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I was nearly scammed by some charlatan offering to abolish student fees if I gave him my vote.
Never been offered watches or anything at a service station, but then, I hardly ever use motorways, and almost never, ever stop at services.
And I've got perfectly good watches anyway, particularly my new customised Seiko, which I'm dead chuffed with.
Weird, around here it's mattresses. Always mattresses. On average once a month a bloke (different bloke each time) comes into the shop with a story about some spare memory foam mattresses he happens to have left over in the back of his van.
I fell for the speakers one as a student in Swansea. Well, I say "I". I actually ran around to see my mate at work, to tell her what a blinding deal this was (two extra in a delivery for a refurb at a nightclub). She gave me her cashcard! I took out £250 and the guy helped me carry the speakers up to the flat! Lovely job!
I sat there looking at them for an hour or so, feeling less and less confident about the whole thing. I rang the number the guy had given me for 'after sales' - beeeeep. A few days later I rang around a few hi-fi shops to ask if they's heard of the make (Audio Tec). Nobody had, other than one guy who started laughing and asked me if I'd bought them out the back of a Transit.....
Audio Tec 😕
I'm pretty weary of strangers approaching me in general. Not had this myself but have known people get caught. Gutted as I was in Fratton earlier and don't get asked!
A couple of blokes at Fleet services used to sit in their BMWs/Mercs and prey on passers-by near the Services entrance. Mainly sold watches for something like £100 (supposedly RRP £500 or so). Got away with it for years.
I used to have a petrol station on the outskirts of Durham. Got offered everything fron a cheap tarmacing job to carpets. Only thing I ever 'fell' for was an exquisite suede Italian jacket. can't remember how much but I got my money back!
Was new in job at a coppersmiths - the pikeys must have watched to see both bosses cars leave at lunch - guy turns up, checks out th office to see me - the new office junior - alone, and cracked out a story about reflooring the local school, but they had run out of the sparkly metal bits in the floor covering, and wanted to buy some copper to grind up to gt the flooring machine working before the flooring 'went off'.
Amused, I let the guy into the factory to look atthe scrap bin, told the foreman I thought he was 'at it' and he got one of the guys to park the forklift in front of the guys van.
I have honestly never seen such a guilty look on a face, as when the guy realised he was busted - he patted pockets, said he had forgotten his wallet and beat a hasty retreat!
Portsmouth
Is that pikey fortune teller still doing the rounds in the Cascades Centre?
Was offered a good time by a young woman in Kings Cross.
Well when I say young.....
[i]"Was offered a good time by a young woman in Kings Cross.
Well when I say young..... "[/i]
and when I say "was offered a good time", I mean "was offered crabs" . . . lol
I was offered a pure gold ring of huge proportions by a man in an Audi A6. He said that he was lost and had no money to get his family back to where he lived (about 150 miles away). The family were all in the car too! It looked real, I didn't have the money so I WOULD HAVE BEEN SCAMMED! 😯
Has anyone ever actually received one of these watches when buying a BMW/Merc/etc ?
Wooobob - Leeds Uni?
I remember the speakers scam being rife.I had some guy saying they were fitting out music studios and had surplus stock! He then showed me the cheapest looking floor standing speaker you could imagine.
I bet they sold loads though it was quite convincing with a smart van full of tools and boxes of stuff.
Some burly blokes knocked on our factory door and offered to tarmac our yard for "fifty pounds, the yard". Our factory manager agreed thinking it was bargain until they finished and told him that would be £3500. "How come?" "Well you've so many yard there, so £50 the yard times so many yards, etc etc" Big wahalla, Police called, nothing they can do, negotiations get the price down to £700 but cashiers haven't got enough in the little tin so the receptionist had to get on the tannoy and do the bing bong "Anybody with any cash in their wallets, please bring it to Reception". Big egg on factory manager's face.
lol @ the watches being valued at £4k...
I got offered a top of the range memory foam mattress whilst working from home one day. Bloke had been outfitting a hotel nearby and had surplus that couldn't go back to the depot.
A big shame really, he only had doubles and we needed a king. Ah well. Oddly, we don't have any hotels near us, so the poor chap must have been really trying to get rid of them.
Also saw the generic watch sellers in the BMWs in South Mimms services. Never got offered anything though.
There were gents of the Emerald Isle selling 3D LED TV's out of the back of a van around Cannock before xmas last year. Mate at work played along and managed to get the price down to about 10% of what he originally wanted, then walked off saying he had no money.
Apparantly there was only wood in the boxes after one of his friends fell for the scam. That's what he said anyway :wink:. I got offered a gold chain from a guy who was 'lost'. he gave me the full patter, but I was a poor student and could have bought one if I wanted to.
The less-than-salubrious pub I used to drink in while I was a plasterer was a mecca for fencing goods. Shoplifted gear sold for 50% of retail and I remember a group of folk in the pub discussing how poor it was that a shoplifter had stolen something to order that happened to be in the sale, and then not passed on the discount. Cheeky sods were sitting there being outraged.
I fell for the same story as stumpy01. New to London, van parked up near Embankment tube. Excess from a studio fit out was the line this time! USA hi-fi mag showing them at over $2k a pair. I paid £400 😳
They even drove me home to install them. Worse was I had just spent my first pay cheque on a stereo set-up with nice Mission speakers and I still fell for it. A bit of digging when I came to my senses and all was revealed. These things were rife all over London.
The mistake these guys made was giving me a receipt with a number and address on it! Lots of voicemails left before calling Brixton CID. One final call before I went to the copshop and explained where I was going - phoned picked up straight away.
They hadn't figured on someone being so bloody minded so I got a full refund, even got the afternoon off work to take them back as my boss was just as angry as I was. The warehouse was out Mitchum way and stacked to the roof with these speakers. About 10 vans parked up as well.
The funny part was the pair of chavs that sold me the speakers turned up whilst I was there. Pointed them out to their 'boss' and they denied everything...before out came the receipt! Turns out that they had passed on £200 and trousered the other £200!!
Left to the sound of screaming in the warehouse and some very choice language. Still feel like a pillock though 15 years later...