Antique Connection — Local services in Melbourne

If I could rate this zero stars I would. The owner of this store is very unprofessional. She does not return phone calls with information about items in which a customer is interested. There are very few pieces with prices on them, I would assume based on my experience with her this makes it easy to make up prices as she goes along. Here is what happened to my sisters and me. My sisters went into the store and found some really pretty dishes with no price tag. They asked about the price and eventually were told there were $20.00 a set (dish and plate). They didn't really want to pay that much and asked if the consignor would take $15.00. The owner said she would contact the consignor and over a period of two weeks never found the time to call them back. When my sister called the owner (Liz) about the dishes finally, Liz said, "Oh yeah, what was that price I quoted you $25.00 per set?" No, it was $20.00 and would the consignor take $15.00? Liz said the consignor hadn't called her back yet and that she was going on a trip but she would call my sister when she got back. This is where my part comes in. As my sister (Diane) was telling me about this story I thought it I would go buy the dishes at $20.00 a set (the price originally quoted) and give it to them as a birthday gift. So today I went to the store, gathered up the dishes and told the two men I wanted to purchase them. The one man said, "OK they are $28.50 a set," to which I replied, "No, Liz told my sisters they were $20.00 a set and they offered $15.00. Liz never said if the consignor agreed." I should note here that I don't think these were a consignment. One man immediately got on the phone to Liz and the other looked in a book where they keep notes about items and said, "Yes, they offered $15.00 and Liz said the price was $20.00." So he rings them up, I slide in my card, the man on the phone runs back in saying, "She says $28.50" At that point I was pretty irritated. I remove my card telling them I have no intention of paying $28.50 when clearly the first price given was $20.00. What a crooked way to do business. The irony here is that my sister had said she thought Liz would give me a higher price if I went in to buy them and she was right. I don't know how you stay in business with that kind of shady practice but I can assure you, I will never go in this store again and neither will my sisters! ...

My recent experience with the staff was exceptional. In particular with Elizabeth who took time to listen carefully and ask me great questions regarding what I was hoping to find. Not only did she find exactly what I was looking for but she passed along her vast knowledge about the items I purchased. They were a Christmas present for a dear friend and they meant a "great deal" to the person who received them. It turned out that Elizabeth's advice was "spot on!" Thank you Elizabeth (and the staff at Antique Connection) for helping me give the...

Walked in the door with my family, the owners did not greet us and were very rude. We walked around, and the place smelled of mold. There was dust and dirt everywhere. I tried purchasing a ring, as I have been looking. The owner would not sell me the ring, at the price it was marked. She was very unprofessional and rude. Nothing in that store holds much value, everything is marked way up. They lost my support of...