Dodgey fellas in Dodgey van offering free Home Enterntainment System?

Lol, these fools have been around for a few years now in the major Australian capital cities. Its nothing new and has been going on for more than a decade round the world. Classic ‘off the back of a truck’ style sell. Only the goods aren’t stolen from anyone. Its distributors usually with ties to the manufacturer that set up the operation in first world countries and recruit sales teams to do their dirty work. At the source of the junk, its a serious crime. At a street selling level its nothing more than a fool trying to get rich quick, albeit for the millionth attempt. I was approached at the lights once and just immediately assumed that it would be stolen. I got out of my car and tried to open his van to see what else might have been in there as I’ve had mates have all their instruments taken from their cars after gigs and even while unloading. When I told a friend about it he informed me about the scam and how it worked. I felt like a bit of an idiot for assuming something without actually having anything to validate my thought process. But anyway, its basically just small time petty crooks trying to sell rubbish AV gear and other home entertainment products as high end goods that are “left over” or “excess” orders that would otherwise be underwritten or given away, rubbish ect. Usually they drive a van or trade ute that they’ve rented and even stuck on dodgy home made logos in an attempt to appear legit. Websites, business cards, you name it, they have tried it. It won’t be long before all the smaller cities and large regional towns are all on to them it not already. But authorities regard the van scammer the same as they do the rouge cabbie (addict) cruising for drunks in need of a cab at times where cabs are in short supply. Though here they are caught out more as women report men in cars offering lifts rather than rouge cabs with junkie drivers. How people fall for this shit is amazing. How people think its an easy buck in 2013 is just sad.

This is Canberrans for you. “Doesn’t look like me? Must be ‘middle eastern'” I had the same thing at a servo in fyshwick a few years back by some white mid twenties types. Stock gone missing and they understandably wanted to make some money from their scumbag boss. I put it down to them being everyday criminals because they must have been middle eastern.

Pork Hunt said :

HiddenDragon said :

If Canberra had proper, old fashioned pubs, this mobile unseemliness would not be necessary.

On another angle, this wonderful anecdote (“moit” – love it) suggests that an episode of Fat Pizza, set in Canberra, may be just what we need to redeem ourselves in the eyes of our fellow Australians after Skywhale.

How about an episode of Swift and Shift and they pick up the Skywhale to deliver it somewhere in the same load as some Porcupines and the Porcupines escape their cages etc etc…?
Someone from O’Connor will seek to have a fatwa issued on my person though… (-:

Quite possibly (re the fatwa). I grew up with an archetypal Aussie pub on the corner of my street – a very different world (so Canberra never ceases to amaze me).

HiddenDragon said :

If Canberra had proper, old fashioned pubs, this mobile unseemliness would not be necessary.

On another angle, this wonderful anecdote (“moit” – love it) suggests that an episode of Fat Pizza, set in Canberra, may be just what we need to redeem ourselves in the eyes of our fellow Australians after Skywhale.

How about an episode of Swift and Shift and they pick up the Skywhale to deliver it somewhere in the same load as some Porcupines and the Porcupines escape their cages etc etc…?
Someone from O’Connor will seek to have a fatwa issued on my person though… (-:

It comes under fair trading. IANAL but in various circumstances it’s illegal to discount from an imaginary price that nobody has ever charged out there needs to be a cooling off period out a way to make returns if something is wrong. In some cases they may be lying about the quality of the product or even just misrepresenting value when compared to similar product or using high pressure sales technique might be illegal business practice in the right circumstance. Any lawyers care to chime in with a clarification?

Report it to ORS also, they have been looking for these guys for a while now.

poetix said :

Dodgy. Dodgey is dodgy spelling.

Unless that was intentional. Wheels within wheels. And under vans.

Jardeath said :

RadioVK said :

I reported them, but according to the rozzers, they weren’t actually doing anything illegal.

I don’t really see it as illegal, selling junk to people who aren’t smart enough to realise what’s going on isn’t really a crime.

True enough. I’d assumed that the gear was stolen though, which is why I reported it.

Dodgy. Dodgey is dodgy spelling.

HiddenDragon said :

If Canberra had proper, old fashioned pubs, this mobile unseemliness would not be necessary.

On another angle, this wonderful anecdote (“moit” – love it) suggests that an episode of Fat Pizza, set in Canberra, may be just what we need to redeem ourselves in the eyes of our fellow Australians after Skywhale.

Hidden Dragon is spot on . If only we had old fashioned pubs complete with a few Arthur Daley types .