Secret shopping

There were several garage and estate sales this weekend and I just couldn't be everywhere. A friend of mine called me yesterday morning and said she just visited two estate sales and sent me an e-mail all about them. They were actually the same two I had visited earlier in the morning and what she said quite disturbed me.

I'll actually quote her: "I was there on friday. Some good stuff, lots of junk, cluttered. The lady at the door was very polite. The "cashier" was not pleasant: when I offered a little less than what she asked for, answered "NO!" very abruptly. She could have said "sorry, I cannot take less..." or anything more polite."

I was at the same sale and I don't care for the woman who runs it and I know why she is cordial to me. Because I write about her. Rudeness in the estate sale business is something I believe will make or break you-and word does get around. In fact, my friend was not the only one who commented on this woman's rudeness- two other buyers did as well.

I did send this estate sale woman an email about my friend's experience and have received no reply as of yet.

This is what my friend said about the other sale she attended organized by Atlantic Estate Sales: "Sale was very neat, good stuff, the 2 young women were very nice. Prices were reasonable."

That is when my idea of the Estate Sale Secret Shopper was born. My friend LOVES her new role. She will go out to the estate sales and report back to me her experiences-positive or negative. I will write about her positive experiences and name the companies who treated her well. I will not name the companies that she had negative experiences with because I will contact them directly to give them a chance to respond. As always, I personally have to experience the negative behavior before I will name the company in my blog.

Let's see how it goes...