So what would you do if you found an half-empty tin of Dulux white matt paint on your travels? Many of us wouldn’t probably even notice the tin and go about our business without turning a hair. But there is money in that discarded tin. Here’s how…
Firstly, you retrieve the tin and then take it home. Prepare a bucket of hot water and cleaning implements to clean aforementioned tin. Carefully remove any paint from the outside of the tin with a rag and plenty of elbow grease. Remember to pay close attention to the rim of the tin and to clean any dried paint that had gathered in the ferrule. Clean any paint from the lid of the tin. When the tin is clean to a level that you are satisfied with, refill the contents of the paint can with any dregs from any old white paint that you might have lying around. Replace lid and you now have a full tin of Dulux white matt paint – except it ain’t – it is a ringer.
So why am I telling you this? Well whilst sitting in my back garden yesterday afternoon my neighbours returning and began working furtively on such a scheme. One of them spoke very loudly giving instruction and what’s best for cleaning a paint tin. I had a little nosey and lo-and-behold one of the inbreds was cleaning said tin, readying it for refilling. The scheme was to refill the tin and then return the supposedly “new” tin of paint (again, remember it is ringer) to the local B&Q or Homebase for a refund.
“You can only do this with the whites,” advised the lead monkey-boy rather loudly, “As they won’t take back coloured or mixed paints. Lots of people buy too much white, so you can get your money back”. He was very confident that his scheme would work and then inadvertantly regaled me (sitting behind the fence out of view) that he’d done this many times before and had even returned thrown out items of electrical equipment as long as they had their original box. I suddenly felt as if I was living back in Dickensian London and that Fagin and his crew were living next door.
After spending half-an-hour working on this cunning plan to defraud the local DIY store, the three Stooges scurried off with their paint pot, excited at the prospect of getting £14.99 for nothing. Of course, you are probably nay-saying me and purrumping negatives, but this all unfolded rather loudly in front of me (albeit behind the garden fence). It’s just I’d never ever thought of such a scam and its amazing how some people’s brains work, innit?
I kind of miss our old neighbour…all she’d ever do in the back garden is feed the birds and sing to them quietly. 🙁
And the next line is for all you Googlers out there coming to this page via a search engine:
paint dulux scam rip-off homebase b&q return free money
Heigh ho!

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