Complaint Review: J. Levine Auction and Appraisal

I would like to file a negative review against J. Levine Auction and Appraisal. I found J. Levine through Better Business Bureau, where they have an A+ rating, so I assumed they were a reputable company. I first called and they gave me a name of an employee named Brenda Wein. She came and recommended multiple items in my home that would "be great" and "you'd make a lot of money", so it sounded like she knew the business. When she returned days later with a van, we filled it with items that were my mother’s and brother’s, who are now both deceased. She had me sign my signature on a portable machine, but gave me no receipts and never mentioned any contract. I asked her what I was signing for, she let me know it was "for the items she was taking and that she would have a 'lister' send me a copy of everything in the van for my records." I never received a list of the items she took that day and after calling and texting multiple times to receive it, Brenda used the excuse that the 'lister wasn't available' and eventually stopped answering me.

The first auction my items were in occurred on August 6, 2015. I noticed right away that only 6 of my items were listed. That is a SMALL fraction of the items we piled in that van. I watched my items sell so quickly, I realized they were essentially being given away. For example, I had a fur jacket valued at $11,600 and it was sold for $400....and that doesn't even account for commission being taken out. I was sick to my stomach. I only received $260 for the fur jacket valued at much more. The rest of my 5 items were also sold at the bare minimum price. Now, I do understand that I cannot expect that they would sell for what they are worth...but you do expect for these items to sell for a fair value. J. Levine also does not have the option for a Reserve, like most reputable places. If I was given a contract before anything was taken from my home, I would have never signed it. 

Then the remainder of my many items, which I was never told about, went to EJ's Auction and Consignment, which is also owned by Josh Levine, but auctions much less expensive items. On August 8, 2015, I watched the auction online with EJ's, and again saw my items sell for almost nothing! I had given a large box of my bother's very expensive china from England to Brenda and it was taken to EJ's. They sold the whole box of 63 pieces for $65! That's when I decided to get my attorney involved. She did some initial research and found they had many bad reviews on the Internet. She called J. Levine to receive the list of my items, which she never received either. I began to panic because I had given Brenda 2 pieces of valuable jewelry, which I asked for back. They told me that I would have to pay $200 ($100 per lot) to get the jewelry back. So I am now paying for my own items. I then called EJ's because they had listed my brother's crystal (also from England) as 'water goblets and glasses.' I knew that it was real crystal so I found someone at EJ's to take a second look. He then said it was a good thing I kept pushing him to look again because they were in fact very expensive pieces of crystal. I told him I wanted the crystal back and he said it would be $300.   

Overall, I have paid a total of $500 in unnecessry fees to receive my own items back. Josh Levine received more in commissions (on my sold items) plus the extra $500. J. Levine is able to get away with all of this because I didn’t see the contract until after I signed the portable machine.

They do not give you the chance to get your unsold items back because 24-hours after the auction, they take everything to charity. I would like to warn others of the experiences that I had at J. Levine, as he preys on people who have lost loved ones.