FS: 800 Watt Millennium Home Theatre MTS 3100 NIB

[AtomSmasher]

w00t, I got scammed   This item is no longer for sale....well I guess it is if you want to pay more then its worth.




I just got a good deal on this system and I decided to just sell it to make a little money.  I figured I'd give you guys first shot before I put it up on Ebay, but you'll have to be quick because I'm putting on Ebay tommorrow.

Heres the info from the products web site:


TURNER/DVD PLAYER

Built-in KARAOKE Machine
Progressive-scan
Component Video Out
S-Video out
Composite Video Out
VGA output
Dolby Digital and DTS
5.1 Channel Audio Out
Kodak Picture CD Compatible
Play MP3, CDR, CDRW and CDs
Compact Design
Full Function Remote Control
Built-in DSP
NTSC/PAL Compatible
EQ Processor
OSD-On Screen Display

SPEAKER SYSTEM

Dolby Digital Ready HTS
250 Watts Subwoofer
150 Watts Center Speaker
100 Watts x 4 Satellite Speakers
5.1 Channel Audio Inputs
6 Channel Amplifier
Stereo RCA Jack Type Inputs
10" Down-Firing Subwoofer
Two-way satellite speakers
Three-way center speaker
Wooden enclosures
Magnetically Shielded
Elegant Style
Easy Hook-Up
Auto On/Off Power Switch

MSRP Price: $2995.00

They're going on ebay for about $1000 + shipping, so I'll sell it for $750 with shipping included if you live in mainland USA.  I'll be happy to take any pictures if you like.

[USSEnterprise]

looks like a POS, despite MSRP

[versapak]

Just got a good deal = you bought it from the infamous white van?


Haven't seen much about that scam in a while, but a quick google shows this product as being a part of that.

[JackTucky]

Just got a good deal = you bought it from the infamous white van?

Haven't seen much about that scam in a while, but a quick google shows this product as being a part of that.

Yikes.  When I saw those dudes, I told them to take a walk.

Jacktucky

[Witchboard]

I'm not sure what scam you guys are talking about.  Must be a big city thing.  I'm presuming it has something to do with questionably acquired items being sold out of the back of a van.  I think I've seen that in a movie once.

[shardian]

Integrated Karaoke= Imported junk. Sorry dude, but you got ripped. Hope you are able to unload that on ebay.

[quarterback]

Integrated Karaoke= Imported junk. Sorry dude, but you got ripped. Hope you are able to unload that on ebay.

This one sold for $315.00
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5870225731

[versapak]

I'm not sure what scam you guys are talking about.  Must be a big city thing.  I'm presuming it has something to do with questionably acquired items being sold out of the back of a van.  I think I've seen that in a movie once.

Google white van scam. The info will come flooding.

[quarterback]

Just got a good deal = you bought it from the infamous white van?


Haven't seen much about that scam in a while, but a quick google shows this product as being a part of that.

LOL  It's not a 'scam' it's a "direct marketing technique".... according to the guys who are trying to rationalize paying $500+ to a couple of guys in a van in a parking lot who told them "they shipped us two systems instead of one and we're just trying to get beer money"

I love the fact that this company has taken it to a new level by printing up Home Theater magazines showing glossy ads of this system for $3,000+ to help make the sale.


If you're in Mass. and are looking for a summertime job Here's an ad for a "driver" job:

- 500+ Weekly
No exp. necessary,
no CDL req.
company mini van.
paid training.
must love music & money. Call 508-303-8500

"Must love music and money" and must not have a problem hanging out in parking lots and lying to potential marks uh, customers

[versapak]

LOL  It's not a 'scam' it's a "direct marketing technique".... according to the guys who are trying to rationalize paying $500+ to a couple of guys in a van in a parking lot who told them "they shipped us two systems instead of one and we're just trying to get beer money"

I love the fact that this company has taken it to a new level by printing up Home Theater magazines showing glossy ads of this system for $3,000+ to help make the sale.

and yet...

The vans are still white.

[whammoed]

My buddy got suckered into something like that.  They were "Dogg Digital" brand.  Of course he knew nothing about speakers (thats all it was, speakers) so he got back to the office and told me about them and he thought he got a great deal.    He paid between $200 and $250 I think.  Still a running joke over two years later.   I think he still may have them never used in the box.  I was also approached in a gas station parking lot with the same sort of deal.  I told them "Sweet!...Are the Dogg Digital brand?"  Unfortunately they weren't so the joke flew over their heads.

Anyway, hope you are able to get the money you paid for them back.

[menace]

OMG  I thought this was a local thing--two guys pull up to my buddy in the grocery store parking lot, ask him if he's in the market for some good stereo equipment--buddy says sure why not--they show him this exact POS and the give him the line...

they shipped us two systems instead of one and we're just trying to get beer money"

word for freaking word.   He laughs never having heard of MTS and their flashy flyer and walks away--He got 50 feet and one of the guys yells out "ok man 400$ (down from the initial $800)  So then he starts walking faster cause if they would slash the price 50% just cause you turned around then they must be looking to unload it QUICK, i.e. its hot or its a scam--either way you don't wanna get ivolved

I had no idea it was such a widespread scam.  So atomsmasher what parking lot did you buy it in? LOL  And why try and pretend its such a great system to the members here--even a cursory google search brings up a ton of posts on the MTS van scam.

[AtomSmasher]

Doh, I had a feeling it was a scam, luckily it wasn't that much money and I'm already looking into returning it since it seems several people were able to.  The phone number on the receipt they gave me is their real number, I found an ad for the job online like the one you posted and its the same number.  I also have two addresses for them, one that was on the receipt and one thats I saw in their van on an invoice, which was also in the employment ad (I'm guessing this is their real address).  I left them a message today saying I want a refund, if I don't hear back from them I'll take a trip down to their "store."  Oh, and the printed up ad in a magazine is real, its actually in stores if you care to take a look (HDTV magazine I think)

The thought of making a quick buck somehow lowered my BS meter, plus these guys were real convincing, but I still can't believe I fell for it.  One thing thats kind of funny though, on the website talking about the scam, everyone whos set up the system is very happy with it.  I didn't see a single person saying they set it up and it sucked or broke.  It may not be the high end system they claim, but at least it works

[USSEnterprise]

The fact that its got integrated karaoke, a passive subwoofer, and only 5.1.
Additionally, the description does not say whether or not it is 800 watts RMS or PMS.

[AtomSmasher]

The fact that its got integrated karaoke, a passive subwoofer, and only 5.1.
Additionally, the description does not say whether or not it is 800 watts RMS or PMS.

Its not a passive subwoofer, its powered, and 5.1 is more then enough for most home users, anything more is pointless in a small room.  Granted if it was a current top of the line system it probably would have 7.1.  And since it is a cheap POS, I doubt the 800watt specs are accurate.

[USSEnterprise]

It probably is 800 watts PMS, which means the satellites probably are around 30 to 40 watts each. Its still good, but not worth so much

[shardian]

MSRP Price: $2995.00

They're going on ebay for about $1000 + shipping, so I'll sell it for $750 with shipping included if you live in mainland USA.  I'll be happy to take any pictures if you like.

and then this follow up:

...Doh, I had a feeling it was a scam, luckily it wasn't that much money

Dude, you are sooooo busted.  So how much did you really pay for it?

[mccoy178]

Oh this is a good one.  I'm going to pass this on.

[Havok]

MSRP Price: $2995.00

They're going on ebay for about $1000 + shipping, so I'll sell it for $750 with shipping included if you live in mainland USA.  I'll be happy to take any pictures if you like.

and then this follow up:

...Doh, I had a feeling it was a scam, luckily it wasn't that much money

Dude, you are sooooo busted.  So how much did you really pay for it?

Don't be so hard on him - he just wants to get beer money...

 

[AtomSmasher]

I paid $450 for it, he originally wanted $500 but I talked him down a little.  Its probably only worth about $200, but I've paid more for other random crap I never ended up using (like a tablet pc, what the hell was I thinking), but if I can't get a refund or sell it I'll just use it in the back bedroom.  Its at least better then the tv speakers I was using Only thing that really got hurt was my pride, and at least learned a lesson from it....don't be a dumbass.

Heres the link to the everyone else whos bought these things, even several people who sell it are there defending their product.
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/3/169438.html

You may notice my two posts near the bottom with the name Adam.

[Stingray]

Sorry to hear you got taken, man. Makes you feel any better, I had never heard of this one either.

5.1 is more then enough for most home users, anything more is pointless in a small room. 

I agree. My system is 7.1 capable, but I went with 5.1 speakers, thinking I could add more later. I still might add the additional speakers one of these days, but 5.1 sounds great in my small living room.

-S

[ChadTower]

For $450 it's not nearly as bad a ripoff as the person to which he was willing to sell for $750.

It's probably worth $150-250 so just chalk it up to a lesson learned and be glad you found out before you conned someone even worse.

[AtomSmasher]

Oh, and the reason I had a feeling it was a scam was because it was two guys selling equipment from the back of their van, I fell for it because they had a semi plausible story, a magazine with an ad for the stuff they were selling which showed it as nice stuff, phone numbers and addresses of place they worked at (which I called and talked to the guy there to semi-confirm these guys were legit and not selling illegal stuff), they also had reciepts and invoices for everything.  They had their act together and convinced me that it wasn't a scam, which of course I soon found out to be wrong.  

I left them a message this morning saying I want a full refund because their "sellers" used dishonest sales tactics to get me to buy the merchandise.  I still haven't heard back, and if I still don't hear anything by tommorrow then I'm going to head down to the addresses I have for them.

[AtomSmasher]

For $450 it's not nearly as bad a ripoff as the person to which he was willing to sell for $750.

It's probably worth $150-250 so just chalk it up to a lesson learned and be glad you found out before you conned someone even worse.

Hehe ya, as you can see at the top, as soon as I found out the stuff was junk I added a message saying I was scammed and its not for sale anymore.  I don't want to hurt someone at a place I know, but I don't mind hurting someone at a place I don't, so I'm going to leave an ebay listing to try and sell to a random person.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it) I doubt anyone will bid on it as it seems no one is bidding on any of other the systems.  The min bid I put is what I paid for it, so theres at least a small chance I'll get my money back that way.

[shardian]

OMG! This is HILARIOUS!!! 
Dude, please stop throwing fuel in the fire while you still have a shred of dignity left...

[USSEnterprise]

Use the amp and speakers for a MAME cab

[leapinlew]

Doh, I had a feeling it was a scam,

Atom - don't feel too bad. I never heard of this either. I admire 2 things about you:

1. You fessed up to getting scamed
2. You build arcade cabinets, but somehow still have an extra $450 sitting around to buy stuff some dudes were selling...

[AtomSmasher]

Atom - don't feel too bad. I never heard of this either. I admire 2 things about you:

1. You fessed up to getting scamed
2. You build arcade cabinets, but somehow still have an extra $450 sitting around to buy stuff some dudes were selling...

I almost deleted the contents of this thread once I found out I got scammed, but I figured it'd be best to leave it as a warning to others, even though I knew little kids like shardian would make fun of me.

[shardian]

First off, you knew you got scammed if you are trying to offload this stuff on here. Second, no true forum member would mark-up their junk product $300 dollars, and try to say that you are doing us a favor by giving us a "deal". I believe you actually paid closer to $750. That is the only way I would give you a break. Of course you wouldn't admit to paying that price to us, since we got you. I am new to diy arcade Cab's, but I have been an active diy'er in other fields for a while now. I have sold quite a bit of stuff to my forum "brothers", and I usually end up either breaking even, or losing a few dollars. The one time I made a profit, I helped out other fellow forum  members by picking up lcd's that were on sale locally, and selling them to them for a whopping $2 profit. Actually, once I added up my time, gas, and packaging costs, I broke even again.

Lastly, I am a Mechanical Engineer by trade. What do you do for a living? Definitely not a business man, that's for sure.

Now that I got that off my chest, good day to you, thanks for the entertainment for the day, but it has gotten old. I am off to read actual valuable information and converse with people who actually contribute.

[versapak]

First off, you knew you got scammed if you are trying to offload this stuff on here. Second, no true forum member would mark-up their junk product $300 dollars, and try to say that you are doing us a favor by giving us a "deal". I believe you actually paid closer to $750. That is the only way I would give you a break. Of course you wouldn't admit to paying that price to us, since we got you. I am new to diy arcade Cab's, but I have been an active diy'er in other fields for a while now. I have sold quite a bit of stuff to my forum "brothers", and I usually end up either breaking even, or losing a few dollars. The one time I made a profit, I helped out other fellow forum  members by picking up lcd's that were on sale locally, and selling them to them for a whopping $2 profit. Actually, once I added up my time, gas, and packaging costs, I broke even again.

Lastly, I am a Mechanical Engineer by trade. What do you do for a living? Definitely not a business man, that's for sure.

Now that I got that off my chest, good day to you, thanks for the entertainment for the day, but it has gotten old. I am off to read actual valuable information and converse with people who actually contribute.

No offense, but you need to chill a little.

You haven't even established yourself in this community yet, so I am confused why you would decide to go on the attack of a member that has.

I don't think AtomSmasher ever had any intentions of ripping anyone here off. He was scammed. He thought he got a really good deal on a product, and was just looking to make a little something, by selling it for a little more, but still within what he thought was a great deal.

He didn't know he was scammed, and when he found out, I think he handled it just fine.


As for conversing with people that actually contribute...

At least we know you won't be talking to yourself.

[mccoy178]

First off, you knew you got scammed if you are trying to offload this stuff on here. Second, no true forum member would mark-up their junk product $300 dollars, and try to say that you are doing us a favor by giving us a "deal". I believe you actually paid closer to $750. That is the only way I would give you a break. Of course you wouldn't admit to paying that price to us, since we got you. I am new to diy arcade Cab's, but I have been an active diy'er in other fields for a while now. I have sold quite a bit of stuff to my forum "brothers", and I usually end up either breaking even, or losing a few dollars. The one time I made a profit, I helped out other fellow forum  members by picking up lcd's that were on sale locally, and selling them to them for a whopping $2 profit. Actually, once I added up my time, gas, and packaging costs, I broke even again.

Lastly, I am a Mechanical Engineer by trade. What do you do for a living? Definitely not a business man, that's for sure.

Now that I got that off my chest, good day to you, thanks for the entertainment for the day, but it has gotten old. I am off to read actual valuable information and converse with people who actually contribute.

That was strong for a new guy, and I do like AtomSmasher a lot, but the new guy has some good points.  Since I consider myself a member who has been around long enough to chime in, I wouldn't attempt to make a killing on someone on this board.  I would go the ebay route first for sure.  In the initial offering before the edit, Atom stood to almost double up on his investment. I'm not blaming Atom for this attempt, I'm just saying it is not a thing I would have done.  With that being said, I think the new guy has a valid point about valuing your fellow members.

[versapak]

That was strong for a new guy, and I do like AtomSmasher a lot, but the new guy has some good points.  Since I consider myself a member who has been around long enough to chime in, I wouldn't attempt to make a killing on someone on this board.  I would go the ebay route first for sure.  In the initial offering before the edit, Atom stood to almost double up on his investment. I'm not blaming Atom for this attempt, I'm just saying it is not a thing I would have done.  With that being said, I think the new guy has a valid point about valuing your fellow members.

Say he had been given it free as a gift.

Should he then in turn offer it to us for free, or should he offer us a deal on a fair market value?

With his initial belief in the products worth, he was still offering this community what he thought was a good deal. If something does regularly sell for $1000, and he offers it to us for $750, then we aren't being cheated, regardless what he spent on the product himself.


As it stands, the product wasn't worth that much, and once he realised he quickly corrected himself.


I am sure that plenty of the people that sell arcade parts around here are making a profit, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it was twice or more than what they actually paid.

[AtomSmasher]

I'm sorry if people took offense to me offering it for what I thought was $250 less then market value, but I was initially planning on selling it on ebay for $1000 then decided to give you guys a chance on a deal before I did.  As soon as I found out it was junk I changed my post to show that I got scammed, I could of just deleted my post with only 2 or 3 replies and most people wouldn't of even known what happened, but I decided to leave it up so others can see the scam and be aware of it.

Anyways....I got a call back from the company that sold it to me, unfortunately I wasn't there to take the call, but they left a message and saod they will let me get a refund.  I called back, but it was 10pm by then so no one was there.  I left another message so hopefully they'll call me first thing in the morning.

[mccoy178]

I took the whole thing out of context because I knew the deal after the fact.  Knowing the back facts makes it easy for me to judge.  I'm heading back over to the main forum...... (Damn new guy)

[Stingray]

As it stands, the product wasn't worth that much, and once he realised he quickly corrected himself.

Agreed, Kudos to Atomsmasher for doing the right thing. Mr. I-have-all-of-18-posts-so-I'm-going-to-go-converse-with-people-who-actually-contribute can get bent.

-S

[shardian]

Ok, I guess I got a little carried away. For that I apologize. I am not used to being a newb on forums. I am established elsewhere, and I forgot my place here.
By the way AtomSmasher, I like your cab.

[ChadTower]

I don't want to hurt someone at a place I know, but I don't mind hurting someone at a place I don't, so I'm going to leave an ebay listing to try and sell to a random person.

I believed him until he said this.  Now I'm prone to believe he was also willing to hurt someone here until he was outed.

[AtomSmasher]

By the way AtomSmasher, I like your cab.

Thank you

And on another note....as I mentioned I put the system on ebay after I found out it wasn't very good, and I put a buy it now price at $750 with a min bid of $400 figuring that no one would bid.   Well, this morning when I checked my email, someone paid the buy it now price for $750.  At first I figured it was a fake bid since he just joined ebay that day and had no feedback, but I just got confirmation of payment via paypal.  

wait...no, upon further checking its a fake paypal email that looks very real, checking my paypal account I have $0 balance with no activity and the email was sent from pay.pal-confirmations@accountant.com      Heh, someones trying to scam me again, I wonder if its the company that I bought the thing from trying to keep me from returning it.  Itd be easy enough to figure out its me with my location and date I entered the auction easily available and I told the guys I planned to sell it on ebay when I bought it.  I may be gullible in the real world, but not so much when on the computer

I have to leave for an appointment so I can't deal with this until later, anyone know how to report scams like this to ebay and paypal?

[shardian]

I believe you can just cancel his bid and keep your listing active.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html#canceling

As to payal, you can send them the email that you received and they will investigate it.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext&nodeid=25409&leafid=609971&prior_transaction_id=6525&answer_id=16777222

[AtomSmasher]

I don't want to hurt someone at a place I know, but I don't mind hurting someone at a place I don't, so I'm going to leave an ebay listing to try and sell to a random person.

I believed him until he said this.  Now I'm prone to believe he was also willing to hurt someone here until he was outed.

I've been here a while and if theres one thing I learned its that people will always tell you if your charging too much on the BST forum.  Why would I possibly post it here when I knew people would research it before buying, actually people tend to research and post their thoughts even if their not buying, thats why this forum is generally safe to buy stuff from.  If you post garbage people will tell you.  Why then would I post it here knowing it was garbage and knowing I would get called out on it?  If I was new here, then yes maybe, because I wouldn't of seen a hundred other threads of people getting called out that their prices are too high or they're selling junk, but not since I've been here a while.  Since all I wanted to do was sell the thing, the amount of research I did before posting was checking the manufacturers website and checking ebay.  Why would I need to google it when all I wanted to know was how much its worth.

[AtomSmasher]

I believe you can just cancel his bid and keep your listing active.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html#canceling

As to payal, you can send them the email that you received and they will investigate it.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext&nodeid=25409&leafid=609971&prior_transaction_id=6525&answer_id=16777222

Thanks, is there a way to just cancel the auction all together?  Since I'm getting a refund theres no reason to keep it on there.

[shardian]

Well, since a fraudulent buyer helped you out, you can probably get back all of your fee's.

You can initiate an unpaid item dispute. Odds are that the person will never respond to ebay's emails, so you will win by default.

I never knew about the dispute system until recently. I'll tell you the story since it's related to Arcade stuff:

I bid on what I thought was an i-pac 4. I won and then paid. I thought I got a good deal: about $10 less than retail. I later realized that it was actually just a 2p Ipac! Obviously I was not the only one confused because bidding was already up to $50 when I got in. I emailed the seller and told them what happened, and even offered to pay their relisting fee's. The seller then initiated a dispute as I mentioned to you. I got a refund, and the seller got ALL of his fee's associated with the auction back. I even got a free positive feedback out of the deal.

[AtomSmasher]

Well, since a fraudulent buyer helped you out, you can probably get back all of your fee's.

You can initiate an unpaid item dispute. Odds are that the person will never respond to ebay's emails, so you will win by default.

I never knew about the dispute system until recently. I'll tell you the story since it's related to Arcade stuff:

I bid on what I thought was an i-pac 4. I won and then paid. I thought I got a good deal: about $10 less than retail. I later realized that it was actually just a 2p Ipac! Obviously I was not the only one confused because bidding was already up to $50 when I got in. I emailed the seller and told them what happened, and even offered to pay their relisting fee's. The seller then initiated a dispute as I mentioned to you. I got a refund, and the seller got ALL of his fee's associated with the auction back. I even got a free positive feedback out of the deal.

Nice, I will do that, thanks for the info.  Maybe your not so bad after all

[NJDevils2006]

The reason I am skeptical of this is that in the ORIGINAL post you claim these are going for over $1000 on EBay.......where did you ever see that info?  Maybe if you added up 3 of them.

remain skeptical!

[AtomSmasher]

The reason I am skeptical of this is that in the ORIGINAL post you claim these are going for over $1000 on EBay.......where did you ever see that info?  Maybe if you added up 3 of them.

remain skeptical!

http://cgi.ebay.com/MILLENNIUM-THEATER-SYSTEM-3100-DVD-CINEMA-SERIES-NEW_W0QQitemZ5876372314QQcategoryZ39817QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-MILLENNIUM-DVD-HOME-THEATER-SYSTEM-3100_W0QQitemZ5877100606QQcategoryZ1499QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/MILLENNIUM-THEATER-SYSTEM-3100-DVD-CINEMA-SERIES-NEW_W0QQitemZ5863504640QQcategoryZ1499QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Theres 3 right there all of which are $1000.  My first guess at the price was because about half of them were going for around $1000 and the ones that weren't were being sold by people with less then 10 feedback (probably all people who got scammed like me).

[NJDevils2006]

next time search what items actually SOLD for....none of those have bids.

the only 2 that sold for more than about 350, where purchased by people who have 0 feedback and are (no loner a registered user)

[AtomSmasher]

next time search what items actually SOLD for....none of those have bids.

the only 2 that sold for more than about 350, where purchased by people who have 0 feedback and are (no loner a registered user)

Ya I probably should of, but I hardly do any ebaying so I didn't even think of it.  The only other thing I've ever sold on ebay was an exhaust for a car and I knew exactly how much to charge.  Also, the person who "bought" mine is now no longer registered so I automatically got my listing charges refunded.

[danny_galaga]

Use the amp and speakers for a MAME cab

that is the best thing. it will make for a bitchin cab! and you dont really want to be selling junk on to someone else. not even a stranger. thats what the white van guys did. sell to a stranger...

[AtomSmasher]

Well I finally got a hold of someone at the company and I'm going to return the product, unfortunately they want to charge a 20% restocking fee and thats around $75.  Granted losing $75 is better then $450, but it would be nice to get all of it back.  I was going to use the fact that they lied about how nice the system is to get my money back, but they still say everything they told me was true.  The easiest to bust them on is they told me they are the same speakers that klipsch makes and uses, and are manufactured in the same place as klipsch speakers, but they say this is true and that they actually are very nice speakers.  Anyone know of a way to prove them wrong on this?  Any other ideas on how to get all my money back?

[shardian]

Well, if they are a truly reputable company as they claim , then they would have had to supply you in writing with a return policy. If they didn't tell you at purchase either verbally, or in writing that there would be a restocking fee, then you could fight them on that.

[AtomSmasher]

Well, if they are a truly reputable company as they claim , then they would have had to supply you in writing with a return policy. If they didn't tell you at purchase either verbally, or in writing that there would be a restocking fee, then you could fight them on that.

Unfortunately it does say 20% restocking fee on the back of the receipt   I'll still argue about how they use dishonest tactics to sell their merchanise, like the fact they told me they were going to take it to their store and sell it for msrp even though they don't even have a store and have probably never sold one for msrp.  Also the fact that they promote it as 800 watts, but its 800watt PMS not RMS and any other company would of labeled it with the 200 watts the speakers likely actually get.  If they still don't budge after a bunch of bitching, then I may just try to negotiate changing the sales price to $200 which is around what its actually worth.

I don't return it until tommorrow morning, so maybe someone else will have an idea.

[MovingTarget]

Dude, just be happy getting everything back except the $75 and chalk that up to a cheap life lesson.  I'm not saying don't at least try to get it all back but in the back of your mind you should be willing to accept the deal you got offered already.  Oh, and I wouldn't go the route of trying to get them to change how much they sell them for, that just makes you look silly.  That's the entire point of their business.

This scam has been going on for years and this is the first I've heard about them actually refunding any money.

I'm big into Home Theater and subscribe to several magazines on the subject.  The "white van" scam is refered to about once a year.  In fact one year they actually sought the guys out to buy their junky speakers for a speaker shoot out/comparision they were doing.  Guess what...the speakers were total junk, there wasn't even a crossover in them.

It's not even decent stuff, it's total junk

[mccoy178]

You could sell us the restocking fee for $150.  I saw on Ebay it's going for $225!   Why not cut one of us a deal first?!

[AtomSmasher]

Dude, just be happy getting everything back except the $75 and chalk that up to a cheap life lesson.  I'm not saying don't at least try to get it all back but in the back of your mind you should be willing to accept the deal you got offered already.  Oh, and I wouldn't go the route of trying to get them to change how much they sell them for, that just makes you look silly.  That's the entire point of their business.

I agree and expect to lose the $75, but it doesn't hurt coming up with some ideas to try to get it all back.  Your probably right about trying to negotiate the price, not a great idea.

[AtomSmasher]

Well this morning I went down to their "store" and returned it.  Unfortunately traffic was heavier then I expected so I was running late and couldn't spend much time arguing and ended up losing $75.  One thing that was kind of funny is that they were having their morning meeting and I could hear them through the door.  There were at least 10 of them (so 5 groups) and they were placing bets on who would sell the most that day.  They were also figuring out who was going where, apparently this one store goes everyone in a 1 hour drive radius from there.  One group was going to Oxnard, another to palmdale, another to long beach, basically 45 min - 1 hour drive in every direction.

I'm just glad I got most of my money back and learned my lesson without losing too much.

[versapak]

Well this morning I went down to their "store" and returned it.  Unfortunately traffic was heavier then I expected so I was running late and couldn't spend much time arguing and ended up losing $75.  One thing that was kind of funny is that they were having their morning meeting and I could hear them through the door.  There were at least 10 of them (so 5 groups) and they were placing bets on who would sell the most that day.  They were also figuring out who was going where, apparently this one store goes everyone in a 1 hour drive radius from there.  One group was going to Oxnard, another to palmdale, another to long beach, basically 45 min - 1 hour drive in every direction.

I'm just glad I got most of my money back and learned my lesson without losing too much.

Glad to hear it is over and done with. It definitely sucks losing $75, but it is much better to lose the $75, than to have lost $450, and it was definitely a life lesson. No white van will ever look just white again.

[ChadTower]

I was expecting him to post saying he went to get his refund and they mugged him.

[DZuroff]

Where are they going to restock it?  In the back of another white van?  It sound slike your hands were tied because of the notice on the receipt but I think I would have still given them a hard time.  Now they get to sell the unit for $400 to some unsuspecting person and they made $75 on top of that.  People like that need to be dragged in the street.  I remember several years ago a friend and I were approched by two guys driving (yep, you guessed it) a white van.  They claimed they worked for XYZ company and their supplier overshipped these high quality speakers and because they didn't have the space they were slashing the price by 50% so they could unload them.  They were very persisitent that I would never find a deal quite like it so I should really consider buying a set.  I told them to take a hike before I call the cops and report them for harrassment.  The left and I have never had an encounter with another white van.  This happened in Elkhart Indiana so it isn't isolated to only big cities.