Protection
Buyer protection
You are protected by the sequence in which money moves, not by a promise. Your payment is held by VALÉORINE until the lot has been despatched under a tracked service and your window to examine it has passed.
Your window
the published protection window
From delivery, while your payment is still held.
Despatch deadline
the published despatch deadline
Evidenced tracked despatch, before any settlement.
The window
You have the published protection window from delivery to examine the lot against its catalogue entry and condition report and to raise anything that does not agree.
What is covered
Non-delivery, damage in transit, a lot that is materially not as catalogued, or a substantive error in the description of authorship, date, edition or completeness.
What is not
Matters of taste, and characteristics already disclosed in the catalogue entry or condition report — described foxing, trimming, restoration or wear are not defects for this purpose.
How to raise it
Open the purchase in your account and raise a discrepancy, with photographs. VALÉORINE acknowledges in writing and takes the matter up with the consignor; you do not negotiate with them yourself.
How it is decided
Against the published record: the catalogue entry, the condition report, the images issued at cataloguing and, where necessary, the opinion of the specialist engaged for that field.
Outcomes
Where a claim is upheld, the sale is rescinded and you are refunded from the held funds, including the buyer's fee. Return, where required, is arranged and paid for by VALÉORINE or the consignor, never by you.
Why settlement waits
Consignor proceeds cannot be released while the window is open or a dispute stands. Because despatch must be evidenced within the published despatch deadline before that clock even starts, a consignor cannot be paid for a lot that was never sent.
Beyond the window
Claims of forgery or serious misattribution are considered on their merits at any time, under the Conditions of Sale published with the sale.
The protection window and despatch deadline are read from the rules in force on the platform. The Conditions of Sale published with each sale prevail in the event of any difference.