Teresa Hunter: Doorstep mis-selling is just the latest knock-knock joke

Published on Friday 3 September 2010 18:25

THE energy regulator Ofgem is to investigate four big power companies - Npower, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy and EDF - over potential misselling by door-to-door and telephone sales staff.

The Golden Rule when someone knocks at your door or calls you out of the blue, is to say, "No thank you". Certainly, it is unlikely you will be sold the cheapest gas and electricity needs by a doorstep operator.

There are plenty of websites, such as uswitch or Which?, which can be relied upon to search for your cheapest option. All you need is your last bill.

I doubt many readers would sign on the dotted line when someone turns up or calls out of the blue, so it's not something I get too lit up about.

Mugging up on charity

MORE sinister are the activities of some charities. I have always supported a variety of good causes with fundraising and personal donations, but have gone down with a bad bout of compassion fatigue.

Over the past year or so, I have been hounded by unsolicited telephone calls, and doorbell ringers, whose aggressive tactics are akin to those of doorstep salesmen.

And it turns out, this is exactly what they are. Charities are increasingly paying commercial agencies to sign up donors. Millions of pounds are at stake as these "charity muggers", or "chuggers" as they are called, keep a good chunk of your donation for their fee.

Charities are quick to defend their use, but seem slow to understand how much distress or distaste they cause the public.

Take the sweet young woman who rang my doorbell, claiming to work for a first aid charity. Did I realise that if I, or anyone in my area had a stroke or heart attack, by the time we reached A&E it would be too late to help us?

No, I said, I had never thought about that. Well, she continued, I could make a difference and save lots of lives among my neighbours and friends if I helped train a first-aider.

Well, who wants to murder their neighbours and friends? So I said I could see it might be a good idea to have a trained first-aider living somewhere nearby.

Yes, she went on. But this costs money. Would I be prepared to contribute? By now I was hooked, and indicated that yes I probably would.

Good, she said. Would I just sign this direct debit? It was for a sizeable monthly amount. More to the point, there is the Golden Rule. Never sign anything on your doorstep. So I said I would read the papers fully, sign them and post them myself.

At this point, the sweet young lady started to turn ugly. No, it was vital I signed now if I wanted to prevent unnecessary deaths. No, it wasn't, I responded. I could easily read the material and post it myself. At this she grabbed the papers and stormed off in a huff.

I closed the door and stood in the hall, feeling guilty, anxious and annoyed. Then I realised what a load of rubbish it had all been. My husband is a trained first-aider. We have a doctor living opposite, and a GP husband-and-wife a few doors down. At the other end of the road is a nurse. And we can only be 15 minutes' away from the nearest hospital.

If a hard nut like me finds such encounters disturbing, I can imagine how upsetting they must be for the elderly or vulnerable.

Charities need to decide whether they are big businesses or philanthropic organisations. If the first, they should be subject to the same scrutiny.

Memoirs to forget

IT SEEMS to be the era of political memoirs. Not that I'll be buying any. I was tempted, when I saw new hardback copies of Peter Mandelson's The Third Man on sale in my local market for 5. Even then, when it came to parting with the money, I could think of better ways of spending a fiver.

I enjoyed Radio 4's serialisation last week of Chris Mullin's Decline & Fall. His take on Labour's achievements chimed well with me. It's hard to believe the last decade ever happened, given how many have changed their tune. Tony Blair didn't want fox hunting banned, Mullin despaired of public sector mismanagement and absolutely no one wanted the war.

Will we see such farce again? As the former Sunderland MP writes: "Today I collected my over-60s pass, which gives me free travel in London courtesy of people's Ken. Ludicrous really. When I wait for a No Three bus in the evenings, the only other passengers are usually members of the Lords or Commons and a waiter from the dining room. The waiter is the only one who pays."