ANTIQUES & CHATCHKES

The people of the estate sale removed all our furniture to as they said to "showcase" our many collections. They removed from our property all 6 rooms of high quality furnishings. They priced for 3 full weeks then took a week off over July 4th all this time they had our keys and we could not use our house as we had no furniture and tables were everywhere. Our neighbors said they were taking things out of the house, long before the sale.We had so much that when they set it all up it still looked like a huge sale.We signed a contract on May13,2014 but Ken kept putting it off for illness he said. The sale was held up until July 11 thru 13, 2014. We were told he would sell a lot on his web site as he had over 4000 customers on his site. We saw no money for any of these sales but lost all our property to him. I guess you could say one service was to steal our property.They were not to sell some items but they did and told us afterward. They gave us a$150 .credit. There were over 50 large expensive air tight plastic containers that we had purchased to store collections while we cleaned everything. Most things were new that we stored. We also said do not sell our rug on the carport as it would help to keep our new carpets clean, they also sold the table and chairs on our carport that we were going to use while we lived at the house to work. To Ken a glass top 48 inch round table and two chairs , a reversible patio rug ,and all those containers were only worth that small amount.They removed a permanent built in a Television set plus a built in stereo set from one room and took down the chandelier from the dining room which also was not to be removed. I would say they did as they pleased as they are not honest.They did not adhere to our wishes and did as they pleased. They did not have to clean anything as all was done by us as we were living at the home while we did repairs on it. Mostly, one woman showcased everything and she said Ken prices it himself. Tell the story from start to finish----- We saw this on Angies list awhile back but did not check it out with your company for reviews,our first mistake. I now know they are no longer on your list. I sure wish I had called before we used them . My husband had to handle this on his own as I had just surgery. I am sure he was worried about me so he used the number he had and contacted Ken Davidson. He came to see our collection and said he only did sales of $25,000 but he wanted to do our sale as we had so many quality items. Later he told us he had mis-judged and he needed 3 weeks to price everything and we had close to at least $25,000 worth.He said he and his staff were bonded and 5 star members of the better business bureau. My husband thought he was honest and he believed him.We signed a contract which stated on the last day he could not sell the remaining items without our consent.He said he couldn't reach us and stripped our house of everything without our permission. He said he sold it all for $800 but the bookkeeper had no knowledge of any sale of $800 dollars all he new was one chair sold for $40. We have no record of what was sold and a sheet that has no date on it just some numbers, No record of sales..While we were at the cemetery putting flowers on the grave we got a call from Ken saying he made an executive decision and sold everything for that price to a dealer he knew. We said No--- !He said too late she is packing it all up now in your containers too. We were in shock and then realized he has been very dishonest with us. We came to our home to see bare wires hanging from the dinning room where a beautiful crystal chandelier once hung.. We were sick to our stomach watching her take autographed photos of Dale Earnhart and so many collectibles and throw them in our own containers and load all our things in her van. We do not know her name but Ken said he knew her and gave her our key. We were so upset we drove to the Jetties in Venice where I cried and my husband got sick to his stomach. We told all members of his staff that we were going to get lunch and run an errand and would come back and pack everything up ourselves, as the house was still very full. We would decide if we wanted to keep some things and we would donate the rest to the disabled vets program. They knew in advance what we wanted to do so I feel they committed fraud by not honoring our wishes. Our neighbors said as soon as we left they started loading a van so full they did not know how they could drive. They came back and did this several more times until 7 PM that evening. My husband went down the next morning early and she came back took our sleep by number bed and more bookcases.When he came in that morning the house was a mess with clothes thrown all over the floor so my husband donated them to the paralyzed Vets. A man called me and said she wants to know where those clothes are. We told him and she asked my husband about them. He said you said you would be done last night by 7.P.M. The lady who came with the men who put our closet doors back on reminded her she did say that.They lost the screws to the built in cabinet so they did not finish putting that back together. My husband had to fix that also. We really were upset or we would have stopped her from taking the rest. They took our orek vacuum cleaner and our little broom. They left us nothing to clean with. This was not in the agreement. We must replace what they took to finish up the house. We did manage to keep our new mattress and box springs but they only left us a bottom sheet. etc. We talked to the police who informed us Ken had a police record and on his advice obtained our lawyer's help. We not only lost everything but are now going thru so much mental anguish. We can't sleep and are very upset. We are not young. I am 69 and my husband is over 70 years old. We are honest people who really got took because we trusted in a very bad man.We have never sued anyone so this is really stressful for us. I feel he took advantage of us because we told him we were not good at doing things on the computer and we needed his knowledge of our collections and antiques so we could get a fair price. He was very nice to us at first. When we signed the contract we told him we were going to Ireland for our 50th wedding anniversary. He gave me a little crystal mustard jar as I told him I loved Irish crystal. He really worked his charm. I gave it back to his bookkeeper to return it to him as I want nothing of this man .I pray you can help us bring justice to this situation. He tried to pay us off in cash while were in shock but I said "How can you do that,you don't even know what the sale brought in. He told us he was leaving town and his bookkeeper would be in touch. The bookkeeper called my husband and said he had to meet him at Mc Donald's because the store was not open.He gave my husband the check but on advice of our lawyer we will not cash it. It is not acceptable for what we went thru and lost. We must fix the dining room ceiling where the chandelier was and fix a hole in the wall that was caused by the persons removing an antique sewing machine. We need to replace a blind they broke up on our side door and replaced woodwork on the porch that was damaged and they covered with tape. We have a witness that wanted to buy the chandelier and Ken told her no, it goes with the house. He knew that he was going to take it himself. We have many witness's willing to testify as to things being taken from our home without our knowledge. They said they were aware of what was left in the house on Sunday as they came over to sale with friends. It took them several hours on Sunday and more time on Monday to remove all our property. We feel now that he planned to steel what he wanted.

The sale went well but there were several issues that arose during the process which left us with a mediocre feeling of the experience and ultimately we will probably not use this company or recommend it in the future.