Liberty Trading Precious Metals Ponzi Scheme Vandalia Illinois

Well where do you start. I must be in the small number of buyers who has issues.Lets clarify something-there are 3 owners in this company-Tony A. Flowers sr.,Samual W.D. Flowers (son) Sean G. Cook (son-in-law). I purchased 8 separate lots of coins and silver bullion from jan 19-31-we're talking six figures plus. Was told like thier website said on proxibid that they will ship in 7-10 days. First shipment 0f appx 8% of order arrived mid march(8 WEEKS). since then i have repeatedly called(must be screening thier phone)do not return emails unless proxibid called them to do so.It has been OVER 120 days now. I got a check for appx 1/3 of my money on may 22nd which of course bounced. talked to jamie who is bank manager/bookkeeper(?)who had no clue what was going on w/my account! So much for honesty and respect for your customer.

 So I was the one who just rebutted the owners response about shipping delays and excuses made by the company.  But this has now gone to a entire new level with this company.  I just got off the phone with customer service about my shipment and the fact that we are at the end of seven weeks and my silver still had not shipped.  The answer I got is very alarming to say the least!

I was told that they in fact do not have my Silver American Eagle rolls and would either kindly replace them with something else or issue me a refund.  The reasoning was that they were sold to customers walking in the front door of the store out of the safe and that they had no more American Eagles. The woman on the phone said "with the price of silver so low people are flooding the store."  So basically the silver I purchased seven weeks ago was not on site when I bought it at auction and they are allowing the silver people purchase at auction to be sold in the store instead of actually shipping it.  I would say this borders on fraud and is very disturbing.  I will be making a full fledged effort to get this info out to as many people as I can to save them from throwing away hard earned money to this group of scam artists!

 I saw that the owner of the company fired a rebuttal to a very unhappy consumer.  I have purchased from Liberty on numerous occasions going back to October of 2012.  I have probably taken part in fifteen or so auctions and have always had an issue with shipping and the way it was handled.  I have had to file two seperate complaints with Proxibid to get issues resolved and once that happened things went smoother.  Until now. 

I have received multiple emails from other clients (somehow Liberty allowed others to see everybody's email address) who have not received shipments on time and so forth.  I am now midway through week seven and nothing has shipped.  I have got several excuses from customer service and even got a response to my email last week saying it would be shipped last week. 

So my take on all of this is that the fact I have gotten the runaround from Liberty numerous times and had orders delayed everytime tells me that most clients DON"T get shipped on time.  Unless I am the outlier on shipping and the way customers are handled and it's happened to many times for me to believe that.  I will never ever ever place another auction order from this company and I warn all consumers that if you do expect a very troubling experience after the fact. 

I would not be surprised to find that the company is back filling orders after the sale!  Just my opinion but when you actually pay for shipping and nobody can give you a str8 answer it leads me to believe that the precious metals you buy at auction is not actually in their possession when the auction ends. 

I have done over $200k in business with Liberty Trading over the last 12 months.  Tony Flowers Sr. and Sean Cook, owners, are in my opinion very honest people.

IF you have the time and patience to wait for your order, then you can get good deals with them.

They have a storefront, and are well integrated into their community, so they aren't going to take your money and fly the coop on you.

Their staff is friendly and helpful as well. Justin does a great job in the shipping dept.

I will be the first to admit that I no longer do business with Liberty Trading due to differences in business practices, but never once felt that they would "rip" me off or steal from me.

PROS:

Honest, good pricing

CONS:

Slow shipping, not the best communication

I have been buying from Liberty probably since they started selling on Proxibid. I would like to think I am one of there biggest customers. I have bought single coins to whole bags of coins and have spents tens of thousands of dollars. I only buy from Liberty and SW on the site. They are by far the best in the business. Yes, Liberty does ship somewhat slow, but when I get a package it usually far exceeds what I expect. There shipping times are there only faults in my opinion.

Yes it could be better, but considering what they have done for Proxibid this is something I do not complain about. If I ever do have a concern I can call them or drop them an email and I always get a response that answers my questions or concerns. I will continue to buy from them and am appauled at the message that was left on this site. This person obviously does not know these guys very well! Keep up the good work Liberty and THANK YOU!!

I like how in today's society people can be slandered online by faceless cowards and unscrupulous competitors. It is for this reason and others that I felt the need to add my two cents.

I have dealt with Liberty for some time and know their owners and staff fairly well. If you have any real problems I suggest you call them. The times when I've had questions or concerns they've always addressed them professionally and promptly. I buy and sell from Liberty fairly regularly. They have lots of regulars like myself and are not only good business people but are active in the community.

It's an honor to do business with people like Liberty and frankly I am appalled by vermen who try and trash the name of good people.

Plain and simple you cannot please all of the people all of the time. I have bought (and received) 100's of 1000's of dollars worth of items from Liberty Trading and have never had any problems. I've dealt with many coin and bullion dealers in my time and they are amongst the best in the business. 

They are one of the leading sellers consistently on proxibid and also one of the highest rated sellers on proxiblog. How do you think that happens ? While I don't buy in every sale they have I would guess I am a fairly regular customer. They have grown tremendously from their success and again aren't your best bet for an overnight from tonights auction, but I've also been buying at 20-40% less than some of the big name dealers who frankly don't have much better delivery times.

Trying going into one of their stores with cash and try to buy from them. You can't. I don't mind getting better prices but I hate seeing an honest family run businesses name dragged through the mud by someone commenting who "obviously" has alterior motives. 

If you are a dealer looking to buy and resell and need the stuff overnighted the day after the auction these guys are not going to be for you. If you are simply looking to add to your collection and don't mind waiting a week or two for your items then you won't be able to find a cheaper place to do so. 

In response to the complaint I want to point out the facts:

It is correctly stated that we do not allow local pickup and we do not allow cash payments. All payments need to be made by cashier's checks, bank wires, PayPal, or credit card. We only do this for security reasons, which most anyone could understand.

The individual that made this complaint never completed the deal and has never had a single transaction with us except the one he never completed. The individual that made the complaint is also in somewhat competition with us which is understandable for him to make these false statements.

We do not require payment within 24 hours. We allow 5 days and most anyone who has dealt with us can vouch that we are very very understanding and will work with anyone who needs a longer time to make payment.

As with any business, we have had problems. We do not hide behind the fact that we have made mistakes and that we have had some errors in shipping, listings, and communications with buyers. However, there is not a single person out there who was not totally taken care of when such problem arose. We always take care of our buyers the absolute best we can. This is a fact!

Yes, a very very small number of buyers have had an issue with us, but I feel they all would say they were taken care of totally and respectfully and nearly all of them have come back to buy from us.

Everyone has received or will receive everything they have bought from us. We are diligently working on our shipping times and want to see them at 7-10 days. Yes we list it takes 4-6 weeks for delivery of items however only a handfull ever take this long to ship and we know it isn't idea, but we are being totally honest and upfront.

Our terms are laid out in our auction policies. This individual was aware of those policies prior to bidding but chose to bid anyway. That was his choice.

 If you have any questions, concerns, or would like to contact me please email me at sean@libertytrading.us.

  Respectfully,

  Sean Cook