French artists selling door to door in Dublin

Just had a french guy call to the door in Castleknock, told him 'no, as I knew it was a scam, he didn't argue and just left.
 
most of these paintings are real paintings but they are painted in "art schools" in china. A scene or otehr picture is placed in front of the students and the paint the same painting all day. - You can get some in woodies and many other stores.

The retail price for these is about €60 - €90 - basically the price of a decent framed print. If you like the painting then no harm in buying it, but don't pay any more than €50 / €70 for it. The sellers will have enough profit at that level.
 
Just reading this thread now, I'd no idea this was a scam. We live in Knocklyon and there was a spate of them calling all the time. I always said no when they started talking, I just find it's better to cut them off straight away. They are definitely the most aggressive lot of door to door sellers that I've encountered. Really rude. Hubby cought one of them looking in our front windows cos he didn't answer the door to them.
 
An "Israeli" art student called to the door in Enniskerry 2 weeks back. He told me he was working for a project called "Art for all" based out of london. Really convincing stuff. Told me they were cutting out the fat cat galleries so that the artist and customer made the money. I let him show me the art and he also told me that he was trained in interior design - so could consult on which pieces fitted in each room.

Pieces ranged from 120 - 350 euro. Anway I started getting suss when I asked more about the project - no web site etc. I told hime I'd think about it and then checked on the net - finding this post (thanks askaboutmoney !).

I found the art online, bought the pieces I had liked, 5 pieces delivered for about 90 quid within 7 days. The service from china was actually great.

I'd love to meet the salesman again and tell him I actually won out from the meeting - although he was so bloody genunie I wonder if he actually knew it was a scam at all!
 
I had a Polish lad knock the door a few weeks ago..same story selling sketches.
He told me all about the pictures and how he did them, how much they cost etc..
I wasn't interested but asked him if he was interested in sketching a picture of my kids for payment?..He stopped understanding the english at that point.
He was no more of an artist than I am.
 
An Israeli art student called to me recently selling his own work (supposedly). He became quite verbally agressive when I declined to buy his works.
 
We had the foreign art students around near Brighton last night, and for our naive innocent minds we were taken in by the story, invited them in, viewed the work, and in the end bought a painting for £100 which we paid for by cheque. We've since read forums such as this, and even seen the painting for sale on a website for £80. On the back of the cheque I put my name, address, home telephone no. and an email address. I was told a 'framer' would contact us, but that sounds like the real con.

On the face of it, we've bought a mass produced oil painting (that we like) for £100. At the moment, we've probably been the victim of mis-selling. I've contacted the police in case there are reports of any extra activity such as identity theft etc. and it's gone to their intelligence unit. Obviously I'm aware nothing criminal has occurred so far.

Reading some of the posts it's clear some people are happy with their art, and life just goes on.

My wife likes ours and is tempted to keep it, if we do I'll hang it by the front door as a reminder not to talk to any door to door sellers! (if you can't believe people fall for it, then believe me, I can't either!!!).

Our other option is to cancel the cheque and give the painting back when they realise the cheque was stopped (and keep my 3 wood by the door just in case!) I don't have contact details for them, so it would be a case of them contacting us.

Has anybody any further advice on this, whether it's better just to leave it as is in case there is a 'heavier' element behind or it all, or to simply cancel and chalk it down to experience?

My understanding is that under British law, you have a 7 day cooling off or cancel period for anything sold on your doorstep above the value of £35.
 
I was a victim of this about 4years ago in Lucan, I bought 3 paintings off a boy or girl from Israel and was made to believe it was original, I liked it and I m still loving them. Infact this is the first time of hearing about it as a scam. They even recommended somebody that did the framing and everything was about €500. I ll get the name of the artist on the painting and check on the website above.
 

This is the painting we bought
HTML: 
http://b-free.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=536
we've not really been too ripped off, £100 for what we could get for £80. If you like them, then fair is fair. Thing is the wife liked it more than me, and, well now we know I think we are tempted to stop the cheque and give it back. If you've 4 years of enjoyment from them though, then iit really is far from a scam as far as your concerned.
 

classic, that's the best response possible to these scammers!
 
i had 2 girls working for this company call to me last nov and i bought €550 worth of stuff off them? i told them it was way to near xmas and couldnt afford it bur really liked the payment, so 2 days later she is back again offering the paintings at a reduced price of 100 less, and i could write 2 cheques (one dated nov and one dated dec)
i presume i have been had????
http://www.art4all.eu/
 
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