Estate Sales Minnesota, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/08/13) */
Hello. My name is Dana [redacted] owner of Estate Sales Minnesota. I received a second notice in the mail regarding a complaint from a past client. (Case #XXXXXXXX). I sincerely apologize that I have not responded sooner. I did not receive the...

first notice.
I have not contacted the client. I do disagree with her letter. When she was initially upset, I phoned her and offered to discuss the situation with her. She sent me an email and I preferred to talk in person. I sent them a closing letter and deducted their set up fee by $50.00 and they have cashed the check.
This family had a lot of items in their home. The realtor had them pack the items up to declutter the house to put it on the market. We had to unpack a large amount of boxes to set up the sale. I had to pay people per hour to do complete this task which exceeded the set up fee. Additionally, as you can imagine, when unpacking alot of boxes, it creates garbage. I had to pay a garbage removal service $150 to pick this up as excessive garbage does not look good for a sale.
There were not alot of high dollar items at this sale. I entered the home after the sale to pick up my tables (that the family haphazardly put in the driveway.) They forgot my linens, so entered the house to retrieve these. I looked at the carpet and I did not see dirt and/or stains the client is referring to. We held a shoes off sale so the carpet could not have been soiled through us. Additionally, the family has animals. I am wondering that after items were sold and more of the carpet was visible, the family saw dirt or pet hair that was previously concealed?
The client verbally told my manager a bag sale was acceptable. However, she did not want some of her figurines to go in the bag ( I believe it was her collection of Precious Teddies) and her scrap booking stamps. Otherwise, she was okay with a bag sale.
When we close down a sale, we need to take our tables down. Items are left in available boxes and totes for family to look through and determine what they would like to do with unsold items. Items were not thrown off the tables.
The client mentioned that items were priced to high. That is a matter of pinion. The client had some items that are not highly sought after. We discounted items at 50% and we also engage in negotiation with customers.
The $800 request from the client is simply unfair and not justified. We did a lot of work to prep this sale and make it look presentable. In my opinion, with the items that were there, the sale did well. The clean up and take down of this sale took the staff a considerable amount of time. We had at least a dozen or more tables at this sale. Items were left as I had mentioned in available containers for the family to sort through. During the initial consultation, they had mentioned that they would likely have my company take care of cleaning out the house and the remaining unsold items. This is another reason items were put in totes and boxes. All clothing and linen were bagged up so it could be easily grabbed and donated.
This is my first time dealing with this type of situation. I am not sure what to do from here?
Sincerely
Dana [redacted]
Estate Sales Minnesota
Helping People with Estate Sale Needs with Honesty and Integrity
[redacted]
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2015/08/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
we told her that we would get rid of any garbage so we did not have to pay her $150.00. we were going to keep all the uhaul boxes which we had to purchase to repack unsold items. if things were not thrown then I would like to know why so many items were broken, mostly ceramics that I had made. Also, there were things that were new in the box and it was dumped out and the box thrown away, the items were then mixed up with other things that they wouldn,t even know what they went to. The crystal was not put in sets. The tools in the garage were not even displayed so how would they sell? I do not see how they could stay in business by the way they left our house. Her tables were left outside because that is what she wanted, she was going to be at our house to pick them up at 4:00 and did not show up, probably because she knew the house was a mess and we were still there cleaning up. As for all the stuff that was broken and the garbage fee, I feel the $800.00 is still owed to us. We will take further action if we need to. They stacked all of her tables against our glass fireplace which was not acceptable either, anyone in their right mind would not do that. I feel that the 35% charge is too much for what was done, I agree it would take some time to unpack and set up, but when she initially came over to look at things she said she does it all the time and one sale was totally off the wall worse than ours. If she did not want to unpack all the boxes then she should have said, no to even doing our sale. I would not have said much if things were not broken, that to me was no respect for other peoples things. I am totally not satisfied with the outcome and will tell others.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 15, 2015/09/10) */
Estate Sales Minnesota is committed to good customer service. We felt that is what we provided to the client in this instance.
Below are our responses to the client's specific complaints:
1."We told her that we would get rid of any garbage so we did not have to pay her $150.00."
ESM Response: The contract is clear about garbage removal.
2."We were going to keep all the U-haul boxes which we had to purchase to repack unsold items."
ESM Response: We may have thrown some of the U-haul boxes out, but reimbursed the client $50 which should more than cover the cost of any boxes we threw away.
3."Many items were broken, mostly ceramics that I had made."
ESM Response: We take great care with our client's items. We do not believe that we broke any of the client's items.
4."There were things that were new in the box and it was dumped out and the box thrown away, the items were then mixed up with other things that they wouldn't even know what they went to."
ESM Response: We take great care with our client's items. We may have mixed items up that didn't sell, but deny the claim that we "dumped" out boxes.
5."The crystal was not put in sets and the tools in the garage were not even displayed so how would they sell."
ESM Response: We take great care with our client's items. We are in business to successfully sell items for our client. We believe that we displayed all items in a manner to give them the best opportunity to sell.
6."They stacked all of her tables against our glass fireplace."
ESM Response: The fireplace front is made out of heavy duty glass. There was absolutely no damage to the fireplace.
7. "I feel the $800.00 is still owed to us."
ESM Response: With respect, the client has provided no receipts or any other evidence of a loss of $800.00.
8. "I feel that the 35% charge is too much for what was done."
ESM Response: We are sorry that the client does not feel that they got value from Estate Sale Minnesota ESm worked hard, and we believe we gave good and valuable service to the client.
Attached are photographs.