Sotheby's Reviews 99

Endless stalling payment of what is a trifling sum to them, but considerable to us. Shocked at the shoddy behaviour of what I believed to be a reputable establishment. Will be canvassing contacts in my industry (heritage/curating/collections) about their views, and relating our Sothebys experience. DISAPPOINTING.

I wish I had read the reviews before I bothered using this company.
They are refusing to pay me the money for a bag I sold. Twice now they have said payment has been made, which is has not been!
I have consistently had to chase on a daily basis and now my emails are not being returned. Absolute con artists… DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY FOR ANYTHING!

Terrible service. Sold my item at auction, was told I would receive payment after 6 weeks. On date payment was due, no payment. No communication from Sotheby's. I had to send several emails to chase, finally got a response that there is a delay and I *should* be paid early next week, but no explanation, no apology and no firm payment date. Definitely would not recommend, take your business elsewhere.

What an utter and total joke company... Six weeks after I submitted an item for appraisal I received the following reply (after I called to complain they had not replied) ... "Thank you again for your submission. Upon carefully reviewing your item, we are unable to offer it for sale. Please note that Sotheby’s adheres to specific guidelines that ensure we accept items we have both the expertise on and the market to sell"

Don’t waste your time. I spent hours prepping and submitting antique oil paintings for appraisal, just to have seven different items declined within three minutes of each other, less than 24 hours after submission. All paintings were European, and at least 150 years of age. Not sure what they’re competent of appraising, if they can’t come up with a value for these.

Visit my Instagram page @mikava.artist to view my portfolio

Invited to consign a rare valuable object with a view to selling at auction.
No reply for nearly five weeks and then a simple “We cannot provide a value and don’t have anyone who can advise you.”
They have only sold two very similar items within the last 10 days.
Truly appalling company so don’t bother with it.

they did the same with my estimate of an antique map, from the 28th of February up to today, the 1st of April, I've never received an answer.

You might like other auction houses too, but I think in terms of competitiveness, having the right swag, getting their hands on the right stuff, having the PR and the reputation, sotheby's is definitely one of the best in this business. You don't even have to participate in the auctions to be a connoisseur, you just want to follow their social media, see what's going on and follow their news. they are deep in the art world.

Do not waste time here. Worst action company ever!. I have submitted a quote request more than 2 months ago by providing all the details they have requested and no response until now. Few of my friends also told me the same thing apart from other bad reviews. So, don't waste your time here. Please try somewhere.

I submitted one item for appraisal in early November. Got an email that it was received and that it would take 15-20 business days and would be advised if more time needed. In the two and a half months since I left two followup messages and received no response to either. Withdrew my submission today and will seek an appraisal at another auction house .

Asked for valuations on two items on 29 October which stated 15-20 days for a response.
On 5 December I chased up and was told I would hear back 'directly'.
Eventually on 2 January, I received an email to say 'the request was reviewed by our specialists who have determined that we are unable to value or consign your object'.
Bonhams got back to me immediately. Don't waste your time with Sothebys.

They have become a joke of a company. Submitting for an appraisal gets a quick response that they're unable to sell or even appraise. False advertising? Waste of both of our time. Thanks sotheby's. Knowing this country the person who reviewed my submission was probably someone outsourced, totally inexperienced and who couldn't care less getting paid $12 an hour.

I have recently purchased Chanel 19 flap from this website. I spent $5400 on the purse. When I received this purse it was full of dog hair packed in the shoebox with no dust bug.
This purse was on the website as excellent condition I received the purse, was nowhere near in the condition, not only dog hair was all over the purse, but they were still little crumbs from previous owner.

When I called customer service and told them about about it provide all the pictures they basically told me that I’m lying and woman name Kaitlyn has the worst customer service. She hasn’t even listened fully my issue put me on hold and was very rude and unprofessional.
I highly recommend to you not to purchase or sell on this website because there will scam you!!!!! I have never experienced this terrible delivery and even worst customer service

I left an online bid for 2 lots at Sothebys Hong Kong and received email confirmations that I had won both. An hour and a half later, they reopened bidding for the lots. No calls but they expect people to check emails 1.5 hours after the bidding closed and you receive email confirmations. They didn’t bother to call. They reopened the bidding for 20 minutes which I missed. I demanded an explanation and they said they had IT issues, as if that was my responsibility. I’m preparing a legal case. Please reach out to me if you had similar experience.

Six (6) weeks post-sale (if I believe Sotheby's response to my inquiry), I am still waiting for the proceeds. Every commitment/promise Sotheby's has made, both in effort and date, has failed ... Next step is to file federal fraud/scam updates. 2 more weeks later STILL NO PAYMENT nor property returned, just more lies/failure.

Awful!! I have a piece that had already been appraised for a lot of money but that was 34 years ago. So I went though the process for a sale. I waited the 15 - 20 days. It was still in the waiting for evaluation stage. At 25 days I inquired. No answer except for automated “we promise to respond in 24 hours. Another week the same. Went through the chat line and was given “urgent” status. Still nothing from them. Tried again only because I had some much time invested. That’s when I got the worst of the bunch. This guy said “well we don’t guarantee we have time, we had someone on maternity leave” among other explanations. When I asked if I was ever going to be told he stopped answering.

Finally I called the phone number. At last they were going to send it straight to the manager. “You will hear something very soon” thst was a week ago.

I have an apartmet in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic
I wanted to sell a number of antique furniture of relatively high value
Sothebys asked me to send all pertinent information and 3 photos of each
This took me nearly half a day to move the furniture around
This morning received message from Sothebys that it is not willing to take my pieces for auction

The only reason I can come up with, is that they do not want to do business with Dominican Republic

If that is the case.why not say it upfront?

Rather negative experience with Sotheby's customer support overall. I bought way over 100 works of art from them in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong, just in the past 2-3 years. Condition reports were inaccurate in several cases. Two items were outright fakes. VAT or import tariff refunds were a nightmare with up to 50 e-mails exchanged for a 4-digit refund. Their shipping fees are outrageous. It is hard to get them to stop spamming you with their emails and their printed catalogues. I could go on and on. It seems to me that their support has gotten much worse since they went private (off the NY stock exchange), and it is now really bad when compared with Christies, Bonhams, or Heritage, to name just a few competitors. I hope that some day they will be able to improve it, and I will certainly update this review in case this happens.

They are more interested in Selling Pollocks Diareah artwork, Than 2,000 Year old Relics of the Roman Empire, Not worth the time of day.