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Posted by violetsaxrayphone on 28-Mar-2009 09:24 Report
My Local Auction House Closed down & pulled a runner
Okay my local 10 year established antique auction house closed up over Christmas.
I put in $100 worth of antiques for auction back in October.

(OSCAR PROUSE HAWTHORN VIC)

Now the guy running it has pulled a runner on his business & other peoples auctions
(One person alone I know of the auction house owes 20-30k from around the same time as me)
Not to mention his unpaid employees.

Is this economy so bad people are just pulling runners now after 10 years of business.

How do i get my money back? If at all?

Do I talk to the people liquidating the business?

If it is a civil matter & the place has been cleared out completly like nothing no phones/  life or anything
How do I even contact the other party?

I know i should have been more firm to let it go from October - December but no-one saw the overnight closure coming including his employees.

?!?!

I know the police wont help they are completly useless & will tell me its a "civil issue" even though to me he was scamming people right out of their money in the end knowingly & willingly.
 
Replied by fishychik on 28-Mar-2009 09:27 (Ref 1693490) Report
You may have to contact a solicitor as it is a civil matter. Legal Aid!!!
Replied by truckie40 on 28-Mar-2009 09:29 (Ref 1693492) Report
Get in touch with who ever the Liquidators are and speak to them about your business you had with him. They will prob know who the administrators are that will be dealing with clients etc who are owed money.
Replied by violetsaxrayphone on 28-Mar-2009 09:49 (Ref 1693504) Report
Cheers I dont think I want to waste my time with Legal Aid or solicitors over $100

I have contacted the liquidators but I am a bit unsure about going about this & what role they play can someone explain a little further as they havnt gotten back to me as of  yet.

I thought liquidators recovered government & bank money only?
Replied by earths-emporium on 28-Mar-2009 09:49 (Ref 1693505) Report
If your items have not been sold, I believe you are legally entitled to them back -
Replied by kevtms on 28-Mar-2009 09:53 (Ref 1693510) Report
I had a necklace for sale, by commision, in a well known estate jeweller in Bris.

They closed suddenly and never contacted me. I tracked down their solicitor, or by this time ex solicitor, who it turns out was owed money as well. He tried to get them to contact me but they never did. I went through all the right channels but once a business, as in this case, goes into receivership it becomes very involved.

To take them to court would have cost more than I was owed. I did hear rumours that all their stock had been auctioned. I only discovered what had happened, weeks after they had closed, because I happened to drive by the shop and it wasn't there. The whole thing left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.
Replied by violetsaxrayphone on 28-Mar-2009 10:19 (Ref 1693537) Report
sad to hear truely is........ that business is conducted this way legally when over online, they emphasise an online "safe trading" place when & anytime a business can legally close down cash up & move to China or wherever.

This is why i do not trust paypal in trading also they had to create a seperate pool when Australia's 7th largest FEEPAY seller packed up & left the country with over 1 million in unpaid FEEPAY fees.

Not to mention that they are now closing down businesses overnight I hope paypal have the money to cover all these businesses they choose to close overnight...

Why rob a bank when you can create a corporation create a money pool of other peoples money & then run of on them & not even commit a criminal act!!!!!!!!!!!
Replied by allcolours on 28-Mar-2009 11:06 (Ref 1693584) Report
That's really sad.  Oscar Prowse used to be on the corner of Burwood and Glenferried Roads.  They were there for many, many years.  I remember them from my childhood.  I noticed they moved elsewhere a couple of years ago.  The original shop was massive, it has been taken over by two or three other shops and the rent must have been horrendous as that is a really good location.  It's really sad for them, but I do hope you get your money back.
Replied by violetsaxrayphone on 28-Mar-2009 12:06 (Ref 1693685) Report
yes you know them as well they were around before the birth of the internet & i remember a few years ago i cleaned out their auctions to resell online & made a fortune
Replied by allcolours on 28-Mar-2009 12:12 (Ref 1693700) Report
* Message removed by the message owner.
Replied by pjsaid on 28-Mar-2009 12:40 (Ref 1693738) Report

If Administrators have been appointed they should contact you to confirm your interest with the Auction House.  Can't recall the exact name of the paperwork, but you will need to complete forms and send back proof of your interest (ie receipt of your property the Auction House gave you). 
It can take b/w 1-2 years before you will know if you will even get anything back.  The banks always get their money back first, then the solicitors fees.  If there is anything left over it is split up amongst the Creditors.
I used to work in a Solicitors office as a Bookkeeper & Law Clerk and did the financials for solvency files, very interest work - you get to see what really happened to all the money.
Replied by earths-emporium on 28-Mar-2009 13:27 (Ref 1693791) Report
Also see a solicitor, and the police, if they had of sold your items, you would have to wait for recompense if any - but if they still hold your goods, they can't sell them without your permision as they don't belong legally to the auction house.
Replied by magnolia134 on 24-Apr-2009 10:50 (Ref 1730906) Report
I was foolish enough to use Oscar Prouse to auction some furniture a few years ago. It took over 6 weeks to get my money after they sold it all for a pittance. And one item they denied ever receiving (a servant's bell pushboard thing) and it took months to get my money from that. I didn't realise they had closed down as although I live not far away, I don't pass that way very often. I'm so sorry to hear they've done a runner on you, owing you money (or the goods) that you left with them in good faith.
Replied by wwoman on 20-Aug-2009 16:13 (Ref 1882775) Report
I also trusted this shonky outfit! I only just found out they went into liquidation - and they still had a VERY expensive granite formal dining table and highbacked, leather insert chairs of mine(I believe replacement value is now about $10,000.00, They had sold all my other household furniture for such a pathetic amount that I jsdut couldnt belive it. I was going through an extremely emotional and stressful time when I gave them my furniture and was assured they would get me 'the money it was worth', and they agreed it was all high value, great stuff. While unloading my furntiture, they dropped that granite table and chipped one edge of it. It took me two years to get them to repair it! With a lot of help from Consumer Affairs. AND of course I withdrew it from auction.
So - I arranged to get it picked up last year and found that the company I had organised to do so had not done the job. I've been travelling (working at sea) and am often out of contact for months at a time - so you can imagine how appalled I am right now when I FINALLY got the liquidator to talk to me - and they said all the remaining stock at OP/Longs was sold at auction to pay their creditors. HOW DARE THEY! This must surely be a criminal matter. If someone sold my car without my permission surely the new owner would have to surrender it? SO - is it the same with furniture? This was worth more than a lot of cars!!! If i could find the person who bought it I'd even go so far as to offer them their money back, as I am certain OP/Longs would have sold it for a pittance like everything else!
Talk about adding insult to injury.
Now Im going to follow this up with the police.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Replied by magnolia134 on 21-Aug-2009 03:41 (Ref 1883401) Report
Oh wwoman --  what a terrible thing to have happened to you. I hope that you can track  down what happened to your furniture and get some sort of compensation. You'd think a company as well known as Oscar Prouse - and for so long a part of Hawthorn - would not be so shonky. But unfortunately that is how it turned out. I suppose I should be grateful I finally got my money but only after months of wrangling, but when I think back on how little I got for it, I shudder. If only I had known how to sell online back then......
Replied by blacknwhite on 06-Nov-2009 19:43 (Ref 1975336) Report
I have some very old items/antiques. But there is no way I will leave anything with anybody on consignment. Firstly how do you know that they don't sell your items off cheap to themselves or their families. Then they could resell them at a much higher price elsewhere. I seem to remember a story of TT about this sort of thing. There are too many shifty greedy business people around and not many of them can be trusted. Best off to do some research and once you have a ball park estimate of the value of your goods then advertise and sell them yourself.
I know the police wont help they are completly useless & will tell me its a "civil issue" even though to me he was scamming people right out of their money in the end knowingly & willingly.

yes, it is a civil issue. and yes the police are sometimes useless and disinterested.
Replied by violetsaxrayphone on 10-Apr-2010 05:23 (Ref 2115993) Report
im really sorry to hear that others went through the same thing, it has been a while since I read this post. I have tried the police with no avail. I even knew friends that worked there. The guy sold his house too otherwise I would have paid him a visit. I tried calling the owner Terry with no response even to his personal phones. Im only 23 and unlike most in the antique trade I am fairly new to it and 100-300 dollars is a lot of money, I am out of pocket.
I sold brass railway carriage holders worth minimum 50-100 and a military medal with from world war II worth about 100+
.
I tried ringing the liquidation companies  posted on the store, but couldnt get a hold of anyone who could help me

The guy is a rip off artist who cant handle his own personal debts Im sorry to hear he has ruined so many peoples lives.

I saw auctions go for 300 for my art pieces  I was selling and i was told it sold for only 80 in previous auctions there

Thats it though if someone steals 10.00 from a shop or a bank the police are all over it but if someone steals the communities money and then liquidates it - it is standard business practice. It is daylight robbery.
The police aren't going to do anything- it is gone.
Contact me if you know anything about where the owner of this shops current whereabouts is.


I am suprised he was able to scam so many people that even those who use these forums have also been scammed.
What are the odds unless he really did scam a small percentage of melbourne's population
Replied by rahotep on 10-Apr-2010 10:30 (Ref 2116081) Report
 Hi to all

In the industry I am in, if some-one seems to be having financial problems the information goes through the industry like a wildfire, and it is not long before the public know. 
I had heard from antique dealers and auctions houses that Prouse was having problems, so I am surprised that it was not general knowledge. 
However, that does not give him the right to steal from people, because that is what he has done. I have seen others go bankrupt and then re-open under different names with different family members as directors, and not even consumer affairs can touch them. They know how to rort the system and the law, furniture companies are doing it all the time. 
As some-one said, never, ever leave anything on consignment with an auction house, as you do not know what type of scams then are running with their industry mates.  There have been consortiums formed hear at times in Victoria so antique dealers would pool there resources and bid on all the items they wanted, get them cheap and divide the spoils. It is illegal, but the law does not do anything about it. 
Regards, 
Rahotep
Replied by violetsaxrayphone on 10-Apr-2010 18:08 (Ref 2116310) Report
hi some good life lessons to be learnt.

As said I am only 23 and I dont really have those sort of industry contacts,
I would have sold a lot more if I didnt already suspect he was running out of money.
Plus it was a few months after the financial crisis so everyone was running out of money.
However I had a friend from high school working there and even he didnt see the closure coming and he was an inside contact.

I am never doing a consignment job again, people are just too greedy.
They see what they dont have and the opportunity they dont have and want it all.
It is the second time in a year I have been ripped off.

I have realised if someone wants sell consignment it is because they dont have the money or the sources to have the product in the first place.

This type of business practice will not suprise me if  the largest auction house on the internet goes bust over night.
I have seen it with my own eyes, the mass deception, the lies and finally the bust.
Goes to show hundreds if not millions of people can be wrong.

Greed Kills.
Non-government health warning
Replied by klassic on 06-Dec-2011 01:35 (Ref 2323404) Report
That is not completely true. I have a shop and have people come in and ask to sell things on consignment. this i have allowed as they dont want to deal with people and i get a small cut. I ask them how much are they hoping to get and if it is unrealistic show them items the same or similar and what type of prices other people are getting or trying to get. i sell on consignment to help people who dont want to get $10.00 from cash convertors knowing full well they dont ever want that item back and they can get $40.00 less 20% by waiting for the right buyer to come in and snap up a bargin.

I have realised if someone wants sell consignment it is because they dont have the money or the sources to have the product in the first place.
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