White Van Man Scam - another one

BagelQueen

I had this happen to me last week...I live in a private cul-de-sac and was letting my dogs out of the car when a big white van pulls up and the lad sticks his head out of window and says "do you or your neighbours need a mattress, going cheap, we over stocked and need to let hem go at £100 each"....I am so glad I said no because apparently they are cheap tat once you take the wrapping off...also luckily, I have never got £100 to whisk out of fresh air lol

Jamie_Carter

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.

What you are getting is ripped off. Trading standards in many areas of the country have put out enough warnings about these con men. They are usually very cheap and nasty, low quality imports from China, that contain dangerous chemicals that are banned in the UK.

There are quite a few threads on MSE where these have been mentioned before.

jatos

I just ended grabbing one, from a door to door guy.

Hmm, I it looks like they are basically reclaimed mattresses on inspection with a new layer put on top.

The layer is pretty thick though... hmm, yeah, I think they are reclaimed!

[EDIT]

Firstly, looking at it, they are selling at about their real value making out they are worth more. They are definitely old mattresses that have had covering removed, and about an inch of padding top/bottom, same kind you get in teddys. All in all, it seems they are not such a bad deal for £100, but still not memory foam.

The perfectsleep website is registered to these details:

Registrant:
Niyla Rafiq

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
Soothill Lane
Soothill Business Park
Batley
WF17 6LJ
United Kingdom

tifosiMac

Just found this old thread after something I encountered today in Cardiff, South Wales. A van pulled up and stopped me whilst I was walking. A chap from Yorkshire claiming to have a load of memory foam mattresses in the back and wanting to sell them for £100 each because a bed supplier around the corner had over ordered. Naturally he didn't want to drive all the way back to Yorkshire with these mattresses. I pretended to be interested and looked at the mattresses and they seemed to look good quality. The fishy part was the fact they had RRP labels underneath the main packaging. These all stated £999 or £699 etc etc. The police are aware of this scam and apparently this has been happening all around South Wales and the Valleys in recent weeks.

This is an old scam dating back decades and runs along the same lines as the old video recorder and speaker scams of the 90's. Those defending these con men are either very naive, or perhaps have a financial interest themselves. The beds are made of very low grade foam rubbers and are worth no more than about £50. Saying that, I believe without all the necessary European safety marks, they are not really worth a penny. They may appear great quality, but they would not pass fire testing, nor do you know what fumes you are breathing in whilst sleeping on them. Buyers beware.

Jamie_Carter

tifosiMac wrote: »

Just found this old thread after something I encountered today in Cardiff, South Wales. A van pulled up and stopped me whilst I was walking. A chap from Yorkshire claiming to have a load of memory foam mattresses in the back and wanting to sell them for £100 each because a bed supplier around the corner had over ordered. Naturally he didn't want to drive all the way back to Yorkshire with these mattresses. I pretended to be interested and looked at the mattresses and they seemed to look good quality. The fishy part was the fact they had RRP labels underneath the main packaging. These all stated £999 or £699 etc etc. The police are aware of this scam and apparently this has been happening all around South Wales and the Valleys in recent weeks.

This is an old scam dating back decades and runs along the same lines as the old video recorder and speaker scams of the 90's. Those defending these con men are either very naive, or perhaps have a financial interest themselves. The beds are made of very low grade foam rubbers and are worth no more than about £50. Saying that, I believe without all the necessary European safety marks, they are not really worth a penny. They may appear great quality, but they would not pass fire testing, nor do you know what fumes you are breathing in whilst sleeping on them. Buyers beware.

Have you reported it to trading standards?

Hezzawithkids

tifosiMac wrote: »

Just found this old thread after something I encountered today in Cardiff, South Wales. A van pulled up and stopped me whilst I was walking. A chap from Yorkshire claiming to have a load of memory foam mattresses in the back and wanting to sell them for £100 each because a bed supplier around the corner had over ordered. Naturally he didn't want to drive all the way back to Yorkshire with these mattresses. I pretended to be interested and looked at the mattresses and they seemed to look good quality. The fishy part was the fact they had RRP labels underneath the main packaging. These all stated £999 or £699 etc etc. The police are aware of this scam and apparently this has been happening all around South Wales and the Valleys in recent weeks.

This is an old scam dating back decades and runs along the same lines as the old video recorder and speaker scams of the 90's. Those defending these con men are either very naive, or perhaps have a financial interest themselves. The beds are made of very low grade foam rubbers and are worth no more than about £50. Saying that, I believe without all the necessary European safety marks, they are not really worth a penny. They may appear great quality, but they would not pass fire testing, nor do you know what fumes you are breathing in whilst sleeping on them. Buyers beware.

Thanks for bumping. It's still going on. A couple of weeks ago I was working in my front garden (I'm in Hertfordshire) when exactly this happened - man in an unmarked white van pulled up & offered to sell me a memory foam mattress. I was unaware of this thread but he had Con Man written all over him. I gave him a firm but polite No and off he went.

tifosiMac

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Have you reported it to trading standards?

I haven't reported it to trading standards as yet but will do.

Hezzawithkids wrote: »

Thanks for bumping. It's still going on. A couple of weeks ago I was working in my front garden (I'm in Hertfordshire) when exactly this happened - man in an unmarked white van pulled up & offered to sell me a memory foam mattress. I was unaware of this thread but he had Con Man written all over him. I gave him a firm but polite No and off he went.

Yeah this seems to be a common scam. I've mentioned it to colleagues today at work and most people are aware of it. 'The old mattress scam' they seem to be saying lol.

I must add that the van that approached me was not unmarked. It had a company name on the side and website etc etc. It only had a mobile number for phone contact and that doesn't appear to be very professional. When I googled the company their logo and vans that appeared in photographs were very different to the van I saw today. It might be a case of their good name being used falsely. The chap did ask me if I had a smart-phone so I could look at the website too. I won't name the company as I'm considering contacting them and asking if they are aware van drivers are selling mattresses under their brand.

Pinkypants

Could you please pm me the name of the company.

Katinkka

Oh wow so weird. Just came across this thread as I don't come on this site often and it's reminded me that a similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago.

Some fella came to my door and said his shop was closing and he was getting rid of some memory foam mattresses. The good quality ones he said. He beckoned me to his fan and started to wander towards it as if he expected me to follow him.

I just said, 'I don't want a mattress' and shut the door.

I live in Hull too as I see some of the other posters who had experienced this do too. Although this thread is a few years old. Was I the potential victim of a scam?! He did give me a leaflet which I might still have somewhere.

Jamie_Carter

Katinkka wrote: »

Oh wow so weird. Just came across this thread as I don't come on this site often and it's reminded me that a similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago.

Some fella came to my door and said his shop was closing and he was getting rid of some memory foam mattresses. The good quality ones he said. He beckoned me to his fan and started to wander towards it as if he expected me to follow him.

I just said, 'I don't want a mattress' and shut the door.

I live in Hull too as I see some of the other posters who had experienced this do too. Although this thread is a few years old. Was I the potential victim of a scam?! He did give me a leaflet which I might still have somewhere.

Report it to trading standards then.