Cottone Auctions is truely the most horrible business I have ever dealt with in my entire life. They threatened me, their actual client, with bodily harm when I came to retrieve my items from them. Communication was nonexistent unless you continued to ask for updates. They actually took our items out of the auction we agreed upon and placed them in some other sale on another date without any authorization or permission whatsoever. Seemingly polite initially they turned icy cold when they realized that their perception of value of our items (they are the experts supposedly) was far lower than they imagined.in the end they refused to return a call or answer an email while our items were several hundred miles away their disposition completely unknown to us.
When I told Sam Cottone that I was not pleased and that no one had ever treated me worse as a client his only reaction was to threaten me with a hired tubby goon who claimed to be a law enforcement officer of dubious quality. That was it. No apology. No explanation. A threat. I pointed out to his son Matt Cottone that he never returned a call or an email His reply was, "I am going to put you on your head." Does that mean throw me to the ground, assault me, or murder me? I don't know really. I invited him to give it his best shot since he obviously is completely oblivious to my background, training, and armament. The truth is neither are men enough to do what they pay others to attempt to do for them. I have never been threatened by business owners before when I expressed extremely correct indignation at how I had been treated.
One person who left a very valuable item with him was an 88 years old man. Matt Cottone hung up on him during a call. When the elderly man tried again he feigned having another call and hung up on him again. When the elderly gentleman said he would come and get it since Cottone refused to pay to ship it back to him or even to pay for someone to come and get it, this despite the fact that Cottone Auctions violated their agreement, and his trust, Matt Cottone invited him to come get it. An 88 year old man who lives more than an 11 hour drive away. Come get it? Would Cottone put his own Grandfather on an 11 hour odyssey across four states to retrieve his property from someone who has no business being in business to begin with? I took it upon myself to drive 23 hours in 28 hours to retrieve this painting for this elderly gentleman and arrived only to be threatened by these goons who offered no apologies and even insisted I carry the item to my car. Now that's customer service with a threatening twist. It was positively surreal. All I know is if you choose to do business with these cheap low class thugs you may be in for an experience unlike no other. Scratch the cheap veneer of Cottone Auctions and you might not like the dishonesty, lack of customer service, and thuggery that you find just below the surface. Bad business all the way around. You would be much better served finding a more reputable firm to work with when you are auctioning any item of value and you might actually be a lot safer too.
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