I remember a while back on the boards, there was a thread about the guys in the "white vans" selling their speakers in parking lots, etc.

I had an experience with something like that myself in Florida, (outside the local mall) in 1986.
Back in the day......stereo was still big business..and they were using this con:

"we have delivered all the speakers we were supposed to, but...we still have two sets of studio monitor speakers left over.......are you interested?
......we can sell them to you, real cheap".
(no, I didn't bite).

That was then.

As most of you know by now, I have moved back to my small, home town in Illinois. All these years, (21 years) and miles later....guess what happened to me in the local big R farm store parking lot?

No, NOT speaker guys.....NOW, they are HOME THEATER GUYS!

I couldn't believe it.......these guys in a van, motioned for me to roll down my window. Thinking they needed help, I did......."we have an invoice for eight complete home theater systems, that we delivered....but, they loaded one too many, and we have to get rid of it, so we can sell it to you.....real cheap".
(no, I still didn't bite).

I think, if these guys were not so creepy, I would have liked to have seen this "complete home theater system"...I mean man, it would have been a HOOT, to see the scam-junk system.......(I DID see those cheesy, "studio monitor speakers", back in the day.....it even SAID studio monitors on the boxes).

I guess the old school, audiophile stereo market, really IS dead.... even these scam-artists have moved on to home theater.

Anyone else here, heard of this "NEW" scam yet?.....IF not, you heard it here first!

Larry

Larry, thanks for sharing. That "loaded one too many, and we have to get rid of it" sounds so believable that I would have immediately whipped out my wallet(not my gun)and fallen for it(or, maybe not).

Gotta love it. I'm surprised they're still bothering with the white van method--you'd think the internet would be easier.

Here is another to watch for in the big box stores selling PCs.

Besides the annoying rant about why the extended warranty is soooo important, the new gimmick is to offer a special package where they will install the latest antivirus, firewall and probably some random piece of third software just to make it the magic number of 3. A cost of two to Three hundred dollars AND you have to leave it there for an extra two days for 'all that' work to be done.

Here is where it goes bad. While I definitely do recommend buying Anti-virus and Firewall SW, many of the mainstream computer companies already preload this software right onto the hard drives as part of the 'value add' package. Stuff like that used to be found in the product description in the store to make you want to buy it. Now, this advertising seems to be missing so they can upsell you the 'service'.

I recently helped my brother in law who needed a new PC in a bad way at 8:00pm to do payroll the next morning. At that time of night, Future Shop was his only option. After choosing a PC and being aware of this scam, I questioned the 'PC expert' as to if it might already be on the HP already? He told me definitely not, we definitely needed this great deal on the package and installation. We declined anyways because he was bugging me and because my brother in law couldn't wait the two days for it to be installed.

So we get it to his home, boot it up and guess what.... "Please enter some information to activate your copy of Norton's Internet Security," Norton's firewall and antivirus in a single box package!

We would have paid him 280 extra dollars to fill in a name or two and then sit back while it automatically downloaded the latest virus updates.

I want his job!!!

Do they actually come with full versions, or just 3 month trials? I usually only see the trials, but I haven't bought many PCs retail.

In this case, it was the full blown version. However, with any of the bigger brand name anti-virus software packages, you have to pay for a subscription to keep getting updates on the latest virus signatures. This one came fully functional but with a 60 day subscription for updates. Buy the box off the shelf and the first year's subscription is included.

So kinda trial, but not really. It's not the normal trial where it's missing features or whatnot and you would eventually need to renew the subscription anyways, no matter what.

Look at it this way, "Norton's IS" is worth about $80 to $90. It was already installed on the PC (not even compressed) so their labor costs was pointless. The other piece of software they would have 'installed' was a super cheap & weak photo editor that, guess what, was also already preloaded on the hard drive, a full version no demo.

So their way, you pay 280 dollars for software you already own and for labor that they won't have to do.

I think my last Norton's subscription cost me 40$s for the year so it has a value of $3.33 a month. $3.33 times the 10 months you lost, had they 'reaally' loaded a boxed package, equals 33.33

280.00 - 33.33 = 246.67 dollars you simply lose.

Also, since I hate being so negative, I'll throw in a positive and mention that I bought my last two PCs from Dell after I lost my youthful patience to build them myself. Great prices, good quality and the only issue I ever had was a DOA power supply and when I called, they had one shipped overnight. A tech would have arrived next day but I did it myself. Parts can always go bad but you can't ask for a better fix than what they provided.

I recommend Dell to anyone whose only other option is a big box store.