The Potting Shed

Description of Work: The Potting Shed, Whitesboro, NY, owned and operated by Don & Nancy Hartman, is the LAST place you should go to if you need to sell your possessions, be it an estate sale, home sale or simple jewelry sale. They are unprofessional and they have no true knowledge of the value of items. Just as bad, they boast that they are proud of their reputation for giving their buyers a great deal. They work for their buyers. Their priority is to sell cheaply to solidify their reputation and to quickly move onto their next scheduled event. They have no concern about getting the true value of your possessions for you. I hired them to conduct a 3-day estate sale, based on word of mouth and their personal relationship with my late wife. They claimed to have more than 40 years experience conducting estate sales. I later learned that for most of those 40 years, they operated a greenhouse business. Their "expertise" in putting a value on your possessions is limited to searching E-Bay completed sales to see what other people have sold the same or similar item for, and to pricing items based upon what they know their core buyer friends are willing to spend. If you have an item that is worth $250, and they see that someone sold one on E-Bay for $50, that is what they will insist is the true value. After assuring me that they would watch over my property as if it were their own, they allowed people to park all over my lawn, there were numerous gashes and scrapes on my walls and my mailbox was destroyed. After I confronted them over those issues and the low prices they were putting on some of my most valuable possession, they sabotaged the remaining two days of the sale by being rude and unhelpful to people and by automatically discounting items at the cash register without any prompting from the buyers. The total sale amount for the last two days of the sale was less than the sales total for the first day when, according to the Hartmans, the last two days would be the best days of the sale. Despite days spent sorting out the incredible amount of clothes for the sale, the Hartmans failed to display them, simply leaving them in bins for people to search through. They put very little effort into actually looking at what was available for sale and for establishing true values. They failed to recognize sets, pricing set items as separate items and allowing buyers to break up sets. They simply set prices as group prices, such as $8 for dresses, $3 for pants, etc. They saw no difference between a 5-year-old used wheelchair with rust, and a never used cushioned wheelchair, pricing them both for the same low price. They saw no difference between used dresses in fair-good condition and never-worn dresses in excellent condition with the price tags still attached, pricing them for the same low price. They sold items they were directed not to sell, they sold items to employees and friends at steeply discounted prices, and they took at least one item which they did not account for in their final accounting. They charged commissions on items that were not sold when their contract does not allow for that. Their final accounting was merely handwritten entries made during the sale, many of them "misc." leaving no details as to what they actually sold. To show their true pettiness, they took with them several plastic bins I used to store objects and left behind two of their own which had no tops, leaving them useless for storing items. I have been forced to initiate a small claims action against them in Rome City Court to recover the items and money they unlawfully and unethically took. Please beware: Potting Shed Antiques works for their buyers, not the one who hires. Their primary concern is upholding their reputation for giving great deals. They have no concern for your reasons or needs for selling your possessions, nor for getting you a fair return based upon the true value of your possessions. Email Response: From: (via email) Sent: Thu 10/18/12 9:18 PM I feel sorry that these unethical people ripped you off. I wish you the best of luck in whatever legal action you take. Ideally, putting them out of business. Responses Posted at Craigslist: Date: 2012-10-29, 8:59AM EDT Have a friend go and check to see if your stuff is in his store. He has been ripping people off on gold and silver. Buying for ten cents on the dollar but selling it much higher later that day. He considers it fair since he makes his offer and the seller says yes. shop around. there are much more honest people out there Greed has taken him Location: Whitesboro PostingID: 3372157738 Date: 2012-10-25, 6:36AM EDT I also took some gold jewelry to the (name deleted) in Whitesboro, and he only offered my $20 for each ring! Two of the rings had gemstones in them, and he could have put them right in his case and sold them for about $200 each. He tried to tell me that they would just be melted down and the stones discarded. Regarding his estate sales- I have heard for many years that they sell to their friends, and do not have the estate owners best interests in mind while conducting their sales. Whenever I see an ad for one of their sales now, I steer clear of going to them. The same with (another business name deleted). These sales used to be fun- too bad. Unfortunately It all comes down to greed. Location: whitesboro PostingID: 3363482900 Date: 2012-11-02, 8:24AM EDT See that the honest man is doing his best to delete peoples post about his business and ethics. Just keep re posting them. Not an honest person to sell gold to. He thrives on a customers lack of knowledge to make himself the most profit. Paying ten cents on the dollar of what he will sell it for later on. There are others who will pay you better. Shop around. do not sell to the first person and not him, Location: Whitesboro PostingID: 3381142137 Date: 2012-11-02, 11:50AM EDT Letting others know about a person who does not care about their business ethics is a fair and right thing to do!! Location: Whitesboro PostingID: 3381553036 Date: 2012-11-02, 7:54PM EDT The more Don takes down my posting the more I will write about him first when he post his sales I will flag them. All are noted on his web site. I would not sell gold to him. I know he paid a lady $50.. for some gold and turned it hours later for $500. He feels it is not dishonest since she agreed to sell it to him. Character is lacking. Location: Whitesboro, NY PostingID: 3382742724 Date: 2012-11-02, 9:05PM EDT I hope you are successful with putting those crooks out of business. I know I will never go there and will tell others not to either. This is an area with a small population. It's not Syracuse or Rochester or NYC for that matter, where you can rip people off and still have enough population left to not know about you and then give you their business. I'm self employed and so is a friend of mine who owns a repair shop. He says with the small population in this area, word of mouth can either make you or break you, so you can't be stupid and rip your customers off and get away with it. Word WILL eventually spread and the business will go under. I hope this kind of Karma destroys those greedy people. Location: local PostingID: 3382865348 Date: 2012-11-02, 9:08PM EDT See that the honest man is doing his best to delete peoples post about his business and ethics. Just keep re posting them. Not an honest person to sell gold to. He thrives on a customers lack of knowledge to make himself the most profit. Paying ten cents on the dollar of what he will sell it for later on. There are others who will pay you better. Shop around. do not sell to the first person and not him, Location: Whitesboro PostingID: 3382871653 Date: 2012-11-02, 9:29PM EDT Looks like he has more to flag to keep his business looking good. Employees under the table collecting SSDI Location: Whitesboro, NY PostingID: 3382904454