DO NOT CONSIGN WITH CHELLA D! I wish I had read other reviews prior to taking in a large amount of quality clothing (White House-Black Market jeans and clothing, Cache, Banana Republic, Talbots, J Crew, Sophie Max, INC, Gianni Bini, Liz Claiborne, Lands End, etc.). Many of these still had price tags on them! The White House-Black Market jeans were $169.00 each and I had 5 pairs. The Talbots sweaters were $79.00 each - and most had price tags on them. I had 8 sweaters. I had some beautiful lightweight seasonal knee length coats that were very expensive from all these vendors. Leather boots from Dillards that were brand new and in the box... 4 pairs of leather boots in total and 4 leather purses. I also had moderate clothing such as cardigans from Belk house brand, Cable and Gauge, some work-out wear that was also brand new from a generic brand through Kohls, and miscellaneous other pieces. The reason I had so much clothing to take in was that I had outgrown it in these past middle-age years. It broke my heart that no amount of exercise or diet seemed to whittle down the new shape of my body. So I finally relented and took my clothing to Chella D's after speaking with them They told me that they get shoppers from all over the country due to their location on Hilton Head so they can sell almost anything. I bought right into it. I took all my clothing to them. 89 items in total. 89. 36 items were brand new with price tags. And 6 Charter House cardigans were new and folded still in their plastic bags that they arrived in via an online order. Bringing the total of brand new items to 42. Almost half of my items
I filled out the paperwork with the owners associate who told me that if I marked the DO NOT DONATE box I would get those clothes that did not sell back. I did that under the presumption that I could then seek out another consignment store and try again with whatever inventory I had that might be leftover.
I did not hear anything from them for a very long time and I live 55 minutes from their store. Whenever I was in the Hilton Head vicinity I would check in and they would only have small checks for me. Finally I instructed them to gather all my belonging and I would take them back. That's when I was told by the owner that most likely all my items were gone and donated already - that it had been too long! I was flabbergasted! That was not my understanding of what her associate (and the only other employee I ever saw) had told me. She most assuredly told me I'd get my belongings back. The owner said that I had to have known that it'd been too long and that the items had been marked down and they'd never be able to locate them even if they were there... She said that had I read the agreement that I would have seen that they 1.) do not notify me when the contract is over (they'd never have the time to do that), 2.) at the end of the contract they become the property of Chella D, 3.) AND any item priced below $50.00 is not subject to return! Of course when you drop your clothing off you have no idea what she'll be pricing the items at. BEWARE! KEEP READING!
In total - supposedly they only sold seventeen (17) of my items over a ten (10) month period. They did sell one of my $79.00 Talbots sweaters for $22.00. Thus it was always priced under the $50.00 threshold for being returned to me as per the contract as stated above. My take was $8.80 from that sale. The did sell a White House-Black Market jean for $17.80. My return was $7.12. Again it was priced so far below the $50.00 price point I never should have expected to see any of them again... Which I didn't. Overall - I was paid 109.40 for all my clothing. The owner did also give me $30.00 in cash my last visit when I was clearly unhappy with their method of business. Net return for all my clothing was $139.40.
These ladies are thief's. Under the guise of a business. I had made an inventory of everything I took in to them and it never really matched their computer inventory of what they had of items in stock. I did receive some work-out items back, but it was clear that they never took them out of the bag that I brought them in with or out of their back room and so they were in tact but the least important and least expensive of my inventory. I did get some of my Talbots sweaters back miraculously. But they cut some of the price tags off. I read on another review that the staff was caught wearing a consignee's clothing. I can't help but wonder if this might have been the case here too. With the exception of the Talbots sweaters - I did not get any big ticket items back. Overall - I estimate that Chella D's did not return to me nearly $1,500.00+ worth of clothing in retail pricing. These woman are nice as can be when you enter the store but are grifters and will steal from you before you are out the door. DON"T DO BUSINESS WITH THEM! read more
