wholeworldwindow

O.K - firstly I am not having a go at Ozzies but having only been here a few weeks I am interested to find out other peoples opinion of the Ozzie nature. Yes, I know this is a question that encompases all realms of different people and I am not looking for sweeping statements to label an entire state of country.....but........

In the first few weeks we have been to a fair number of garage sales to build up items for our rented accomodation before we moved into it. We bought lots of things and were overwhealmed at the niceness of the sellers. All so interested on our emigration and so chatty and doing special prices to "help us along" as they put it. Really could not believe the friendliness. We bought individual items from about 30 houses in 10 different areas around several posh areas and other suburbs, with only one lady a bit stand-offish. Feeling very warm about the locals and the friendly country we had moved to, to moved into our rented accomodation and started to unpack the goods we purchased. Microwave, washing machine, coffee maker, games console, telephone, boogie box...and more...none of them work. Now the sellers must have known this...most of them anyway. I was really shocked.......I always asked before I bought if they were working and was always told yes, of course. Hubby previous to this bought a 2nd hand car here and had to go back to garage and demand faults fixed, including a repair to a damaged exhaust that was bandaged up to last just over the 30 day garantee - Luckily we had a mate here who knew about cars - (Hubby left the owner swearing never to sell to a Scotsman again!).....I expect this behaviour from my old local neighbourhood...but at least back home they don't pretend to be friendly 1st!

SO....up for debate.....Ozzies/Queenslanders....genuine friendly people or sneaky manipulative rip off merchants? (yes and all those levels in between too! I realise this invokes posible sweeping generalisations) What's your experiences!

ANA123

How horrible!
We've been here for 14 months and have not experienced anything like this, I do find the over friendliness a bit superficial and wearing sometimes but nothing more sinister than that (and thats just because I'm an uptight brit but I really dont want to tell the 16 year old in coles about my day, I just want her to put all my frozen stuff in the same bag!)
Hope your luck changes,
Michaela

wholeworldwindow

LOL! I can relate to that! At our local shops, Hubby always tells them exactly how his day has been - very politely, but usually in great detail. He figures if they are asking why not tell them and they'll stop asking soon enough!

ABCDiamond

That does sound very bad. My wife buys lots of "garage sale" things !, but none of them Electrical that I can think of, so I can't compare these things.

It reminds me of a time that I went to buy a 2nd Hand microwave, the owner said it worked OK, so I asked him to test it, and he had no hesitation in turning it on. The surprise on his face when it went BANG, and blew up, looked pretty genuine to me !

I hope your luck gets better I'll send some Karma your way.

wafoo1

Yeah,we've done a few of those 'garage' sales,some people make Dell boy seem on the straight and narrow!

Del Boy

Ahem......

Ceri

Can I state the obvious
Why on earth did you not ask them to test the things for you?

Most Garages have an electrical socket, most gardens have an outside electrical socket too, and if not they can run an extension lead from the power in the garage to the garden for these things. To show you the toaster etc works.

If the appliances are looking in good nick, why are they selling them?

Never buy any electrical goods second hand without testing them.

As for markets/boots sales - stay well clear of electrical items, most markets are traders and buy their junk in second hand auctions, rubbish dump sales etc , half the items don't work.

No I don't think they rip off here anymore than in the UK, but your asking for trouble buying electrical goods second hand without seeing them work.
Irregardless if they look posh or not , you can't trust a "posh" looking person/area to the next person

Live and learn lol

I suppose it's not funny to you , but you got to laugh If you are angry about it , go back to the houses who sold you the junk and ask for a refund, if they won't give you a refund just threaten them with the small claims court as you were told by them the items worked. . You can actually sue them if you want, and have spent out loads. That's what the small claims court is for. You are still covered by the laws here, if they told you they worked and you bought them because of this - well you are within your rights.

cheers

jad n rich

Aussies are just the same as anyone else, dodgy washing machine of course they will smile at you if you are prepared to give cash for it

My gripe with them is the way they smash trolleys into your car, you can catch them red handed and they go mental, like YOU have the problem for not expecting your car to be smashed into.

Personally I'd be a bit careful of buying much of value at a garage sale if it was good gear the wouldnt be selling it for $20. Unless its stolen goods, which is quite common, was on telly recently, police advised you must ask for the original purchase docket, otherwise if its stolen it makes YOU the receiver of stolen goods.

Theres a scam a minute here, in todays mail we have a threatening letter with an elastic band!, it suggests I tie it to my finger to remind me of my 'failure" to contact this company who can save me thousands of bucks Last week the police (as if) wanted money when we declined got told to F *** off

JackTheLad

I know this happens in the UK too, but Tradesmen here a very sneaky.

Come pay-up time they always eye me up and decide I look criminal enough to ask if I really want a receipt with that. It would be so much cheaper and quicker if we didn't put it through the books etc. They would also offer their own 'personal' guarantee of the work if we go down the no receipt route.

Now considering I've only just met these people, they either make this offer to almost everybody, or I have a particularly low sloping forehead.

The best one was when I rang a major plumbing company who sent a guy out to look at the problem. Within about 2 minutes he offered to ring up the company and tell them it was a 'no job' and then come back later and fix it himself for about half the price.

Cheers,
JTL

wholeworldwindow

Ok, well let's see if I can shed light

When you get to a sale early and are squalbling for a bargin - there are 3 other people waiting behind you for you just to put it down just so they can nab it. Sometimes, it's just best to buy and take your chance, usually you have only got a few bucks to loose.

Again the "getting a bargin" buzz takes over and you just go on auto pilot and pay so that no one else can whip it away from you. (although my guessing is that you are of the male variety and can not see logic in this motivation and have litle understanding of the vicious wrath of a woman who's just lost a shopping bargin!) p.s electrical sockets in the garden????? Really????? Please bear in mind I came from Scotland and have been here 4 weeks! We never had them there...good idea ...(although a bit dangerous I would have thought!)

People upgrade appliances frequently for the additional gadgets manufacturers now include on items....i.e..the latest grill device or water coolers etc.... or even just to fit in with the new decor...all sorts of reasons.

Fair enough, wish I had the ability to buy new - but limited funds force this. I will always try and test in future.

Nah, not angry...just dissalousioned by human nature. I've not lost all that much...items were not expensive. Not worth stressing out about it. And yes, I realise you take a gamble with 2nd hand goods and sometimes that's half the buzz of buying at garage sales. That wasn't really the point of this post. Just wondering really if the smiley faces were a facade here...or of generally people found others genuine. That's all. Thanks for the advice though - I'll always ask to test in future.

wholeworldwindow

Oh god no! If they did that to my old man - he would go ballistic with them - that truly will be a scary one to see!

Simone

That's one with I'm wary of with Garage sales, would be very careful with electrics and bigger expensive things!

Geez, but you have a lot of bad luck! All of those things didn't work?? At all??!!


We bought a keyboard for $5. They didn't have the adaptor, but said it ran on batteries. We tried our own adapter, but didn't work. Haven't tried batteries yet. But either way, it was only $5, so doesn't really matter!!

wombat42

People at garage sales only sell broken junk they don't need.
Your better off going to your local rubbish tip and collecting junlk from there then buying the junk at garage sales, atleast it won't cost you anything

Ceri

You can't do that in many dumps in Qld. There are signs everywhere that you must not take things. What many dumps do here is take the good stuff out, and they sell it themselves on the premises - Dumps have markets of their own lol.

I recently went to the dump, to dump a pile of sh*te ( edit* I did not go for a sh*te lol), and was eyeing up a lovely piece of felled wood, in the garden matter dump section - would have made a nice seat for the garden, but there were too many people about for me to pilfer it .. b*gger! lol

Anyway you can't nick stuff from the dumps here. They sell it themselves.

wholeworldwindow

That was a sweeping sentiment - what about baby items that your kids grow out of before they get the chance to use them? What about clothes that you bought when you were pregnant believing that you will return to the same size you were before you got pregnant? What about all those foot spas, big slippers and christmas pressies that you hate but someone will love? One persons trash is another persons treasure!
Well I agree that you have to be carefull with electricals...but I did get lots of other fab things that I use all the time. I love the thrill of a garage sale or car bootie. I have got many splendid items for years! I guess your not a big fan of e-bay then either? You are missing out on a whole different style of retail therapy! Shopping with a challenge! Fab fun! (.....well usually!)