Cherished Possessions

Reviews 3

JE

Jesse McCain

We should have seen the red flags as soon as we met with Cas, who runs the estates side of this business. We had to call her when she was late to our first meeting. She excused it by explaining a bit too much about her son-in-laws medical condition that caused her to be late. Once we met, she convinced us of the merits of consigning the furniture and other items we wanted removed from my parents estate. In hindsight, I expect that she pushed us away from doing an estate sale because of the higher commission and leverage. We signed a contract and paid them $600 to dispose of some items that they were not interested in consigning. We carefully organized everything into clearly defined groups with sticky notes designating the items that they should take. There were other groups of items that we were keeping or giving to other family members to remember my parents. These were marked with a different colored sticky note and a name. When the pickup-day came, Cas cancelled at the last minute and rescheduled for a time when we were not able to meet her. Since my siblings and I live out of state and were rushing to get the house on the market, we (stupidly) let Cas and her team come into the house on their own. The following day, we returned to find that they had cherry-picked ALL of our possessions. They had taken some of the things that wed agreed on, but not all. We ended up having to pay someone else to remove the rest of the items we were trashing or donating. Worst of all though, Cherished Posssions also took things that were clearly marked for us or for another family member. My sister was so upset that she called the police. Unfortunately, because we let them into the house, we could not file charges. Now that Cherished Possessions has all of our stuff, they have all the power. They were supposed to provided an inventory of all the items that they took and let us approve it for sale. We didnt receive the inventory for several months, by which time, many of the items had been sold. Needless to say, we never had the opportunity to approve any sales. We called and called to try to get our stuff back but one of two things always happened: Cas would not answer and her voicemail box was full or someone at the store answered but Cas was not there and NO ONE else had the authority to give us any information or an inventory. We would leave a message and occasionally Cas would call back. She was snippy and defensive about the whole situation and could not provide any solutions for us except to wait for our contract to end and come pick up our stuff. Several conversations ended with her hanging up on us, which is about the worst customer service I can imagine, even if you are dealing with a disgruntled customer. Finally, when the first of the contracts came up (apparently the contract period starts when they decide to put your stuff out in the store, not the day they steal it from you), we went to the store to retrieve it. We told Cas our intentions a week before we came, but she never showed up. We worked with the sales floor manager who told us we had to find our stuff in their huge, cluttered store. It was like a nighmare version of an I Spy book. Also, he was not authorized to print out a current inventory for us. We finally persuaded him to break the rules and give it to us since matching up the inventory numbers was the only way to be sure something was ours and if something had been sold. There was still stuff that was not in the store and might have been at a warehouse. We took everything we could and drove it straight to GoodWill to donate it instead of letting them make another penny off of us. We considered suing them to get our things back, but it would have risked the estates money and would have drained any energy remaining after the loss of our parents AND dealing with this situation. Needless to say, we wouldnt recommend this company to our worst enemy. They are crooks with no morals or empathy.

AD

Adrianna B

I had talked with Cas first week of November 2015 and let her know I would be in Maine over the holidays in November and then the last two weeks of December and wanted to set up a Estate sale, the last week of Dec. or first week of Jan. I had set a date for Cas & Sam to look at the items and see the setup and sign papers. I worked getting everything cleared out of rooms and had everything in piles for them to evaluate and they didnt show up or even call to cancel. I had called and left 3 or 4 messages over the next few days and didnt hear back, so I went to the store and a younger male asked to help me, I said I was hoping to set an appointment up for an Estate sale and he said Cas could help me with that, I was like great! He said let me grab here for you. He went to a small room and she came out talking on the phone. She came out to me and held her finger up ( referring to wait a min ). I was told she misplaced her cell and was unable to respond to my messages. I moved pass it and set another date for Cas & Sam to show up and the didnt show up again, I left a message telling her I was going to post this and I got a very angry and loud women telling me that I better not do it!!! I said I could have already had it done and back down south (Home). I was shocked to see how many people have had the same problems, I guess its my fault for not doing my homework and looking into this so called business the Sam & Cas run. Its sad that most people that sell items are people in need or funds and to have people pull it out from under you and nothing you can do! WHAT A SHAME!!! Please consider what people have had for experiences with Cherished Possessions in South Portland, Maine.

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A Private User

I visited Cherished Possessions on recommendation, having been told that it was the best-quality consignment shop in the Portland/South Portland area. While I do believe this -- the majority of the showroom was very nice -- when I asked to purchase a piece of furniture and started my transaction, the price doubled from what was listed on the tag. Furthermore, when the Cherished Possessions deliverymen arrived (and to be fair, it is extremely handy that they offer delivery service), the delivery fee -- again, from what I had been told -- almost doubled. Finally, only after a long and arduous process of getting the damn thing into my living room, was I informed that the loveseat I had bought was actually broken. She said you already knew was what one of the deliverymen told me, and I absolutely did not. So in short, while the showroom is lovely to wander around and the delivery guys are ridiculously nice, Id recommend that anyone looking to shop at Cherished Possessions be extremely thorough before they actually put down money. Triple-check the sales tag with the sales staff, and go over anything youre interested in with a fine-tooth comb. I have no intention of shopping there again; for what I was charged, I could have had less stress off Craigslist, of all places.