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THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY
was at home on Staten Island watching TV last week when I saw an
announcement which stated that there would be a huge sale at Madison
Square Garden( http://www.thegarden.com
) ,where they would have a large number of products at "incredible
prices".
It was supposed to be, as they called it, "the $ale of The $entury. As I have constantly stated in this column, I have recently relocated to New York City from Fortaleza, Brazil. I was quite obviously unable to bring much stuff with me as I moved, meaning that my recently-rented apartment(yes, I finally found one after three months at the Ganas Community) does not contain(at least as of this writing) much furniture. Whenever I have a chance, I try to buy things at bargain prices. My wife and I have a lot to buy, and not having much cash handy, we figured that the "Sale of the Century" would be a great opportunity to do some shopping for our new home. We had no such luck.
The first surprise was that we had to pay $7.00 admittance(which - surprise! - had not been mentioned on TV). We reluctantly did, hoping that we would end up saving a lot of money. As we got in, we went right to the electronics section. What we saw was nowhere near what their misleading advertisement(and web site, http://www.saleofthesentury.com ) announced. Their computer section, for instance, dumbfounded us. Most of the computers they had on display were outdated, refurbished models. The newer ones, for example, a Dell 600Mhz model, cost more than a brand new one would in most retail stores. There were printers, but they too were refurbished and outdated. We then moved on to the electronics section. The DVD players, microwave ovens, telephones and other appliances were all at much higher prices than one can find at nearby department stores. We did find one good deal - it was offered by a large cell phone company, which offered us a great discount for the purchase of a wireless program - and that was about all. Actually, we later went to a popular retail store at Penn Station(which is right under Madison Square Garden) and found many of the same products at much more reasonable prices than they had at the so-called "Sale of The Century" - and of course, in the retail store's case, all the products are brand new, and not refurbished. I cannot believe that American consumers and consumers' unions allow scams like that to exist. First of all, I cannot accept that they actually charged admission for people to do something as simple as shopping - and they actually tour the country from coast to coast with their scam. Second, the fact that most of the prices were not at all incredible as they promised would surely invalidate their ongoing, on-tour scam. It is a shame - and I feel ashamed of myself to have fallen into that one.
Ernest Barteldes Staten Island,NY A writer needs feedback in order to write properly.
Please send feedback to: ebarteldes@nycny.net
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richard e. schiff,
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My
wife and I went over to the Madison Square Garden during what was
destined to become the worst snow storm of the last 5 years to hit New
York(that's my luck!!!).
