I'm selling some antiques and emailed a bunch of antique stores with a list of items and photos and my contact info. After which someone calling himself Jim Jackson from Broadway Antiques calls me and expresses interest. He acts very cordial and speaks in an English accent and he's all syrupy sweet and calling me "dear" and just couldn't be more polite and solicitous.
I ask him to email me a list of the items he wants and the price he will pay for each. I email him back that I accept his offer on all but one item, a small mahogany bench. About the bench I email him: "I'm sorry I can't sell it for $150."
I agree to sell the rest of the items to him and send him another email with a summary of our discussion, along with details of condition of each piece, and photos of each including any damage. He agrees to buy them and we make an appointment for him to come to my house and pay cash and pick them up. Next I email him turn by turn directions to get to my house and a map showing the route.
Appointment day/time comes and he calls from his car and says he forgot the directions and needs me to talk him in. So I ask where he is and he's not sure and I ask him to look at street signs and he's all befuddled and can't find signs and doesn't know which direction he's facing. There's a giant mountain range to the West, it's 11am on a sunny day, but he can't find the mountains to say which way he's facing.
I finally get him to drive to an intersection and read the street signs to me so I can look at the map and direct him in, and I start giving him directions. He names a cross street indicating he went the wrong way so I tell him to turn around and head the opposite way on the same street. Instead he turns down another street and gets more lost. This goes on for about 10 minutes. I give him a simple direction and he does the opposite. He seems disoriented. Finally I manage to talk him to my house.
He comes in and heads straight for the mahogany bench that I told him in email I would not sell for his price, and starts to pick it up. I tell him that is not one of the items he's buying, and that I said so in email. He says something like "I'm here to get everything not some things." We're in the office so I go to my PC and show him the email. And he actually says "it doesn't matter I didn't read it."
I say something like "that's not my fault, it's not for sale." He's openly angry and says "then we have a problem... but let's look at the other stuff."
I'm not pleased with his behavior but I want to complete the transaction so I continue to show him the other items, all of which he'd agreed to buy in email: oak storage bench, stool, cedar chest, mahogany table, etc. He picks up each item one by one, doesn't even glance at it, barks that it's more damaged than he thought, and slams each back onto the ground. For example, cedar chest: He picks up one end, pulls it away from the wall, and drops it on the carpet. Doesn't even look at it. Just barks "it's too damaged I can't take it." I say that it has the exact damage (two hairline cracks in the veneer otherwise perfect) I reported and sent him photographs of. He snaps "it's worse than I thought."
I recognize that antique dealers strategy is to act like the merchandise is a pile of splinters so they can pay as little as possible. So I don't say much else and lead him back upstairs. Once back upstairs he again went for the mahogany bench and announced that he was buying all or nothing. Weird that minutes ago he reported that everything was too damaged and now he's insisting that he wants it all.
So I said "we're done, bye." And he just stood there looking stunned. I again said, "we're done, leave" and he replied "you're not being very nice." Finally I said "get out!"
At this point he reached his arm out, grabbed my shoulder and said, with no hint of an English accent, "be nice now." I smelled alcohol on his breath. Suddenly his driving problems made sense.
I reacted sharply to his shoulder grab and smell, jumped back and yelled at him to get out. He just stood there until I said I was calling the police and continued to tell him to get out, over and over. He finally left thru the front door. I was furious at his attempts to intimidate me and followed him to the driveway and continued yelling at him to get out. I stood outside watching for a while to make sure he was gone.
Then I called the store to find out if he had a manger I could report the incident to. I ended up talking to his wife who was every bit as charming as he and didn't want to hear about his behavior. Another attempt I got a voice mail greeting recorded by someone calling himself Jim Jackson. He had no English accent. I never did locate a manager; apparently he is the manager. Gads.
So that's it. The 9/21/13 incident.
Oh, I also called the police. read more
