Unwary Customers Find ‘Bargains’ Are too Good to Be True

In what has become an unwelcome holiday tradition, fast-talking salespeople have descended on the South Bay to sell low-quality stereo speakers and other merchandise out of the backs of vans.

Local police warn that the street-side vendors usually operate without licenses, misrepresent the quality of their goods and falsely claim that the products are guaranteed.

Authorities say shoppers are better off buying products from reputable retailers and abiding by the old saw: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Street salespeople have been coming to the South Bay for years, police say, peddling everything from televisions to luggage and cookware. Many operate out of vans and approach customers in shopping center parking lots. The sellers move frequently, police said, to avoid citations for operating without municipal business licenses.

This winter, police say they have had several reports of young men selling stereo speakers from vans in Torrance and neighboring cities. Buyers learn too late that the merchandise is worth less than they were told, and they cannot return it.

The street salespeople tell customers that their merchandise is cut-rate because they buy it wholesale, or they imply the goods are stolen, said Detective Rick Louk of the Torrance Police Department.

“Believe it or not, some of the straightest people are tempted under the right circumstances,” Louk said. “They start thinking about the chances of getting away with it.”

Consumers who have been taken are usually reluctant to file a complaint, said Lt. Bruce Powell of the Manhattan Beach Police Department.

“They make people think they are getting stolen goods,” Powell said. “I guess there is a little petty larceny in all of us. Nobody is going to report to police that their stolen speakers aren’t working.”

A 27-year-old Manhattan Beach woman described her recent encounter with the salespeople on the condition that her name not be published. She had just arrived in the parking lot of a Bank of America branch on Highland Avenue in Manhattan Beach last week, when two men in their 20s approached her.

“They said they had these extra stereo speakers that their distributor had given them,” she said. “They were kind of vague about that.”

One of the men gave her a brochure that pictured the speakers and listed a retail value of $849.99. The men conceded that their value was closer to $500.

The woman said she was suspicious but reasoned that she was getting a good price when she bargained the men down to $425 for four speakers.

“My thought was I could sell two of them and still have paid very little for the other two speakers,” she said. “I could have them for a Christmas gift or start a stereo system myself.”

She became uneasy when she called a Circuit City outlet and learned that employees had never heard of the brand she purchased--Audio Reference. The street salespeople had given her the name of a distributor in Fullerton, but she said telephone calls there produced only evasive answers.

Only after checking similar speakers at retail stores did she realize that her new speakers were worth about half what she paid for them, the woman said.

“I’m a college-educated person,” she said. “I’m in sales myself. You feel so stupid, you just don’t want to tell anyone. I am so embarrassed that I still haven’t told my boyfriend.”

The distributor did not return phone calls from The Times.

Such complaints are common at this time of the year, said Redondo Beach police Lt. John Nelson.

The salespeople are generally lured into the ventures by newspaper advertisements that promise them quick profits, Nelson said. Wholesalers stay at arms length from the final transactions by selling the products to the street vendors, who must resell their supplies to make a profit.

Police say they have little power to control the salespeople because they often have left town by the time complaints have been filed.

If they are caught operating without a city business permit in Torrance, the Police Department will cite them and confiscate the merchandise as evidence, Louk said.

But proving fraud is nearly impossible, he said.

“It’s all done verbally and trying to establish a fraud case based on what was said is difficult,” Louk said. There usually is no sales agreement or other independent evidence to document the agreement between seller and buyer.

Nelson preaches common sense.

“Go to a reputable store,” he says. “Get the store’s written guarantee. A small, independent contractor on the street cannot beat the price that a major corporation can offer, buying the product en masse.”