Victoria London Make up Scam?

young_victor_meldrew

You are walking down the high street with your wife minding your own business, when you (well she) is stopped by a woman who wants to tell you about a "special promotion" the company she works for is running.

Around her neck is a Lanyard and ID badge emblazoned "Victoria London" she tells your bored missus that Victoria London is the Make up artist on Sex and The City, although by the looks of the picture on the book, she could do with a few make up tips herself.

They show you a cheap plastic case that opens up to reveal make up, they tell you it normally retails for £50, she then shows you some brushes that are supposed to be worth £99 and a little book that she claims sells for £25..

You are offered the whole package for £20, you know its crap that probably has a total value of about £3 and walk away because you have common sense, however, your neighbours daughter isn't so savvy and when she gets stopped a few days later on the same stretch of street buys it ending up with a bad rash on her eyelids.

Does any one have any info on the people behind this "promotion"

Enfieldian

TBH if people buy unknown brands of make up in the street what exactly do they expect?

nikki2804

Is it not Victoria Jackson?

There were two people selling this in my local WH Smiths, £250 of make up if you bought a £29 kabuki brush. It did look like tat tho.

Only reason I mention it is because they mentioned SATC.

System

I am aware of these in London outside Westfield shopping centre, it's disgusting. If you google it you'll see so much on it, how they buy their makeup from china for pennies and how 'Victoria Jackson' might not even exist. Read this blog too:

Victoria Jackson

I'm going to educate my mum about it because I know she is easily fooled by this sort of thing. They prey on people who aren't as clued-up about these sort of scams. Luckily I've been watching a lot of 'The Real Hustle' and am clued up about this sort of thing. I feel awfully sorry for anyone who buys their crap.

durham_girl

This has been going on for ages, they used to come into the shop where I worked trying to flog their tat. The line at the time was the VJ brand was about to be launched and they were offering the make up at a discount price to drum up interest :rolleyes:

Enfieldian

Generally people going door to door or standing in the street/shopping centre do not tend to supply quality, reliable, proven goods.

Would you buy a 42 inch LCD in the same way?

Come to think of it some of the people on this forum would and then come on here to complain.

young_victor_meldrew

Ooops! It's Victoria Jackson not Victoria London.

You have a point Enfieldian, however, to be fair there is a difference between a "impulse" buy such as a crappy make up set and a "planned purchase" such as a 42 inch LCD TV.

Having said that apparently people are still falling for the old "wanna buy a laptop" scam where they end up with a very expensive bottle of water or bricks.

Becles

They were outside WH Smiths in Newcastle this morning and tried to get me to buy it. My daughter was more interested in me as she loves make up, but she's only two so I didn't buy it for her

hevaakasmurf

i got givensum ov the stuff as a prezzie n they fine n i ebayed all my gifts (yer i no how bad am i) ... but like if u got them all off der u gonna spend almost £40 ... to get the stuff i got individuly .. n i no me mum got them for £20 so it not that bad

miss_independent

A few months ago I was with my family travelling back from Kent ( a looonnnng journey for us) and very tired/a bit dazed and ill when we stopped at a motorway service station quite late at night. I was in between my parents and, as I say, very spaced out walking back to the car, I only look like a teenager although I am older and this very cocky man cut through my parents, put his arm across me so I couldn't move and said "Hiya, can I make a bag up for you, Darling?", I must have looked quite confused and said "Sorry?" to which he replied he and the women he was with had been doing makeup demonstrations all day to promote this brand of makeup and had some left over as they were about to pack up, "if you walk over to the table, hun, I'll let you choose some makeup and fill up a bag. No probs.". He was quite intimidating, and I felt pressurised. He made the makeup sound as if it was something all celebrities used, said I could pick out all the brushes and equipment I needed too and repeated again, "Would you like that, babe? Its no problem" Like he was doing me a favour. I agreed and he guided me over to the table and then said, " Right, so what I'll do for you is give you £150 worth of stuff and you can have it for £50." I quickly said he could forget it and he said, "What you didn't think it was free did you? I never said it was free. You don't get nothing for nothing babe." My mother told him he was " a right chancer" lmao and he became quite intimidating, laughing in our faces and walking around very agitated, making fun of me with his colleagues. I was a little scared he might have followed us into the carpark but luckily he didn't.

He acted more like a pimp than a "make up demonstrator" !

I was quite annoyed that he had targeted me as I was quite vulnerable at that time with feeling ill (and also I had money worries that month and not much money to buy makeup at a time when I knew christmas parties were coming up). If I had been alone and had any cash left, I might have been intimidated enough to give him the money just to leave me alone.

sazzybum

hevaakasmurf wrote: »

i got givensum ov the stuff as a prezzie n they fine n i ebayed all my gifts (yer i no how bad am i) ... but like if u got them all off der u gonna spend almost £40 ... to get the stuff i got individuly .. n i no me mum got them for £20 so it not that bad

:eek::eek: In English please? New poster AND saying something good about the product (I think) Hmmm