Everything But The House (EBTH) — Attraction in Blue Ash

General info: I bet on a camera bag that came with two vintage Tamron lens cases and a very old film loupe. I won the items for $2.00; the shipping came to $17.66. I paid for the items on Nov 30, 2015, and received them on December 10, 2015. The items arrived in a large, dirty and dusty cardboard box. The plastic sheets used to protect the items were also dirty and dusty. It looked like both the box and the plastic material had been used at a construction site. There was even some kind of fine sawdust residue on the inside of the box and all over the plastic.

The items: The outside of the bag looked good. It looked just how the pictures on the EBTH site depicted the bag. The inside however, was filthy. When I reached in and pulled out one of the lens cases, my had got covered in what resembled black toner mixed with bits of very fine sawdust. There was so much of this black powdery material that some spilled onto the the carpet as I removed the rest of the items from the bag. As I inspected the inside of the bag, I realized that this black powdery stuff was in every pocket and section of the bag. There was so much of it, that as I continued to inspect the bag and other items, I had to wash my hands a few times to avoid getting it all over my clothes and the rest of the house. After washing my hands, I quickly got on my computer to check the description of the items, to see if maybe I just missed the memo that the inside of the bag is dirty—there was not mention of it anywhere. The condition was listed as good. What made this even more strange was that the pictures on the EBTH site showed each item separately, meaning that at some point the lens cases and loupe had to be placed inside the bag. The person who placed the items in the bag should have noticed that the inside of the bag was covered in this black residue, and therefore the bag is no good.

EBTH: When I called EBTH and explained the situation, the customer service representative said that when the pictures of the bag were taken, whomever took the pictures must not have opened the bag far enough to get a good look inside. She put me on hold, then after getting back on told me to toss the bag and that she would issue a refund for the purchase price. I would be getting my $2 back, but not the $17.66 that I paid for shipping. I tried to clean all of the items, but in the end the powdery stuff was too much to clean out. All of the items were unusable. I was not about to a chance that black powdery stuff getting inside my full-frame camera and expensive lenses. I created my EBTH accounts less than three ago, in that time period I have had to contact them twice regarding issues with a purchase. On both occasions, the customer service I received was horrible. I am currently waiting for an item that I won on December 3, 2015 to be shipped. As of today, it just says booked. Once I receive the item I will be closing my account and will never do business with EBTH again.

Conclusion: Avoid doing business with EBTH. The items are not as described, horrible shipping (expensive, poor packaging, no tracking number, and very, very slow), horrible customer service. They will happily take your money, but don't expect much...

We used EBTH this summer to sell the left over contents of my parent's home after their down-sizing move. There was a house full! Our experience was a mix of both delight and frustration.

We appreciated the work of our relationship manager and especially the work of our catalogers who were extremely hard working and did a fabulous job for us! We truly felt that they had our best interest at heart. We appreciated the value we were able to get from so much of the sale. Overall, things were well marketed and the reach of the EBTH site is nothing short of amazing!

Frustration came with the fact that our team was given insufficient time to get everything cataloged and into the sale. Consequently, when time was up, we were left with so much that never made it into the sale. This impacted our timeline for getting the house on the market. Additionally, we had a project manager who was unresponsive to our concerns. She never once checked in with us during the course of the work, and when I reached out to her, she returned neither my calls nor my emails.

Fortunately, we made contact with management whose efforts to make things right were hugely appreciated. He arranged to transport the left overs to the warehouse for incorporation into a warehouse sale. His efforts went a long way towards building good will.

Our second frustration involved reassuring promises that never materialized. Our parents had a extensive book collection, some of it going back several generations. We were assured that we would get the expertise help of the EBTH book person in order to ensure that value was not overlooked in the marketing. That never happened. Although our catalogers did a fabulous job of marketing many books, as deadlines encroached there were several lots that did not get the highlights they warranted which would have significantly increased their value. The many books that never made it into the house sale were then moved to the warehouse and again, some that had value were over looked, sold in the cartons they had traveled in without the buyer even knowing the contents for the most part. I had done my book research and knew what was being overlooked. This was a disappointment.

I would suggest to EBTH that the input of the catalogers prior to assigning time to prep a sale would be hugely beneficial. They are the worker bees in the trenches and can best calculate the necessary time frame.

I would suggest to persons considering using EBTH to sell the contents of their home, to approach the experience with eyes wide open. It may not be everything but the house, but rather everything there is time to catalog, and you may not get all that is promised.

Would I use EBTH again in the future? Absolutely, without hesitation! Not perfect for sure, but overall, we were very pleased with the conscientious and hard working people we dealt with and feel quite certain we could not have achieved the overall value we did as efficiently as we did in any other venue. We recognize that as a young company that has experienced enormous and very rapid growth, there are cracks in the system that hopefully with time will be identified...

I have used this company on a couple of occasions by placing bids on items which I have won. My first experience was when I won a signed baseball that I was going to give my husband as a gift however the dates for pick up wouldn't work for my schedule so I opted to have it shipped to our home that way it would be at my house when we returned home from vacation. To my dismay it wasn't at my house when I returned home. I called inquiring where my item was and I was told "we need to track it" and I would be receiving a return phone call. (Phone call was never received that day or the next). I called again and was told they need to "track the package" and I would be receiving a return call. Well I never received a return call but I did receive an email advising "We spoke on the phone the other day regarding this order. As of yesterday there was no update". By this point over a month has passed since I won the purchase and I wasn't very pleased. I did eventually receive the baseball (not in a case) but I did receive it along with a "courtesy" gift card. I decided to think this was a one time issue so I continued to bid on other auctions, I won several items on another auction that I requested to have delivered as it was local and I am not able to lift heavy items. As soon as the auction was completed I received a phone call to come pick up my items and I told them that I paid for delivery. They didn't realize that? First off the local delivery was a rip off on price but I didn't have an option as I didn't have any assistance for moving items. I was told I would be contacted to schedule delivery, but instead I receive a text message at 9am that states "we will be making a delivery today ETA 12:00" (I receive no notice or was I given an option of scheduling) I replied that I wasn't available and I needed to schedule it as it states on their website. We ended up scheduling and when they arrived for the delivery, they not only peered in my house while waiting for me to answer the door, but they also unloaded the wrong items (which I will add was not light). They ended up ripping up the pavers on my sidewalk, damaged my carpet by sliding the heavy items on the carpet which left rubber markings all over it where they pushed it and it pulled the fibers while doing that. They didn't wear shoe covers so my carpet also ended up being their mud mat. I had to replace my carpet, but even after I explained the issue I was told that I had to get estimates and such in order to receive a partial refund (which was still less than half of what I paid). I just don't have time to deal with it anymore. I also didn't receive all the items that I won in the bid because they couldn't locate them. I DO NOT RECOMMEND USING...