Liquidation.com (Liquidity Services,) NOT the BUYER'S FRIEND!!! Washington, District of Columbia

I purchased a jewelry lot on auction from Liquidation,com (aka Liquidity Services, Inc.). The items were given no discription except telling the amounts of the various items, and the word "Fashion." I saw beautiful pictures of some of the items for which they had pictures. The pictures made some of the jewelry look like it was made of cut crystal, or glass, others looked like stones, or metal had been incorporated. I placed a bid, and over a few days had a persistent bidder "dogging" my every bid. Utimately, the bidding ended up with me as the "winner" at $2,000.

I had intended on reselling the items for profit, so as to make a living. I am an avid shopper and have been great at finding the best buys in discount stores, the Internet, and on the shopping channels. I know the latest trends in clothing fashion, and in jewelry. When I hear the term "fashion" used as a description for jewelry, I realse that it often means that the jewelry might not be made of gold and precious stones, but that it IS something that a person who is fashionable and who is into the lastest trends would wear.

When I received the large box shipped to my house I opened it and looked at the items...I was immediately disappointed, and my heart sank like a stone! Those jewelry items which photographed beautifully were only LIGHTWEIGHT, CHEAP PLASTIC!! Some items could pass for something I could almost sell for a couple of dollars, BUT the LARGEST QUANTITY I was given of this "fashion jewelry" lot was dozens and dozens of prepackaged CHEAP LIGHTWEIGHT PLASTIC necklaces, bracelets, and earrings!!

The earrings had no backs to hold them on the ears, the bracelets were fake pearls poorly painted pink, white, green and gray. They had places on them that were either scratched, or no paint at all!! They were strung on thread that stretched to the size only a child, or tiny adult could wear! They reminded me of child's birthday party favors, or carnival supply items!

When I contacted Liquidation.com about my dissatisfaction with the merchandise, a customer service person named Kelly said that my ONLY option was to file a dispute stating that the items were GROSSLY MISREPRESENTED, BUT that Liquidation.com NEVER gave REFUNDS, so I might as well NOT BOTHER!!

I insisted on speaking with a supervisor and I was connected with Marcia. She told me that the dispute process DOES work, that a dispute panel fairly judges the items to find out if they were misrepresented, and that she would fax me a form to fill out which had to be submitted by me to them within a 48 hour period. I also noticed on the form that I had to submit pictures of the items, or even a sample of the items within 3 days! I quickly took photos of the worst items (had them developed in one hour) and also included samples of those "fashion jewelry" pieces along with the photos in a US Postal Overnight Priority package for the: Dispute Resolution Panel to judge whether, or not, I could get a refund on my purchase.

I called them after several days, again spoke with Kelly, and she said, "your dispute claim was denied!" They said that the items looked just like the pictures! Well, the items did NOT look like THEIR website pictures (representing the ONLY way for a person to determine if the jewelry was nice, or not, since there was no discription). A picture can be VERY DECEIVING!!! Do they think that if I put on the website a life sized, plastic model of a Rolls Royce, but gave no other description than "Rolls Royce Car" that I should be able to sell it for $100,000, and think the customer should be satisfied with it because, "It looks just like the picture?"

The sellers: HotFashions, knew that if they included a description of the "fashion jewelry" that they would get low, or NO bids!! The OMMISSIONS are just as bad as lying!

Liquidation.com never answered my emails asking if they had a return policy, so I called and asked on of their sales representative, and they said that they did have a policy of return if the customer was dissatisfied with the merchandise. I foolishly relied upon her word. What she SHOULD have said was: "we have a Dispute Resolution form for you to fill out if the items were GROSSLY MISREPRESENTED!" She could have added as Kelly did later:"We will make you jump through all kinds of hoops, get your hopes up, and then TURN YOU DOWN!"

Marcia, the Buyer Relations Supervisor told me that a panel of people from the Dispute Resolution Team would look over my dispute and then make a determination, and she also told me that I had every chance of getting a positive result in my favor.

WELL, when I was told by Kelly that my dispute was DENIED, she also told me that MARCIA was one of the two people who turned me DOWN!! The other person involved in that "process" was ANOTHER person FROM MARCIA'S DEPT.: TIFFANY!! Well, if that isn't a case of the wolf guarding the hen house!! They led me down "the garden path" leading me to think they we playing FAIR, when they WEREN'T!

I was played for a FOOL from START to FINISH!! I even have my suspicions that a shill was used on someone's part to drive the auction bids to a higher level.

Liquidation.com can't even be a company with enough compassion, or understanding that if I knew the items were cheap plastic, I would have NEVER bid so much money!! I can NEVER make back what I spent, much less make a profit, yet all they can say is: "dispute denied, you should have been able to know what the "jewelry" was like from the pictures!"

Sorry, I am trusting, and when I see something that looks just like crystal, I think CRYSTAL, NOT "Oh they are trying to FOOL me into THINKING it is CRYSTAL!! I will NOT BELIEVE in the HONESTY of ANYONE EVER AGAIN!! A REPUTABLE COMPANY SHOULD WANT TO PLEASE THEIR CUSTOMER, NOT TRY and SCAM THEM TO MAKE MONEY!! A REPUTABLE COMPANY CAN MAKE MONEY WITHOUT USING TRICKERY!!! DON'T BUY FROM LIQUIDATION.COM!!!

Cheryl
Sunnyvale, California
U.S.A.