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CAPE CORAL--Lee and Mary Mimbs crowd in front of their computer with Four in Your Corner reporter Emily Dishnow, gushing over picture after picture of the beautiful furniture that once belonged to Mary's parents, until they both recently passed.

“My parents worked hard all their life,” says Mary, “And to me it was important to get good money for it.”

They did their homework on local consignment shops and decided on Lindsey’s Attic in Cape Coral and as a bonus, the price sounded right.

“After the owner looked over everything,” Lee says, “He thought it would be more than $6,000.”

They signed a three month contract which guarantees them half of whatever the store sells, but when Mary went back in mid June to renew her contract, she only got a sales clerk.

“She said well the owners aren’t here,” Mary explains, “They had to leave because there’s a death in the family.”

Instead, she says the sales clerk told her to sign a hand-written piece of paper as a contract. She was told that would be good through September, and to come back later. Mary did go back, three times, and was told each time, the owners were out of town. That was until her visit last week, when she caught up with the owner and asked him about the contract.

“He says no, your contract expired,” Mary explains. 

So, what does that mean?

Mary shakes her head, “He keeps everything that wasn’t sold.” Emily looks at Mary, “So he keeps it, he sells it, and you get nothing?” Emily asks, “Right,” Mary says.

Now in the kitchen, Lee is visibly shaken. “How many other people have been ripped off that way,” he says, “How many other people are going to get ripped off that way, it’s poor business practice.”

So we called the consignment shop owners to find out what gives. They declined an interview with us, saying this was now a legal matter, but they did call Mary.

Mary explains the call from the owner’s wife. “She says well I talked to my husband and there was like a little mix-up since we weren’t here, and so we'll go ahead and renew your contract.”

Sounds great right? Well it wasn’t that simple. The owners were only willing to start a new contract effective today, which means the Mimbs wouldn’t get paid for anything that has already been sold, which they believe is most of their expensive items. We’ll be staying on top of this one and we’ll keep you posted with what we find out.

EMILY DISHNOW
edishnow@fox4now.com
FOX 4 IN YOUR CORNER