Zia Estate Services Ty Hardy ClinkingbeardMegan NeesonDeAnna Lambert Stole My Mother's Estate Albuquerque New Mexico

My Mother passed away this summer in Albuquerque NM. I do not live there. WHen I went to settle her estate I could not take all her household contents back to where I live. It was too expensive. She had an extensive collection of New Mexico Art, Sculpture, antiques, Japanese art, as well as furnishings. I looked on the internet, trying to find a service that could respectfully dispose of her life's passion. I found the Zia's Estate Services website. It offered everything I needed-- they would come to your location, would remove all items, and had many ways of selling items: through auction, online auctio websites, they said they had a special ebay auction site, consignment, and coop with other online auctions. When you go to the website, you see nice pictures, including their (supposed) location. I went to other sites online, in Albequerque, but could not find anytning that appeared as comprehensive. I contacted them and they were very responsive and helpful. I made an appointment for them to come to my mom's house, and flew into ABQ for the removal. I didn't really register at the time, when they showed up in a beat up white pick up truck and a van. I assumed that they would have professional vehicles, but I didn' think much of it. It was a very emotional time for me. Prior to them coming, I had taken an extensive pictoral inventory of the contents. Part of their contract was they would inventory all items, and send me the inventory right away. Additionally, they would be sending me an accounting, by the 25th of every month, of items sold, and monies due me. It is a 60-40 split, with their 40% covering fees, etc. I was ok with this, because of the distance involved in trying to settle the estate. The way DeAnnna Lambert talked, I felt confident she was going to be using high end auctino sites to sell my mother's Japanese art. SHe had said they had ties to galleries in Santa Fe, which would be appropriate for selling the 8 Diana Stetson paintings my mom had, as well as other pieces of New Mexico art. I had a girlfriend who came with me to ABQ, as moral support for htis difficult process. We witnessed DeAnna and 2 workers take everything out. I had a moment of concern when the workers were handling a fine antique dining table, and they were not using gloves, and were marring the finish. I had to tell them to put tissue paper on the cover of the table. I found that odd that they didn't know how to treat antique items, but again, in the midst of my grief, I let it go. WHen I cam e back to where I live. I waited anxiously for the inventory of the contents. I was also interested to see if I would get any other accountings.

October went by, and nothing. I reasoned that it was too soon. On Oct 27 I sent an emal to DeAnna asking for a check in. 2 days later she replied  "We will be sending the first check on November 25th and an update on everything."I emailed back, asking for a full acounting  and inventory of items.On Nov. 10, she replied "Some of your items have gone to consignment locally. We receive an update from them at the end of each month and a check if anything has sold. We also have some items in our consignment booth. We receive an accounting from them around the 7th of every month. We will send you a check each month as those items sold. We will put the majority of the art work in the booth near the end of the month in hopes of catching some Christmas traffic. In addition some of the items have gone through auction and you should get an accounting of those near the end of the month." 20 days later, I had received nothing, including no promised check for my portion of the proceeds that had sold. I called DeAnna, but of course she did not answer. I left a voicemail that politely asked for the same information and where my check was. No response. On Dec 2, i received an email stating: We are working with a high end company that provides online auctions that can be bid on across the United States and overseas as well. You can view their website. It is called Invaluable.

After extensive research we have found them to be a much better venue than eBay for art work. We ran a high end train auction on the 20th of November as a trial and to work out any kinks with bidding, payments, shipping etc. I am happy to report that we were quite happy with the results. We plan to run yours in January as the website and pictures should be up for viewing for at least two weeks for maximum exposure. I will let accounting know you would like a list of what will be included in that sale and what is on consignment in other locations as soon as possible. Nothing happened. A few days later, I went online to try and contact the offices of Zia's Estates, reasoning that I would just call their Accounting Department . Well, there are several entries for Zia's Estate Services, with different addresses and phone numbers. Most did not work-- they were disconnected. I finally found a list ing for the 2820 Richmond Drive location, and called that phne #. Surprise-- DeAnna answered, and she was clearly not happy to hear my voice. She curtly told me "Accounting is not here" and she would have a check mailed to me this week. Needless to say, it is now December 12th, and nothing has come. Red flag-- no one in accounting at 9:30am on a business day? Of course I am now feeling that I have been taken-- literally. I started doing research, which I should have done before registering for their services.

Do't be fooled by their website-- the picture of their building is not where they are now. I believe it is a photograph from when it was at a different locatio, under other owenrship. Thei ebay site? Really awful, with only some manicure sets there. I tried to contact Invaluable, to see if they had a relationship with Zia Estates. To date I have not heard back from them, which leads me to believe this is another lie. I ran background checks on Ty Clinkingbeard, the owner. He has records in Virginia and Florida, but nothing in New Mexico. The business is not registered under his name-- red flag. It is registered under Megan Neeson, who is his girlfriend. ANother red flag. Then I checked Yelp, where he as a terrible review from someone who bought from him online. Thre were 2 other reviews that weren't posted but that you could access. One clearly was fake-- the language was too perfect and it was basically an advertisement for them. The other one was real, from a woman in Rio Rancho, and her experience was not so good. I am now contacting the Albuquerque police to report this as a robbery, with concrete evidence of who the perpetrators are. I am feeling guilt and grief, that I let my mother doen so badly. At the end of the day everything is just stuff, but it was her stuff, and it was items she had bought from artists and that she loved. I am horrified that these criminals are so callous, taking advantage of my grief, and distance from them. Stay away from Zia's Estate Services. They are not who they say they are-- they are con men and thieves.