Audiofile total scam, misleading sales pitch towards a minor! ripoff Austin Texas

I don't know how much good this will do, but I figure it is worth a shot to explain my situation. Around noon on Friday, July 11th, 2003, just south of Austin, Texas, I parked in a local gas station (Chevron on the corner of South First Street and Slaughter Lane) to get a soda.

However, when I came out of the store, I was confronted by a group of three white men in their early-to-mid twenties, two with extremely short hair and one with very long hair, who were very eager to "unload some extra home audio equipment on someone cool for anything they could get" instead of "just having to give it to their boss for free with the rest of the order when they met up with him in a few minutes".

They literally sped up alongside my parked car and shouted at me, acting before I could think and take in all the red flags popping up around them, and using every trick in the book to make me come look at the "awesome speakers" in the trunk of their late-model, white Ford SUV. I told them I wished I could help them out with their speakers, which did seem very nice, but I simply didn't have any money.

"That's OK", they said, "if you just overdraft now, you can totally pawn these things and make a ton of money on 'em, before you get in trouble with the bank". I was extremely skeptical, but they didn't seem like a typical scam group: company logos on everything, laminated brochures and warranty cards, all the elements of a real business.

So after bargaining down from 600$, I said that the very most I could manage was 300$. At first the disheartened salesman declined, getting back in the car and motioning to the driver to drive away. Yet, the driver then stepped out of the car, visibly irritated, and apologized for his partner's greediness (that's a laugh), saying that 300$ for the pair would be fine and that I wouldn't regret it.

So, after withdrawing a huge stack of money from the ATM inside, I reluctantly paid him and loaded the speakers into my car, already feeling like I had screwed up, but not being completely sure. I even agreed to give them 10$ for beers, and was eager to unload the speakers as soon as possible, feeling guilt and anxiety for violating my family's budget.

I hit three pawn shops within one hour, each one giving me a different excuse why they wouldnt buy them, "We aren't really interested in buying right now", "They look too new and may be stolen", and "You are too young to sell these, and even if you were 18, the most you would get would be 50$ for both". I am actually a minor, if that matters, and am stuck with 3-foot-tall, antiquated reminders of my gullibility, not knowing what to do with them. If anyone has any advice, please contact me and I will gladly give any information you need to help bring these creeps to justice.

Jonathan
austin, Texas
U.S.A.

*EDitor's Comment: Rip-off Report confirms contact info salesman misrepresentation ripoff