Integrity Estate Sales, Aames Antiques & More Estate Sales, Jackie & Wally Sankowski How Do These People Live With Themselves, Taking Advantage of People's Grief & Vulnerability! Orland Park, Illinois Illinois
Aames Estate Sales & Antiques, which also does business as Integrity Estate Sales, is owned & run by Wally & Jackie Sankowski. They keep changing the name of the company after they get enough people posting about being ripped off or conned. I found their listing on estatesales.net and contacted them.
I was the primary caregiver for both my parents. My Dad died over 15 years ago and My Mom died after living in the same house for over 50 years. They had accumulated a lot of beautiful antiques, clothing that was never worn, vinatge items, collectibles, etc. I told them I would have to sort through the items and put aside items for my brothers & sisters that they might want. Under the circumstances, it was emotionally & physically draining. My Mom never threw anything out.
We agreed to a flat commission of 25% as their fee. That was it. a flat 25%. My fiance (a veteran) and I spent weeks cleaning, organizing and sorting things for them. The evening before the sale I took pictures of every room and the contents, as well as contents of the basement (we couldn't get everything upstairs in 1 sale.) It made me nervous to give them the keys to the house because it provided access to the entire house and all my personal items downstairs, many of which are antiques & collectibles.
Just before the sale, the give me a contract that was ridiculous & not what was agreed to. It jumped to 30% commission, undisclosed advertising costs (which they trumped up at $400) and a $750 minimum for the sale, guaranteed to them. I refused to sign. They told me to cross off objectionable terms then send the contract. I have texts from them saying they recall we agreed to 25% & no minimum.
There was also a clause added that I refused to agree to, stating that there would be a second sale that was to include my brother's lifelong collection of LP's, and my fiance's lifelong collection of toys and action figures. My brother was torn about letting the items be sold and my fiance had no idea if he could gain access to the toy collection in time. The toys filled half the garage.
Mant friends & neighbors showed up for the sale. Items were either grossly over priced, or sold for next to nothing, or just went missing. My brother's LP collection was all organized by genre, poly-sleeved & in mint condition. The values varied, many had printouts from ebay sales that ranged for a few dollars to hundreds for 1 LP. Several record stores in the neighborhood had been pushing him to sell the whole collection for a few thousand dollars. He thought that was way below the total value.
My brother is 61 and suffers from advanced MS. He is in poor health and desperately needed cash to pay the insurance on his house. They took full advantage, selling over 1,000 LP's, vintage Bose speakers, stereo equipment, and a lot of other electronics, then nailed him for fictitious advertising, 30% commission, and the intent to come back with a truck & get the rest of the unsold LP's & collectibles.
The first sale was on March 25-26, the second was the following weekend April 8th & 9th. We both waited for weeks after the sale for any receipts, let alone the proceeds of 2 sales. They lied about how many hours they would be holding the sale, as well as how many days. Finally, after numerous calls, texts, messages, etc. my brother received a package with 2 checks and erroneous receipts. His check was for $1,400, which he cashed in desperation to pay the insurance on his house. It stated if he cashes it he agrees to whatever BS they came up with. I was sent a check for $800!!!!!! Just the antique buffet and solid oak dining table they gave away for $100 was worth about that.
There a many complaints online about them ripping people off, taking advantage of people's grief & pain, often times not giving them any money. I complained to BBB and they closed the case with no response. I later found several other complaints on the BBB website. I also complained to attorney general Lisa Madigan, sent copies of contracts, text messages, photos, screen captures & details of the "advertising" which was all free & got no response to date. These people are theives. I have NOT cashed my check, and wouldn't be surprised if they put a stop payment on it, essentially stealing even more from my Mom & my family.
Many, many items I photographed went totally "missing" during the course of the sales. I had pictures and supposed "sequentially numbered receipts." The receipts made little sense, leaving an easy path for things to simply be unaccounted for. The items were things that were unique, very old, and selling on ebay for a few hundred dollars. They continue holding estate sales, changing their name, but "taking care of business & themselves" in exactly the same way. I am very certain all the missing items have shown up on ebay or at their other sales.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Aames Estate Sales
Orland Park,Illinois,
USA
Response to false claim of Mary Pence
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, July 07, 2016
My name is Wally Sankowski and I am the owner of Aames Estate Sales in Illinois. First and foremost these allegations are totally false. To cut to the chase when we agreed to do the said sale, her boyfriends action figure collection and brothers lp collection where to be included, that is how the 25% commission was arrived upon. There where many items removed from the house which where agreed to be sold during the sale. Then her boyfriends wife would not let him in the garage to get his toys so they could not be sold. Mary on the other hand brought in garage sale items, with tags still on them from previous garage sales, mold, ands so on to add to the sale. This started off a nightmare and continued down that path. Once she broke the contract the comission went back to the original 30%.
The majority of the items where either broken, mismatched, or totally useless. Clothes had all of the tags torn off so you could not see sizes or brands, unsellable. We boxed them up at Mary's request and put them in the basement. Couches that when you picked them up the bottoms fell out, unsellable. I have pictures of all of this as we do of every sale. Pictures speak louder than words. We also had to bring in outside consigned items to sell just to attract people.
And not to put anyone's business on the street, Mary Pence does not even talk with her sibblings because of the underhanded things she has done. The sibblings recieved none of the contents of the house. We where told that by the sibblings.
As far as her brother goes. The collections of lp's Wally and Irene had to sell where all filler records. Meaning not mint records but fillers until you found a better copy, different bands with on decent song. A record junkie would understand what I am talking about. There where no, and I repeat no valuable records in that lot. Great filler stuff but no value other than 2 or 3 dollars records. Mary's brother knew that and explained to me he sold of the valuable ones years prior. Wally and Irene where quite happy with what they recieved as payment and used the money not for insurance but for their sons baby shower. Again we spoke with Irene today and she is more than willing to attest to what I am writting and that her sister in law is a liar and back stabber.
We write reciepts for every single items sold in carbon copy books. Some times you have 3 or 4 books going to keep up with the flow, but everything is written down. The dining room furniture in question was severally damaged and need work. The chairs did not match the set, stains and scratches overall. The gentleman neighbor who purchased it also knew it needed work and was more than willing to do it.
I could go on and on but the truth be told, Aames Estate Sales did nothing wrong or illegal. We have the references from Mary Pence's own brother and sister in law to prove nothing was done wrong or illegally.
Unfortunately slander, if proven, is punishable by law.