French artists selling door to door in Dublin

If they don't take a polite no for an answer then close the door on them. If they cause hassle call the Gardaí. If you spot them in advance and know that they are collecting or flogging stuff and you're not interested then don't answer the door to them.
 
Try putting up a "No Junk Mail, No Door to Door Sales" sticker.
It can't hurt. It worked for me on Junk mail at a former address.

-Rd
 
I'm afraid I was sucked in too but this time by an Israeli girl. She was so nice and knowledgable on all the paintings. She did some of them and her friends did the others.......I paid €75 for my painting, she was looking for €90. Another girl in the office bought 2. I went over to the framing shop but was in queue, everyone in the town got caught! The guy in the art shop told us they were from China. You live and learn I suppose! I have to say for €75 + €45 to get it stretched, its still not bad value for money.
 
They are very active in the Midlands at the moment, I know a framing business who have framed 30-40 of these for people in the past two months or so, many of them are identical reproductions- people want to believe they are originals, be warned!
 
Scam is going on for years. When I got caught it was the frame guy in my town who explained to me they were photocopies on canvas touched up.
 
Almost a year to the time period referred to in my last post we had the polish students again hawking their wares. I was busy elsewhere and Mr.V answered the door and, soft touch that he is, bought a 'charcoal sketch of the art student's home town'- yeah, right! Chalk it up to experience, I said ( tongue in cheek) as I explained about this scam. Interesting to see that they called more or less a year to the day from my last post- I wonder if they are really very organised and diarying visits to certain areas year after year?
 
I haven't bought anything from these students but I did buy from a person who said he represented "the art box" or something similar... and that he lived in Swords and that he had been in business for 25 years. We get phone calls every 3 months from his wife wondering if we want to be shown some more paintings.

I know the picture I bought is not an original, it's a copy of a famous picture but we liked it, and I'm hoping that it was actually hand painted and isn't some kind of fancy print on canvas.

Has anybody heard anything about this company?
 
ribena said:
I'm afraid I was sucked in too but this time by an Israeli girl. She was so nice and knowledgable on all the paintings. She did some of them and her friends did the others.......I paid €75 for my painting, she was looking for €90. Another girl in the office bought 2. I went over to the framing shop but was in queue, everyone in the town got caught! The guy in the art shop told us they were from China. You live and learn I suppose! I have to say for €75 + €45 to get it stretched, its still not bad value for money.
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Just happened to me an hour ago bought 4 painting for 100 euro each feel rather stupid now:eek:
I paid her by check and the banks dont open till tuesday so is there still something i can do??
Whats the story from a legal standpoint???
Hope someone see this in time
Thanks
 
We had an Israeli bloke around during the week selling paintings by 'fellow artists' from the 'Israeli Art College'. Some were really quite good - including a Salvadore Dali painting & some 'very famous square in the middle of Jeruselam'

He wanted about €110-120 for each. I offered €120 for 3 - but he declined for some strange reason :confused:
 
ninsaga said:
We had an Israeli bloke around during the week selling paintings by 'fellow artists' from the 'Israeli Art College'. Some were really quite good - including a Salvadore Dali painting & some 'very famous square in the middle of Jeruselam'

He wanted about €110-120 for each. I offered €120 for 3 - but he declined for some strange reason :confused:
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Dont fooking touch them!!!!!!!!!!
Just happened tonight you can buy them for 5 dollars on tinternet.....
It happened 2 hours ago i took off in the car and found the girl who was israeli
as well in an estate across the road and got my money back
.....
Thanks a million to this site it saved me 400 euro:):)
In limerick area at the moment BEWARE
Did any of them look like this

http://www.canvaz.com/
 
Had a similar experience here in Ballina in Mayo two weeks ago. A guy called to the door I think he said he was from Spain and he had paintings. Said he would only be around for another day as they were moving to another part of the country. Didn't buy anything luckily enough.
 
Just reading through this thread and I am amazed that anyone would hand over E150 to a door to door salesperson. If I'd have known people out there would fall for it, I'd have done it myself!
 
Yes !! Today and one of those was of the Eiffel Tower
 
I had a "French" guy call to the door last week selling paintings. He said they were a mix of originals and reproductions. Like efm, I cut him off half way through his pitch. I told him I was an artist myself and didnt buy other artists work. He got a bit narky with me. I explained to him in at least 3 different ways that he was wasting his time and mine. It took a while to get rid of him.
 
Israeli bloke, last night in Co. Louth. He was very pushy - it took two of us and over 20 minutes to get rid of him - and very narky when the "No" finally got through. Again, it was E150 for each unframed canvas and he was from some Israeli Art collective or college or suchlike, mar dhea. Thanks to AAM, I knew it was a scam, though!
 
I heard about this scam about 6 weeks ago on another site. About 2 weeks later I was visiting friends who have just bought a house, she was delighted to show me her new artwork, which she just happened to buy from a polish guy who called to the door. He said to her that 'a friend' sells the frames and if she likes he will get him to call. She was delighted and paid by cheque, and just mentioned to me they were very expensive. I couldn't say anything to her as I felt sorry for her, and plus the fact the cheque was well cashed.

I saw the one of the images she had bought in Homebase about a week later, for what I imagine was a fraction of the price.

They must think the Irish are real mugs (and apparently we are), they must be making a real packet out of this scam.

Probably should be publicised more too!
 
gotsomenow said:
They must think the Irish are real mugs (and apparently we are), they must be making a real packet out of this scam.

Probably should be publicised more too!
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Don't aggree- the moral of the story here is: "never buy goods or services from cold callers or door to door sales people", it's really that simple!
 
I don't know about that. There are genuine people out there that support their families by selling door-to-door and have done for many years. It is the people mentioned above that will put an end to that though.

I think there should be some sort of regulation on door-to-door selling with a proper ID card, but then I suppose the unscrupulous amongst us would just get their printers and laminators out!

Sad really.
 
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