The Oriental Carpet Buyer

My son told me a story today. He was visiting Ephesus, the ancient Anatolian city near Selçuk, Turkey. There he met Jeyhan, a.k.a. “Jimmy”, who runs Jimmy’s Place, formerly the Artemis Guest House. Jimmy, who also sells carpets, had a great story to tell my son about how one of his customers was almost conned by a dishonest salesman…and a UPS worker. Here is what Jimmy said, as my son related to me:

A customer came here [to Turkey] from the U.S. She bought a carpet. Went back home. Then she received a phone call. On the phone was a guy who called himself Jimmy and who asked whether he could pass by and show a few carpets - since he was in the neighborhood. She immediately called me up and asked me where I was. I told her that I was still in Turkey.

Jimmy’s customer told the fake oriental carpet salesman to go to hell, as should anyone who receives such a call. Jimmy had sent his customer the carpets through UPS, as do many carpet salesmen (there are very few cheap alternatives). Someone working there had taken his customer’s shipping address and phone number along with many others and sold it to a carpet salesmen, and possibly to many others.

This is something that happens every day in most oriental carpet selling areas. A customer buys a carpet in a store, the carpet is shipped via X company, and someone there sells the addresses en masse to hundreds of eager salesmen in Turkey who are struggling to sell their carpets at home. Today I want to make a point of revealing the techniques used by these very dishonest rug salesmen.

1. How they get your phone number and address:

As Jimmy’s experience above shows, when you buy an oriental carpet abroad there are many more exchanges of money than just between you and your salesman. When a store sells you a carpet, which often weigh much more than your airline will let you carry with you back home, they ship it to you instead. They get your address, contact details, etc. and then ship you the carpet. Dishonest UPS workers in Turkey are known to dish out lists of names and addresses in the United States in return for hefty amounts of money. Also, for those shop salesmen who do not come to the United States to sell, the addresses are a valuable means of revenue as well.

2. What they call themselves:

Your address gets traded around and eventually you get a phone call by someone professing to be someone they are not: the guy who you are supposed to know from the store or somewhere along the way. The most common names used during these operations are “Ali”, “Ahmet”, “Mehmet”, and “Rose” if it is a woman doing the calling. When I used to work at the Grand Bazaar, I remember hearing of bilingual university students in Istanbul being paid to make these calls to potential second-hand oriental carpet customers.

3. Their excuses:

Most often, what these bogus salesmen will say one of the following to convince you to let them come over to your house:

“We just finished a show and we have all these extra carpets left over that we don’t want to take back to [insert country of origin]. Can we come by to show you some?”

“You maybe remember me from [insert store name]. I sold you some carpets and now a friend of mine is coming to the United States to sell some, would do you like him to pass by on his way to California?” (This supposed friend is actually the guy on the phone.)

How to catch these guys:

1. See if they accept checks or credit cards.

2. Ask if they have a return policy.

3. Ask for ID.

4. Ask them to provide a certificate of authenticity.

5. [add your suggestions]

I am so tired of these guys harming the market for oriental carpets. Now being Turkish for me has become a disadvantage as I see how many of my compatriots do business - or rather harm. I hope to bring about consumer awareness so that this stops.

To begin with any angry customers out there can contact UPS and let them know how you feel about employees selling addresses.

You can also check out there privacy policy that is apparently not always respected.