Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards service has issued it latest bulletin warning of doorstep crimes and cold calling.

One resident of the Mearns recently reported that their parents had a knock at the door from a roofer despite have a ‘No Cold Caller’ sticker on their front door.

The roofer pointed out a number of ‘issues’ to the resident and claimed that it would cost £20 to repair. The elderly resident asked for time to think about these issues but the roofer ascended their ladder and started work; when he came down from his ladder he then claimed that the issues would cost a five-figure sum to remedy. Despite this, the roofer gave no breakdown for the work he claimed
needed done.

Thankfully, the elderly resident’s bank became concerned about the size of payment and did not authorise it, so no money changed hands.

Some points to remember:

• Trading Standards recommends that you shouldn’t accept offers for work from tradesmen who turn up unannounced at your door. The risk is too high that problems will arise. Find you own trader through trade bodies, personal recommendation and trusted trader internet searches.

• If you have a ‘No Cold Callers’ sticker or notice at your gate, front door etc., try to stick to that, even under pressure or persuasion by the cold caller. Remain polite, thank them for their concern and tell them that you will get someone to look at it. If necessary, tell them that you have a relative in the trade and you would prefer them to do the work or tell them that you have something on the stove/a visitor in the house and that you must attend to that urgently.

• If you decide to accept the trader’s offer, remember, you have a 14-day cancellation (cooling off) period in which you can change your mind without penalty. The exception to this is if the consumer (the resident) waives this right and allows the trader to start work beforehand. This sometimes happens when the trader pressurises or persuades the resident to do so. Please use this cooling-off period, or even some of it, to think carefully about what and who you might be committing to.

• The trader is obliged by law to provide certain information about themselves to a consumer before both parties finalise their agreement (which is a contract). This information includes the trader’s name; business address and phone number; a total price of the goods and services being provided (including tax) or how that price will be calculated (a breakdown of costs); any additional delivery charges; an estimate of how long the work will take or that the duration of the work can be extended by agreement of both parties.

• Remember, these conditions apply to other types of tradesmen calling at your door, not just roofers.

In an effort to tackle this sort of problem, Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards are
looking at the feasibility of setting up or joining a Trusted Trader scheme which will cover Aberdeenshire.

TELECARE SCAM

A message from our Housing and Building Standards Service:
We are aware of a scam being circulated in some areas which may be targeting telecare service users transitioning to digital telecare.

This scam is false phone calls to telecare services users asking them to pay for a new alarm as their current system is obsolete. Given the vulnerability of telecare service users, there is a high risk that they may provide bank details to the scammer. We suggest that you liaise with telecare service users and make them aware of this current scam.

Local prevention teams can provide a good source of support to your telecare service users, but if your staff are making calls to service users you may wish to consider including a conversation about nuisance calls. The following information may be helpful:

• People can sign up to the Telephone Preference Service for FREE either online or by calling 0345 070 0707.

• Many home phone providers offer services (some of which are free) to block unwanted calls e.g. BT Call Protect, Talk Talk’s Call Safe.

• Unwanted calls can be blocked using built-in call blocking features on home or mobile phones.

• There is a range of standalone devices that can be used to block/ monitor calls.

• For more information on potential solutions check out Which’s article on how to block nuisance calls.

When advising telecare service users about any call blocking options, it is important to ensure that they know to include their telecare service numbers in their “trusted”/ “safe” numbers.

OVERCHARGING

Trading Standards recently received a complaint from an elderly man in south Aberdeenshire who felt that he had been overcharged for heating oil, in some instances 80p per litre when the average price elsewhere was around 50p at that time. This is not a situation which has developed since the start of the recent troubles in Ukraine but has been in existence for much longer but only came to light more recently when the resident was discussing oil prices with a relative.

Trading Standards is looking into this matter.

If your heating system runs on oil, this complaint highlights the worth, particularly now, of trying to get a quote for heating oil prices before buying. One good place to start looking is the heating oil price comparison website Boilerjuice (https://www.boilerjuice.com/heating-oil-quote/) which provides quotes nationally. Once you have your quote from this site, simply do an internet search for other, possibly more local, companies to see how their quotes match up to Boilerjuice. Most heating oil companies will offer a quote service on their home page or will clearly direct potential customers to the quote page.

As with any other trader, we would recommend that you seek at least three quotes before deciding on which company to buy from, bearing in mind factors such as price, delivery timetables and payment methods.

CONTACTS

For urgent Trading Standards matters, contact Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards at 01467 537222. For non-urgent enquiries, contact Consumer Advice Scotland at 0808 164 6000 or https://www.consumeradvice.scot/.

Contact Police Scotland on 999 if you need urgent police assistance or 101 for non-urgent matters.

For more information about scams visit Friends Against Scams at
https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/ or Take Five at https://takefivestopfraud.org.uk/