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Great Expectations Auction Company Jenna Baker Ripoff for Buyers AND Sellers. Shady. SUPER high fees. LOSE items. Rude careless owner St. Augustine Florida
Great Expectations is the only large auction house in St. Augustine, and that's probably why they are able to conduct business for both buyers and sellers so poorly.
I bought from this auction house for about 6 months, and recently tried to sell some items through them. I felt the need to file this report for a number of different reasons, and nearly all of them are negative.
For starters, the owner/manager "Jena" is a rude, stuck up, and very difficult person to work with as a customer. If you aren't one of her personal friends, you simply get cut off. You can tell her she lost your items, etc. and she will basically tell you she doesn't care. Leave her a message/email, etc. She's actually enough to complain about by herself, but from there, everything for customer seems to go downhill.
As a buyer, you'll find that Great Expectations often has a lot of LOW quality merchandise, despite the owner's big attidude and claims of getting only "good items". Dirty furniture, expired/expiring food, and even used mops! It's not that they don't get some valuable items, but whenever they do , they usually -sell for a lot more than what they are worth. This is strange, considering that when you try to SELL similar or identical items at the auction, your stuff will typically go for pennies, and this is where it seems to get pretty shady.
The auction house charges lots of high fees, and they even charge fees to buyers for using a credit card and just for buying period (buyer's premium). The fees charged to sellers are confiscatory, and the highest on low dollar items, which is what everything seems to go for ... except when you are a buyer. I believe they literally take half of any items that sell for less than 20 dollars , or something ridiculous like that. It almost makes one wonder if there is something shady going on, like "house owned" items and/or shill bidding.
To make all this worse, "Jena" and her auction house have all these weird rules which you pretty much only find out about the hard way. Most of the time when you call them , they don't pickup the phone. When they do, little help or information is available. They have "appointment" times which aren't very well described by their staff, when you call to try to bring items to sell at the auction. What's worse, is that the appointment times are EXACT appointments. Yes, they will actually turn you away with your items if you don't show up on time for some appointment during a weekday. Apparently, that's another way to thumb their nose at sellers, as if they don't need items to sell. In any case, I can assure you that it, like everything else about the place is very aggravating.
There is more. They "LOSE" your items, and then you simply get the runaround when trying to find them. Again, you'll get the attitude of "Jenna" if you dare ask about your missing items or complain.
This place seemingly has the most ridiculous book keeping, to the point where you wonder if they are just trying to rip everyone off. While you are "encouraged" sometimes to show up to the auction, so you can presumably see your items actually sell and for what price ... you'll never know which auction your item will be at ... and it's usually WEEKS after you bring in your items. IF you catch your items in the online pictures, and call later to ask the prices, I was shocked to find out that the auction house won't give you any information about YOUR items and YOUR money. Why? More excuses, and it really doesn't matter, because when and if you get your check, weeks later, you'll be shocked at how low it is and the items that are missing from it.
Yes it still gets worse. As a buyer, I've often noticed lots of weird shenanigans by the auctioneers at Great Expectations. They like to do "choice" , and lately expired/expiring food, and other such low quality auction house gimmicks. What this means is that in some cases item lots are not properly described, and the action can be so confusing, that many people wind up paying more than they intended.
If you Google this auction house, you'll find other complaints confirming some of the things I've written above. Since they are still fairly new, and virtually the ONLY auction house in or near St. Augustine, I suspect it may sadly be awhile before people get enough courage to start complaining more about this place. I don't intend to do ANY more business with them, after my experience as both a buyer and a seller. There is simply no way to make money at this auction house as a buyer or seller ... but someone is certainly making money ... and I do believe those people are the house, "Jena", and their friends. Anyone visiting the place more than once can easily see the clique type of atmosphere the place has, which also adds to the bad experience and lack of trust. I've talked at length with people about this house, and I'm sure others that read this will be nodding their heads in agreement. Again, it really seems this is a case of Jena's Great Expectations Auction House is the only game in town, so the place is run like they are doing us all a favor by being in business. NOT good. Buyer and seller BEWARE!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
BETTYRUBBLE
ST AUGUSTINE,Florida,
USA
ARE YOU KIDDING?
#2Consumer Comment
Sun, March 08, 2015
I've been going to the GE Auctions for five years or more. I've been there when the house has been full of people and when nearly empty. I've been to the Tuesday "box lot" auctions and the higher end auctions on the weekends as well as many of the household yard-sales the company has held.
During all my experiences with Jenna Baker, her employees and the auction itself, I've absolutely NEVER seen any of the behaviors the complaint has described. I've seen her in tears when a family member passed away. I saw her angry one time and ONLY ONE TIME .. and that time was because of the sheer stupidity of one of the customers at the auction one evening. The person became unreasonable, yelling and generally making a fool of himself. When Jenna offered to talk to him privately, he refused. When she, still calmly, asked him to settle down, he became louder. She finally left the auction floor and firmly asked him to leave. That was the extent of any anger I've ever seen from her.
Sometimes some member of the staff may seem to be preoccupied. I wonder if the complainer has ever been preoccupied .. at work, at home or elsewhere? I think we are all that way at one time or another. But despite their preoccupation, they are all willing to help and to acknowledge everyone. As for the "clique type atmosphere" ... ridiculous!! A large member of the staff are family .. and those persons attending the auctions often times are regulars who are there a lot. Not a clique ... just family and friends who enjoy one another's company!
Low quality merchandise??? Interesting. The vast majority of the items are used to begin with .. do you expect perfection? No one says you have to bid! There have been hundreds of high-end items up for auction and even those are used. This is NOT Sotheby's so why do you expect Sotheby's prices and quallity?
I've been to auctions all over the United States. I've seen both the good and the horrible auctioneers at work. I've seen the fair as well as the cheats. The cheats are truly easy to spot IF you have experience at auctions. When Jenna or her crew put up an item for bid, they always describe the item as best as they can. They supply online references when possible. They try to get the best price possible. Often times, if they think the item has some value above what the bidding is going, they will put the item aside for another auction where they hope to get more. People have to keep in mind: if no one in the bidding arena is bidding on an item, the price will go down until someone does bid. If no one is willing to pay a high price, the item either isn't sold or is sold for the best price possible (which may or may not be the value).
Does the person who complained realize that every single item sold is logged as it's sold? It's logged by lot number (which references the owner), by description of the item and by buyer number. Additionally, it's logged by date, the auctioneer's name. To keep quality records, the logging is NOT done simply by one person on a computer. There are two persons logging each and every item sold. One does a hand-written log while the other enters the information on the computer.
Fees are NOT unreasonable ... unless you've never been to another auction to find out what others are charging!
I think the complainer should remove his head from his backside and get real. Jenna and her crew are good at what they do. I suggest if you don't like her, her crew or her auctions, you should simply stay away from their auction house rather than bashing them. Sounds like some sort of sour grapes rather than reality!!!!