White Van Man Scam - another one

JimmyTheWig

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

You can see the mattresses in the van so check then out first perhaps? I don't like to state the obvious...

I think it's one of those things where a member of the public would find it hard to tell the difference, by looking, between a good quality matress and a cheap matress.
When you buy from a shop you can have a reasonable certainty that what you are told is true, certainly within reason, and if it turns out not to be true then you can take it back.
Neither of these are the case with something bought from a back of a van.

stringman20

ashleypride wrote: »

I fail to understand, why anybody would ever consider ever buying anything from a random van.

Isn't that what a car boot sale consists of?

Dave101t

wow, the first time i can directly relate to an identical situation! they did this to me a few months back, same story, i told them to jog on. i have thought about it since, but only in the same vein as i have thought 'maybe that time share really was a good idea'!

johnnyboyrebel

Dave101t wrote: »

wow, the first time i can directly relate to an identical situation! they did this to me a few months back, same story, i told them to jog on. i have thought about it since, but only in the same vein as i have thought 'maybe that time share really was a good idea'!

You could have missed out though. Sure they may have been lying about the quality but on the other hand if they were stolen, they probably were top quality.

I guess you need to be that type of person or not, if you are willing to take a punt then you could end up a winner. If you never do then you will never know.

Pinkypants

Regarding the quality of these mattresses, what do you think you're getting for £100, the guys selling them will want to make as much as possible. £30-£50 per mattress easy. The cost of diesel nowadays to drive a van around is not cheap.

It's not worth there while doing for any less. So therefore you're getting mattress that would normally retail for around £129 mark. As you would pay VAT to a store/online but hmmm just a guess, no VAT to the white van man.

As for being stolen maybe but doubtful, stolen goods are either very high value so £100 sale is not enough or small items that are easy to store and sell on. Mattresses are not easy to do either!

stringman20

What I think I'm getting is a mattress which would probably cost far more in a shop which has far greater overheads to meet than a gallon or two of diesel.
As I have previously stated, I have seen cheaper looking mattresses in stores which are priced at considerably more than £100. I appreciate there's no redress should it fall apart but I'm still sleeping well on mine and it still feels like a bargain at £100.

Pinkypants

It's not going to cost far higher in the shop, ok you save nearly 20% because you're not paying any VAT. But these guys will be making a very similar profit margin then the stores.

Just how much at Cost price do you think you can buy a memory foam mattress for? £20, £30, £40, plus add VAT?

I tell you even the cheapest on the market would be around £40 mark plus VAT.

I should know I see enough price lists!

stringman20

Pinkypants wrote: »

It's not going to cost far higher in the shop, ok you save nearly 20% because you're not paying any VAT. But these guys will be making a very similar profit margin then the stores.

Just how much at Cost price do you think you can buy a memory foam mattress for? £20, £30, £40, plus add VAT?

I tell you even the cheapest on the market would be around £40 mark plus VAT.

I should know I see enough price lists!

Sorry but I don't know what you are talking about.

Pinkypants

stringman20 wrote: »

What I think I'm getting is a mattress which would probably cost far more in a shop which has far greater overheads to meet than a gallon or two of diesel.
As I have previously stated, I have seen cheaper looking mattresses in stores which are priced at considerably more than £100. I appreciate there's no redress should it fall apart but I'm still sleeping well on mine and it still feels like a bargain at £100.

You said that you feel that you've a bargain and that you have seen cheaper mattresses that look far worse costing a lot more.

I was just trying to state that these "White Van men" will still be making a fair bit of money out of their sales. As the Cost price from the maker will be around £50.

Stephb1986_2

We had a guy stop in our road a few months ago plain white van jumped out in a brown doctors coat saying he had been to a trade show and had some matresses left over and do I want to buy one. He gave us a business card but can't find it now. We didn't buy on off him but seen him a few times.

I've not heard of any bed trade shows around here we're a very small town and have haydock park racecourse backing on to us. There hasn't been a bed trade show there ever!

Steph xx