Mazzeo's Chimney Service and Sales, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2017/04/04) */
We will be providing quotations below of real statements that contain information from both parties. There is not an option to upload documentation, but we can offer proof of documentation and voice messages if it would help with your...

evaluation.
Below are the items that support the final settlement with [redacted]. The settlement states that [redacted] owes AB Estate Sales $161.61 which AB Estate Sales agreed to wave. The settlement was originally $1,599.97. This final settlement information was emailed to [redacted] on 01/06/17 at 12:44P.
This Includes:
A voicemail from [redacted] 10/28/2016 at 3:24 P.M to AB Estate Sales. "Hey [redacted], this is [redacted] calling from San Diego on behave of my mother Ann [redacted]. I am not able to get rid of that furniture in the basement at her home and I would like to tell you to just go ahead and sell that along with all the other items in the house. I know you wanted to get in there the first of next week and get everything squared away. We have discovered a few boxes, receipts, and photographs we are trying to get out this weekend and Doris is trying to do that as we speak. Also, can we see the estate sales agreement, mother has never seen it herself even though she signed it. Would you please fax that document so we can look at it and she can have a copy?"
A voicemail from [redacted] 11/14/16 at 3:53 P.M to AB Estate Sales. "Hi [redacted], it's [redacted] I was going to suggest to protect yourself I'd think about sending a short text to [redacted]. I have his phone number if you don't have it though you should have it. In fact, you can reply to his well not his voicemail, but do text [redacted] and say that by the terms of our oral contract I will be taking the commission from the furniture that you removed when you were not supposed to and were aware of this. Give him an advance notice that it could be as much as 4000 dollars. I would do that just so you have something in writing from your end. Let him know that this will be coming out of the commission at the end of the sale, it will be coming off the top. Okay bye."
An E-mail from [redacted]'s e-mail address typed by [redacted] 10/04/2016 at 8:31 A.M sent to AB Estate Sales. "Thank you. We will let you know about the white oak furniture (approximately 60 years old) as soon as I have accurate information. It is owned by [redacted] and if he has you sell it; will it be possible to let us know what it sells for so his mother can write him a check after the sale? Also, I noted that the sale takes place during the week. My minimal experience is weekends bring more potential buyers. Would appreciate your advice. Sincerely, [redacted]." This message was then received again on 11/28/2016 @ 9:27 P.M from [redacted]'s email address to AB Estate Sales stating "For your info:" With the original email attached.

There are many mistruths in the complaint filed by [redacted]. We are willing to give proof of documentation of emails or voice mails if this can help resolve the issue.
AB Estate sales agrees that there was an oral agreement up until 10/28/2016 for the furniture to not be included in the sale however after this point, per [redacted]'s message, he changed that agreement for his mother. This change was also noted by [redacted] twice. Once on 11/14/2016 by voicemail and the other on 11/28/16 by email from [redacted] which was a resend of a 10/04/2016 email. There seems to be an internal family dispute over items in the house that were represented by both [redacted] and [redacted]. AB Estate Sales abided by the written and oral contract decided by both parties and as stated in the contract under the terms applicable to this agreement are as follows, "Client hereby agrees to indemnify AB Estate Sales of Missouri LLC, and its employees from any case arising out of ownership dispute before, during, or after the sale." This contract was signed October 3, 2016 by [redacted]. Also within the contract on page 3 of the contract under 2) Fees and Expenses: it states "Once the agreement is signed, every item must stay in the estate. If an item is removed after the agreement is signed, a value will be determined for it and a commission taken. The value of the item will be determined by AB Estate sales. Our decision to accept the sale over other possible estate sale opportunities, and our planning and preparation for the sale, was made based on the quantity and quality of the items being sold." Once again, she was aware of the potential fees she would owe if items were removed from the home after the contract was already signed. We are happy to give our contract to you if it is needed for further evaluation.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 9, 2017/04/12) */
[redacted]Document Attached[redacted]
The disputed issue is [redacted]'s Written Contract of HER personal property vs. the commission of the Oral Contract AB Estates had with [redacted], owner of the removed furniture. Yes, the contract states a commission will be due on any items removed after the signing of the Contract (Oct.3, 2016). However, NO ITEMS of Mrs. [redacted]'s personal property were REMOVED.
Mrs. [redacted]'s Written Contract doesn't apply to [redacted]'s personal furniture, only to hers. Refer to 1) the attached 2 Witness Statements stating AB Estate had advance knowledge (Aug. 2016) that the removed furniture was not a part of [redacted] estate sale but owned by her son [redacted], this is also confirmed in Mrs. [redacted]'s letter attached;
2) The Oct. texts & e-mails between [redacted], owner AB Estate, & [redacted] & [redacted] are evidence of [redacted]'s ownership as well as [redacted]'s knowledge of same. Refer to [redacted]'s Oct. 26 e-mail @ 12:49 pm in which she states "He said he was going to get HIS furniture out by Sunday Oct. 30..." and @ 2:12 pm, "...if removed after that [redacted] WILL PAY A COMMISSION ON IT TO ME" and @ 3:50 pm "I told him to get the furniture...".
Oral Contract with [redacted]: refer to [redacted]'s Texts of Oct. 28 @ 7:07 pm & 7:58 pm stating she "SPOKE WITH [redacted] & AGREED TO SELL HIS FURNITURE". This confirmed her Oral Contract with [redacted]. In speaking with her she advised me Oral Contracts were good in MO, but I strongly suggested she have a written contract with him as shown in my e-mail of Oct. 28 @ 9:28 pm.
Commission on [redacted]'s removed furniture is owed under [redacted]'s Oral Contract with AB Estate, NOT the [redacted] Written Contract! Refer to [redacted]'s texts of Nov. 14 @ 11:42 am & 12:41 pm in which she states "[redacted] WILL OWE ABOUT 4,000..." & inquires if he owns the residence in Springfield [redacted] would want that information in order to file a lien on the property. In response to [redacted] stating she would sue [redacted] in Small Claims, I sent her pertinent information in my Nov. 28th e-mail attached.

Refer to Jan. 2 texts between [redacted] and [redacted], again reiterating Mrs. [redacted]'s "..ITEMS IN HER RESIDENCE WERE HERS.... EXCEPT [redacted]'S FURNITURE."
And my e-mail of Jan. 03 (..oral contract with [redacted] has nothing to do with MOM's estate sale..."
Settlement Statements: Refer to e-mails of Jan. 4 & Jan. 5 from [redacted] & my response with math correction. This 1st Settlement Statement makes NO MENTION OF [redacted]'S COMMISSION being taken out of Mrs. [redacted]'s proceeds. Mrs. [redacted] signed thE 1st Settlement Statement & returned it to [redacted].
Refer to Jan. 12 e-mail a follow-up to [redacted]'s getting in touch with [redacted]. Then Jan. 16 [redacted] sends a 2nd Settlement Statement and takes out the commission [redacted] owes from Ms. [redacted]'s proceeds.
I cannot respond to [redacted]'s voicemail to [redacted] as I don't know his intent. But I can say that Mrs. [redacted], my loving mother-in-law of 47 yrs, would never instruct [redacted] to sell his furniture to a stranger. I have tried not to involve her with [redacted]'s doings but if asked, I know she would be willing to write a statement that he was "NOT calling on her behalf", if it would help her case.
Ask yourself why didn't [redacted] call me to confirm that [redacted] was calling "on behalf of his mother". Perhaps she didn't want to jeopardize getting her commission.
In response to my voicemail to [redacted], it was a suggestion to [redacted] intended only to get [redacted] to do the right thing & also as a protection for her when she sued him. In no way did I believe that [redacted] would actually take HIS commission off the top of Mrs. [redacted]'s proceeds. I would be a fool to do that. Again, she had an Oral Contract with him on HIS furniture only.
As suggested in [redacted]'s response: There has never been "AN INTERNAL FAMILY DISPUTE OVER ITEMS IN THE HOUSE" nor "ownership dispute before, during, or after the sale". Everyone in the family has known that [redacted] purchased the furniture at his Dad's estate sale 16 years ago.
It was a total shock when the 2nd Settlement Statement was sent. We have been blindsided by her lack of suing the appropriate person under her Oral Contract and by keeping the proceeds of Mrs. [redacted]'s Written Contract. Neither contract has been voided. Obviously, it is much easier for her to keep Mrs. [redacted]'s funds then to sue [redacted] as she has said over & over she would do. And, of course, she feels confident that we won't take her to Small Claims Court since we are in California.
Your input is greatly appreciated.
Respectfully, [redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2017/04/22) */
At the top of the message resent on the 12th it talks of an attached witness statement, there are no statements attached to the document, only the evidence that AB supplied in it's April 4th response so I am not able to respond to these alleged witness statements. Please resend the witness statements.
On October the 3rd AB estate sales entered a contract with [redacted] to sell the contents of the house. At that time [redacted] did not include anything in the written contract or at anytime orally about the furniture in question being separate from the sale, in fact at no time did [redacted] personally bring anything up about the furniture. As it clearly states in the contract, the client [redacted], indemnifies AB Estate Sale and its employees from any case arising out of ownership dispute before, during, or after the sale. Notice that the check box is checked that states [redacted] is the legal owner of the property, the box for personal representative is not checked (see contract pg 1). So based on this [redacted] is the decision maker, not [redacted] or [redacted]. AB communicated with the siblings out of courtesy and found that all they seemed to do is argue and disagree with each other except in the case of the final direction from all to sell the furniture in the sale and the family would take care of the rest (see below explanation and prior sent voice and text/email messages. Additionally, it appears that [redacted] is the party that is registering this complaint, AB estate sale has no contract with [redacted] only [redacted] so AB Sales questions this complaint as a whole.
AB does agree up until Oct 4th when contacted by [redacted] to let them know how much the furniture sold for so [redacted]'s mother could write him a check for it after the sale, that the furniture was not going to be included in the sale. This email was followed up by the voice mail from [redacted] representing his mother to include the furniture in the sale because he could not get it out. This voice mail was followed up by a voice mail from [redacted] to follow the oral contract [redacted] had established for the commission for the furniture to come off the top of the sale. (no oral contract was entered into just voice mail from [redacted] attached to last response).[redacted] also resent his message from Oct. 4th, mentioned above, to make sure AB let them know how much the furniture sold for so [redacted] could pay [redacted] for it by check.
AB Estate Sales never had any oral agreement with the owner of any of the items in the house. AB Estate Sales had a written contract with the owner, or person who claimed to be the owner, and then had contact with the siblings of the owner who both gave verbal thumbs up to sell the furniture after initially telling AB Estate Sales not to sell it.
To answer questions from the April 12th response:
* There was never an oral contract between AB and [redacted], there was only an oral agreement with [redacted] and [redacted] that he was to remove the furniture before the sale if it was not going to be part of the sale. Then [redacted] and [redacted] all informed AB that it was going to be part of the sale which ended the oral agreement with the siblings (see attached in first response and above explanation of this).
*What [redacted] refers to as the first statement was a courtesy to [redacted] to show her how the sale did, not including the furniture. AB Estate Sales did not sign the document due to the fact that the sale was not complete because items remained in the house. If this courtesy caused there to be confusion AB Estate Sales does apologize and has learned not to provide numbers until sales are final.
[redacted] speaks of not knowing the intent of [redacted] and speaks of a statement that could be written by [redacted] after the fact. The contract was written and signed on Oct. 3rd, any statement about how to treat or respond to her siblings or the possessions in the house should have occurred before the contract was signed not after the sale and internal family dispute. Once again [redacted] did not, in the contract or verbally, or in any other form specify items not to be sold, and according to [redacted] is on top of her game".
[redacted] states that in her voicemail to [redacted] it was just a suggestion to her to get [redacted] to do the right thing. If you listen to the voicemail attached prior there is no suggestion, only direction. She states she would be a fool to do so, is that something that AB Estate Sales is supposed to know about [redacted] (mind reading)?
*Finally, [redacted] states that everyone in the family has known that [redacted] purchased the Furniture. AB Estate Sales is not part of the family and only operates under the contract that is written and signed with [redacted]. Once again from the contract client indemnifies AB from any case arising from ownership disputes. There is some type of internal family dispute over the property in the sale between [redacted] and [redacted] and it appears they need to work this out. AB Estate Sales feels that [redacted] and [redacted] are trying to blame this furniture dispute on AB estate sales because they feel it would be easier for them to bully AB Estate Sales into fixing their families dispute instead of dealing with [redacted] themselves.
*Yes, in an emotional out pour [redacted] did on Nov. 14th send pictures of a messed up house with broken and missing items. I told [redacted] that [redacted] will owe about $4000 and the witnesses that heard me suggest this price. I did also restate that regardless of what occurred, a commission will have to be paid because the items were removed after the contract signing. I further told [redacted] that "sweet AB" would need to get with [redacted] to get her money. (see attached)
Final Consumer Response /* (3000, 15, 2017/04/24) */
see attachment