The White Van........no longer white.......no longer a van

brettw22

I was driving to the store earlier tonight and had to laugh as a Black GMC Envoy pulled up alongside me, window down as if to ask for directions......

Because it's cold as hell out and snowing, I couldn't get my drivers door down and finally got my rear drivers door down only to be asked if I wanted some speakers for my HT setup........

I obviously declined and was going to write it off until they turned into the parking lot of the grocery store I was going to, so I picked up the phone and called the cops. Unfortunately they left a few minutes before the cops arrived but I pointed the officer in that direction and before I knew it there were 2 more cops in the parking lot that also took off to find them.

I wish I would have been in my car cuz I would have followed them around.......fun times.......lol.

Mike682

Was eating lunch in a pizza place when a guy walked in (actually hurried in like he had to take a **** or something), went up to the counter and asked the guys behind the counter if they wanted some hometheater systems really cheap. One guy goes out there with the van guy and starts looking in the van. During which I grabbed my cell and took a pic. Pic is still on my cell.

Anyway, the van was silver.

F1nut

Super Brett, faster than a speeding M300, leaps tall buildings in a.....wait a sec, he's taller than the buildings and rids the world of the plague know as White Van Speaker syndrome. Not to mention he's T_Unit616's hero. What a swell guy!!!

audiobliss

And you weren't in your car...why?

Demiurge

Mike682 wrote:

Was eating lunch in a pizza place when a guy walked in (actually hurried in like he had to take a **** or something)

hahaha

there's a quote for Sid's karma if I ever did see one.

brettw22

I pulled in and was getting out of my car to go into the store and the guys hit me up again. I called the cops at that point and didn't get back inside becuase I had things to do.

Toxis

what is illegal about selling speakers from a van? I guess I don't understand why the cops needed to be involved.

Strong Bad

Toxis wrote:

what is illegal about selling speakers from a van? I guess I don't understand why the cops needed to be involved.

99.9999% of the time, the speakers they are selling are stolen.

WilliamM2

No they are not usually stolen, and it's not illegal.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/4/9/224439/1810

bobman1235

Well... I bet they don't pay taxes!

brettw22

I believe that there are states that have created laws against this, but I don't know for sure.

The main reason I had called was because they were literally crawling from car to car waving people down while driving down the streets in fresh snow causing people to suddenly brake and were overall being unsafe on the roads.

That, and I wanted to use some of my cell minutes.....

Jstas

Most of them don't have proper business licenses or the way they are conducting business is in violation of that license. However, if the operator of the vehicle follows you after you said no once or continually bugs you to try and make a sale, it's harassment.

Also, about the tax thing, it's hard to tell. Most of them are working with legitimate distributors and the only reason they can sell them so cheap is because they really are that cheap.

I found a local distributor of TR (Theater Research) garbage with offices literally, across the street from the police station. The biggest problem they seem to have is thier salesmen (read: extortionists) go out of county or out of town/township where thier business license isn't valid. If the license isn't valid, they aren't paying taxes to the town that they are selling in so the cops come running to shut them down. Some towns around here have had serious problems with these folks in that they are a nuisance to business owners and in some cases cause safety problems like obstruction of traffic.

It's true that what they are doing, selling speakers from a van, is not necessarily illegal. It's no different than a hot dog vendor. But if they enter the property univited or they are causing a conflict of interest (i.e.: selling speakers in a Best Buy parking lot) then they are also tresspassing. They move around alot and behave shady to keep the illusion that they are giving you something special for a screaming deal. It's false advertisment which can be considered illegal but the licensing and tax collection issues are much bigger than any of the other stuff they might be guilty of. Bottom line, it's a scam and they are trying to sell you something under false pretenses. Most people would feel taken advantage of in that situation and that's all a rabid lawyer needs to have a field day with anyone involved.

cfrizz

Nice going Brett.

If there was nothing wrong with what they were doing, the cops wouldn't have gone chasing after them.

Toxis

lol I guess they'd argue that they're a mobile garage sale... hell, that's the level of quality they're selling. hahaha

Sami

WilliamM2 wrote:

No they are not usually stolen, and it's not illegal.

Most of the time they are trying to sell them on private property (store, business parking lots etc.), which is were the cops come in.

danger boy

bottom line, they may not be doing anything illegal.. but their speakers if you can call em that, or POS! i've heard of the bait and switch with these people.

they open a box and show you their speakers.. then they go to the back of their van, and get you an unopened box and you pay them. once home. you get the box open only to find out it's nothing but some bricks.. that I would think is illegal.