white van man Mattress Scam

ukdickie31

Whilst walking home today just before 5:00pm a white van with shop livery drove up to me and the driver asked if I was interested in buying a memory foam mattress. Being aware of scams like this I politely refused and walked on.

A few minutes later the same van was parked up ahead of me and the man was in conversation with a woman with the side door of the van open.

By the time I got to where they were, he was on the phone with his back to me. I hastily took a picture of the van on my mobile phone but it is a little shaky - the Reg number is clear as well as the livery, but the mobile number is half missed !!!

As I went passed the woman I whispered to her that it was a scam and to be aware.

I carried on walking. A few minutes later the van pulled up alongside me and asked me what I said to the woman. i replied that it was worth checking the internet prices first. He drove off.

I went back to the woman who explained that he had tried to sell her a '£600' mattress for 'just £200' and that she had refused him.

VAN REG : KT08 KNC

Livery on the van : Continental Mattresses and beds with a picture of a sleeping woman on the van side door.

it's a London Address but I can't quite make it out from the picture


Hope this avoids someone being scammed. This was in North Birmingham but I guess it could happen anywhere

McBruce

Ummm...I brought one off a man with van. All sounds familiar to this thread. They are cheap and nasty and guaranteed to give you long term back problems. You husband should be thanking you.

marvic31

The mattress scammers have been operating in the lanarkshire area too.
Recently I wash washing my car im my drive and this white van pulled up and guy asked if I wanted a mattress. The van was full of them.

I obviously declined but easy to see how some people could be fooled by this scam.

paddedjohn

McBruce wrote: »

Ummm...I brought one off a man with van. All sounds familiar to this thread. They are cheap and nasty and guaranteed to give you long term back problems. You husband should be thanking you.

He probably did...............last October.;);)

Camembert

Many of these mattresses are made from old worn-out and soiled mattresses that have had a new outer cover fitted to make them look like new. The old mattresses are taken from skips, landfill sites, student halls, landlord properties, bedsits etc. This is a huge scam, up and down the country several thousand of these mattresses are being sold every week .
There is more information about this racket, including a video, on the National Bed Federation website


The people selling these mattresses are from the traveller community. The mattresses are being "made" by a number of disreputable small bed manufacturers based mainly in the West Midlands and the Dewsbury-Batley area of West Yorkshire.
As well as being sold from vans these mattresses are also ending up in some independent discount retail shops. They often have a label on with a highly inflated RRP to make it look like you are getting an incredible bargain.

DO NOT BUY THESE THINGS!

Bed industry expert.

AnnieO1234

This very thing was on radio four yesterday. Old mattresses being picked up from tips, skips etc and re-packaged. Then the story of, we normally sell for five hundred but can give it you for two hundred because for some strange reason we can't take them back to factory!

daveyjp

I had similar at the weekend, but they were scamming people with promise of a cheap Samsung TV.