Linda Hawthorne

Description of Work: Due to time restraints, it was necessary for my sisters and I to sign on with an estate sale specialist to accomplish our goal: liquidate the assets to off-set our funeral expenses. Since we were marooned at our dad’s home (we did not want to spend time or money on a hotel), we witnessed Ms. Hawthorne’s arrival with a fully equipped and awesome crew, who worked diligently and harmoniously to stage a successful estate sale. In five 8+hour days, they gathered, sorted, organized and displayed all that was there to offer. To her credit, Ms. Hawthorne is seasoned and well-connected. She successfully convinced us that she and her services were invaluable. We had no time to dicker so we conceded and signed away our dad’s lifetime accumulation of treasures. All was well until we observed items disappearing, before the actual sale, into the clutches of "early birds" who seemingly had a special license to pillage. On the days of the actual sale, no extra sets of hands nor eyes arrived to help the tiny crew of five who could not possibly watch all the ins and outs of perspective buyers on a half acre of land. Furthermore,"The assigned number to each person in line" and “The limited number of bodies allowed to enter the home at one time" concepts did not happen at all. On Sunday, the final day, we watched scavengers load sets of furniture into their vans and trucks and drive away; sold for who knows what. Also, advertisement of the event and signage was practically non-existent. That probably altered the lack of healthy sales of which she assured us. We'll never know. We do know, however, that they own an antique store. No one wrote down the names of items purchased or the amounts for which they sold. No paper trail. Not any of it existed for us to review. No accountability, no good. Linda Hawthorne decided what we owed her and that was that! This is not the experience anyone should have to endure while a lost loved one's possessions from a life-long of toil are so casually dispersed.