Honda said its products were among a number of brands of power equipment that were being sold by people of Irish, Scottish, English and Australian origin.In particular, Honda said that in recent months a band of about 50 travelling Irish traders had been selling their wares in this manner and trying to pass off their inferior quality products as the genuine article.Moving from town to town, the scammers are said to offer equipment at heavily discounted prices compared to the genuine product, and do not provide a warranty or any contact details, promptly leaving the area for their next location before they are traced.“Heavily discounted power equipment being sold from the back of vans by Irishmen, Scotsmen, Englishmen or even Australians – there’s something very suspicious about this,” the Honda spokesperson said.“In the case of the Honda products being offered, the sellers have gone to considerable lengths sourcing Honda decals and affixing them to the non-genuine products to assist in passing them off as the real thing. “We have been advised that these shady salespeople are telling consumers that if they remove the fuel tanks they will see a Honda logo on the crankcase to prove they are genuine Honda products. “This of course is untrue, however they bank on the fact that most consumers are trusting, and will not remove the fuel tank – the victims may only realise the products are fake once the scammers have moved on to the next town.”The Honda spokesperson said that beyond the attractive facade, consumers were getting nothing more than inferior quality Chinese copy products with no receipt or warranty, so when something goes wrong, and the chances are that these inferior products will fail, the customer has no recourse.Honda said a sure way of identifying a genuine Honda product was via the serial number which is stamped on the crankcase on the side of the engine.“An example of a Honda serial number for the popular GX160 engine, for instance, is GCAFT-1000001. This will be clearly visible on the crankcase,” the spokesperson said. “Other genuine Honda engine types will show a similar serial number formation in the same location. “Copy engines normally have a simple five-digit serial number if any at all.”Police, the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs and the Office of Fair Trading are urging consumers to beware of people selling electrical goods, generators, small engines, pressure cleaners and the like from the back of vans.
