Ever been ripped off or fallen victim to a rogue trader?
Choosing an honest and reliable tradesman can be a difficult and daunting task. South Gloucestershire Council Trading Standards offers the following advice to help you protect yourself from these unscrupulous ‘traders’:
Rogue traders prefer to approach their victims by cold calling, or doorstep selling. People are often not expecting a salesman at their door and can find themselves caught off-guard and subjected to high pressure or aggressive sales tactics.
Rogue traders provide poor quality, unfinished and often unnecessary work for over inflated prices. The price quoted in the beginning is not the price they will eventually charge.
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Rogue traders have no regard for the law or their customers' legal rights. They rarely provide the paperwork and cancellation rights they are obliged to provide and can take extreme actions to get the money they claim they are owed, sometimes driving their victims to the bank or cash point.
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Rogue traders offer service and maintenance type work. For example, cleaning and sealing roofs, laying, cleaning or sealing driveways, garden maintenance or clearance, building work and a lot more.
For more information on rogue traders and scams, South Gloucestershire Council Trading Standards has produced an information booklet giving information and advice to keep yourself safe. To request your copy, please telephone the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 03454 04 05 06 or email trading.standards@southglos.gov.uk quoting ‘Be in the know’.
rogue traders
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