J. Levine Auction & Appraisal

They sold my father’s estate items. After 2 months we started asking about when the check would arrive. We kept getting the run around of they were looking into it.

I posted a negative review and they responded they would give me an answer right away. At the 3 month mark I read online they have filed for bankruptcy so who knows if the estate will ever get paid.

Of course they are still taking new consignment and potentially ripping those people off too

I recently won a Hermes Birkin bag from J Levine Auctions and to our nightmare, the item turned out to be a fake when we have it reviewed at Hermes & at another reseller shop specialized in Hermes. Such embarrassment we had to go through when the store advised that they can report us to the police in procession of fake goods. When we reported the matter to Jill from J Levine ... she simply advised that the bag is now our property, nothing to do with the auction house & that they do not claim that it is an authentic bag in the first place. What a scam from an established auction house!

Dear **. [redacted], Thank you for your inquiry.  I am writing to apologize to you for the unpleasant experience you had with J. Levine Auction & Appraisal in regards to your purchase at our July 31, 2014 Catalog Auction.  I agree with your complaint, in that you were not treated...

fairly by our staff given the situation and your credentials.  I do see that the items were returned and credited and the issue regarding payment/credit was resolved.  Again, please accept my sincerest apologies for the inconvenience and embarrassment you experienced at our auction house.  I regards to the "one unpaid item strike", I contacted Invaluable who is the auction web host and confirmed that the derogatory strike is not from J. Levine Auction & Appraisal and is not related to your claim with us.  We were not responsible for placing that strike on your auction history.  Invaluable advised that [redacted] [redacted] was the auction house that placed that strike on your bidding history.  You will need to contact Invaluable or the other auction house to resolve the unpaid strike.  Best regards, [redacted]Customer Relations DirectorJ. Levine Auction & Appraisal

We at [redacted] are working through the issues with the Tempe auction facility and intend to fully resolve the matters regarding the computer failure that affected your consignment. We apologize for the delays. It is taking some time to forensic[redacted] piece together the lost information. However, we...

are committed to finding a resolution and financial settlement for you and all of the consignors impacted by this issue. Attached you will find a copy of the settlement report for your items that sold at our October 4th-6th auctions.  Please note, as a matter of goodwill, we have removed our commission of $426.00 (from 40% to 0%) due to the multiple issues, including lack of communication that you have had with your consignment.  As for the unsold items on this report, these items did not get a minimum bid on them (they passed) and were deemed unsalable. These items were all donated per the terms of your contract for unsalable items.  We will provide a donation slip with your settlement that you can use for tax purposes. As for the four items that you feel are yours that were not included on your settlement report, please provide us with the lot numbers and the date of auctions. We will review the matter and move these items to your settlement and pay you for them. You can directly email the lot #’s and dates to our Customer Relations Director at [redacted]  Again, we apologize for the unsatisfactory experience that you have had. You settlement check for $1065.00 will be issued and mailed within the next seven business days.  In addition, when we receive the email with the missing item’s lot #’s and dates, will issue an addition settlement check for those items. We are committed to resolving this matter with you and provide you with your settlement.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
I will contact the business with the information regarding the unresolved box lots in the next day or two.  I will be expecting a check from them soon per their response.
Regards,
[redacted]

J. Levine Auction is committed to resolving this matter with the customer.  We have been in touch with the customer via email and phone and will resolve the matter directly with them.  We have located many of the "lost" items, which previously went thru auction; however, due to a computer...

malfunction at our Tempe facility, they were not allocated correctly to this customer.  We will provide a settlement to this customer for these items.  In addition, we will provide a settlement for any lost or missing items based on the fair market value of these items.  We will continue to work directly with the customer until this matter is resolved.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.This problem was resolved days ago. I never called irate though. I was shocked to be treated the way I was. I already paid for the item the following day on the phone anyway.  I am waiting for delivery.  I  sent a message to the Revdex.com the following day after the auction saying the issue had been resolved. I believe j levine auction handled the matter well. This company did right by me. The lady who handled my auction was 100% professional.
Regards,[redacted]

J levine's response is incomplete, in error and extremely biased.
we are working through legal representation.

I am aware of the difference in Duesbury, as he was the founder of the [redacted] and owner of porcelain factories at [redacted] and [redacted]....in the auction business, we often refer to keywords, as [redacted] is the most searched of these porcelain manufacturers.  We show all the porcelain marks in the photos on our website so any porcelain expert searching can clearly see.  The keywords are what we do to try and bring bidders to our online auctions. See this link for images of all the "[redacted]" marks. [redacted]&pagenum=1&lang=enWe had our photographers painstakingly take photo marks and applied them to the gallery shots. Something no one else does in business. We do this so the educated bidders can see the difference.  The layman of porcelains bids by [redacted].  I have been doing this for a very long time.  I can show you analytics of searches to values, etc.  I know I sound defensive but I have actually done seminars on this.Please reference these examples of other auction houses...http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/17124624_[redacted]-william-duesbur...⇄ set of duesbury sold for $40 from same period.  Just because of the age, does not increase the value. Quite the contrary in this market.

[redacted]  (And look at their keyword....[redacted].)VS[redacted] THE as [redacted] sells for significantly more.I can sight examples in the market matching every item sold for the values we achieved in every description with the same result of where we out performed. i.e. a lot of 1200 [redacted]s Postcards just sold for $120 at major auction house in NYC. I am really sorry when a consignor has sellers remorse.  I hoped to have explained the process thoroughly.  I truly feel it's just the market for antiques is quite soft and only getting softer each day as simple supply and demand goes.  The baby boomers / collectors are down sizing and there are no collectors or little demand in the next generations to collect.  It's not the economy, it's just supply and demand and we will be in this cycle for next 20 years.  I explain this to my clients and do everything I can do to achieve the best prices we can.  We spend 35K a month on advertising, not to attract consignors, but to market their things.I am really saddened by this entire thing.  I wish I could be of more help in my clients understanding.

I would like to file a negative review against J. Levine Auction and Appraisal. I found J. Levine through Revdex.com, where they have an A+ rating, so I assumed they were a reputable company. I first called and they gave me a name of an employee named Brenda W[redacted]. She came and recommended multiple items in my home that would "be great" and "you'd make a lot of money", so it sounded like she knew the business. When she returned days later with a van, we FILLED it with items that were my mother’s and brother’s, who are now both deceased. She had me sign my signature on a portable machine, but gave me no receipts and never mentioned any contract. I asked her what I was signing for, she let me know it was "for the items she was taking and that she would have a 'lister' send me a copy of everything in the van for my records." I NEVER received a list of the items she took that day and after calling and texting multiple times to receive it, Brenda used the excuse that the 'lister wasn't available' and eventually stopped answering me.
The first auction my items were in occurred on August 6, 2015. I noticed right away that only 6 of my items were listed. That is a SMALL fraction of the items we piled in that van. I watched my items sell so quickly, I realized they were essentially b[redacted]g given away. For example, I had a fur jacket valued at $11,600 and it was sold for $400....AND THAT DOESN'T EVEN ACCOUNT FOR COMMISSION BEING TAKEN OUT. I was sick to my stomach. I only received $260 for the fur jacket valued at much more. The rest of my 5 items were also sold at the bare minimum price. Now, I do understand that I cannot expect that they would sell for what they are worth...but you do expect for these items to sell for a fair value. J. Levine also does not have the option for a Reserve, like most reputable places. If I was given a contract BEFORE anything was taken from my home, I would have NEVER signed it.
Then the remainder of my many items, which I was NEVER told about, went to EJ's Auction and Consignment, which is also owned by Josh Levine, but auctions much less expensive items. On August 8, 2015, I watched the auction online with EJ's, and again saw my items sell for almost nothing! I had given a large box of my bother's VERY EXPENSIVE china from England to Brenda and it was taken to EJ's. They sold the whole box of 63 pieces for $65! That's when I decided to get my attorney involved. She did some initial research and found they had many bad reviews on the Internet. She called J. Levine to receive the list of my items, which she never received either. I began to panic because I had given Brenda 2 pieces of valuable jewelry, which I asked for back. They told me that I would have to pay $200 ($100 per lot) to get the jewelry back. So I am now paying for my own items. I then called EJ's because they had listed my brother's crystal (also from England) as 'water goblets and glasses.' I knew that it was real crystal so I found someone at EJ's to take a second look. He then said it was a good thing I kept pushing him to look again because they WERE IN FACT very expensive pieces of crystal. I told him I wanted the crystal back and he said it would be $300.
Overall, I have paid a total of $500 in UNNECESSARY FEES to receive my own items back. JOSH L[redacted] received more in commissions (on my sold items) PLUS the extra $500. J. Levine is able to get away with all of this because I didn’t SEE the contract until AFTER I signed the portable machine.
They do not give you the chance to get your unsold items back because 24-hours after the auction, they take everything to charity.
If Revdex.com would have bothered to check Yelp and RipOff.com, they would have seen all the negative reviews this auction has received.
I would like to warn others of the experiences that I had at J. Levine, as he preys on people who have lost loved ones. I have seen J. Levine respond to other negative reviews in an insincere manor, and am asking him TO NOT BOTHER TO WASTE HIS TIME RESPONDING TO ME.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I recognize that auction prices are wellbelow retail prices but they have not addressed the issue of many of the consigned goods being misrepresented in the sale.  The worst instance is th desc ribing [redacted] Duesbury porcelain pieces from the late 18th and nearly 19th century as being Crown [redacted].  This places them a s being produced in the late 19th centur[y and would e considered of MUCH lower value.

 

Regards,

I do not understand the positive reviews here??? My parents estate was so ripped off by this Auction House that is also affiliated with [redacted]. It was a horrible experience that I will never forget! My mother had very expensive items that they said would go to the [redacted] location to be auctioned off. Instead everything went to the [redacted] location and they did not even tell us when the auction was going off! I told the guys NOT to take certain items and when I was not looking they put them on the truck anyway and said they could not take them off - they even took the hoses off the house! Everything was not tagged and numerous items were missing of which we put a claim into our insurance company for as stolen! Not having knowledge of how auction houses work - we later found out that you NEVER sign a one page agreement > this basically gives them permission to rip off the estate and you have no recourse...once they put everything into the trucks ....the items are basically theirs to do with what they want! ALWAYS look for a several page agreement that protects your RIGHTS and show this to a lawyer before signing! I would not recommend doing any business with J. Levines of Scottsdale, AZ [redacted]. After my Mom passed away and dealing the loss of her it was a horror for me and my sister to have gone through this .....they are liars and once they have our stuff > they do not take your phone calls and are nasty as hell if you do get someone on the phone!!!!!!

We have spoken to the customer directly and have resolved the matter.  We apologize for the poor customer service experience that the customer received at our Tempe location regarding one of our associates.  We have provided feedback to the associate involved.  This situation should...

not have happened and we are very sorry for the customer's negative experience.

I have personally address Mr. [redacted]'s Concerns and have attached his catalogued auction items for review.  The values achieved at are auction are in line with National and international resale values over the past 90 days at auction.  When comparing the prices seen "as asking for" on [redacted]...

and other re-sale platforms....that's just that....it's asking prices.  We can ask $5000 for a piece of art, but when it goes to auction, it may only realize $300 and historically will only auction for $300. Its the same story with the insurance & past book values versus current fair market values, there is quite a difference.  Mr [redacted] references a retailer called Second Wind.  They are an online retail store that's values do not reflect, the auction resale market.  We use Live Auction Auctioneers, Invaluable and [redacted].  If you look at their "actual sold" and not "asking" prices, I am sure you will see we did the very best we could and the values reflect the market, quite well.When on a sales call, we clearly explain this process and the values of estate liquidation versus, consignment store and old book values from the past. I do not feel we were negligent in presenting these items at publicauction, quite the contrary. I do appreciate the feedback and wish we could pleased our client. Again, I do apologize if we upset our customers in any way. Sincerely,[redacted] J Levine Auction & Appraisal LLC[redacted]Scottsdale AZ 85253###-###-####www.jlevines.com

Scottsdale's J. Levine Auction is the absolute finest you will find! The entire staff is intelligent, friendly, professional and really do treat you as a value to their business. All are personable and pleasant to be around - smiles greet you each & every time. Most importantly, they are honest people. Their auction house is immaculate. As a consignor, I know they do everything in their power to do the very best for you that they can, 100% of the time.

This is a REAL auction house!

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.  Mr. Levine icluded information that was not available to me prior to this time.  That being thatthe maker's mark for each item is displayed in the sale catalogue.  If this is true then I have no grounds for claiming misrepresentation of my items.

Regards,

[redacted]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

A credit of $48.00 has been processed today (9/28/16) to [redacted] PayPal account.  We sincerely apologize for the mix-up with the item that was bid on at one of our auction houses and the lack of response from our staff.  The item was not shipped to the customer and credit was...

issued as requested.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
This problem was resolved days ago. I never called irate though. I was shocked to be treated the way I was. I already paid for the item the following day on the phone anyway.  I am waiting for delivery.  I  sent a message to the Revdex.com the following day after the auction saying the issue had been resolved. I believe j levine auction handled the matter well. This company did right by me. The lady who handled my auction was 100% professional.

Regards,[redacted]