sell for less” amount. Affiliates need to spend time educating their sellers on the risks associated with reserves. Sellers need to understand that if their reserve is set too high and it is lowered after the last bid is placed, the winning bidder is in control of whether the asset sells or not. There is no penalty for bidders who become winning bidders by default.

• Missing/Stolen - The asset was either given to the wrong winning bidder or the asset 'disappeared' before the winning bidder picked up and paid for the item.

• Other – the only time an affiliate should process an invoice as “No Sale" - Other is when something unusual occurs such as:

  • Theft – affiliate needs to identify/resolve the weaknesses in their security system.

  • Seller fails to honor contract – refuses to sell for high bid price (contact Equip-Bid ASAP) – Seller will be prohibited from selling on Equip-Bid.com in the future.

  • Affiliate error at removal resulting in the wrong bidder taking an asset - Develop a system to double-check assets against the invoice.