For those who don't know what I am talking about these guys sell speakers from the back of a white van. Omni Audio is the name commonly used although I have also heard of Linear Phase being used as well.

I hope no one would ever consider buying a speaker from the back of a van. The claims they make are astoundingly absurd, they have been featured on several news programs when people tried to get their money back.

Happy listening!


http://www.scamshield.com/ScamAlert.asp

Ive run into these vans a couple of times over the years in the Boston area. I generally ignore them. Once, I was waiting at a McDonalds drive thru and they approached me. No thanks

I was approached by these guys too. My conversation with them.

"Hey, we are out selling some awesome speakers as a promotional campaign, at a highly reduced cost. Would you like to buy a pair?"

"Sorry...no, I have a set of Tannoys at home."

"Tannoy? Never heard of them"

"Exactly, thanks anyway...bye"

There was a thread here about a year ago (I searched and couldn't find it) about this. Some people on the forum were defending these speakers as a good deal. Supposedly they were ranked on some audio magazine awhile back as being decent speakers. Of course many people disagreed, but there was no bloodshed that I remember.

There are only a handful of items you can safely purchase out of the back of a van, speakers are not one of them.

I had a friend who fell for this scam. The guys fed him som many different lines and he took them all hook line and sinker.

A couple were "These are made by cerwin-vega, but are their higher end" and another was "these speakers are installed in all of the local movie theaters, I have a few left over I need to get rid of for cheap".

Needless to say, the speakers sounded quite crappy for the almost 400 dollars he paid for them.

For a hundred bucks a pair they would not have been that bad a deal, but to put it simply these speakers make KLH look like an audiophile brand.

J

These guys approached me after work one day...

"Hey man, (asking directions)..."
"Give directions..."
"Dude, you look like you could use some speakers"
"Really, do I?"(I have long hair)
"Yeah, and we have some extra inventory in the back of the van..."
"Really! How much are they?"
"How much do you have?"
"Twenty bucks!!"LOL, I've already heard of these guys.
"Man, too bad, these are thousand dollar speakers and we're selling them for $200/pair"
"I guess it's not my lucky day...I'll give ya $20 for 'em"
"Sorry man, later..."

A local "consumer oriented" tv show talked about this a couple of weeks ago. They sent a journalist to buy speakers from the van guys. The speakers were then tested/evaluated by experts who all said they woudn't have paid more than $50 for these. They took them apart and explained that the components used were crap.

Dunno if it's the same speakers as in the US scam though.

Wow, I encountered these guy's about 6 months ago or so and didn't even realize it.

I was a fresh new, um, freshman (heh) at college going to the local 7-11 to get myself a soothing icy cold pepsi when this guy in a ford expedition like screamed at me out his window and jumped out. I was like "wtf is this guy's problem, what did I do" and I got out and he was like hey man you want some speackers? First thing I thought was "yes" then I thought "wtf is this guy doing selling speakers from his truck." Anyway, he asked if I wanted some and I said I didn't really need any because I 1) couldn't afford them (poor college student excuse) and 2) I didn't NEED them. But none the less he got me to take a look. He was probably about 21 and dressed in slick looking, I don't know, skater/teenage punk clothing or something with a thick silver chain and a bling bling watch with his hair spiked and a little goatee. Anyway, he showed me this invoice that he had gotten from an electronics store saying that instead of his order of 4 speakers they gave him 4 pair of speakers so he had a bunch of extra ones. I was like "hmm someones getting fired over that one." He showed me a snazzy looking laminated advertisement claiming they were something like 3 grand a pair and then offered them to me at 800 a pair. I just laughed and kindly said "I'd love to but I'm trying to get an education here."

Anyway, the speakers were very "nice" looking (Cherry colored in finish with what looked like 1 10" 1 6" and 2 tweaters.)

Well that was my story, they weren't in a van but a fairly nice Expedition. What I want to know is why did they think that me, a kid driving a dirty (read dirty, not junky) ford ranger going to 7-11 of all places (what did they think I was buying some champagne or something) wanted some expensive speakers hehe.

This was in a smaller town in Utah called Logan where I go to the university studying Aerospace Engineering.

same scam. local (philadelphia) news did the same thing. tracked them down to NJ! i was approached at mcdonalds too!

I've been hit up by the van guys three times over the years. Twice in mall parking lots and once at a traffic light. Like I'm going to shell out $400 for some crappy speakers before the light turns green. These guys remind me of the winners who sell perfume in parking lots out of a big cardboard box.

wow, I haven't seen these guys in years, they approcahed me a few times at a car wash in MA, they were much cheaper back in the day. I was never very inetested in them, when I was younger I bought my one crappy pair of speakers at convention center, they sound OK and I still use them in my work room but they are big and ugly.

I was in Funcoland with my wife who's friends with some of the guys there, and this skank-o chick came in trying to sell cologne and perfume out of a duffel bag. She made a mistake as soon as she walked in the door by pretty much insinuating that all the guys in there were losers for being in a video game store. I left at that point.

As far as the speakers go, there's some here in the Chicago suburbs. My b-i-l worked for them for like a week, before quitting. He said the parts were sub-standard, and the guys were skimming money to buy weed and smoke it "on the clock"

Wouldn't trust em any further than I could throw them.

I know some people look down on Sony speakers, but at least with those there's a big corporation to get mad at if they go bad

That's just one of the many perks about having a job where you sell speakers out of a van!

I was approched by these fools back in the late 80's!

I was only 14 and still knew it was some kind of scam

Funny thing is these guys got such an "overshipment" they are probably still selling the same speakers they did back then

I always thought these guys just had stolen merchandise, but substandard junk is just as bad. it could be worse, though. They could be selling Bose speakers

People must fall for this stuff pretty regularly, or they wouldn't be doing it after all these years.

They tried to stop me in front of Home Depot here in T-Town during my Xmas vacation..Same old beat up van and skinny slob with a pony tail yellin' out the window "HEY YOU!! HEY!!"

As I walked past I stopped and said "HEY!!! The speaker scam guys!!!" They had this totally stupid look on their face and just were able to spit out "Huh?? what??" as I walked on past.

I've met one guy who fell for the scam, and listened to the speakers in his HT set-up (pre DVD era) and he said they were nice cause they "played LOUD!"

Yeeeeeah greeeeat

Alfer