So, I happened upon a great deal just recently of some great speakers for a very cheap price... or so I thought. Two guys who had all the paperwork and invoices for these Theater Research speakers came up to me in a parking lot in San Diego, CA.

As the old saying goes, the song remains the same. These guys approached me saying they were delivering some speakers to Fry's electronics which was just down the road, so I bit. They said they had four extra that their boss had given to them without knowing it and that he was going to keep them and sell them on e-bay anyway, so they wanted to make some quick cash for them. I checked out the boxes the speakers were in and they had a manufacturers suggested retail price of $999.00 on the box. They asked me how much I could give them and I said $200, to which they tried to bump up the price.

Here's where my behavior gets unbelievably stupid: instead of sticking to my price, I take Ramon's suggestion to pay at least $500 for the pair. They load the speakers in my car and Ramon rides with me to my bank where I get $500 out to pay them. Aaron, the other guy driving the grey GMC SUV follows me there. They tell me they want to stash the other two and sell them on e-bay like their boss did earlier with another piece of equipment, and I agree to let them give me the other two. Ramon asks for $300 in collateral for the other two, and I go to the ATM and get that out. So they were about to drive off with $800 of my money when Aaron comes to my window and asks for beer money. That last thing Aaron did seemed kind of odd. I didn't know until later on that it was to follow a pattern.

I thought it was kind of shady, but I did it anyway thinking that if they didn't pick them up, I could just sell them on e-bay and make a profit on them or at least get my money back. When I got home and unloaded the four speakers, I went online to check out what I bought because I had never heard of Theater Research. Then I see this message board in Ecoustics.com that also directed me toward this site. I got scammed out of some major money that otherwise would have stayed in my pocket. Instead 'Ramon' and 'Aaron' are laughing all the way to the bank. If it seems to good to be true, it is, don't fall into this scam.

I'm not going to write a revenge note or anything because hey, these guys know what they are doing, and they don't care if they're taking your money. I will admit that I was the dumb one for taking them up in the first place because I didn't even need home speakers anyways. They've got enough street smarts to have been doing this for a while. Obviously the rabbit hole goes down pretty far on this one, so it won't be easy to catch these guys. I'm afraid to say that this scam has been ongoing for years, and the guys rarely get caught. If anyone sees this before they buy those speakers, stop and don't do it. Before you get that manly urge to run them off, get their license plate at least. That's a start, and it's probably not their car, but somewhere they have to slip up.

Ryan
San Diego, California
U.S.A.