Chris Destefano
4.50 43 Reviews 
AN
January 2025 Connecticut

There was a time window to pick up items at 10:30. I texted Chris at 8:01 am to say that I would be there at 10:30 am the day of the pickup. At 10:34 am I texted "are you here?" at a self storage facility. There was no reply to the text. At 10:40 I called Chris and he let it go to to voicemail instead of answering. I waited another five minutes and told my brother that this guy was not responding. My brother then called Chris on his phone and Chris answered. My brother asked "when are you coming?" Chris said "in five minutes". Chris arrived at 10:50 am, twenty minutes late. He opened the door to the storage unit and then went to sit in his van. The storage unit was littered with trash that I had to sweep up in order to be able to move the heavy item I purchased (I took pictures). We also had to move two machines out of the way that were not mine, with zero help from Chris. The one good thing that I can say about Chris is his consistency, he didn't help the other two buyers who showed up after me.
Sellers beware of this level of poor service and at a premium price of 22%. Look for an auction professional who values and respects their customer's time. Chris is not that person.

Provenance Auctions
It was clearly stated that the buyer was responsible for moving and loading these 500-1000LB machines. I'm not really sure what you wanted me to do? Be a Cheerleader? Hold your beer? Funny thing is, I pulled my back out on Wednesday helping another buyer who didn't read the auction pickup instructions and decided to show up with no help. You were two guys with a trailer and winch and your piece was on wheels. The only thing I was at fault for was running 15 minutes late, which I apologized for and oddly enough was due to the fact that it took me and extra 30 minutes to get out of the house with my bad back. This storage unit was not ours but rented by our client; terribly sorry it wasn't up to your standards. It was very easy to see from the auction photos that eating off the floors wasn't going to be an option. So now buying a $10k machine for pennies on the dollar isn't good enough; I have to do backflips, serve doughnuts and coffee, break my back helping to move a 1000lb machine, and compliment you for making such a great buy... just to earn the commission? Thanks but no thanks.
 
AN
December 2024 Connecticut

Professional job as always

AN
December 2024 Connecticut

Thank you

AN
November 2024 Florida

Perfect

AN
November 2024 Connecticut

Thank you was perfect transaction

AN
August 2024 Massachusetts

good

AN
August 2024 Co

I'm quite sour with this auction house. They advertised an item as available to ship and have shipping instructions within the listing. I followed the instructions, my email went unanswered. After 2+ weeks passed, I called and was told they were behind, my item would be quoted for shipping the following Monday. 2 more Mondays have passed. After raising a stink yesterday, I did hear from Chris who is now quoting me almost double what it should be to ship my item. This has not been a good experience and I do not recommend working with this establishment, especially if you need an item shipped.

Update - it's taken an additional week to just get invoiced for my astronomical shipping cost, on top of that they changed sales tax! And I still don't have a tracking #.

I won this lot on 7/24, here we are 8/21 and I still don't have my item or any indicator of when I will be receiving my item. My $12 win has turned into costing me over $50 and has been a major pain to babysit Chris and Provenance Auction House.

Provenance Auctions
We try to be very transparent with our shipping procedure, but the buyers need to actually read it for both parties to be on the same page. We ask for the buyer to send an email to our business email and not through auction ninja. She sent an email approx 2 weeks ago but her real name on the email and the name she registered with in her auction ninja account are not the same so we had no idea who she was. Only after we received a call from her were we able to realize that the different name on the email (no relation to Johnny) and sent her a quote. We do charge a small fee (for her it was less than $10) for the packing time, which is stated in our instructions page in the auction page prior to bidding and also mentioned when registering. She didn't like this and was complaining since she is obviously a reseller and only she is allowed to make money. She got an incredible deal on her item and will stand to make a nice resale profit even with our $10 shipping fee. Our shipping costs are fair; if the ups store packaged and shipped her item, the ship cost would be at least twice of ours. We also state in our instructions that the packing and shipping time can take up to 2 weeks (once they've accepted the shipping quote). We try to offer shipping as a courtesy but impatient buyers make it very difficult to even want to offer this service in the future.
 
AN
August 2024 Connecticut

One of the best auctioneers on AuctionNinja. Accurate descriptions, good pictures, fast, friendly pick up. Great to deal with.

AN
July 2024 Florida

I picked up the merchandise today but the seller forgot to give me the clock radio
What can I do ???

AN
June 2024 Connecticut

Fantastic rug - Thanks