Graded stock Sale Scam at the Burlington hotel 6th July

I went along to the Burlington Hotel yesterday to see one of these “graded stock” sales are all about.

1. You walk into a room with a load of electical/electronic products display stacked at least 4m high. Most of it is complete rubbish except for a couple of brand name plasma tvs. The reason for the height of the display creates a smokescreen to what is going on behind the scenes. A dodgy mancunian salesman , will then appear on a platform at the top of the display, and run through the “rules”.

2. Even though it is advertised as a sale, it is indeed an auction. Although it is not your standard auction as the auctioneer does not actually listen to the bids. Basically he starts at a ridiculously low price and everyone puts their hand up. He then quickly increases the price and then stops once he reaches the price he wants to sell at. Then miraculously he has a larger qty of the item to sell than he did before the “bidding” started. Then it’s a case of “who all wants to buy this at €150”?. Panic buying ensues as everyone thinks that they are getting a bargain.

3. There are a team of goons working for the auctioneer and handing out reserve cards. They wander amongst the bidders occasionally shouting back to the auctioneer “someone interested in a plasma tv/ipod/sat nav” when nobody has actually said anything to them. These goons also shout out bids during the auction which intentionally causes all sorts of confusion. Its all about creating a manic atmosphere, and given that there were 800 people, who had all paid €2 in ( €1600 in the bag straight away), it was certainly manic.

The goons write the product and price on your reserve card. Doesn’t put his name on the card or anything. Everyone who wants one gets one, all of a sudden supply is not an issue (There is tons of the stuff behind the 4m display!)

5. Once you have a product and price written on your reserve card, you can then collect it at the till paying by cash or credit card. No cheques are accepted. No receipts are given…you are also given a leaflet stating that no refunds will be given, under any circumstances.

6. Now onto the products themselves,
The dodgy salesman claims to be selling graded stock from Brown Thomas, Argos, Currys, Dixons & Pc world. Would be great if someone from these companies can confirm or deny this claim, as apparently the dodgy salesman has a sell or return deal with them. If that’s the case, these reputable chains are accessories to fraud, deception and robbery.

Apart from a couple of brand name tvs and ipods, which are sold to “plants”. The merchandise is cheap and nasty goods made in china which I’ve never seen in the shops.

Eg: MiWi – A worthless imitation of the Nintendo Wii. Cleverly packaged to look like the real thing. Its connected to your tv by old RCA cables (not SCART). You can only play the games that it comes with, which are completely rubbish. The auctioneer wont tell you this. It’s a Wii. Although he never mentions Nintendo. But he’s intentionally duping people who couldn’t tell the difference. Sold for €70, worth €10.

Eg: Speed HD7Z video Camera. Japanese made video camera. Try searching on the internet and you wont find much info about it. Before the bid , a top brand name 12 mega Pixel Video Camera is passed amongs the bidders, but this piece of junk, a 5mega Pixel camera which looks exactly like the top brand name, is actually handed over upon payment. “ you’ve got yourself an €800 camera for €350” proclaims the dodgy salesman” – complete lies…... You can buy a Speed HD7Z camera for $280 online, a lot less than the dodgy salesman sells it for, but either way you are buying junk.

Dodgy vacuum cleaners, stereos, HD Video recorders, laptops, sat navs, mp3 players, kitchen appliances, and kitchenware are also sold amongst the confusion and deception.

I reckon that the dodgy salesman, sold at least €100,000 of junk over 3 auctions. Along with at least €3000 in entrance fees. So yes he may have sold a Plasma TV for €300 less than you’d pay in the shops, but with no guarantee or comeback.

I am sure that there are hundreds of people out of pocket today with new gadgets that don’t work, and no way of returning them.

I have the name and address of the dodgy salesman and his company (the address on the flyer is not the correct address). If anyone wants this then let me know.

Also lets keep this post open for anyone to add details of how they were scammed in the Burlington yesterday.

Also does anyone know of any future auctions? People need to be warned!

Also the Burlington Hotel should surely accept some responsibilty for allowing such an event to be staged there?