If you are expecting the warmer weather to bring along more door to door salespeople to your front door you are mistaken.
As of March 1st, the province has banned unsolicited, door-to-door sales of certain household appliances to better protect consumers from aggressive and misleading contracting at home.
John Schultz, Community Safety Coordinator, for the North Bay Police Service says in 2017 the local police had 19 complaints of door to door salespeople selling a variety of products including water heaters, water filtration systems, natural gas and hydro.
“It was happening, and that is 19 complaints we have, we don’t know how many other complaints there were out there that were not called into us,” said Schultz.
The new legislation will only allow businesses to visit door to door and enter into a contract after an appointment is made with the homeowner beforehand.
Schultz says provincially there has been a total of 45 victims with losses of over $100,000 relating to door to door sales so far in 2018.
Schultz has this advice for you if you get an uninvited salesman at your doorstep.
“We suggest that you tell them you are not interested and then you call the police,” said Schultz.
“Some of these salespeople did high-pressure sales and I think with high-pressure sales, some people felt compelled to do it and then you get into the validity of contracts and how long do they have to cancel a contract so some of those salespeople use those high-pressure sales tactics.”
The new rules will apply to:
- Air cleaners
- Air conditioners
- Air purifiers
- Duct cleaning services
- Furnaces
- Water filters
- Water heaters
- Water purifiers
- Water softeners
- Water treatment devices
- Bundles of these goods and services
In addition, businesses will be required to keep a record of how contact with the consumer entering the contract was made, and all contracts signed in the home for these goods and services will also have a 10-day cooling-off period, allowing consumers to cancel the contract for any reason without penalty.