Schiff Estate Services

Review: On 07/15/13 I brought my late brothers estate valuables in for [redacted]'s Estate to sell at 40% commission. I left him a list of what certain items were valued at & that he should not sell them for less without just contacting me. I explained it had to be accounted for , per the probate court! I did not hear from Schiff for a few months & when I contacted him he said he was sending a check for $287.00. When I questioned him he refused to return my calls & emails *& directed me to go thru his assistant [redacted] He emails me & told me I had just a few days to pick up what was left or I would be charged $25.00 per day.

*Please see attached for complete description*Desired Settlement: My attorney and I will only accept the "original" copies of all sales receipts for items sold. "Not Ficticious" I would ask to be reimbursed for money I feel was cheated out of!

Business

Response:

Initial Business Response

My first contact with the Consumer came about 2 years ago, when she called me to come look at an estate she was handling for liquidation in Murphys California. I drove there from Sacramento, about a 2.5 hr. drive. I spent about an hour and a half there to inspect the premises and items and give her a verbal proposal for the job. She said she would speak to the owners and get back to me. I then drove back to Sacramento. The total trip used up a day of my time. I did not hear from her for a few weeks and called her for a status report for my proposal. She told me that they decided to use a different option. She did not bother to inform me of this. I mention this to show her disregard for my time.

She called my several months before this complaint to tell me about her brother's things she wanted to sell. She mentioned several higher dollar items. We made arrangements for her to bring them to my store for consignment. When she arrived, she informed me that she had already sold all the better items and had some medium to lower quality things for me to sell. This was a misrepresentation of her original statements, but I still agreed to do business with her. She gave me some research she had done on some of the items. There was no promise from me, written or verbal, that I would be able to get these prices. I priced the merchandise to sell, and settled up with her to that date. After the selling process went on for several months and I had sent the first settlement check, she told me not to sell the most valuable item, a model ship in a case. At this point I sent her an email and told her to pick up her remaining merchandise within 1 week. She picked up her remaining items, and I gave her the final settlement and accounting. She said she wanted the original receipts, and I told her we do not give these out. The originals have information about our buyers and sellers that can not be made public. We type up an accounting for each consignor, including this case. Every dollar was accounted for. The accounting was not fictitious, and she was not cheated. If anything, I was taken advantage of because of the points I have mentioned and this frivolous complaint.

Final Consumer Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

How,when,and why I ever came into contact with this person has no significance to my complaint. My employer at the time made the decision "not to hire "this person". Again how far he traveled has nothing to do with this complaint.

Whether I sold other items myself from my brother's estate is also of no significance to this complaint.

It is true that it is my word against this person that he was suppose to inform me before he sold certain items of value for "pennies", instead of what I told him the bottom price was, an had written out for him.

I was never informed when I told him I needed to see the final sale receipts, that I could not have them for the probate court, otherwise I would not have done business with this person.

Bottom line is this person was not being honest, he hid in the back of his store from me, and he is trying to paint a very different picture of the events that occurred. I simply want to view the original proof of sale slips. I doubt they contain any personal info of buyer on them. My Attorney will be contacting him very soon as well. If this person would have shown and honest character by personally talking to me an not hiding from me, I think I would not feel as cheated. To me it only proves he is not honest person.I think also he should be more careful when dealing with Women in particular, before he throws out cutting remarks about women. My friend an I were shocked at some of his derogatory comments the first day when I brought items into his store. I chose ignore them. He was very unprofessional. I clearly should have known right then not to do business with him, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. Again I want to see the original (not fictitious ) receipts for items sold.