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"Spring Bankruptcy Sale" Warning - Scam & Waste of Time

lassykk

Hey all

I just said I'd offer a word of warning about the Spring Bankruptcy Sale I was at this morning in Slieverue. I know this is in Kilkenny not Waterford but they mentioned their next event is in the Grand Hotel in Tramore so said it was relevant to here.

This is the flyer I received in the door at home on Friday:

Now obviously the prices were way too good to be true so I went for a look more than anything else this morning. Wouldn't have said no to a PS3 for €60 but I knew it was unlikely :rolleyes:

When I got into the hall where it was being held we were ushered into a room where the sale was being held. A guy at the top of the room doing the selling basically was selling stuff to who he perceived put their hand up first which was complete rubbish to start with instead of first come first served.

Anyway first couple of sales lots were general tat like torches and fm radios which sold for a €5 to the first people with their hand up. His helpers were straight out with the products and took the cash. No hassles

Then the first interesting lot came up. 3 garmin sat navs for €20 each. A mate of mine put up in hand and was one of the people selected. Surprise surprise no one ever came out with the sat nav or came looking for his money. But to everyone else in the room it would appear that he had gotten a great bargain.

Then back to some more tat which again arrived out straight away, money was handed over. No hassles again.

Then the real interesting lot came up. A PS3 AND a DS 3D for €60!!! Only one set available and everyone in the hall threw up their hand. The guy decided that a little girl down the back had been the first with her hand up. There were grown men in the front with their hands up so how he could have seen this girl I don't know!!! Amazingly there was no little girl to be seen in the vicinity that he pointed at anyway. At any rate the PS3 & DS box disappeared from the stage but never made it's way down to the "little girl" who was getting it.

Then back to more tat which made its way to customers straight away.

There was no talking allowed either in the hall so people couldn't voice their suspicions. He would bang a hammer on the stage if things got above a murmer.

Anyway the moral of the story is that if you get a flyer in the door about the one coming up in Tramore don't waste your time going.

I know it's not the end of the world or anything but said it was worth sharing

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ziedth

These are indeed a pure scam. I watched a show dedicated to them on Rouge Traders on BBC.

In a nutshell, like Lassykk was getting at those who get the big deals are plants, not there or don't even get the stuff. Can you let me know when the one in town is if you hear? I'd love to see it.

Thanks for letting the fourm know.

looder

I brought the uncle along to one of these to prove how much of a scam they are. Went to one in Clonmel a few weeks back. Paid €3 to get in. Biggest pile of ****e ever.

It took the uncle 20 minutes to cop on that it was a scam.

In my opinion any hotel that leaves these in their doors deserve to go out of business, and personally I refuse to ever use any hotel that lets' these in.

Presently I refuse to use the Park hotel in Clonmel, Springhill in KK, Green isle in Dublin (all part of the one group) and there's a couple in Naas which I refuse to use too (names escape me at present).

Xyo

Why would they even do something like this if they dont sell anything?

ziedth

They do sell stuff but it's basically pure crap overpriced thrown into the middle of the "deals" I'd say it's hard to spot if your not aware of it.

lassykk

Xyo wrote: »

Why would they even do something like this if they dont sell anything?

No they do sell things. Boxes & boxes of tat and rubbish in between the "fake" lots of PS3's and Xbox's. People get all excited about buying these super deals and end up buying cheap tat.

The tat they sell for a €5 or €10 a pop makes them their money as they only cost about 50c for them. Renting the hall in Slieverue would be really cheap so next to no overheads either

lassykk

ziedth wrote: »

They do sell stuff but it's basically pure crap overpriced thrown into the middle of the "deals" I'd say it's hard to spot if your not aware of it.

Clearly typing at the same time

mikemac

Attended one of these in Limerick

Got a great set of knifes for 5 punts as it was at the time, I was happy

But as for the high end TV's and computers, forget it.
Everyone would throw up their hand and in the end, I doubt anyone got one.

They make their money on these 5 euro and 10 euro sales. Probably cost a euro each from China

Hoffmans

looder wrote: »

I brought the uncle along to one of these to prove how much of a scam they are. Went to one in Clonmel a few weeks back. Paid €3 to get in. Biggest pile of ****e ever.

It took the uncle 20 minutes to cop on that it was a scam.

In my opinion any hotel that leaves these in their doors deserve to go out of business, and personally I refuse to ever use any hotel that lets' these in.

Presently I refuse to use the Park hotel in Clonmel, Springhill in KK, Green isle in Dublin (all part of the one group) and there's a couple in Naas which I refuse to use too (names escape me at present).

Lol that's a lot of hotels your using??

BlaasForRafa

I recall there used to be "auctions/sales" like this in that premises on Georges Street where Guineys is now (the Trident shopping centre?". This kind of thing sort of disappeared when the country got a bit prosperous but I guess now we're poor again people are desperate enough to fall for this kind of thing.

abouttobebanned

Who'll give me €20 for what I'm thinking of right now??!!!!

STIG83

Sorry to be off topic, anyone seen that ad on tv for a website? its http://ie.madbid.com/
selling off top of the range stuff at a bargain, there must be a catch to it?
On the website it shows one guy getting a brand new Mini for jus under a grand, ya right!!
Lassykk's post reminded me of it.

ziedth

I'd say those deals on the add are either a setup or a very rare exception. I haven't even been on the site but from my understanding it's just an Irish based eBay.

STIG83

It seems to be a an English website, as the prices are coming up in Sterling.

How does MadBid work?
Follow our step-by-step guide and win 2 FREE BIDS!
2 MadBids Package
MadBids

9 s

Highest Bidder: User175

£0.07

TRY NOW!

*
place a bid

to raise the price by 1p.
1-4 MadBid credits required.
*
wait for the timer

to reach zero.
*
if someone else bids

the timer restarts.
*
congratulations!

if nobody else bids you're the winner.
*

Heathen

I wandered into one of these in an empty lot in Mary St. in Dublin about 15 years ago on my lunch from work.. i nearly wet myself laughing when i saw the seller with a wire hanger wrapped around his neck with the microphone sellotaped to it.. classy!!

I stood there with a workmate for about 10 mins watching people handing over money every minute and like the OP's story none of the tasty stuff ever materialized.. just the cheap Hong Kong crap.. one thing i did notice however was some big fella's standing around watching everyone.. and at the door.. im sure if anyone questioned where there choice item was the big lads would probably tell them it was out back "come with us..." :eek:

dodgy stuff..

lassykk

Heathen wrote: »

one thing i did notice however was some big fella's standing around watching everyone.. and at the door.. im sure if anyone questioned where there choice item was the big lads would probably tell them it was out back "come with us..." :eek:

dodgy stuff..

The "bouncers" were present at the one in slieverue too... Don't want to cast aspersions on what they were there for but I wasn't going to go causing a scene just in case

Heathen

lassykk wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

me too... we left soon after spotting Phil and Grant Mitchell giving us the old stink-eye for laughing at Albert Steptoe's lapel mic.. :pac:

mike65

The WIT hall staged a few of these in the past, I remember some distictly barrow boy Eastenders type accents.

wmpdd3

STIG83 wrote: »

It seems to be a an English website, as the prices are coming up in Sterling.

How does MadBid work?
Follow our step-by-step guide and win 2 FREE BIDS!
2 MadBids Package
MadBids

9 s

Highest Bidder: User175

£0.07

TRY NOW!

*
place a bid

to raise the price by 1p.
1-4 MadBid credits required.
*
wait for the timer

to reach zero.
*
if someone else bids

the timer restarts.
*
congratulations!

if nobody else bids you're the winner.
*

Had to draw a picture to explain this to my little cousin, he was devastated.

You have to buy each bid.

A bid can cost between 1p and 4p.

You can win a few bids on the site.

Say your looking for an ipad2. you buy €30 worth of bids, say you get 70 bids for this, if bidding starts at €300.00 and lowest unique bid wins. The odds of wining could be 1: 30,000, but you only have 70 bids.

And when you win you have to pay the lowest unique bid ( I think) on top of buying the bids. Also if you buy 30 bids and get what you wanted the bids are useless to you unless you want to buy more.

Its better than the lotto but still a gamble.

Psychedelic

Why doesn't anyone inform the Gardai about these scam auctions? It's surely illegal if they don't have the cheap laptops, playstations etc?

If I find out when they are coming to the Grand Hotel in Tramore I will contact the hotel's general manager and if it is not pulled I will call the Gardai and suggest they send someone undercover to witness these fraudsters in action, but I doubt they would do a fcuking thing about it.

It'd be deadly if we could organise a load of people to infiltrate one of these auctions and call them out during their scam. Make sure there's a local journalist there too, and really expose them.

ziedth

Ha that'd be deadly. We could do like a flash mob, everyone start doing the robot

I'm sure the only thing they could be done for is false advertising which wouldn't be a Garda issue ya know?

Psychedelic

Yeah actually I think you're right about it just being false advertising. The National Consumer Agency should warn people about these scams through an awareness campaign in the media.

wayfarers

.. i nearly wet myself laughing when i saw the seller with a wire hanger wrapped around his neck with the microphone sellotaped to it.. classy!!

I'll say, only Whitney in her Bodyguard role was able to pull off a look like that. But back to the subject at hand, I had the misfortune of going to one of these auctions years ago, the guy was selling unseen stuff sealed in black bin bags for a fiver, what amounted to crap alarm clocks and even worse cd walkmans (yes it was the 90s), and the auctioneer did warn people not to open the bags and take out its contents until the auction had ended, and yet with bombshells like this ringing in our ears there were plenty of people buying something they hadn't seen.

tonymahoney

wayfarers wrote: »

.. i nearly wet myself laughing when i saw the seller with a wire hanger wrapped around his neck with the microphone sellotaped to it.. classy!!

I'll say, only Whitney in her Bodyguard role was able to pull off a look like that. But back to the subject at hand, I had the misfortune of going to one of these auctions years ago, the guy was selling unseen stuff sealed in black bin bags for a fiver, what amounted to crap alarm clocks and even worse cd walkmans (yes it was the 90s), and the auctioneer did warn people not to open the bags and take out its contents until the auction had ended, and yet with bombshells like this ringing in our ears there were plenty of people buying something they hadn't seen.

These guys (British) were in operation many many years ago when I was passing through Tramore - a huge scam & they were cleaning up selling absolute S****E. I got conned and I can tell you I have learnt so much since then. I remember being in the room where no one was allowed question them and one of their lookouts (out front) signalled that the gardai were in the area and the operation wound down instantly and everyone was thrown out. It was back in operation an hour later when the police had left the vicinity.
All in all this operation stinks to high heavens - rememberer folks, (unless it is "hot") you get what you pay for!!!

DunmoreRode

In Fairness there has to be some law against this, like has anyone ever reported one of these "bankrupcy sales" to the gaurds.

Would love to see trhe looks on these gangsters faces if a few cops walked in and sat down at the sale:D

wayfarers

DunmoreRode wrote: »

In Fairness there has to be some law against this, like has anyone ever reported one of these "bankrupcy sales" to the gaurds.

Would love to see trhe looks on these gangsters faces if a few cops walked in and sat down at the sale:D

Gangsters- that's exactly what these guys are, not the loveable rogue Del Boy Trotter types selling crap out of a suitcase but intimidating crooks. It amazes me that they can so blatantly flout the law.

angry_fox

if its to good to be true....

surprised that something like this was allowed go ahead in Slieverue,

lassykk were they irish(dubs by any chance) or foreign? About how many you think were in it?

lassykk

angry_fox wrote: »

if its to good to be true....

surprised that something like this was allowed go ahead in Slieverue,

lassykk were they irish(dubs by any chance) or foreign? About how many you think were in it?

I couldn't believe it was allowed in the hall in slieverue either. Would imagine the people who rent out the hall weren't aware of the scam.

The guy running the show was definitely Irish (couldn't pin down his accent) but his helpers didn't speak but they looked tough. Don't want to say anything slanderous but I would describe them better in a less public setting.

saw 5 people in total.

On a side note we really should descend on the one in the Grand Hotel enmasse and call them on what they are doing!!!

angry_fox

lassykk wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Ill say it for you, they are crooks/scumbags taking advantage of people in hard times. Just sent you a pm lassykk

gobo99

another thread about these sales here.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055330312

niallam

Got a flyer in the door for one in the Marriott in Ashbourne very soon.