ComplaintsforCaring Transitions of Lancaster County PA

• Initial Complaint

  11/23/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contacted Caring Transitions to hold an Estate sale in October/November 2022. Sue presented a warranty for $3000 and a down payment of $500. They would take pictures of items and put them on line, so people to bid on them.There were about 20 plus items. There was no set price placed on items. Bids ranged from $1 to a couple hundred dollars. After a set time the bids were accepted and products were picked up at the house. In the next stage there was what was called cash and carry. People came to the property and offered an amount and it sold for that but no set price was established. Weeks after the sale I asked, many times, for an itemized list of what was sold and what was paid. After three weeks I got a list but over 20 items from the house, from those bid online to cash and carry were not on the itemized list. I requested a call with Alex the franchise owner and went over the missing items, the condition my attic was left when boxes were open and tossed on the floor. The accounting of costs and my monies from items sold looked to be off. He said he would discuss the issues with his staff but the items not on the list could be worth hundreds of dollars; were these pocketed? There was no looking out for the customer but sell it for $1 or hundreds. There were items that Sue and I talked about that were sold for much less than their worth. The initial fee was $3000 and a $500 deposit. Cash and Carry was $428.35 and auction sale proceeds $3280.51. credit card fee 2% $65.61, commision 35% 1298.10.  refund for no trash removal $400. My amount $245.15. As I stated above, many items are not in the inventory of what was sold, items were hugely under valued, i.e 5yr old ***** ****** bed sold $40; watches to include 2 ***** watches ?; a signed print that was worth $1-$200 online but is not in the inventoried sold items. Masonry tools value at $100 or more not on the list. The owner **** said not all items made it to the list so I'm out money.

  Business response

  12/15/2022

  We are sorry that we have failed to communicate effectively our standard operations to you, although we have done our best from the outset. First of all, Sue presented no warranty. We cannot provide any kind of warranty on the outcome of an auction. She did her best to make clear in repeated conversations with you that all bids on our internet auction start at $1. If only one person wants an item, it will sell for only $1. We advertise sales widely, but it does take at least two bidders to increase that bid beyond the initial $1. She repeated this information about our online auctions to you every time you brought up what you thought your items are worth. 
  
  We created 140 lots for the online auction, which ran for 14 days. All auctions have deadlines when they end. It is possible to set a reserve price for a lot, which you did for the snowblower. Unfortunately, you did not ask us to lot the snowblower when we were preparing the auction, but rather sent us less-than-desirable photos and a terse description. It did not sell for the reserve price. Fourteen other lots did not sell, many of them large items of furniture, which is typical as selling large furniture is often difficult. We scheduled the end of the sale and the pick-up day for the winning bidders for a day when you could be present, but you chose not to be present during the sale. Several times Sue explained how our cash & carry sale works: we sell lower value items in a garage-sale format, working hard to maximize the prices we get on everything. Buyers fill a box or a bag with things for sale and make us an offer on those things. We haggle a bit to drive up the price, but the point of the sale is to clear out the house for sale. Other strategies for selling used items may bring in more money, but they will always take more labor and time. We cannot itemize everything in the cash & carry sale, and Sue attempted to make that clear in all her communications with you. You could have opted to forego the cash & carry, but that would leave more things unsold and in your house.
  
  Your initial instructions to us were that you were in a hurry to prepare the house for sale and wanted it cleared out of all furniture and other personal items as quickly as possible. That is a standard request from our clients and we worked hard to achieve that. At the time our staff was setting up the sale, you agreed that clearing out the house was more important that getting the highest price for each item.  After the auction finished, you changed your instructions to us, saying you did not plan to sell the house right away and did not want to clear everything out. We asked repeatedly for clarity on what should be sold and what should be kept, and your answers changed nearly every time we asked.
  
  Upon reviewing the agreement that we signed, I saw that the credit card fees had not been specified, so I have refunded you those $66 in fees. We charge clients 2% although we have to pay 3.4% to our card processor. We have already refunded $400 from our charges since you would not allow us to return to haul out trash and tidy up after pick-up. I have now refunded you an additional $400 since we also did not take unsold items to the ******** donation center, which is standard practice for unsold items that clients are trying to get rid of. I rounded this up to $500 and sent a check to you for that amount.
  
  You have complained that items were hugely undervalued. When we put the bed in the auction, you were told that we regularly sell beds for $1-3 because demand is so low. $40 is well above average, especially considering the extensive staining on the mattress. We have never seen the signed print that you have asked about.  Our staff did not pocket any proceeds from your sale. They have been working with Caring Transitions for several years and are trustworthy. Many of the things you have asked about were never seen by our staff and did not go missing under our watch. Indeed, at least one item from an auction lot went missing during the sale. We suspect a family member may have taken that item.
  
  Online estate auctions typically garner 10-20% of insured value. The gross proceeds of your auction were typical for a house of your size in Central PA in 2022. While the online auction has a complete record, we cannot itemize everything sold in the cash and carry sale because that would require 1-2 additional employees to work the sale. That would force us to charge you more to run the sale, and negate any proceeds from the cash and carry sale. This was all explained to you repeatedly during the set-up of the online auction. You were present for the three days we created lots and organized the sale, and then disappeared and did not attend the pick-up and cash and carry sale, despite our scheduling that day as one where you could be present. Afterwards you accuse of stealing proceeds and giving away things that you claim are missing that we have no recollection of every seeing in the first place. It seems like  you have set us up to fail after the online auction did not garner the unrealistic prices you were expecting for your used personal items.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩