**Newbies don't get scammed,White van speakers** - Page 8

Have to laugh, today I was approached by white van speaker salesmen. They were driving a SUV. I was returning a couple movies at Redbox. I wish that I had more time, I would have loved to have messed with them a little bit, but I had an appointment and was in a hurry. I just laughed and told them, "You are not going to really try and sell me white van speakers are you?"

Another company to stay clear of: http://kineticloudspeaker.com/index.html

Back in '06, my first year in college... I fell for one of these 'white van' scams. My roommate came upstairs and told me there was someone outside with surround sound looking to sell! extra surround sound! retails for $2000! So stupid me got all excited (didn't know any better) and ended up giving away my macbook with a broken lcd (had a working macbook, so wasn't worth a lot [so i thought at the time]) and a 60gb ipod. Man was I excited to get my first surround sound setup!

I knew nothing about them. Matrix Audio blah blah. The subwoofer was like 6". I thought they sounded awesome at first. Then I read up on them, and realized it was all a scam. I wasn't too pissed off at first. Then one of the speakers broke. Then another. I had to use superglue to keep the drivers attached to their plastic cases. I mean, yeah it worked. It was mostly gimmicky though. For my first surround sound it was better than nothing. Looking back, DAMN I was stupid. >_< I can't believe I fell for that crap. I could've sold my broken macbook for ~$800 at that time (first gen) and I could've kept my iPod.

Oh well, live and learn.

Yeah, life can pose hard lessons my friend, gotta be smart and finally, these ****ing *******s need to get punched in the face. Excuse my language, but seriously.

I fell for this scheme about 10 years ago outside of a Best Buy in Atlanta, GA. I bought a pair of Digital Audio PA speakers for around $200 total, maybe less, I do not remember.

Anyway, I have to say, that although I would not consider these to be great speakers by any means. They have proved to be adequate for what I paid for them. They are very large speakers and the highs and mids sound good, the lows are less than desirable, but the thing I am happy with is that I can turn these guys up really loud without hearing any distortion.

Because of their size, I have never really had these things in the place of my prominent set up. However, I have had them set up with video games and cable tv. I can say that watching a NASCAR in the "crank it up"part of the race, these speakers shook the walls and at low levels, I have heard the smallest details.

So I think that even though these speakers were not the high end audiophile speakers that I thought I was getting, I still got more than I paid for. What, I am afraid of, is that these are crap speakers and I am just so deaf that I can't even hear it. I am by no means an audiophile, but I am afraid to admit that these sound all right to me. Granted, they do not beat my Bose floor speakers nor another pair of Pioneer floor speakers I have, but they do a great job of playing music loud and clear even if the low end isn't that great. But isn't that what a PA speaker should do? I have even had them playing at outdoor parties and they sounded good. Has anyone else bought similar speakers and still felt pretty good about the purchase or should I just admit that I will never be considered anything close to an audiophile? Who knows maybe ignorance is bliss.

Isn't it funny how many people can fall for this stuff. Look realistically have you ever in your life had someone walk up to you and say I really need some cash I have this brand new corvette normally 60K I will let it go for 5K. The point is even in the worst of economic times if something really does have value no person will have any trouble selling it. And let us just say that something really awesome did come up, for the one time in your life it actually would be a good deal it is worth missing on account of you not falling sucker to all the other crappy sales techniques of TV products, nigerian scammers and white van electronics.

On the down side I have never had anyone try this particular scam on me and I kinda wish they would.

Someone mentioned pawn shops, anyone who sells anything is looking to make money and nothing more. Now days lots of pawn shops find it more profitable to just buy brand new junk strait from chinese suppliers and sell it. Why bother trying to figure out the value. Would not surprise me if they are ordering these things and selling them weekly as well.
Also I kinda like thise scam because it is almost perfect in the sense that it is probably completely legal. They are not infringing on trade marks etc.. They actually sell you a product. Honestly most high end clothing brands are not any better than these clowns.

What ever happened to Yap Yap? I miss that insulting little guy. His convoluted justifications for his immoral acts just killed me.

Guess it was easier to slick back to the muck.

I fell for this in the summer of '96 (I was only 17). On a busy road in Scottsdale, AZ, a crew of guys outside their white van at a gas station got my attention as I was stopped at a light.

I think I gave them $40, maybe a dozen CD's, and 3 or 4 packs of clove cigarettes. I remember them telling me these were the same speakers that they used in movie theaters. Said I could easily sell them for hundreds at a pawn shop. God, was I ever clueless!

I was "smart" enough to ask for a receipt, and dumb enough not to look at it closely. No name, no phone number.

I knew I'd been had as soon as they took off. I took them straight to a pawn shop and got $10 for them. Never even turned them on.

Lesson learned!

Ha "treble"

Wow! I bought a pair of Dynalabs about 10 years ago from a friend who must have gotten a bunch from a white van. I told him no dice unless he hooked them up to my stereo so I could hear how they sound. It was a technics receiver and the Dynalab towers sounded great and still do. I paid 150 for the pair. Had no clue this type of scam was going on.

I was getting gas this afternoon when I see this H3, I can't see them but I hear them ask if:

"I need some speakers for my home"

I ignore them thinking they were talking with the other guy next to me getting gas. I walk over to the pump to put in my card and tilt my glasses down so I can read the screen -they're polarized making LCD screens hard to read), I glanced their way and went about pumping. They then back up and the guy is basically yelling at me:

"Hey I just asked you if you needed speakers!"

I replied "oh look how many people are here, how was I supposed to know you were talking to me", he then said "You trying to be tough?" I said, "I'm not tough and I don't need speakers", he said, I can tell! I replied "can you?" took off my glasses and just stared at him...he drove away. Heck of sales pitch.

Last time I was propositioned (out of a white van even) was close to twenty years ago =D

Lots of White Van speakers on Craigslist these days as well.

I took advantage of one of these scams back in '95.

I was walking out of a Turtles music store(remember those?) when some guy in white van started his pitch. Blah, blah, blah Speakers for $2000, but I need to get rid of them...more Blah, blah, blah.

I figure either these things are stolen, or just junk. But IF they work, then I'm golden.

*EDIT* Hind sight being what it is, some things are best left unsaid.

When I take out the speakers and hook them up, they are really great speakers. I.S.S.(Innovative Sound Systems), with a 10" woofer, with mid and hi 3" tweeters. Breakers in the back and crossover dials on the front.

At the time I lived in the last townhome in an "L" shaped complex, with about 9 units. When I cranked up the speakers, I foundly remember my landlord came out of the next to last unit(away from me) and yelled to turn it down.

Since then I have moved about a dozen times, across many a state line and I still use the speakers daily.

The only problem that I have ever had with them, is that the dust cap on one of the woofers got kicked in, during a party. There is no noticeable distortion, so I never got it fixed. Also, these muthaz are soo rich and deep, that I never needed a subwoofer.


EVIL:

Being a scammer that sells inferior products for high dollar is one thing (hello Bose), but stealing is completely another. What he was doing was certainly unsavory, but it was legal. What you did wasn't.

Really? First off Im not so sure how legal it is... tax evasion, operating a business without a licence etc etc. Karma bit them in the ass there. They felt what is was like to be getting screwed instead of doing the screwing.

Looks good on them.

Their business can be operated legally. A transient vendor's license or whatever the local equivelant is and as long as they haven't been asked to leave from where ever they're operating they're legal. Outright stealing is in no way legal. We can't say for certain that the white van scammers were operating legally or not, but this guy became an outright thief.


I am in no way advocating what the white van guys do, but what the previous poster did was much worse. What's next? Gas is highway robbery so let's just start stealing it too and do what he did and take a roundabout way home as to not get caught?

Truth be told, I did feel a little bad about it. I WAS going to give him the $150 and let the cards fall where they may, but I saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.

Kharma and I have a long history.

EVIL:

Yeah, I sort of fell for this about 5 years ago. I had just moved into my house and was pretty geeked up that there was an unfinished room set aside to become my HT.

So, I'm getting gas one evening, and litterally, a white van with one of those magnetic signs with something like "JS Professional Audio Installation" pulls up. The guy walks over says they were doing a professional installation and when they finished opening the boxes, guess what, double items had shipped. They had their catalog showing all this high priced gear, and they even had spools of speaker wire and such on "display" in the van with ladders and all (nice touch). They said if they returned to the shop, their manager would just take them home and sell them, lol.

Well, I was greedy, and greed makes you do dumb things. The really good news is that I only had about $90 on me and the ATM at the station was broken. I was bummed I didn't have more to buy more. I bought a pair of bookshelf mains. I didn't want them following me to an ATM, I'm dumb, not stupid, but I asked for his phone number because I might meet them back at the station to buy rears and the sub after I go to an ATM. I figured this may give me time to run home and see how much they went for online to know what I should offer on the other speakers.

Well, about 5 minutes after I drove away, I realized that I had almost assuredly been scammed, and it pissed me off. I wait 5 more minutes and call them to meet me at another gas station that was always really busy. I said I had more money and wanted to buy the sub and rears.

When they met me, I handed them the box and said, "Just give me $70 back. You can keep $20." They tried to keep up the act, and then I said I was going to call 911 and give therm the plate numbers and say they were selling stolen stereo eqipment. They gave me $70 of my $90 back, and I drove away.

I told my wife about it that evening, and she flipped out and said I should have demanded all $90 back. I just told her that I paid $20 for an education and to leave it at that.

First post here, complete newbie to the speakers scene. Just wanted some input on whether I am about to fall for the old "white van scam." I replied to an easily Googable craigslist ad (just search Paradigm under Washington DC and you should see a result for Denton, MD for a set of Paradigm Monitor 5s, v3). Asking price is $150 for a set.

Got through to a guy named "Wayne" who seemed hesitant just to sell me one set of his Monitor 5s (he owns two?). Price and name of the speakers seem to match ok. Advice?

Doesn't sound like white van to me. Real speaker name, model and version. White Van speakers are usually a generic sounding brand and are sold in parking lots. Warehouse gave too many speakers so passing on deal to consumer etc, etc. Paradigm deal on craigslist doesn't sound like a scam.

how do i check if mine is real or not i got a pair of ast x2-1500 from my friend for free and i will admit they work great but how do i know for sure that there not a scammed version

Trust me, nobody's going to bother to make a fake version of those things. It wouldn't be worth it.

All these years I've known about white van speakers, and no one has ever approached me to try and pull off the scam. I have always hoped they would because I would mess with them hardcore.


There are a few new brands popping up these days too. If it's a HTIB system made by a brand name you've never heard of and has a high msrp on the box- I'd say 95% chance it's a white van speaker system. Also, most white van systems have the "amp", and the "sound processor" in the sub.

These "white van" speaker scammers are still out there. Was just approached two weeks ago on my into a BestBuy. I just laughed and walked away.