Sotheby's Reviews 99

Sotheby’s provided an estimate of $30,000-$50,000 on July 16th 2025 for a fine art painting. They were very interested and eager to get this painting asap. Because the auction would not be until 2/5/2026 we held on to the painting until closer to that date. My elderly parents were called 20 minutes before the auction and were pressured to put a reserve of $12,000 on the painting. My parents did not want a reserve so Sotheby’s started the bid at $1! The auction closed out at less than $2,000 and by the time shipping and fees were taken out it was to leave my parents with proceeds of less than $500. They had my parents send their bank account information 3 times which I did not feel comfortable with. I had called numerous times only to be told that they are waiting on the buyer to pay. For $2,000? This is sothebys right? So back and forth being told today is the day you will receive your deposit. Well nothing has arrived as of 4/22/2026. This whole experience feels like a scam. This is not about a disgruntled seller being unhappy with the dollar amount. It is about the unethical practices that are being conducted by this renowned business.

Absolute shambles of a company. Offers free online valuations, i have uploaded several items that they declined to value because the items don’t fit into their pretentious high end categories. They want Picasso and cartier, common people are irrelevant!! Pointless offering valuations!

had a great experience with Alogba. He kindly let me use the toilet when I really needed it, and he was genuinely nice and welcoming the entire time. It might seem like a small gesture, but it made a big difference. Really appreciate the kindness—thank you, Alogba!

they're gold diggers. had World war holy grail items, and they perm rejected it. they're gold diggers.

No response or estimate received after submitting item on 21/08/25.

If I could give zero stars, I would. Tried to sell my Birkin bag in auction in london. Took bag to them. They checked it over, took ID from me.
Then 2 days before auction they email to say they have doubts about its authenticity and won’t now sell it. This was after having my bag for 3 months! I am so disgusted with them.

Honest. Fair.

We moved from London to Nice and were looking for a property to call home. We were fortunate to work with the Sotheby team who found us our perfect home. We worked closely with Kenneth and could not have been in better hands. He listened to our needs, was always accessible and committed to us as buyers and finding us the perfect home. He made the whole process as smooth as could be possible and kept us informed from the beginning to the day we got the keys. I could not recommend Sotheby enough and especially if you are intentional buyers or haven't purchased property in france before. They will be with you every step of the way.

Bought an 16k item in NY, asked them to ship it also in NY, asking $500 for it !, after paying I am already waiting over 14 days!!
Than they used an excuse that they could not deliver because nobody was there, It is in a F… office building with a receptionist, how can you not deliver?? Sotheby’s are really amateurs …. Never buy again!

If i could give zeros i would. After declining my clock upload i wanted to delete my profile. They won’t let me no matter what i do. And coincidentally I'm getting to a of spam calls. Bogus company. Do not trust!!!

Sotheby’s a site that says you can send in pictures for your evaluation, but they never seem to fit into any of their categories.
I’m reading the reviews and finding there’s something very peculiar going on there. I think the FTC should be contacted.

The NY store auctioned off a watch on 12/13/24 and I have yet to be paid for it. They have not responded to my emails or portal messages. The online chat bot opens “escalated tickets” that are never followed up on. They will steal your property with no care in the world. Do not ever use them unless you can walk in to their building to retrieve your payments.

Sothebys pollute my email box with marketing and spam messages but when I finally decided to login and give them my data, none of the websites worked and I had just waisted my time trying to fill up the forms.
I will not express my feelings about Patrick Drahi, after his business in France and new owner of this company but for sure I understand why Sothebys websites work so badly.

What is actually wrong with Sotheby’s? I won lot on December 17th. Today is January 7th but the item was never even shipped. Customer service didn’t provide any information other than “she will call you back”. Just comparing my experience with lot I won on different auction on the same day ( dec 17th) and received it on December 20th!!!! Again 20 days later paid item didn’t shipped from Sotheby’s!
Update:
On the end of the day status was updated to finally shipped. Well hopefully the rest go smoothly. 3 weeks wow and counting.

Elaine Holt is extremely unprofessional and rude

Actually lm trying to bid a Rolex watch, but l feel strange that they did not reply me a simple question through email. After reading the reviews here, l decided not to buy from this site.

Hublot watch 6 years older than advised
I bought a Hublot big bang watch from Sothebys to celebrate my 60th birthday, they described it as circa 2015 (approximately 2015) when it arrived it was a 2009, a huge difference. They then ignored my emails for 4-5 days and when they replied they said that circa means upto 10 years, which was completely laughable and disgraceful to say, in this case circa would mean 2014, so they are obviously trying to wriggle out of their bad advertising, I thought they were a professional company but this has really shocked me, I wait to see what they now come back with as a response but so far completely disgraceful without integrity

I submitted a couple of items to them and what got me was, that 2 of the items I actually purchase from an actual antique store and paid a lot of money for it and they said the same thing:

Thank you again for submitting your enquiry to Sotheby’s Online Pricing Platform.

Your request was reviewed by our specialists who have determined that we are unable to value or consign your object.

Sotheby’s only provides estimates for items that have been identified by our specialists as potentially suitable for one of our sales channels at the current time. The costs of shipping, research and other auction expenses are also taken into consideration. In addition, if an item falls outside Sotheby's areas of expertise we are unable to provide a valuation or appraisal.

It's all B.S.

Absolutely disgusting service no reply from Kate Domash or Sloan Hooper. Salon team passing the buck each time saying will look in to it but no further response or communication. Recently when I called did not get back to me also lady called Katia in salon managed to get her mobile number made number of calls and did not answer my calls. I tried to get help from the Jewellery department but nobody available when I called and only person I had positive help previously was Kristian Spofforth but I was told made redundant and no longer works for Sotheby’s. I even went to Sotheby’s and couldn’t find anybody to help me . Went to cashiers who tried to find somebody in the admin team but totally hit a dead end. I will never do business with Sotheby’s again just Shelly of company it use to be.

Unfortunately I have had a problem with emails being ignored from the beginning of my journey with Sothebys. In fact, Kate Domash forgot to reply to my email for 4 months so my bags remained in storage rather than on sale. Silly, stupid woman who does not deserve her job title. Now that they sold one of my items, still no reply regarding payment. Pathetic. Truly the worst and most inconsiderate customer service you will encounter in your life! I have showed restraint and patience for over a year. They deserve this review.