Hardcore rip-offs
Hardcore rip-offs
Read in todays Daily Mail of a shop in York, 70b Gillygate, got fined for selling allegredly hardcore videos that were anything but and charging up to ?50! The people who bought these vids found the Channel 5 films stronger, so rather than hide behind the embarassment of buying such videos they went straight to Trading Standards. Will be back with further details when the Ol' man has finished with the paper.
Re: Hardcore rip-offs
I heard this on the radio yesterday. They prosecuted the rip-off merchant and he lost the case. Can't remember how much he was fied. He said that he was amazed they had the cheek to complain!
Re: Hardcore rip-offs
He got done for ?3,800 + ?2,026 costs according to Friday's Sun. Serves him right. It might interest punters to know that I once went for a job in a certain local shop where company policy is that nothing has a price. Charge whatever you think the punter will pay and never give change if you can palm him off with a free poster or mag! Haven't been to any sex shop since this experience (but it was unlicensed premises).
Re: Hardcore rip-offs
And your opening line to a prospective customer: "So how much are you looking to spend?", right? 
Actually, I've found that if you are prepared for this, and say something like "well, I'd just like to see what videos you have, and then see how much they cost.." things can sometimes proceed in a more amenable fashion. If you get an aggressive response to a statement like this - which can also happen - my advice would be to make promptly for the door....

Actually, I've found that if you are prepared for this, and say something like "well, I'd just like to see what videos you have, and then see how much they cost.." things can sometimes proceed in a more amenable fashion. If you get an aggressive response to a statement like this - which can also happen - my advice would be to make promptly for the door....
Re: Hardcore rip-offs
I was delighted to read that this shark has been done over. I was once ripped off by a York sex shop in similar fashion, some ten years ago!
And yes, they used exactly the same patter that has been mentioned. The more things change...
And yes, they used exactly the same patter that has been mentioned. The more things change...
Re: Hardcore rip-offs
Here is the full article from Friday 20th Jan's Daily Mail:The sex-shop were easily seduced by the videos stamped ?hardcore? with salacious titles such as Confessions of a Sex Maniac. But after parting with up to ?50 for each tape, they were in for a bitter disappointment when they went home and pressed the ?play? button on their video recorders.
The ?pornography? on offer was so tame that Channel 5 might have classed it as family entertainment. Three customers put their embarrassment to one side and took their complaints to trading standards officers, claiming the videos had been mis-sold. Their investigation led to an astonishing court case yesterday, in which the adult shop?s owner was fined for selling material that was not hardcore enough.
Confessions of a Sex Maniac turned out to be a 1974 film telling the story of an architect, who dreamed of building an office block shaped like breasts, York Magistrates were told. Also tagged ?hardcore? was Secrets of a Sensuous Nurse, a 30-year-old comedy starring Ursula Andress and Jack Palance about a woman hired the heirs of an ageing millionaire to give him a heart attack.
In total, more than 50 films labelled ?hardcore? were seized from the Adult Shop in Gillygate, York, with titles including Talk Naughty to Me, and Alice Goodbody. The Griffin Star Printing Company, which owns the shop, admitted applying false trade descriptions to the videos.
The company also pleaded guilty to selling a video without a censor?s classification certificate and was fined a total of ?3,080 and ordered to pay ?2,026 prosecution costs.
Company director Nick Griffin, 30, from Clee Crescent, Grimsby, said after the case: ?I am amazed people have the audacity to complain about things like that. No one complained to me. In future I will make sure I know what I am selling.
Colin Rumford, head of York Trading Standards, said:?We responded to complaints from the public, both men and women. They felt embarrassed and reluctant to come forward, but also felt cheated.
@Daily Mail 2001
The ?pornography? on offer was so tame that Channel 5 might have classed it as family entertainment. Three customers put their embarrassment to one side and took their complaints to trading standards officers, claiming the videos had been mis-sold. Their investigation led to an astonishing court case yesterday, in which the adult shop?s owner was fined for selling material that was not hardcore enough.
Confessions of a Sex Maniac turned out to be a 1974 film telling the story of an architect, who dreamed of building an office block shaped like breasts, York Magistrates were told. Also tagged ?hardcore? was Secrets of a Sensuous Nurse, a 30-year-old comedy starring Ursula Andress and Jack Palance about a woman hired the heirs of an ageing millionaire to give him a heart attack.
In total, more than 50 films labelled ?hardcore? were seized from the Adult Shop in Gillygate, York, with titles including Talk Naughty to Me, and Alice Goodbody. The Griffin Star Printing Company, which owns the shop, admitted applying false trade descriptions to the videos.
The company also pleaded guilty to selling a video without a censor?s classification certificate and was fined a total of ?3,080 and ordered to pay ?2,026 prosecution costs.
Company director Nick Griffin, 30, from Clee Crescent, Grimsby, said after the case: ?I am amazed people have the audacity to complain about things like that. No one complained to me. In future I will make sure I know what I am selling.
Colin Rumford, head of York Trading Standards, said:?We responded to complaints from the public, both men and women. They felt embarrassed and reluctant to come forward, but also felt cheated.
@Daily Mail 2001
Re: Hardcore rip-offs
Thanks, Trigg, for that! A delightful read. I particularly liked: "in future I will make sure I know what I am selling." Spin-doctoring skills of almost governmental proportions 

Re: Hardcore rip-offs
Thanks. The article was copied and credited to the Daily Mail, that fine newspaper that has campaigned against hardcore sattelite channels in the past.
Re: Hardcore rip-offs
It?s message threads like this that make this such a great forum. I?d missed that story guys, so thanks for bringing me up to date.