Complaint Review: Worstell Auction Co - Houston Texas

I tried to go to one of their auctions, once. I was trying to bid on laptops, I was waving my card when bidding doing everything their little "pamphlet" said you're supposed to do.

The tall guy, Tim Worstell it turned out, was a ring caller. I was standing right in front of him and he was IGNORING my bids to my face to hand a lot to one of his laminated-card friends. When I called him on it he had one of their disgusting thugs grab me by the shoulder and march me off the property, then I had to call their office to get my $100 bidding deposit back.

These guys are dirty, corrupt losers. The worst kind of scum on the planet, if I hadn't called 3 days in a row I wouldn't even have gotten my deposit back from these scam artists.

WORSTELL = CROOKS.

My name is Tim Worstell.  I'm a forth generation auctioneer.  My father is the owner.  We are one of the largest general merchandise auction's in the state of Texas.  The auction business is like all other business's in that if you don't treat people right you will not be in business long.  Every month we have 300 to 500 registered bidder's come out to the auction.  That's not counting their spouse or children.  We work hard, treat people right and appreciate their business.  My personal cell phone number is 713-428-8691.  We are alway's striving to improve.  We like to know what we are doing right so we can continue doing it.  B

ut we also want to know what we can do different or better so that we can do better to serve our client's and customer's.  This isn't a game to be played by "two team's".  If you truly were a customer at any of our auction's than why not post your name our phone number.  You claim my father owned a car lot, or lot's.  Or that he had a business on Mykawa.  Please name the name and address of any of these place's.  My father has never owned or operated a car lot in his life or had a business on Mykwa or leased a building.  Anyone who has a question about any of the allegation's made please feel free to give me a call on my cell.  Or research on line if my family has ever owned or operated a car lot.  Or ever had a business on Mykawa.

What motive would someone have to blatantly lie like this I ask myself.  Not provide their name or contact information?  It lead's me to believe that it must be a competitor of our's.  I can not think of anyone else that would benefit from it.  

If you are a real past customer with honor and integrity please post your name and number so that other's can talk to you.  What do you have to lose by doing so.

Thank you for your time.  I look forward to hearing from you soon.

PS:I wear boot's and wrangler's.  Even a cowboy hat from time to time.  I listen to country music.  I say ma'am and sir.  I drive a pick-up truck.  I'm old fashion in my way's and my thinkin.  So if that make's me a "hillbilly" or "country hick".  Than i'm guilty as charged!  Y'all folk's have a good night now.  The wife and I are going to go lay down on the couch and watch us a movie.

A quick leson for you. The guys with laminated cards around thier necks are the top buyers that attend nearly every auction. Some come with truck from Louisiana and farther to buy for resale in thier businesses. They have their own bid numbers, the same every month.

I have personally run completely SHILL-FREE auctions in the Houston area for many years. No matter what you do, there is always someone that cries when he doesn't get the item he wants most.

As far as the people mentioned, the ring caller that kept asking for money after the auctioneer said SOLD... sometimes you are asking for another bid, or the person bidding is asking you a question. If you don't hear SOLD, you keep trying. The Auctioneer will not add to the bid, the winner is the winner. It makes no difference what the ring caller says, SOLD is SOLD.

With the large number of people in an auction audience comes a number of crooks.  I have seen plenty of people escouted out, crooks, pick-pockets, item swappers etc. Yes, loud mouth idiots that cause a scene and slow down the auction are asked to leave as well.

And that ring-caller mentioned earlier....the hardest working sone of a gun I know.

I have in the past and no longer work as an auctioneer with Worstell Auction Co.  I am going to try to not be mean to the person writing this report. You must have some reason for being upset with the owner or his company, but trying to understand you is like reading one of those mass murderer manifestos.  Nothing makes sense, but I will try to let you in on some things I know as FACT.  The auction draws such a large crowd and there are some many items to sell, there is no time and no need to "Shill" bid anything. I have many times consigned to these auctions, somethimes the prices are high, somtimes low. I just have to act like a grown man and accept the price. This is an AUCTION, an AS-IS, WHERE-IS auction. Everyone has the opportunity to inspect the items. There is no way to know if some of the THOUSANDS of items are not in working order. This is why they go for such good prices, it's a chance you take when you attend and buy at auction.

I am sorry you had a bad experiance, but please ...Are You Kidding?

 first of all  always remember the old saying if it sounds too good to be true it usually isnt true ...that being said i can make these remarks becausemy  father and four others opened the first car aucion in houston ,,,the guy that says that they are not given special treatment cant read ..nobody said he was special they stated that he was given special treatment theres a difference ,,,so yes its true this auction is rigged  ,,what hurts  him is that some regular joe figured out the hand signals ,,,the laminated  cards like he said  dont mean anything,,now the funny thing is that this gary wortsell is  a scam from day one  a failure at  all...had a cardealership  and got it shut down  had a place on mykawa  lost the lease for non payment,,,tried selling cars at new car dealership  couldnt do that either ,,,oh did i mentioned his alias,,,,THE COLONEL,,now come on how  great a deal  r u gonna get from  a guy called the colonel,,,remember  a guy named ELVIS and his manager  named the colonel parker,,,nuff said,,,how can u tell auction junkie is just another hillbilly who likes the colonel cause he probably  gave his  south houston country hick cousin a job unloading the trucks of furniture  for 5 dollars an hour ,,,well because he mentions that the fact he attends numerous auctions ,,,whenever anyone says this,,, they believe that they can make you believe that they are   a world of smart  ,,fact is if he says that there is nothing going on at this auction that is fishy  then hes the dumass ,,,the auctions i attend if your not in the in crowd  you got no business there in first place plain and simple ,,,i feel bad for the innocent people go to this dump  and get ripped off,,feel free to email me i can give you some pointers to get things going in your direction,,,please rememebr the law is on your side whenever they take your cash deposit as an auctioneer and give you and receipt they must give you money back ,,,dont believ the stories of his daddy being the exgovernor of texas and  his brother being a police chief  as soon as you are asked to leave call  the hpd nonemergency line and sit on hansen street wait for them to get there  the flashing lights on hansen will get the other poor innocent souls attention at least  if not show them just how bad these guys are ,,,needless to say this colonel wortsell is no genius ,,,and his son  well the apple dont fall far from the tree ,,,a few pecans short for a whole pie ,,u get the idea,,,if u gotta kic people out of your place of business  cause of a few snide remarks ,,your not running an auction your running an airport ,,,the only thing to fear is the truth and let the truth be told,,,this guy is no better than the goof runnin the supposed auto auction on the n frwy  open to the public ,,,the secret catch  here is the words open and puclic ,,,they want the innocent PUBLIC to OPEN there wallets so they can steal what little is inside ,,,flybynights is what we call these ,,they fly by night so  you cant them on  the laws radar,,, they dont go to  reall  automobile dealer auction and try there 1850s tricks  cause they know we would eat them at breakfast and pop them out  by 11,,,they couldnt hold  a cardealers jockstrap at areal auction,,,and for the auction junkie if there is nothing going on then why do u hav to mention that  u are not now or never been employed ,,,usually if your innocent the truth will come out by itself ,,,but good try anyway ,,,your just as much a dummy the colonel and ole junior ,,you can say you make money  just like they do at these auctions ,,but at what cost ,,,why dont you go down the street  thursday at 9 am to hobby auction  where real men play the game ,,,and we can help you do it with out stealing from the innocent ,,,oh thats right you cant because your not a licensed dealer ...lol lmao otfl lmaootf,,,please anyone who would like to turn the tables on these guys giv me a shout id love to help anyway i can ,,,remember to play u gotta hav two teams,,, lets make  a team ,,now do u understand

 Just wanted to say that I am not and employee now OR ever.

 I just really like their general merchandise  and how it changes so drastically each time that I attend.
 

If you go to enough of these auctions, you know who you're bididng against and if you talk to them in general conversation, you get a feel for what value they place on particular items and vise versa.  Although it's illegal to agree on a maximum bid, when bidders get to know each other, they help each other out in their own way.  The check-in and check-out lines and sandwich lines promote general conversation (hint hint - eliminating the waiting lines will promote higher bids).  It's the newcomer who doesn't know anyone and no one knows him who doesn't benefit from the fellow bidders.  An infrequent bidder who has made an enemy of another bidder tends to pay more because bidders talk.

If anyone here doesn't believe "auctionjunkie" is really one of the Worstell employees making fake responses, they need to get a clue real quick.

Evidently this person has NO knowledge of how auctions in general work,but I'm here to help!I go to alot of auctions  all over Texas and all are basically the same.Worstell Auction is no different,the policies are "auction" policies across the board. The Worstell auctions are fun because there are several auctioneers going in different areas with different merchandise because of the size and quantity of the place.The 'special ' bidder numbers are not 'special' at all,they are for the regular bidders like me that are there every single sale and attend so many other auctions.We try to keep the same numbers for this simple  reason,so we don't have different #'s to remember.,but THANKS for thinking we are 'special'!They also do not have spotters,THEY are called ringmen and any hand signals are for the benefit of the other auction staff that possibly cannot hear over the crowd noise,an example being the thumbs down and right behind that a thumbs up,this is the #69,nothing more.(when you've attended as many auctions as I have you learn alot  if you pay attention!)
I highly recommend Worstell Auction Co.They have a great time there!The ringman that you need to watch is the owners son,Tim,cause he interacts with the crowd,he's so respectful and you can tell he enjoys working with the crowd!

I decide what I am willing to pay before bidding starts and either win it or someone else bids higher.  Only sometimes do I win, but on the other hand, I leave with either good deals or nothing.  If bidding on a class of item consistently approaches retail prices, I just go out and buy retail.  Check-out takes way too long so I check out as soon as I can and leave with my merchandise as soon as possible.  Will be back when they have a photo of something I need and my schedule allows.

I concur with every single thing that was mentioned about this company. I've been going to the auction since last year and have observed the same occurrences. There's the short white guy with the beard and a tall guy with tattoos and a beard. They are quick to throw someone out who questions their actions. I've watched the same tall guy continue with soliciting bids even though the auctioneer had already said the bid was closed. There are people there with laminated cards and these seem to be the people who bid higher on items. I've even observed these same people run a bid up on a couple of vehicles on more than one instance to over $4000 to $6000 on what they were actually worth. Buyers beware. This auction is rigged and it would be interesting to see if the  BBB and auction regulators show up one day.

I was googling these guys after being at the same auction, trying to find out whether or not what I had seen was normal. Boy am I glad I saw this.

I have to agree, what I saw at the same auction was obvious. The rigged auctions with "spotters" giving those hand signals to the bidders with the laminated badges got to the point where if I saw those guys bidding on something, I just gave up because either they'd try to bid it up to where I didn't want to go, or they'd just give the auction to one of the riggers cheap and I wouldn't get it anyways.

I "won" two things that day, and when I came to pick them up the next day, the worstell staff had obviously been banging stuff around and doing damage to it. Apparently "as-is, where-is" means "we don't care what damage we do to what you bought." A nice table I'd purchased that looked beautiful came home with a deep gash right down the middle, it looked like someone had dragged the corner of something metal right over it - probably one of the file cabinets that had been stored in the next aisle behind it.

Gary Worstell, the head of the auction house, gave me the rudest d**n email back when I emailed to complain about his staff's behavior after being threatened by his staff with being kicked out and my "bill" sent to a credit reporting agency for "causing trouble" on pickup sunday when I protested the damage done to my table.

Worstell auctions is dirty. As in filthy, corrupt scammers.