Complaint Review: Liquidity Services or Liquidation.com - Washington District of Columbia

I decided to see what Liquidation.com was about, and if it would be a viable way I could generate some extra income. I purchased a mixed lot from one of the sellers on Liquidation.com. The items were described in the listing as all "shelf pulls" from a major upscale department store chain. My winning bid, plus expensive shipping and fees, came to around $460. I received boxes of approx. 60 items. Most WERE shelf pulls, but there were also some items that had been obvious returns, and defective! There were also some salvage items! Overall, there were a few desirable items of value, but the vast majority they unloaded on me were various Christmas and holiday kitsch from the previous year, incomplete sets of things, and for the most part, items that have proved in low demand and difficult to resell, to try and recoup my money. I immediately realized I was "had." Several weeks later, I've sold some of the things on eBay, with much time and effort, enough to bring my investment loss down to $290. The rest is going to be difficult going, though. I highly doubt I'll get out of this without at least a $100-$200 loss, and much effort and trouble.

I believe mine is a common situation, and read many similar complaints. I also filed a dispute with Liquidation.com for one of the nicer items, which was shattered during shipment. They declined reimbursing me, with an explanation I didn't understand.

They say they have a refund process. However, I highly doubt it would have succeeded in my case, with the load I received. I'm sure I'd have had to pay expensive return shipping, at the very least. And the process seems complicated. I heard other buyers tried this and the boxes came back to them marked "refused", and they had to pay the shipping again!!

Here 's the problem I have: Liquidation.com acts as the middleman for these sellers and makes a profit for their services. However, in my view, they do a poor job at protecting their customers from being ripped off. For example, they don't even require sellers to list a complete detailed Manifest of every item. Some sellers DO list a thorough Manifest, others don't. The seller I purchased from didn't, so I realized it was basically a "grab bag", but I took a chance thinking they'd stock the lot generously with good valued items. Wow, it was just the opposite. Of course, they can all argue they aren't responsible for how high the bidding goes, if it exceeds the value of the items. But do you see the problem here?

This is a RISKY way to try and make some extra money, you really have to know what you're doing, and many of the auctions close at bids that make NO SENSE in terms of the overall value of the items (i.e. electronics that were returns, with signs of use and blemishes, and so forth.) Liquidation.com also (perhaps tellingly) does not have a FEEDBACK system, as eBay does, for example.

This is pathetic, and I suspect a lot people in these hard economic times are trying to make a little extra money trying Liquidation.com and reselling the things on eBay, only to find it's a major pain and real challenge to make a meaningful profit. Apparently though, there are still MANY out there that have just discovered this site and hopeful of that very thing.

Liquidation.com must do more to ensure the value is there for buyers, or eventually there will be a backlash in their business. Perhaps they're afraid they'll lose a lot of their sellers if they do.

Then all I can say is PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK, and MAKE SURE a seller lists EACH AND EVERY ITEM with FULL DETAIL, or STEER CLEAR of them. And those refund policies need to be more user-friendly and easily executed! If all that's not kosher-  then there's a problem with this business model.