dodgy clearance sales?

james592

I got a leaflet through the door today advertising a "Clearance Sale" tomorrow. "Selected ex-catalogue stock from: Argos, Index, Freemans". It lists various highly discounted examples (e.g. iPod was £180 now £40, Hoover Washer Dryer was £300 now £45, etc etc). It takes place at the function room of a pub. "£2 Admission Fee", "All Goods guaranteed", "Cash payments only due to vast turnover", and "No admittance 10 minutes after dors open due to security reasons." It notes it is not an official Argos, Index or Freemans sale (but they do use their logos).

All in all it sounds quite dodgy to me. Anyone know how these things work and what the likely setup is? What's the scam? Are they stolen goods? Do they take everyone's £2 and then turn out to only have one of each item? Or do they sprinkle a few bargains among loads of other overpriced items with high-pressure selling?

Mark7799

Your last two sentences pretty much summed it up - don't touch it with a barge pole.

cookiemonster25

sound a similar scam to this one discussed on here a few days ago
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=265316&highlight=hilton

rdwarr

Yep, typical "Mock Auction". Would you mind posting details of the venue - I wouldn't mind a word with them. For example why is a pub intent on ripping off its own customers etc.?
Two years ago a local hotel hosted one of these. We wrote to them as a company who didn't like to see it's staff ripped off. The hotel was on our preferred list but we threatened to remove them if they ever did this again.
So they didn't but the scammers were welcomed by Stevenage Borough FC instead!

james592

Thanks for the replies everyone - will steer well clear!
rdwarr, the venue is the Boathouse public house, 14 Chesterton Road, Cambridge.

baffcat

I think the Police, Argos, Index & Freemans would all be interested to hear about this, particularly BEFORE it happens.

The companies because this load of shysters are using their copywrited trademarks to give this "sale" a venner of authenticity, and the Police because it's a scam.

They'll show the punters who arrive an open box with a bargain-load of items in it, maybe even sell that box to a plant in the crowd, then sell sealed boxes purporting to contain the same or similar items. Once Joe Public gets home with his "bargains", he'll open the box and find a load of worthless tat.

I hate scammers like this, as they prey on the poorer sections of society.

Baff

Agutka

I fell for one of those years ago, when they had these things running on Oxford Street, London. 'Bought' a state of the art walkman, only to walk away with the cheapest piece of plastic in the world. Lesson learnt quickly there. Reminds me of the fruit and veg guy at the local market, who won't let you fondle the goods before purchase (apart from the display items) - and when you get home you find soup in your carrier bag. Nice.