When Dubai-based Synergy Investments purchased Fasig-Tipton earlier this year, the auction company’s officials vowed that one of their goals would be to improve customer service. And Fasig-Tipton already has begun delivering on that promise.
Consignors to Fasig-Tipton’s July select and Saratoga select yearling sales received their proceeds from Fasig-Tipton about 15 days after those auctions ended. That was significantly faster than before, when the money took 30 or 45 days arrive, “depending on when we got paid” by the yearling buyers, according to Fasig-Tipton chairman Walt Robertson.
“It was a big help to us,” said Legacy Bloodstock’s Tommy Eastham, whose agency received its money two weeks after each auction. “We’re a growing company, and it takes money to grow. When we have to go right back into another sale and have to pay all our people, it takes a lot of the pressure off. It’s also helped our smaller clients, who need to pay their bills.”
Eastham said Fasig-Tipton is returning proceeds to consignors faster than the other auction firms, Keeneland and the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co., with which Legacy does business.
“Fasig-Tipton makes you feel like they are pulling for you,” Eastham said.
Fasig Tipton officials, according to president Boyd Browning, “are trying improve the way we do every aspect of our business, and we thought this was a step in the right direction for serving our customers in a better way. We haven’t said X number of days is the standard, but we paid our July and Saratoga consignors in a similar time frame.”
Added Fasig-Tipton chairman Walt Robertson: “Everybody wants their money as soon as they can get it, and the initial reports back to us have all been terrific. Money usually is received very well.”