For the last month or so, Emergency Liquidation Center has been advertising on local radio and television stations about a huge, million-dollar liquidation sale. The ad boasts MP3s, digital cameras, notebooks and laptops on sale at extraordinarily low prices. According to their television ad they are extending their sale.
Out of curiosity, we stopped by to see what Emergency Liquidation Center was like. Located inside the former Circuit City Store on Alamo Ave in Reading, OH, Emergency Liquidation Center charges a $5 admission fee to enter, which is not stated in any of its advertisements. The non-refundable $5 pays for a “membership” and allows you to enter the sale on any of the days the business is operating, which from what the signs tell us is Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Once we entered we found the dimly lit store half-filled with vendor tables, stocked with a variety of items, including jewelry, sunglasses, clothing, household items and electronics. We had a difficult time locating any of the incredible deals the company had been advertising on its radio and television ads. What we did find was that the event functioned as a flea market, with individual vendors peddling their table of goods. This can be confusing for consumers when they may want to return merchandise. In flea markets, you would return items from the specific vendor that sold you the merchandise. However, it wasn’t clear to us what return policies were.
BBB formally contacted the Emergency Liquidation Center to ask them some basic information about their business. For example, it was not clear to us what the actual name of the business is. Radio ads say the name of business as G & C Enterprises; a sign at the Circuit City Store says Central Liquidators; and the membership cards state Emergency Liquidation Center. We also asked the business where they are headquartered, what their return policies were and how consumers can contact them once they leave an area. Unfortunately, BBB did not receive a reply.
Here are some tips for shopping at liquidation sales:
- Shop around – Liquidators attempt to sell assets as quickly as possible and at the highest profit so some items will actually be priced higher. Moreover, competitors may sometimes drop their prices to compete with a liquidation sale. So check retail prices on goods before buying them at liquidation sales.
- Use a credit card – Unlike personal checks or cash, credit cards include built-in protection if the liquidator does not deliver on promised goods.
- Know the status on warranties – Warranties are often serviced by a manufacturer or third party. This means the warranty will still apply, even if the retailer goes out of business. Nonetheless, consumers should always confirm the status of a warranty before buying.
On a side note, we found a booth offering a chance to win a Samsung television. The game consisted of a table set up like a lotto machine with bouncing ping pong balls. Each ping pong ball was numbered, and each number corresponded with a point value, varying from 1-100 points. You paid $5 for the chance to fish out a ping pong ball from the mass of bouncing balls. If you reach 100 points, you get to win a TV. If you didn’t make 100 points on your first try, you can try again for another $5. Unfortunately, the vendor operating the game was unable to tell us what the odds were for getting a ball worth 100 points. We also asked the company in a formal letter to explain how the “game of chance” complies with Ohio gambling laws but the company did not reply.
hello this company is a total scam artist. they were in Baltimore Maryland 2 weeks before Christmas… they had scanned hundreds of people out of the money I was actually playing the game 12 individuals from the previous night walk in with a report from Rip off Report.com. pajama behind a ping pong game grab a bucket of money and something for a bag and left the building.. the police were called the lady’s name was Brenda she gave to young men back the money and told me my sister and other customers to come back the next day and to see about retrieving our money back. when I got there she was very rude and very ignorant did not give no 1 is there money back and threw me out of the Convention Center threatening to call the police on me.. I am really trying to shut this place down and I will not stop until I do so.. if you would like you could call Maine 44341 59117
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i had this happen to me tonight… the game is a complete SCAM… needless to say i have contacted news stations from all over hoping they air this situation since they travel nationwide and dont stay long enough to file a case or gather information… they have an officer inside these events to throw u out if situations arrise!!! so tomorrow bet your sweet cheeks that i will go back to this event with an officer from my city in hand!!!
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Needless to say they came to Beaumont Texas and I shut them down
i called law enforcement and told them i was calling if they didn’t give me my money well of course he gave my money back and Beaumont PD sent an undercover into check it out and raided it as well…. in the end we found out the man had several felony warrants across the country the country and about 10 diffrent identification cards end result hes in jail where he will be for a while!!
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i was scammed by the same people, I went in the first time and paid the entry fee and walked around and saw that nothing was even worth buying, they said come back next friday, so I did. I walk in on the friday and my fiance says lets try to the ping pong game. So we do and the guy gives us two free games. We end up winning some jesus clock. I decide to try to play. I end up getting 50 tickets on my third try and the then all of a sudden next atempt I get a bonus ball. The guy tells me the bonus balls never show up and I was lucky to get one. Now its $10 a pick. Three tries later I get another bonus ball and boom $20 a spin. Then I get up to 75 tickets with less than 100 invested and bam another bonus ball. The same one from before. Now I am at 40 a spin. I get to 90 and all of a sudden I get another bonus ball, same one from before. 80 a spin with a chance to win 7 prizes. I was like cool, but I already invested 400. So I go to the ATM machine and come back and truth be told on my first spin I get a bonus ball and im at 160 a spin. I notice that some balls were clinging to the stick and some were popping out right when they landed in the stick. Well I continue to play and I ended up getting 5 more and then 2. I was stuck at 97 and then I realized the game was fixed. Well its been 3 weeks now and I still havent won anything from them. I am out of a thousand dollars and I am 3 tickets away from getting 11 prizes. Its a complete joke. I called the local police department and they laughed at me. The news people wont respond to me and I am completely lost for words. They are currently in Plainville, CT till Sunday. What should I do???? I know in CT the gambling laws are strict, I feel they are violating something.
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Replying to Daniel – I suggest that you contact your state’s Attorney General’s Office. For Connecticut, they can be reached at http://www.ct.gov/ag/site/default.asp or:
Connecticut Attorney General
Consumer Protection Department
110 Sherman St., Hartford 06105
(860) 808-5400
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I too have just brought something from liquidation. And I told liquidation about it before the 48 hours. They still took my money and stated that they did the investigation and clear the seller. I brought some DG sunglasses from world export and you can clearly see they are knock off. but on the auction it said that they was real and had pictures of different sunglasses, then the ones I got in the box. I have a e commerce site and was looking to sell these to my customers never will I do person like that and never will I order from liquidation again. If people don’t like what they got in they auction why are you taking they money. I got a liquidation up the street from me where I can take the stuff to they employees and they can see it in person. But they said everything go thru they complaint center. What a croc of BS! know a lot of people know about liquidation.com but nobody buy from them I see why! This is liquidation.com
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Almin,
The business you are referring to (Liquidation.com) is an entirely different business than the business I wrote about in my blog. It sounds from your comments that you may have a complaint against Liquidation.com. If so, we suggest you go to our our website, bbb.org and submit your complaint to us online so that we can help you resolve it
Here is a link to our online complaint form: https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint/
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If you’ve already tried reporting this incident to the police and news stations and they’ve laughed at you over it it seems to me that you’re the one who is in the wrong. If they’re not taking you seriously then why do you expect anybody on here to? And if you think they’re gambling and you’re still choosing to play then why should anybody care if you chose to spend your money there. Was anybody sticking a gun to your head? Sounds to me like a whiner here.
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If anyone has ANY kind of information on these scam artists and is kind enough to share it so we can take action please feel free to send it to me. Buffalo, NY, 99 tickets, thousands of dollars later…
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