My neighbor was scammed by driveway spraying scammers

[jJim McLaughlin]

Bill, you have nothing positive to contribute.

Bye.

[flip+]

The conditions for aging meat are very controlled... temp, air circulation, and humidity. In a dry age, there is typically a layer of fat that is later trimmed off (along with any mold growth).

There is also wet aging, which is under shrink wrap. That is usually what happens between slaughterhouse and store.

At the store, the wet aged meat is then opened and processed. You'll loose the fat layer, and the meat is exposed to more bacteria.

I've had plenty of "use today or freeze" meats... and i've eaten a good bit of meat that's gone a bit towards the slimey side.

Properly aged meat is no comparison.

[Rod Speed]

Kurt Ullman wrote

That expertise is required to work out the difference between deliberate criminal fraud and just plain hopeless operators that dont have enough of a clue to use the appropriate materials.

Its MUCH more complicated than that with the proof beyond reasonable doubt required to prove alleged criminal fraud as opposed to incompetance.

[Rod Speed]

Maybe not, but that doesnt mean you will get a refund or the job dont properly either.

And like the worst of them will be happy to tell you, they know where you live.

[sno]

Check out this article on Traveler and Rom scammers....

hope helps....have fun.....sno

[aemeijers]

Chuckle. You must be new here. Rod keeps rotating 'from' addresses, so you have to watch for his signature writing patterns, and add the new addy every month or so.

aem sends...

[aemeijers]

Nobody else said it so I will- if they just painted the drive, their truck will be in the street, and probably no way to block it in. But even if there was, still a stupid idea. A few bucks ain't worth risking a knife or a gun in your face, and many of these travelling hucksters aren't real civilized when cornered.

Never hire a door-to-door tradesman, and if you have a moment of weakness in the face of a good BSer and get screwed, well, write down the plate, call the cops, and basically write it off to experience.

aem sends....

[D Murphy]

Mike Berger wrote in news:f2a30j$pe$ [e-mail]:

Yeah, I guess they are skilled and more importantly, interested.

[Rod Speed]

D Murphy wrote

Doesnt mean they got a conviction.

Thats all you have substantiated with that particular jurisdiction.

[Ignoramus10518]

Hm, that's our county, and we did in fact write down their license plate number. I will ask my wife for that piece of paper where we wrote it down.

i

[Steve B]

"Ignoramus10518" wrote

However, getting someone to "run" it for you is a different matter. You can take it to the police and give it to them, and explain the situation. If they do "run" the plate, you will probably receive none of the information. If it does get a "hit", then they will follow up on it. If you know a police officer real good, they can do it and tell you what the results were, even though they are not supposed to. (It's done all the time)

When I started dating my wife years ago, she gave my license number to her daughter, a police officer, to get me checked out. I must have passed.

Steve

[Oren]

DOJ NCIC terminals require a "sign-in log" for offices - required for audit. Only qualified folks are allowed in this terminal/secure area and they receive serious training.

When I dated my wife I looked at her teeth; kind of like what you would do when buying a horse or mule!

I was checked every five years for over 30 years, I'm surprised how far they can get a microscope that far up my ass; especially when I was sued by a Nigerian Prince, circa '83. He lost his case!

-- Oren

"I don't have anything against work. I just figure, why deprive somebody who really loves it."

[New Leaf]

It was a good lesson to learn with a relatively small amount of money.

These guys had cashed my check in the 10 minutes it took to call my bank and put a stop on it. The person at the bank (back when you knew people in your individual branch and didn't call a 1-800 number) told me how sorry they were and that I wasn't the first person that day who had been scammed. My neighbour's husband came home and said, "How stupid were you that you hadn't heard of mulch scammers?!?!?" Well, gee, pretty stupid I guess.

Viv

[Ignoramus30426]

Viv, I never heard of mulch scammers either. Do you know what they do specifically? Leave "free mulch" with radioactive contamination? Hide cameras in mulch? Dump mulch without asking and demand payment for removal?

i

[Rich Grise]

Admittedly, he's not quite as bad as the ones I've filtered after 3 _posts_. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

[New Leaf]

LOL! All of the above, practically.

Basically, this is how it goes. In Memphis, if you want any sort of annuals to stay alive in your garden over the summer, you need to mulch heavily. The combination of bad clay soil and hot weather kills anything off otherwise. I was actually contemplating a run to the garden centre to buy some mulch for the front flower beds when these guys knocked on the door. They had a pickup truck half full of mulch. The guy had a basket and showed me the quality and said they were just heading back to Mississippi after a landscaping job and did I need some mulch? Memphis is right next to the Tennessee/Mississippi border, and a lot of landscaping companies come over to do jobs during the day, so this all sounded above-board.

I asked how much. He said 15 baskets would cover the two front beds. I asked how much per basket. He said, "$5 a bushel." I calculated that out and it was about $20 more than I'd have to pay by the bag at the garden centre, but that would have required two trips with two toddlers in car seats plus they were going to spread it. I agreed.

They did the job quickly, spread the mulch neatly, cleaned up the sidewalks, and came to the door. I had $80 ready, $75 plus a $5 tip. The big guy said, "That will be $375." ?!?!?!?!?!?!? I said, "No you told me $5 a basket and you'd need 15 baskets to cover it." He said, "Well ma'am, these are 5 bushel baskets." Now I thought that a bushel basket held about the same as 10 gallons. I remembered learning that in school. I said that the basket he showed me was a bushel basket. He put a foot in the door and said "Don't tell me my business. This is a

5 bushel basket." That's when he gave me the line about knowing where I lived. I wrote a cheque and they took off fast.

When I went out to check it closer, the mulch was so bad I had to pull it off. It definitely wasn't the good stuff he'd shown me in the basket. If you use cedar as mulch, it needs to sit for a while so it stops "cooking" and also because it is quite acidic, and that has to be washed out. You can't just put cedar through a woodchipper and use it as mulch. To make this fresh stuff look aged, they had mixed in oil of some sort.

Viv

[Marissa Payton]

In my town soliciting door to door requires a permit or notificiation to the police station. If your neighbor reported them for going door to door, the police would check if they have met the requirements. If not, our police would be more than happy to stop by and have have a chat.

If an actual scam or fraud is reported, they will start the criminal process. They are also happy to do a full commercial vehicle inspection as well, never know what those can turn up.

[Edward Hennessey]

Though it would be wrong to accuse anyone without evidence this is a species of fraud characteristic of an American group called "The Irish Travelers" which operates in the Eastern and Southern part of the country. There was a very interesting documentary about them on the box some years ago.

Their itinerant and elusive modus operandi has made legal action against them very difficult.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

[George Grapman]

Three simple solutions:

Ask for their contractors license and immediately verify it. A legitimate firm will be glad to oblige.

While you are asking for than information write down the license plate on the truck.

Pay by credit card.

[Maxwell Lol]

That's a "gypsy" scam. My mom feel for it 40 years ago. The con artists will be gone before you have time to report them to the police.