Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/27/online-mattress-sales-have-giv.html
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Online mattress sales have given rise to a new kind of con game - reselling filthy mattresses as new
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Ew. Or ick. Or both.
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They talk about this like it’s a new thing, but there had been incidents of mattress re-coating in Florida when I lived in Gainesville in the 90s.
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I remember seeing a piece on this on Dateline in the 90’s.
edit: Here’s a follow-up to that story 12 years later http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24226788/ns/dateline_nbc-dont_let_the_bed_bugs_bite/t/bed-bugs-living-new-or-refurbished-mattress/#.XlfzgTJKiUk
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If you’re buying a mattress off the back of a van that just happens to be in the area, what the actual fuck do you expect?
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The “Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law” tags found on most mattresses have baffled and amused consumers for decades, but there’s a very good reason for why they’re there.
Although the tags are for the consumer’s safety, the warning is actually levied at the mattress seller.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, government officials became concerned about the materials manufacturers were using to stuff mattresses. To cut costs, some manufacturers “recycled” old, used bedding materials and stuffed them into “new” mattresses.
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Sadly, this is not a new scam by any means.
It’s been illegal to resell used mattresses in Arizona for a while, although it still happens.
Out of curiosity, how does one get rid of a mattress outside of hauling it to a landfill?
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How often are people buying mattresses? I swear, every radio station & most podcasts are pushing mattresses. Is this code for something I’m not hip to?
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Give it to the nice man in the van, of course!
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Ah, a new twist on the old White Van Speaker Scam. The old ways are often the best.
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Beshizzled:
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Our municipality has free twice a year large item pick up. It is used for mattresses quite a bit since they have specialized instructions for them - wrapped not sure if there was more.
Now whether that just means they took our last mattress to the landfill or there is some other magic place - I do not know.
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Oh yeah! That just jogged my memory. I forgot about the speaker scammers.
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Bedbugs?
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The local variation I see is people with framed art that they were supposed to be installing/delivering. They come round every few years.
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Well that gave me the yucky poos.
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Everybody got to have a hustle
Yes, I think the idea of “I was in the neighborhood” is a general scam technique. There was an episode of “The Streets of San Francisco” where a gang would be somewhere to do roofing, and lure a neighbor into buying.
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I susupect there are worse things than bedbugs. Besides, their recent resurgence seems to be via people.
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Maybe there should be a revisionist fairy tale…The Princess and the Pea Poo.
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