Acoustic Reference and Global Audio Network (and others)

Acoustic Reference BS-300 (and others)

As the page you will have just come will have said, these speakers are not what they are claimed to be. A company called Global Audio Network (and no doubt a few others) are running a sophisticated scam. This trickery is not limited to London, nor even the United Kingdom. Arrests have been made in Hong Kong. Using the word company is probably not correct - bunch of criminals is probably closer to the point.

Some of the previous page is probably echoed in this page. The following are not the opinions of the owner of this web-site, they have been submitted externally

Information

  • About Acoustic Reference BS-300 and others
  • What should you do?

    • The Usual Story...

    I my case 3 guys in a white van (it's usually a white van hence the 'White Van Scam') stopped and asked me if I (or any I knew) was after any speakers. The said they had excess delivery stock they needed to sell cheap. The speakers 'were worth £900+'.

    Out of what was probably mis-guided politeness I took some interest. Plus I was going to buy some speakers anyway from somewhere in the near future. They showed me two types of speakers, bookshelf style speakers and large floorstanders. They had a delivery invoice and laminated data sheets on these speakers.

    Anyway they convinced me that me (and my friend) that I wanted to audition them. They demonstrated the speakers on my Hi-Fi, giving me all sorts of 'Technical Information' and details on these studio quality speakers. I got someone who knew their Hi-Fi stuff to give me their opinion there and then. He and my friend reckoned I should buy them if I liked them.

    I wasn't completely convinced. But the guys had been talking about getting me to ring a number and check the 'Retail price' of these speakers. They gave me a mobile to do this and sure enough Acoustic Reference BS-300 were worth around £900 including fitting. So they dropped me by a cash machine and I withdrew between £100-£200 (I'm not mentioning the actual figure) from it and 'bought' them.

    The Truth

    I wasn't that sure how good the speakers were. I knew that from the build and materials used they had to be worth more or less the cost of my JPW Gold Monitors (£80 - very good speakers for the money - sorry don't mean to plug!). Firstly I got someone who was into very high-end Hi-Fi to look at them.

    (High end Hi-Fi is stuff like Jimmy Rogers, B&W, Roksan etc - good, geniune makes you would possibly pay £1000 for)

    His opinion was that they didn't sound bad for £100-£200 (but... wait a bit - they are probably not worth even that!) They were, how ever worth no more than that. Not anywhere near £900 anyway. Read

  • About Acoustic Reference BS-300 and others

    Out of interest I ran a search on the Internet for the speakers and the name 'Global Audio Network'. What I came up with was an eye opener. This was the first site I came across, among others, and you can guess what I thought. ****!

    The next move

    I phoned the number given on this site for Global Audio and eventually after a few test phone calls (asking about the price of the speakers again), I did the following.

  • I said I knew what they were up to
  • I would get the Police and Trading standards involved if I didn't get my money back

    The guys first response was to say; -

    "We can do this two ways, you can get trading standards and the police involved. I'm used to dealing with them. I have no problem with that. Or you can be nice and get a refund"

    The guy on the phone said he would arrange the speakers to be returned by the guys who sold me them. Someone from the company in Manchester would phone me to arrange collection. One tactic the guy on the phone uses is to make you feel stupid about the situation as if it's your fault. He also complains about people saying you should get nasty with him to get your money back. I'm reserving judgment on that...

    At Present

    Some bloke called Mark (I think?) did phone me from Manchester and said the speakers would be collected after in the first two weeks of January. Nothing happened. I tried ringing the number and it appears to be dis-connected.

    What should you do?

    Frankly remember this; these people 'Global Audio Network' and similar companies are scum and you are in the right. Also don't feel stupid, yes you've been conned, but so have many other people. 'Global Audio Network' wouldn't go to the effort if they knew it didn't work.

    Now. What do you do? Difficult question. Firstly it's probably worth doing what the guy did on the previous page (and what I tried without success!)

    If you get your money back then fair enough.

    Failing this, your next best move is to cause as much trouble as you can for this 'Global Audio Network' 'company'. Talk to the police (Crime stoppers 0800 555 111), Trading standards and anyone else you can think of that might have any kind of weight in this sort of thing. I leave ideas up to you... you'll probably be quite motivated if you lost more than £100-£200 in this scam...

    Remember 'companies' like Global Audio Network should not be allowed to trade in Britain (or anywhere). If you have fallen for this scam make sure they don't. They are not good for consumer or retails alike.

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