Cherished Possessions — Local services in Portland

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-law's 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 we'd 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 didn't 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 estate's money and would have drained any energy remaining after the loss of our parents AND dealing with this situation. Needless to say, we wouldn't recommend this company to our worst enemy. They are crooks with no...

I left a large collection of world war 1 era china as well as some other pieces from the same time period for consignment on July 27. I was repeatedly told it would be too time consuming to count the pieces that day but not to worry they would count it for me. Well I should not have been so willingly duped. I was also told I would hear about pricing before the items were to be sold within a day or two. Receiving no such communication I reached out on the Friday trying to figure out what the hold up was. I was then told that they did not have time to return all communications but that I would receive a phone call by Tuesday the 10th of August. Again I received no such communication. I went to the store today 8/15 to reclaim my items only to find that they had priced and sold the items without verifying pricing with me. Only after this whole process was I told that they would take 50% of the sale prices as their own profit. Also one of the items I left there was never even written down on the agreement sheet. So the item is simply lost. If you choose to sell your items through consignment here beware. Count your items, photograph everything, and expect a level of communication worse than the government. Also I was told that the check for the items sold wouldn't be cut until the 10th of the month. So I am holding my breath to see that I actually receive the pittance for the items I consigned with them. Revised to include that the prices given to me in store that had been emailed but never received were marked down in less than a week. I was told I would receive a fraction of the prices in the email handed to me. I never received payment for the lost piece as it was told to me that because they had already discounted the items I had already received what I was "owed". Communication is key and you won't get it with this business. Everyone is hurting in the pandemic. This company's rudeness should make everyone run...

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 didn't show up or even call to cancel. I had called and left 3 or 4 messages over the next few days and didn't 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 didn't 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 it's my fault for not doing my homework and looking into this so called business the Sam & Cas run. It's 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...