BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): The Customs Department has issued an apology to the buyers of 13 watches it put up for auction last month after receiving complaints that the watches were fake.
Department spokesman Panthong Loikulnant (pic second from right) said on Monday (july 10) that it had invited the licence owner of the brand to check the watches in question last Thursday, and they confirmed that all 13 are counterfeit.
He said the department had confiscated 14 watches from a shop in Siam Square One shopping mall in Bangkok in July last year.
The licence owner of the brand had checked the products and found that one of them was counterfeit, while the remaining 13 were genuine products. This prompted the department to announce the sale by auction of the 13 timepieces.
The auction started on June 28 with 18 individuals submitting bids on July 6.
After the licence owner confirmed that all the watches sold in the auction were fake, the department cancelled the auction and said it would return the money to all the buyers, who spent around 5 million baht on the watches, Panthong said.
A committee will be established to investigate whether there was any misconduct on the part of the officials. The investigation is expected to be completed in 15 days, he added.
“The department would like to apologise for the mistake and will revise all the procedures regarding the auctioning of confiscated products to ensure transparency and make sure that buyers receive genuine products,” he said.
