Consignworks

Went to consignworks sale in Wellesley. Ma a few weeks ago. Their prices were extremely high and as a dealer I could not afford to buy anything. I believe they are not benefiting their clients by having prices that are too high. I think someone should tell them that their prices are unrealistic.

I have learned about the passing of Tana, and I plan to remove my posting in a few weeks. Though she was not kind to me, I believe in forgiveness. I hear the atmosphere at Consignworks has completely changed. Deepest sympathy to the family, friends and co workers of Tana.

Although a friend had a good experience with Consignworks, our experience was horrible! Vicki was late to her initial appt, and when I called her, she said she didn’t have it on her calendar. To her credit, she managed to show, albeit 90 mins later. And she seemed professional and reassured me that we had a lot of nice furniture and other items, encouraging me to put up as many items as possible, as she thought a lot of it would sell. However, she’d failed to reserve the sale date we’d spoken about on the phone, so we had our sale on Mother’s Day (not a choice I would have made, if I had other options.) Vicki was helpful and responsive until the day of the sale when she called to say that most of our furniture did not sell! Apparently, this” is a recent trend, «she said – a very different story than the one she told before we contracted with them. She did refer us to a clean out guy and was helpful in sending a list of resources for us to contact for donating our furnture. The clean out guy, who works closely with them, did come before the sale, and spoke to me the day of the sale, when I was in crisis about the disposition of so much large furniture. He was very reassuring that he could take care of it for us, initially estimated, @ $ 1, 500. Given that cost, especially with the substanially lower proceeds from the sale, we decided, begrudingly to contact the charities ourselves – and had to spend several days doing so– time meant to be spent on final packing for our move. But then, Consignworks sent the check to our old address! «It was the only address they had.» I’m sorry, aren’t they in the business of estate /​moving sales? They had me do the legwork to track the check with the post office. After determining that it was lost, they did agree to send us another check, which we received over a month after our sale. Then several weeks later Cheryl calls claiming that both checks were cashed – implying that we’d done that. After I stated that we’d only deposited the second check and inquired further, she admitted that she hadn’t checked who might have cashed it, before calling me. She later called to apologize, because in fact, only the second check had been cashed, as I’d said! Do you think she could have done her homework first, before calling me like that? I have never written a negative review online before, but this was the last straw. I thought others would want to know…

Having bought a number of items at an estate sale run by Consign Works, I came home and noticed that one of the bowls was personalized. Although the company has a clear ‘no returns’ policy, I figured that wouldn’t apply to obviously unfit for use items, especially those of potential sentimental value to the original owner. Being in the area of the sale in a couple of hours for other reasons, I decided to stop by and try to return the bowl. I was ready for a firm but polite ‘no’ — after all, it was only $ 6 — but I was not ready for an attempt to ridicule me in front of a crowd of shoppers — the manager began spouting contempt and derision loudly and with gusto: «blown away», «will pay the measly $ 6 out of my own pocket». The message was clear: choke on it. I told the manager I was leaving the bowl and departed, seemingly unnoticed by the her as she continued to perform to the crowd with her back turned to me.
I will never again knowingly visit an estate sale run by Consign Works.

We used ConsignWorks for an estate sale in March of 2010. It was a big job, and one that we had no experience with. We called a few places and none of them seemed to be very good; either they weren’t quick to come to the house or they didn’t seem very enthused about the job. It turns out that estate sales is a sideline for many of these people, so it’s not their primary business.
Fortunately we also stumbled about ConsignWorks, which isn’t a name I’d normally associate with an estate sale. The owner, Tana, came out right away and walked us through the process in detail. Because of her we were far better prepared than we would have been otherwise. She had a large staff that came out and did the sale (I think there were 7 or 8 of them all together) and each seemed to have an area of expertise (e.g. furniture, tools, basements, etc.) so they could divide the work and come up with a rational price for each item.
On the day of the sale there were ~500 people that attended the first day. They handled this well and the house didn’t look like 500 people had trampled through it when they were done. There was only 1 mishap, where somebody essentially stole on of the Bose cube speakers on a wall, and Tana took full responsibility and paid for the item — as that is considered part of the house and therefore belongs to the new buyer.
So, net-​net, we were *very* pleased. I would (and have) recommend them to anyone looking to do an estate sale.
Pros:
— A professional group who knew what they were doing and were efficient and effective.
— They were set up to take credit cards, which helps sell the higher priced items.
— They spent a lot of time working in the basement to prepare for the sale. I was surprised just how much work they did there.
— I liked all the people I met. All were friendly and easy to talk to.
— Tana does a very good job accounting for every sale, producing a spreadsheet at the end that tabulates every item sold.
Cons:
— Nothing comes to mind…