Ten Trader Scams - Banned!
New regulations now protect you, the consumer, from unfair, misleading or aggressive selling. Here's the lowdown on what you need to know....
In May this year, the Office of Fair Trading launched a new set of regulations to better protect consumers from unscrupulous selling. Known as the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, they outlaw a range of dodgy practices used by traders to try and swindle you out of your hard-earned cash.
The bad news is there are quite a lot of practices for you to remember - 31 in fact - but the good news is, you, the consumer, now have the power to take action against them!
If you come across any of the outlawed practices, you can contact Consumer Direct, who will forward cases onto Trading Standards.
But of course, in order do this, you need to know what those banned selling practices are. So, to get you started, here are the first 10.
1) Providing false information about credentials
It is now illegal for traders to claim they're members of an official body, such as the Federation of Master Builders, when they're not.
2) Faking it
Similarly, traders mustn't display a trust mark or quality mark, or any other symbol that suggests they have been officially approved -- when they haven't.
3) Claiming a code of conduct has an endorsement when it doesn't
A company's code of conduct is an agreement on how it will treat its customers. A company is no longer permitted to claim its code of conduct has been officially approved by the Office of Fair Trading -- or any other professional body -- when it hasn't.
4) Claiming a business has an endorsement which isn't real
Traders mustn't falsely claim they or their products have received official approval. For example, your plumber mustn't claim he is CORGI-Registered, when he isn't.
5) Bait advertising
Traders mustn't advertise products at a particular price if they believe they won't be able to supply a reasonable number of those products to everybody who will want them, unless the traders have already explained this.
So if, for example, a flight operator advertises `Flights to Rome for £3' and the firm had only planned to offer a small number of flights to Rome at that price, this would breach the regulations. This is because the number of flights available at £3 would not be sufficient to meet demand, and the flight operator had failed to state there was limited availability in its advertisement.
6) Giving a false impression to attract the customer
Traders are not allowed to advertise a product at a particular price and then:
a) Refuse to show you the advertised item
b) Refuse to take your order for it or deliver it within a reasonable time
c) Show you a faulty sample of it, with the intention of promoting a different product
Say, for example, a trader advertises a TV in his shop window for £300, but when you ask about it, he shows you a model which doesn't work properly, and then shows you a different model at a higher price. If the trader did this deliberately to promote an alternative model, he has breached regulations.
7) Falsely claiming an offer is only open for a limited time
Traders mustn't falsely tell you a product will only be available for a limited time, or that it will only be available on particular terms for a limited time, so you feel under pressure to make a decision quickly.
8) Giving after-sales services in a different language
For example, if a trader in the UK speaks to you in English and agrees to provide after-sales service, but then provides this service only in German, without previously warning you this would happen.
9) Where the sale isn't legal
A trader should not sell goods which aren't legally his or hers to sell.
10) Claiming the customer has consumer rights as a special deal which they are already entitled to by law
You are legally entitled to a refund, repair or replacement in certain circumstances - and so you can report any trader who lies about your legal rights in this regard.
Tip of the iceberg
All this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more banned practices to come in Part Two..
More: Your Rights To Refunds, Repairs and Replacements! | Why Credit Card Spending Is Foolish!
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Comments
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A scam is a dishonest scheme or fraud and it largely relies on the person being scammed, the scammee, to decide whether the scammer is actually scamming. If the great British public want to accuse highstreet outlets of dishonesty because the rate at which teabags leave the shelves means that there are none left for the latecomer, no wonder the OFT is not achieving its its aims with the the misuse of its time. The OFT should focus on those scams which the scammee cannot avoid engaging and are not driven by the greed of the scammee. For example, you need a gas repair and you want a corgi registered fitter, Corgi being one of the few registration schemes I actually support. I have checked registration documents, noted the registration number etc. but I have no real time way of checking the facts. With important, safety related schemes it should be possible to check a registration number on line and maybe the OFT should be concentrating on these 'Authorising' bodies making this type of information readily available to the public. A list of banned/bankrupt traders and companies would help. If you are scammed because your greed has distorted your judgement, take it as a lesson on life and get on with that life! Regards AdAstra
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With so many scams and few Trading Standards staff, why not have a system where known scammers are warned and or prosecuted depending on the circumstances. And to have a broad standard of rules well documented so that most people understand the way to deal with these scams when received. A published list of penalties rigidly enforced could be implimented. Im no pc expert but surely the isp's could have a scam contact service and pull the plug on the pc ones. The mail services could also be notified and withold mail to known scam addresses and the phone companies could do likewise instead of thinking about their profits. There are loads of people with good ideas so why not work together and try to reduce the scams. And apply the same rules to rogue traders as well.
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kybosh909 - please my comments of the 2nd of December.[br/][br/]The new regs mostly replace existing regs and make the law more flexible. It has long been a requirement under contract law that th eseller must have good title to the goods, but this was a civil law requirement. The regs are statute law rather than common law.
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14 December 2008