My parents got my wife and I a surround sound system for Christmas one year from some guy driving a white van in a mall parking lot… they didn’t work at all 😂😂 and then my mom wouldn’t understand why I thought it was so funny that they got scammed out of $1000
Classic scam! Almost gotta respect this guy actually putting some effort in.
20 years ago, must have been my first week at university, warnings were going around: “Don’t buy any speakers from random dudes in vans.”
Sure enough, about a day later I’m walking around and some guy calls out to me and starts the whole spiel… he works at the warehouse, they have to get rid of inventory before the new models come in, yada yada…
So I take a look at what he’s peddling just out of pure curiosity and they look like some shit from the 80s. Not even any packaging. I laugh at the guy and move on.
A couple of days after that, and this kid I met says I should come round listen to some records. Apparently a real nice guy he met outside the pub said he’d sell him a brand new pair of speakers for more than half the RRP.
First week of term in a college town – these guys must have got sooo many fucking kids.
Ran into a few guys in Miami in the early 90’s selling cd players and vcr’s that most of the time turned out to be bricks in a box. You ask them to open it and they go into some bullshit about if they open it and you don’t buy it they lose money or something like that.
My sophomore year of college a freshman in my dorm fell for this scam. I thought I’d never hear this shit again outside of college.
3 years ago some dbags in a minivan interrupted a conversation I was having with a buddy at a smoothie place to try and sell us these. When we told em no they got upset we didn’t even hear the price.
Idiots tried to get me in a home depot parking lot when I was in college. I was grabbing some tools for some vehicle work and they tried to sell me these for 1000 bucks, a quick google search (this was 2012) and first thing that pops up is SCAM ALERT. I told him I’d think about it and went into buy my tools. Came back and acted like I didn’t know who he was, and that he never talked to me.
Maybe I’m ignorant but I’m trying to figure out what the crime here is. Is it dishonest? Absolutely, but I feel like salesmen lie all the time, don’t they? The seller sets the price, not the manufacturer. MSRP means Manufacturer’s **Suggested** Retail Price. So what if they slap a sticker on a $90 speaker and say it’s $3100? That’s their prerogative. Buy for a nickel sell for a dime shit.
Am I glad someone is sticking it to these guys? Absolutely. Is it illegal? I don’t think it is.
A friend fell for this scam in the mid 90s. He gave me the “Acoustic Response professional monitors”, which were grey carpet covered 3 way speakers. They were obviously very cheap speakers. I drove them with a 100w Peavey amp, and I ended up liking the sound. I used them as a music practice pa for years, until they literally fell apart.
Not saying they were good speakers, or worth the price, but better than expected.
A guy in Phoenix a while back ran a variant where he collected deposits instead and then directed people to the storefront down the road to collect the actual speakers. Which storefront? The one I happened to work in at the time.
Very annoying day. “No Ma’am. You were ripped off. We had nothing to do with it, Ma’am. Please stop yelling at me Ma’am.”
If you’re buying $2500 speakers out of the back of a van you’re a crook buying speakers from another crook…
My parents got my wife and I a surround sound system for Christmas one year from some guy driving a white van in a mall parking lot… they didn’t work at all 😂😂 and then my mom wouldn’t understand why I thought it was so funny that they got scammed out of $1000
I fell for this like 20 years ago when I was a stupid kid. I only paid $200, pawned them for $50.
pst.. you guys need some speakers? https://youtu.be/yykbK-GjEKE?t=15
I worked in a stereo store back in the 80’s. People would bring these in for repair frequently. “Sorry, can’t get the parts.”
Classic scam! Almost gotta respect this guy actually putting some effort in.
20 years ago, must have been my first week at university, warnings were going around: “Don’t buy any speakers from random dudes in vans.”
Sure enough, about a day later I’m walking around and some guy calls out to me and starts the whole spiel… he works at the warehouse, they have to get rid of inventory before the new models come in, yada yada…
So I take a look at what he’s peddling just out of pure curiosity and they look like some shit from the 80s. Not even any packaging. I laugh at the guy and move on.
A couple of days after that, and this kid I met says I should come round listen to some records. Apparently a real nice guy he met outside the pub said he’d sell him a brand new pair of speakers for more than half the RRP.
First week of term in a college town – these guys must have got sooo many fucking kids.
Let’s see Paul Allen’s speakers…
Maybe 3-4 years ago walking to my truck in a parking lot a young guy in van asked if I wanted any speakers.
I said, people still fall for that scam? Then he just left the parking lot.
I’ve known about this scam since I was little kid, so was surprised it was still a thing.
I don’t really see why this is different from monster gold plated HDMI cables.
Ran into a few guys in Miami in the early 90’s selling cd players and vcr’s that most of the time turned out to be bricks in a box. You ask them to open it and they go into some bullshit about if they open it and you don’t buy it they lose money or something like that.
Here is a link that starts the video at the begging.
https://youtu.be/dXHdXr1h4Zs
My sophomore year of college a freshman in my dorm fell for this scam. I thought I’d never hear this shit again outside of college.
3 years ago some dbags in a minivan interrupted a conversation I was having with a buddy at a smoothie place to try and sell us these. When we told em no they got upset we didn’t even hear the price.
A guy tried this scam on me in Santa Monica California in 1998. I was twenty years old and knew immediately that it was a scam.
Idiots tried to get me in a home depot parking lot when I was in college. I was grabbing some tools for some vehicle work and they tried to sell me these for 1000 bucks, a quick google search (this was 2012) and first thing that pops up is SCAM ALERT. I told him I’d think about it and went into buy my tools. Came back and acted like I didn’t know who he was, and that he never talked to me.
You buy $2500 anything from a guy’s car in a parking lot…
Maybe I’m ignorant but I’m trying to figure out what the crime here is. Is it dishonest? Absolutely, but I feel like salesmen lie all the time, don’t they? The seller sets the price, not the manufacturer. MSRP means Manufacturer’s **Suggested** Retail Price. So what if they slap a sticker on a $90 speaker and say it’s $3100? That’s their prerogative. Buy for a nickel sell for a dime shit.
Am I glad someone is sticking it to these guys? Absolutely. Is it illegal? I don’t think it is.
A friend fell for this scam in the mid 90s. He gave me the “Acoustic Response professional monitors”, which were grey carpet covered 3 way speakers. They were obviously very cheap speakers. I drove them with a 100w Peavey amp, and I ended up liking the sound. I used them as a music practice pa for years, until they literally fell apart.
Not saying they were good speakers, or worth the price, but better than expected.
A guy in Phoenix a while back ran a variant where he collected deposits instead and then directed people to the storefront down the road to collect the actual speakers. Which storefront? The one I happened to work in at the time.
Very annoying day. “No Ma’am. You were ripped off. We had nothing to do with it, Ma’am. Please stop yelling at me Ma’am.”
The trucker from Tennessee with a Tour de France cap?
How old is this???