FYI
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anglen, Robert
Date: Sun, Sep 28, 2014 at 9:40 AM
Subject: Story on camelback consign
To: Glenn Michaels
Story is in today's paper. Your blog is mentioned prominently in the story. Thanks for all of your help. Here is a link:
http://www.azcentral.com/
From: Anglen, Robert
Date: Sun, Sep 28, 2014 at 9:40 AM
Subject: Story on camelback consign
To: Glenn Michaels
Story is in today's paper. Your blog is mentioned prominently in the story. Thanks for all of your help. Here is a link:
http://www.azcentral.com/
CAMELBACK
CONSIGN & DESIGN IS picking consignors’pockets in Downtown Central
Phoenix
Published 11/25/13
Updated on 3/31/14
Published 11/25/13
Updated on 3/31/14
Updated on 3/31/14
For more details, see the blog posts listed at the bottom of the page
Contact: Glenn S. Michaels
Phoenix
There are other differences. Fagin trained his foster children to
chase and pick the pockets of the well-to-do. Burns bypasses the kids and
personally picks the pockets of the consignors that line up to take advantage
of his services.
It couldn’t be easier. There’s a short contract to sign. It includes
a promise of monthly payments based on sales. Burns sends some guys with a
truck – including a son or two - to pick up consignors’ items right from their
homes. It’s fast and simple.
Some items sell. Some don’t. And some are never seen again.
There's another important difference between Dickens' Fagin and Phoenix
When the consignor comes to collect payment – that’s right, Burns
won’t put a check in the mail; each consignor must come to him to collect – he
hands out a sales report and a check.
Burns is
so good that if checks were basketballs, he could be a Harlem
Globe Trotter auxiliary. He bounces
checks right and left. It’s amazing: the less publicity he gets, the higher his
bounce.
My check bounced for $2194 in September. The BBB website lists a 12/11/13 complaint that mentions two bounced checks totaling $30,000.00.
The check looked like
paper... but it was really made of rubber.
Thanks to Call 12 for Action, last December, Burns eventually felt
compelled to make good on the NSF check I received in September. But that was
for sales dating back to July 2013. Apparently nothing and no one can induce
him to pay for the items sold in August, September and
October, when our contract expired.
Because a contract was signed, from a legal standpoint, the issue
isn’t “theft.” It’s civil breach, a matter for the courts. Which is to say,
there is no legal recourse, since going to Superior Justice Court
The Attorney General’s office only prosecutes when a sufficient
number of complaints have been received. However, the magic algorithm used to
calculate sufficiency is an in-house secret.
Conveniently enough for all of the Burnses of greater Phoenix
The Camelback Consign & Design contract I signed guaranteed me 65%
of the proceeds from each sale; the sales commission was thus 35%. At the time,
Burns assured me that he was doing me a kindness, as his normal commission is
50%.
Total sales for
the three month period of the contract amounted to $15,966.10. My 65% amounted
to $10,377.96. Subtract the $2200 Burns eventually paid in December and it
seems Burns has pocketed an extra $8.117.96.
Do you think he claims the extra profit on his tax return?
Four months later, Burns still has my money, but all he can talk
about is how much he lost on the deal! The cost of moving the items! The space
they took up in his store and storage facility. The losses sustained because I
insisted on making life difficult for him. Poor man!
And he must be poor, because upon investigation, it appears that
Mike Burns doesn’t own a single piece of real property in Arizona
The story behind the story is a byzantine treat that’s only hard to
swallow for those forced to eat it raw.
The perfect song to accompany this portion of the updated musical sequel to Oliver, is” Promises, Promises.
On 9/28, Burns told me that his check
had bounced because a client’s check for $87,000. had bounced on him. However,
he assured me that I would be paid in full the following Monday, as he had the
client’s assurance that the issue was simply a bank error.
After some period of time, Mr. Burns explained that he was waiting for
receipt of a bank wire for $87,000; that the received wire hadn’t cleared but
would clear soon.
Still later, Mr. Burns told me that he had arranged a substantial
line of credit and would be able to pay me within a day or two.
Yet later, Mr. Burns told me that he had made an arrangement for a
line of credit at 10% for over $100,000.
Great! I offered to sell him everything for $40,000 just to be done
with the whole miserable consignment process. Meanwhile, I started picking up those
items he was willing to release to me.
Somehow, the line of credit had become a deal to partner with an
unnamed person “who wants to meet you.”
That week, Mr. Burns told me that I would receive payment on
Wednesday, then Thursday and finally, on Saturday. In fact, that Thursday, he
asked me to come in to the store around 8 AM to work out an arrangement.
Burns had me put the proposal on paper (See: Down the Document Trail: Second (Abortive Contract (7 Pages) Written WITH MIKE BURNS 10/24/13) and then took it to an
“unnamed” investor for approval and a cash infusion he could use to pay me.
“I’ll be back shortly, he said. I called him three times in the course of the
day. Burns assured me each time that his meeting was imminent. I ended waiting
all day.
Burns ultimately returned around 5 PM. He reported that the
investor’s lawyers had insisted on reviewing the agreement and the numbers. He
would have the money by Saturday.
He didn’t.
After careful examination of Burns’ sales inventories and my own
inventory of items delivered and returned, I found that 80 items weren’t accounted
for. I found that some items had been sold and delivered but not reported.
Others, which Mr. Burns indicated that he still held – were packed away,
somewhere, very hard to get to. He just didn't have time. His associates
claimed never to have seen them or only to have seen them very briefly.
For example, Burns assured me that he hadn't sold the antique French
china footbath and matching pitcher for which I had required a minimum of
$3200. (In the 1990s, my antique dealer parents had valued the set at $6400.)
"Very rare" French foot bath and pitcher, circa 1860. Very good condition.
Despite daily and repeated requests, Mr. Burns never found the time
to return it to me.
Eventually, I noticed that the September Camelback Consign & Design
sales inventory included one item marked out with black magic marker. As it
happens, the text was still legible: Footbath. The listed sale price appears to
have been $225.00, something under 10 percent of my minimum asking price.
I asked Mr. Burns about it. Turns out that it was merely an error.
Like he had said before, the item (or the set) hadn't sold.
There are errors and there are errors. Months later Burns
acknowledged that the footbath had sold after all! But he claims to know
exactly who bought it and he's "trying" to get it back. (Just the way
he's trying to get me paid.)
Bless his heart. Burns reported that he had fired the long-time
sales associate responsible or the sale, Millie, for the mistake. Bye, bye,
scapegoat.
I
had also given Mr. Burns an African drum to sell. It had a listed minimum price
of $525. The drum was not returned to me. According to the sales inventories,
my drum sold on August 5th, for $40.
Beat the drum loudly. I done been robbed!
Then, too, there were the six steel chairs priced at a minimum of
$150 each. Justin reminded his father, in front of me that those chairs had
sold and been delivered.
In all, I estimate the value of the items not returned at $19,710.00.
Did I mention that I complained to the BBB?
I did. In mid-October. Mr Burns responded:
|
||
|
||
In all, I estimate the value of the items not returned at $19,710.00.
I did. In mid-October. Mr Burns responded:
 |
| Mr. Burns on 10/21/2013 to the BBB: I don't promise to keep my promise. |
In early February 2014, the BBB (finally!) updated its business review for Camelback Consign & Design. The BBB now gives it an F, its lowest possible rating. The BBB also rescinded the firm’s BBB accreditation.
|
Yes, Virginia, there is a Fagin! He spends most of his time at 1030 E. Camelback Road
Drop in for a plucking, anytime.
DON'T KID YOURSELF.
Mike Burns wasn't born yesterday. He wasn't born on the Fourth of July, either. NOPE. Mike Burns was born on 9/11 in 1952.
He was destined.
Don't forget to tip a hat to Ms. Indispensable, Vera Manuz, either. Where would Mike be without her?
DON'T KID YOURSELF.
Mike Burns wasn't born yesterday. He wasn't born on the Fourth of July, either. NOPE. Mike Burns was born on 9/11 in 1952.
He was destined.
Don't forget to tip a hat to Ms. Indispensable, Vera Manuz, either. Where would Mike be without her?
I don't know if the truth will set you free. But fuss loud enough with a big 'nough bunch a friends and I swear folks 'll do near anything to get you to shut up. Fast as they can.
I don't know if the truth will set you free. But fuss loud enough with a big 'nough bunch a friends and I swear folks 'll do near anything to get you to shut up. Fast as they can.
For more details, check out these posts:
For more details, check out these posts:
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