Help for Buyers
I. Registration and creation of a User account
To gain access to all functionalities of the website, you must have a User account and be logged in to the website. Registration and maintenance of a User account are free of charge. The user account is also the Buyer's account. To create a User account you must:
- Complete the registration form correctly.
- Confirm the registration and your e-mail address by clicking the activation link, which is sent to the e-mail address provided by the User during the registration process. If you do not receive the appropriate email, please check the SPAM folder in your email box.
- After creating an account, log in to the website using the data provided in the registration form. Making purchases, bidding, submitting offers, contacting Sellers and handling transactions is possible only after logging in to the user account.
- In the "account settings" tab, the user can check the status of his account, update the data entered during... registration, as well as complete the delivery address, and in the case of a company - also the address and invoice data.
- To log out of your account, click on the "log out" tab located in the "account" menu in the navigation bar.
- Password reset procedure: If you forget your password, on the login page, enter your login or e-mail address in the login field and press the "I forgot my password" button. A message with instructions on how to reset your password will be sent to the e-mail address assigned to a given login or provided in the login field.
II. Modes of concluding a contract
There are five modes of concluding a contract available within Clemens. Online Dutch auction, with a public reserve price. Online Dutch auction, with hidden reserve price. Fixed price sale, only with the Buy Now option. Sale with a fixed price, with the Buy Now option and the possibility of submitting price offers. Sale without price, only with the possibility of submitting price offers (this mode applies only to private sales).
III. Online Dutch auction
Dutch online auctions at Clemens offer two modes of concluding a sales contract: Dutch auction, with a public minimum price, and Dutch auction, with a hidden minimum price. In the case of a Dutch auction with an open reserve price, bidders know the reserve price and the auction end time. In the case of a Dutch auction with a hidden reserve price, bidders do not know the reserve price or the auction end time. From the moment the online Dutch auction begins, the starting price is automatically and successively reduced, every hour, regardless of the time of day. The auction is always conducted in a price range from the higher (starting) price to the lower (minimum) price. You can join the auction at any time during its duration. To buy an item at an online Dutch auction:
- Log in to your user account.
- The first bidder who decides to use the Buy It Now option and confirms his choice becomes the buyer of the item at the current price and at that moment the auction ends and other bidders have no opportunity to purchase or place an offer. If two or more Bidders select the Buy Now option at the same time, the first one to confirm their choice wins.
- The window confirming the intention to purchase in the Dutch auction is displayed for 60 seconds (so-called timeout). If the bidder fails to confirm the purchase within this time and is still interested in purchasing, he or she must select the Buy Now option again and confirm his/her choice.
Limited bid consists in submitting an offer in a Dutch auction in the form of the amount that the bidder is ready to pay for a given item. Clemens platform software, the so-called "automatic agent" will automatically submit a limit bid on behalf of the bidder when the current price of the item in this auction equals the limit amount, provided that the auction is still active at that moment.
When an "automatic agent" submits a limit bid, the auction ends and the bidder who placed the limit bid becomes the winner of the auction. The limit bid mechanism is intended to free bidders from the need to constantly monitor the course of the Dutch auction, which is extended in time. A limit bid is secret and no one has access to it except the bidder who submitted it. The bidder may withdraw the limit bid or change the limit amount during the auction. In the case of bidding with a visible minimum price, the limit amount must be equal to or less than the current price and at the same time equal to or greater than the minimum price.
In the case of bidding with a hidden price, the minimum limit must only be equal to or less than the current price. If two or more bids with the same limit are submitted in a given auction, the bidder who submitted the bid first wins.
- The handling of purchase transactions is discussed in point VI.
NOTE: In the case of Dutch auctions, please bear in mind that waiting until the end of the auction, when the price will be the lowest, is associated with the risk that another bidder may beat us to the purchase because we do not know the intentions of possible competitors who may also plan to purchase this item. Moreover, it should be remembered that, as a rule, when the price of an item is lowered, over time, it enjoys more and more interest from bidders.
IV. Fixed price sales
There are three modes of concluding a sales contract under fixed-price sales: fixed-price sales, only with the Buy Now option, fixed-price sales, with the Buy Now option and the possibility of submitting price offers, and sales without specifying a price, only with the possibility of submitting price offers (this mode only applies to private sales described in point V). To purchase an item you must:
- Log in to your user account.
- The user makes a purchase by selecting the Buy Now option and then confirms his choice.
Negotiating the price. In the case of sales with a fixed price, with the Buy Now option and the ability to submit price offers, each logged in User can enter a price offer in the appropriate form. All price offers below 50% of the item price are automatically rejected by Clemens. The seller can also set a different minimum amount below which all price offers will be automatically rejected. The Seller may accept a given price offer, which is tantamount to concluding a sales contract. The seller may reject a given price offer, which is tantamount to the end of the negotiation process. The seller may also make a counteroffer. If the User receives a counter-offer from the Seller, he or she may accept it, which is tantamount to concluding a contract, or reject it, which is tantamount to ending the negotiation process. In such a situation, the user may also submit a counter-offer. After receiving a counter-offer from the User, the Seller can only either accept or reject it and cannot submit another counter-offer. The same User may initiate another price negotiation (price offer) in a given offer only after 15 days from the completion of the previous price negotiation process in this Offer.
V. Private sale
When adding a new offer, the seller may mark it as the so-called private sale. In such a situation, access to this offer is limited only to Users who have purchased a special subscription and therefore have appropriate access rights. Sales and purchases in the case of private sales are carried out in the same way as in the case of the public part of the website. The only difference is that Sellers in private sales in the fixed-price sales mode have the opportunity to offer items without giving a price, by inviting Users to submit price offers. Private sale offers are subject to the same verification rules as all other offers. Users who want to gain access to offers as part of private sales (receive the so-called "Super Buyer" status) must purchase an access subscription. They can purchase a subscription for a period of six months, one year or two years. The subscription can be paid via online payment after logging in to your user account. The amount of the subscription fees is given in Table of fees and commissions.
VI. Purchase transaction handling
After logging in to your user account, the "Purchase" drop-down menu appears in the navigation bar, which consists of four tabs: My Purchases, Placed Offers, Watched Items and Help for Buyers, which tab is a link to this page.
My purchases. In the "My purchases" tab there is a list presenting the purchase history of a given User. Next to the photo and title of individual offers, you can see the gross price, delivery cost, transaction status and three buttons: "Pay now", "Change shipping address" and "Ask a question". After clicking the "Pay now" button, the User will be redirected to the online payment system website, where you can make secure online payments for the purchased goods. The "Change shipping address" button is used to change the shipping address. The shipping address can only be changed before the Seller ships the item. The "Ask a question" button is used to contact the Seller. Once the payment is successfully completed, the transaction status changes to "transaction paid". Subsequent changes to the transaction status depend on the Seller. After the Seller has sent the goods, the shipment number should appear in the "My purchases" tab, and in some cases also the invoice for the purchased goods issued by the Seller. After completing each transaction, in the "My purchases" tab, Users are provided with a survey that is used to exchange subjective opinions and suggestions about the Clemens Website, as well as opinions about the Offer, the course of the transaction and the Seller. Detailed information on payment and delivery as well as complaints and returns can be found on the following pages: Payments and delivery and Complaints and returns.
Submitted offers. The "Submitted offers" tab contains a list of offers submitted by the User. This tab displays both price offers submitted in the fixed-price sales mode and limit offers submitted in Dutch online auctions. The list includes the date of submission of the offer, the amount, the status of the offer and a possible reason for rejection of the offer. Moreover, in the submitted offers tab, the User may change the offer amount or withdraw the submitted offer.
Watched items. The user can add it to the watchlist on the sales offer page, then it goes to the list of watched items in the "Watched items" tab. In the "Followed Items" tab, the User can enable subscriptions to automatic e-mail notifications about ending auctions, discounts or re-listing of items he or she is following. The User may disable subscriptions to these notifications at any time.
VII. Support for the offer catalog and search engine
Catalog of offers. In the catalog of offers, there is a navigation menu on the left. The catalog of offers is divided into five main sections: art, antiques, jewelry and watches, collecting and interior design and furnishings. These sections are called branches of the category tree. These five main sections are divided into categories, and some of the categories are divided into even more specific subcategories. In the navigation menu, after clicking on a selected category, the display of offers is narrowed down only to those that are in that category and any offers in lower subcategories that are located within the same branch of the category tree. After clicking on the subcategories, the selection is further narrowed down to only offers that are in a given subcategory. If you select a category or subcategory from another branch of the category tree, the previous filter is overwritten and only offers from the new branch of the category tree are displayed. Moreover, the User can limit the display of offers only to those that meet certain features and criteria (so-called offer parameters).
In addition to assigning offers to the category tree and assigning parameters to them, each offer is also assigned specific statuses depending on, for example, current availability, sales status, or the mode of concluding the contract. The following offer statuses are visible in the navigation menu: available (unavailable), sold (unsold), buy now (without buy now), price negotiation (without price negotiation), active auctions (inactive auctions), private sales (no private sales), markdowns (no discounts). After clicking on the appropriate status, the filter related to this status is activated and the status is marked in green. The offer catalog then displays only offers that meet the given criteria. Clicking on the same status again activates the so-called "opposite filter" and then the status is marked in red. "Opposite filters" are equivalent to the statuses in parentheses above. A third click on the same status deactivates the filters. Filters and "opposite filters" assigned to different statuses may overlap with each other.
By default, featured offers and available offers are placed at the beginning of the offer catalog. However, the user can change the order in which offers are displayed in the catalog according to their own preferences, e.g. by sorting alphabetically or sorting by price, etc.
Search engine. Each User can search the catalog of offers using the search field located in the navigation bar. You can enter single words separated by spaces, and then the server will try to find items whose title or description contains all of the mentioned words at the same time. You can also use the special characters
&
,|
,!
, and( )
to group expressions. Here are some examples:oil landscape canvas
is a simplified version of the expressionoil & landscape & canvas
. Missing&
characters are inserted automatically. This expression will find items with the words oil, landscape and canvas, each of which must appear in the item description, although e.g. instead of the word canvas may appear e.g. on canvas.Malevich | Picasso | Degas
will display images by all specified authors (if available).Rolex watches | oil paintings
will give results in which the description contains both: watch and Rolex or painting and oil (in any conjugation of words). The search phrase provided is a simplified form of the expression:(watch & Rolex) | (painting & oil)
. However,oil & !canvas
will find oil paintings, but not made on canvas. An exclamation mark before a word means that the word should not appear.VIII. Contact with Sellers
Clemens does not provide any information about sales offers available on the website. In order to obtain information about a specific offer, the User should use the "item inquiry form" included in the given sales offer. Questions will then be sent to the appropriate Seller. When contacting Sellers, it is prohibited to provide your contact details, such as telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, links to websites, etc. It is also forbidden to ask questions to the Seller regarding their contact details. Sent and received messages are located in the Notifications tab and are also sent to the User's e-mail address.
IX. Notifications
Any User who wants to be informed by e-mail about new, interesting offers that have just appeared on the website and which meet certain criteria (so-called keywords), can fill out the form in the Notifications tab after logging in to their account. . When the indicated keywords appear in the appropriate fields in a new offer published on the website, an automatic notification (alert) is sent to the user's e-mail address. You can easily unsubscribe from the notification service at any time by unsubscribing, using the link included in each e-mail sent as part of this service, or by changing the settings in your account. The Notifications tab also contains a list of system notifications. System notifications are also automatically sent to the User's e-mail address.