Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/13/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Caring Transitions was hired to assist with the liquidation of the contents of my 93 year old mother's home following her admittance to an assisted living facility. A sale was held during which $2,331.18 in proceeds were credited against Caring Transitions expenses, which resulted in a net billing of $2,810.23. I believe that owner ***** (or ******** as he calls himself) Stocks either is incompetent, or, more likely, fraudulently misrepresented how much would be charged. It literally would have been far more cost effective to have obtained a roll off dumpster and simply thrown the items away. Please see my attached email to Mr. ****** outlining the reasons for my complaint and proposed $1,500 settlement, which I anticipate will be summarily rejected by Mr. *******

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2022

  From: ***************** <****************************************************> 
  Sent: Friday, September 23, 2022 8:45 AM
  To: Resolutions <*****************************************>
  Subject: Fw: Sale details and Invoice along with communication concerning Complaint response to ***********************;
  
  ID ********
  
  
  In the attached emails and documents, there will be the original contract, the details of ****** sale, his invoice, as well as the complete electronic communication between ****************** and myself post invoice. Upon originally meeting with ****************** on May 19th, 2022, Caring Transitions educated ****************** concerning three options of results yielding an estate sale. Those results being making a profit, breaking even, and owing as a result of a sale. ****************** asked if we think he could break even if Caring Transitions performed an estate sale. ****************** was told "There is no way to predict the outcome of a sale however, it is a possibility". And that if there is a balance due, Caring Transitions would be willing to defer payment until the sale of his mother's home to reduce the burden of payment. ****************** was also given options for a clear-out with/without performing a sale. ****************** stated that he didn't want his mother's things to end up in the trash if it could be sold. ****************** contacts Caring Transitions approximately 3 months after the original consultation with the desire to hire Caring Transitions to perform labor in the form of a photoshoot, advertising, and hosting an estate sale. To which ****************** admittedly reports in an attached email that he was pleased with the professionalism of my Project Manager ******** for the work the Caring Transitions was contractually obligated to complete. Upon invoicing, ****************** attempts to negotiate the balance with an offer of approximately 50% of the balance owed and a threat that this was his attempt to move forward amicably. I respond with a counter offer to reduce his bill to eliminate any profit for completing the project that he has hired Caring Transitions to perform. ****************** responds with a rejection and another settlement statement of the 50% offer. Please note that all of these negotiation transactions occur after he sent a complaint to the BBB and after he sold his mother's home on 9/7/22 for over $620,000. It is evident that ****************** had an agenda regardless of the outcome of the sale. 
  
  Due to ********************** agenda and the sale of his mother's home while under contract with Caring Transitions. I am willing to settle his payment in full within the next ***** hours based on the details of the invoice and the obligations of the original contract at this juncture, with no legal action to follow.
   
   
  Thanks, 
  
  Do you love visiting estate sales? Enjoy finding **********************? Have a passion for helping people? Caring Transitions is hiring big hearted people who can turn clutter into bread and butter. Hit our links below to visit our website to learn more.
  
  ***'E Stocks CRTS
  Caring Transitions of Denver Central
  Office: ************
  Cell: ************
  
   
     
  
  ________________________________________
  From: ***** & ************************* <******************>
  Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2022 5:13 PM
  To: ***************** <****************************************************>
  Subject: RE: Sale details and Invoice 
   
  Thank you for your reply.
   
  As I mentioned, I simply dont see the value added of engaging CTs services when presented with a $2,800 bill, which means that the cost of the service prior to applying the credit for the receipts is about 5K.  I simply dont believe 5K worth of work was done in prep for the sale.  As I said, it would have been a shame, but I could have obtained a roll off and had workers throw it all away for around $1,500.  As it is a lot of stuff simply got taken to the dump anyway.
  
  I was not looking to make money, but I certainly did not expect to do a lot of work getting rid of unsold furniture items on my own on ******** Marketplace, having the and then being asked to pay $2,800.  Thank goodness I put in the considerable work to get rid of the leftover furniture that I did, or the final bill would have been a lot higher.  
  
  I believe $1,500 is a good number. It is way more than I want to pay, and likely a lot less than you would like.  Such is the way of negotiating, which I do a lot as part of my work.  Please let me know.  Thanks.
   
  *****
   
  Sent from Mail for Windows
   
  From: *****************
  Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2022 1:37 PM
  Subject: Re: Sale details and Invoice
   
  Hi *****,
   
  Thanks for your response and the kind words about ********. My objective here is to make my customers happy, sell as much as possible, and take on the risk of those in the home to reduce my client's liability. 
   
  When we sat down, we asked "what's the goal for doing an estate sale?" The response was to give these things a home. I remember you asking me about breaking even, and my response was it that there are three possibilities... one of those possibilities being breaking even. If you would have said, hey I want this to be at no cost at the end of the day, I would've challenged the avenue in which anyone can receive a licensed, bonded, and insured company to guarantee a service which protects their clients' belongings, employ drug screened and background checked W-2 employees, insure their workers and customers during the sale to provide the clients a piece of mind of not being liable nor responsible for any mishaps, injuries, nor lost or stolen items, that can possibly take place while under contract, at no cost. If you said, just get rid of it. We could have done that too *****. We provided those options also. 
   
  I think it's important to understand a few things. I know that you've spent an insurmountable amount of time trying to rid items yourself. You've personally seen the headaches and the difficulty of selling these items. I think it's safe to say that the return on your time invested in selling items didn't yield the profit that you imagined. Especially when, by the end of it, things were still being given away for free on social media. Would you have been willing to pay additional hourly wages for us to ultimately give it away? I'm assuming that you would've not been happy about Caring Transitions spending hours and days on labor, running up your bill to simply give it way and then sticking you with that bill.
   
  *****, you didn't hire Caring Transitions to give your mother's things away. So, we didn't. However, when it comes to the donations, we told you that donatable items can be taken to a charity of your choice. We weren't notified one time about any options for donations. Not during the consultation, photoshoot, sorting and organizing, sale day, nor the clear-out day. In our client's best interest of reducing time and cost, we default to a donation center that will not turn the donations away upon arrival. So that's why we chose ARC to donate those items. We would have gladly taken items elsewhere, but we had no knowledge of preference.
   
  As far as the communication, I'm not sure what prediction I could've given to you as to an invoice. The assumption that I could tell you that you would owe or how much you'd owe or get paid out is something no one can predict. However, in doing our best, we advertised your sale on local and national platforms: estatesales.net, estatesales.org, gsalr.com, yardsales.net, yardsalesearch.com, garagesalefinder.com/, and garagesalestracker.com. As well as our Caring transitions social media and our email list. The only approach we could've taken differently would have been to spend endless hours racking up your bill to sell things individually which isn't cost effective by any means.
   
  When it comes to settling for $1,500, I am willing to reduce your invoice to the cost of services. As I do pay franchise fees per jobsite, multiple insurances per employee and hours recorded ensuring liability and ********* comp to protect each and every client reducing our client's liability, payroll costs, fees, wages, and taxes. Please let me know your thoughts.
   
  Thank you, 
   
  ***'E Stocks, CRTS
  Caring Transitions of Denver Central
  |http://www.caringtransitionsdencen.com | 
  office: ************ | cell: ************
   
   
  From: ***** & ************************* <******************>
  Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2022 10:50:52 AM
  To: ***************** <****************************************************>
  Subject: RE: Sale details and Invoice 
   
  Hi KenE
  
  I have had an opportunity to review the $2,810.23 invoice.  First off, I would like to say how pleased we were with ********, who was professional and kind to us during the difficult time of moving my 93 year old mother into assisted living and disposing of her belongings.
  
  Unfortunately, I am left questioning the value added of using Caring Transitions, as a net $3,987.50 was billed for the work done to sell $2,331.18 worth of goods, for a negative return of $1,656.32 before disposal costs.   It literally would have been more cost effective for us to have obtained a dumpster and paid a couple of workers to toss the heavier items into it.  ***** post sale we were left with many furniture items to liquidate, which we did ourselves via sales on ******** Marketplace. 
  
  I am also astounded by the lack of communication during the process.  We never received a link for the online sale, nor were we ever advised that we would wind up owing nearly $3,000.  During our meeting, you indicated verbally that we would likely be in a break even position.  You also asked us to choose which charitable organization we wanted to donate to.  Either these representations were incompetence or they were outright deceptions on your part.  We relied on your integrity and expertise during our meeting when we signed your contract, and in the end we are betrayed by the $2,810.23 invoice.  This in the context of us dealing with my ******************************************************************************************************* a respectful manner.     
  
  I have to accept blame for the poor outcome of this project as well our old neighbors used Caring Transitions a few years ago, which I note is prior to your 2020 involvement with the Denver Branch.  My neighbors had a great experience as they did not wind up in the hole financially, and ARC picked up their unsold items after the sale.  To be honest I was dealing with a lot of stuff related to my mother, got lazy and didnt do my research when I retained Caring Transitions.  If I had, I would have seen the overwhelming chorus of online complaints from people who had the same exact experience we did stuck with a big bill after the sale, leaving them to wonder what was the of using Caring Transitions vs. simply getting a dumpster?
  
  As you can no doubt appreciate, I expected a final bill of perhaps $500 or so for disposal and was shocked at the $2,810.23 invoice.  In the interest of resolving this dispute amicably, I am willing to pay $1,500 in full and final settlement of the invoice, which is way more than I believe is reasonable.  Please advise.
  
  *************************
  ************** 
   
  Sent from Mail for Windows
   
  From: *****************
  Sent: Friday, September 9, 2022 11:19 AM
  Subject: Sale details and Invoice
   
  Good morning ***********
   
  Please see the attachments for your sale details and give me a call with any questions you may have.
   
   
   
  Thanks, 
   
  Do you love visiting estate sales? Enjoy finding **********************? Have a passion for helping people? Caring Transitions is hiring big hearted people who can turn clutter into bread and butter. Hit our links below to visit our website to learn more.
   
  ***'E Stocks CRTS
  Caring Transitions of Denver Central
  Office: ************
  Cell: ************