Is this a scam - if so, how?!

[SpidersAreShitheads]

My DM wants a chest of drawers but is looking to get one on the cheap.

Marketplace on FB has been flooded with a certain type of advert for various bits of bedroom furniture. Brand new. Fully built, not flat pack. Many, many sellers. No link to website.

The ads all look slightly different but are recognisable as the basics are always the same. No specific price on the ad, cash on delivery, and free nationwide delivery. Usually lots of variants offered re colour/size. Often described as “FREE” but then says it’s not free.

The sellers of these furniture items on Marketplace all look a bit dubious. Typically relatively new accounts with lots of items of this brand new furniture for sale. Nothing else on their profiles. No track record of sales.

My question is: if it’s cash on delivery and free delivery, surely it’s not a scam?? How can it be??

Is it likely to just be really shit quality??

Personally I wouldn’t touch these sellers with a barge pole. However my DM has placed an order for one which is apparently being delivered tomorrow. She hasn’t clicked on any links (DP originally suggested it might be a way of phishing) and they haven’t asked for payment in advance.

It’s £99 for a large chest of drawers. Fully built. Cash on delivery. Free delivery.

I’m attaching photos of similar ads to show what I mean.

What do you think? Scam (but how??), poor quality item or amazing bargain??

AIBU to feel this is suspicious??

No idea how it's a scam but if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

Probably stolen and being sold on. Not scamming your DM as such🤷

Could be a few things.

Try to get you to pay before collecting and then disappearing.

They make you oay for delivery even if you want to collect.

They aren't very good and break quickly.

Or its legit...

We have similar around here but it's all beds.

Either stolen, the product delivered will not be as described, or maybe scouting out the house for a future hit.

We had someone hawking brand new beds round here, which turned out to be stolen.

If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

All these new furniture cash on delivery on marketplace are scams. Probably bait and switch. You either won’t get that item or it will be much more money and £99 is the delivery fee.

I would guess they’re just after her name and address. A friend of mine had a similar thing when she was giving away something free on a FB group. Someone said they wanted it, even pretended to be on their way to collect it. Never came. When I checked their profile they clearly didn’t even live in this country. Then a few weeks later, my friend started receiving things from Amazon that she hadn’t ordered. Lots and lots of weird stuff. So it could be a ‘brushing’ scam, the furniture probably doesn’t exist.

They usually ask for a deposit to mark as sold. Then they vanish

I suppose you'll find out if it turns up! But we've a local charity shop that sells drawers like that for £65 new, so not great quality, but cheap. So possible they are selling the same sort of thing and making money I suppose.

Aaah right, some good thoughts here! There’s an absolute fuck ton of this stuff - including beds - so that would be a LOT of stuff stolen! I wonder if it’s the £99 for delivery bait and will try and make her pay more?

I was/am absolutely bloody certain this is dodgy somehow but I just couldn’t figure out how. I completely agree with those of you who said if it’s too good to be true then it is!!

I’m quite irritated as my DM has a habit of being scammed, sometimes quite spectacularly and then expects me to sort it out. She showed me an ad a while ago along these lines and I told her it was dodgy and to avoid like the plague. She was disappointed but agreed - but a month or so later and she’s just told me today that’s she’s bought one. Grrrr.

I think me and DP are going to have to make sure we’re there when they deliver. He’s a big guy so hopefully his presence might help.

Fucks sake.

It’s being delivered tomorrow and they’ve not asked for a penny….I assumed the same as you but apparently not 🤷‍♀️

I'll be interested to see what it's like OP as I've also seen these ads and my DF has shown interest in some new furniture.

They ask you to sign to say it's delivered, then they have your address and your signature.....so I presume they can use these for something?
Someone did it to me with a fridge freezer. They delivered it that afternoon. Tried to get me to sign to say it had been delivered but when I refused (3 times) to sign until it was actually in my house, they got back in their van and drove off. The seller then rang me and said I'd been rude (wasn't rude at all, just firmly refused to sign anything) then blocked me.

I'm interested too. Make sure to update please op!

Make sure you get all that wrap off to check it's not damaged before paying them

I have always wondered about these ads so marking my place!

I will update tomorrow (with a photo if it turns up).

They originally said delivery Tues/Weds, DM bought it today. Then they phoned this evening and said they were delivering it tomorrow!

I’m just really concerned about it as it feels off but I don’t know in what way.

Best case scenario is it’s as @TidalShore says and it’s just cheap furniture, maybe low quality. I’m hoping that’s the case 😫

i see these ads all the time and wonder what the scam is. I hope your mum doesn’t get scammed though!

I bought a new bed from one of these companies. I'd split from my exH, had no money, and desperately wanted to get rid of what had been our previous marital bed and all its mental baggage. These beds were the cheapest I could find....the driver turned up on time, the bed was fine, there was no discernable scam.

It's cheap because it's really basic quality. It wouldn't have lasted for years, but it did the job for about five years!

Could be a business going into liquidation?

It will either be an outright scam or made of that shit chipboard type material. Either way avoid the adverts. Get something second hand made from actual wood and pay cash to hand upon collection.

I hate to disappoint those hoping for info on these sellers but I’ve managed to persuade DM to cancel the order.

She’s sent a message tonight cancelling and will ring them tomorrow.

They phoned at 9.15pm tonight to say they would be delivering tomorrow - which looks shady by itself!! What legit company rings customers that late on a Saturday night???

I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow but presumably it will just be cancelled and that’s that.

It not even that cheap really £99 I’m sure would get you a decent chest of drawers second hand somewhere.

Gumtree is a much better platform for this sort of thing.

They have put controls in place to show posting and selling history. They also give people the opportunity to rate a seller including reliability (if someone has a history that includes a lot of no-shows and unreliable, I don't deal with them if I'm selling or giving items away). I find the people who use Gumtree are far more likely to be reliable bona fide sellers and buyers.

Facebook Marketplace is a zoo full of those "Is this still available?" types, casing the joint as they say.

I always buy used, real wood furniture. It’s easy to paint or touch up the finish and it’s 10X better quality and is usually much less expensive.

The only new piece of furniture I have is a sofa, and it’s by far the worst quality furniture I own.