Consignment Gallery at 56

Failure to disclose that they could offer additional discounts on my merchandise without my knowledge, and failure to provide a list of sales prices.Gallery @ 56 picked up a truckload of items from our storage facility on October 3rd. I was originally quoted a pick up fee of between $150 I $200 by Don, but they deducted $305 for this service without telling me. I said on 10/3 I would pick up any items that did not sell. This was mostly a substantial collection of santas, many were collectible, most were very expensive. I went to the shop on 1/5/14 to find out what I had there that didn't sell, and to see what kind of vehicle I would need to pick everything up. There was a sign on the front door that said mirrors were 30% off, and when I went inside, there was a sign that said Christmas was 80% off. I was aware of the markdowns they offered after 30/60/90 days. I was never told that they might reduce the prices at will by offering such a huge discount, nor would I ever have agreed to such a reduction. On the 5th I only had a handful of items to pick up, and the only larger item was a $600+ hand painted standing mirror. I told them I would need a larger vehicle to pick that up and would try to get it by the end of the week. That Friday when I called to say I would be in on the weekend I was told by Nancy that the mirror sold (I assume with the generous additional discount they offered) Since then, I have tried to get a list of the prices that all my items sold for, as I am unable to reconcile the small payment I received from them with the number of items they sold. On 1/5 I was given a printout of the items, yet, they have not responded to my requests for a list of prices paid for these items. It feel that this is very deceptive, and unfair. In addition, I feel that I suffered a loss due to the substantial discounts they offered on my items without my knowledge or permission, knowing that I was going to pick up any items that did not sell.Desired SettlementI wish to obtain the final sale prices for my items that were sold. Based on the two checks that I received I feel that these big-ticket/collectible pieces were sold at prices I would have never agreed to. If I was aware of the additional discounts that would be offered I never would have left this collection to be sold.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]@gallery56.comIn response to Subject: Revdex.com Complaint Case# 237128 (Ref#XX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-X-XXX) Complaint Case #: XXXXXXConsumer: Mrs. [redacted] has been a customer, shopper, consignor for at least 6 years. She is aware of how the store works. Her account # with is 1273 Said consignor has been a consignor with us since 2/25/08. She knows how we work. To date we have over 8560 customers in our data base. We have a state of the art program and try to do our best to accommodate all. An estimate for future work is a guess as to what it might cost; in this case the time allotted for picking up the items ran more than twice the allotted time. Because we are in the bargain business, I try to be fair & I did not charge the full amount I should have. I just covered my expenses. With this truck load we also had to unpack many boxes, set up items & had a medium size dumpster filled with non-usable packing & oversized boxes that we could not reuse. This was not in our range of operation. In hind sight, we would have ether passed ** this lot or changed our rate to cover our hidden expenses. Concerning the $305 moving fee, on our report it shows 3 hours for moving at $255 & $50 for a dumpster fee because of the excess of packing paper.Christmas items are discounted every year after a time period. We start the week before Christmas & increase the discounts after Christmas. We are a "used goods business". People will buy what they want at full price and others will take advantage of what is left over at the end of the season. She sold so many that the check stub does not reflect all sold, which is on our Check/ Payout Detail Report.Christmas is a time sensitive season. What does not sell gets marked down closer to & past the 25th. We are not alone in this practice in this field of work. We allow our consignors, after 30 days, to remove their items at no cost to them, before we start any discounts. People hire us to sell their items they no longer want or need, & turn it into usable dollars. We have 90 days to do this. It is all spelled out on the contract they sign.We get a percent of the sale, we want to sell the items for as much as we can, however the consumer is that decides the true market value by purchasing the item. Consumers purchase at full retail, or wholesale, because they want them. We are selling items no longer needed hoping to find a second chance market (at discount).Commerce is driven by supply & demand. It's no different here. We may get a lot of mirrors in for a month or two & if they are not selling, we need to adjust the price (on sale).There is no manual for consignment shops to establish price. We do work hard to get the best price by displaying items in an attractive manner, but it no one wants that item, no one wins.We have no storage here. When a consignor says they will be back to pick up an item, many things can happen to change the date, we know that sometimes life get in the way, and some never come back. Our policy here is everything remains for sale until it is picked up. We have, several times printed out a list of her items; the confusion may be in how the list is read.We have over 8500 consignors in the 7 years we have been here. We know that we cannot please everyone, but we will always do our best. I hope this gives some insight to this consignors concern.Copies of all her transactions can be provided for review to the Revdex.com. We have nothing to hide, as we collect & pay state taxes etc. In the 7-1/2 years that we have been in business we have very few complaints not that we want any. We try our best to serve, but sometimes it is difficult to please all.Sincerely,[redacted]Consignment Gallery at 5656 Sterling Street, Clinton, Ma XXXXXFinal Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) In their own words, provided in their response, they state, "We allow our consignors, after 30 days, to remove their items at no cost to them, before we start any discounts". At the end of my 90 day consignment period, January 3rd, I went to the store two days later, on January 5th, only to find my items had been drastically reduced without my knowledge, and this is NOT "spelled out in the contract" that I signed. In addition, a list of my items was NOT "several times printed out". I received a list only one time, on January 5th. That list shows their intake of 268 items that I provided for sale, the prices that they valued those items to be ($6709.36), and which items were there, unsold, for me to pick up (36 items, half of which I left there). I received two checks for my items that sold, one dated Dec. 6th and one dated Jan.17th. Each check stub only shows 28 items that sold, making it impossible for me to reconcile any numbers, as there are 176 items unaccounted for. I asked for this information on. Jan. 25th, Jan.26th, Feb. 4th, and finally on Feb. 15th, but received nothing. I would also like to mention that, while I have been identified as " a customer, shopper, consignor for at least 6 years" there needs to be clarification. I consigned 4 barstools in February, 2008. The next time that I did business with Gallery at 56 was after we sold our home in 2012 when I brought in a number of household goods, and then in Oct.of 2013 when I had an extensive collection of Christmas decor and collectibles. I warned Nancy in advance of the size of our collection, and had her look at a newspaper article written about our collection a year before. And it's interesting that they mention a $50 dumpster fee, because she charged me a $75 fee after someone helping me deliver items to her put broken down boxes in her dumpster, while she said she wanted to keep the packing paper we had everything wrapped in. I hope to resolve these issues with Gallery at 56. I want a list of sale prices for all of my items. I feel that it was deceptive to discount these items so drastically without informing me first, especially since many of these items were collectible. If I had prior knowledge of this policy I never would have brought these items to them at all.Final Business Response March 13, 2014The program that prints the checks can only print up to 28 items on the stub that is correct. The program does retain all information. The $75 was from 5/23/13, excess cardboard from the furniture that she brought here. The $50 was from 10/8/13 for the Christmas packing. A complete package of all transactions has been mailed to [redacted] & the post office said she should receive it on Thursday, March 13, 2014. After you review it, if you have any more questions, please let me know. In our contract, it states the following: This consignment agreement is for 90 day, ending (from original date signed). Items not sold after 30 days will be progressively marked down until sold.[redacted] has signed 2 contracts with the above statement. We would like to resolve this matter.Respectfully [redacted]