SWANSEA: Warning over garden furniture cold callers working rural communities

Cold callers selling garden furniture door to door have been working Swansea‘s rural communities, and Trading Standards is telling residents to be on their guard.

The council’s Trading Standards team issued the alert after a number of reports about an unidentified business turning up uninvited at homes.

One resident initially agreed to buy, and was handed an invoice. Then the doubts set in.

The business details on the paperwork didn’t match the name on the vehicle, the council says, and the seller asked for the money to be transferred into a personal bank account.

Those two red flags were enough: the resident cancelled the sale and reported it.

Trading Standards is now reminding residents to be cautious about entering into agreements with anyone who arrives at the door unannounced.

Mismatched business details and requests to pay a personal account rather than a business one are classic warning signs, and walking away from a doorstep deal, as this resident did, costs nothing.

The alert lands in the same week the UK Government announced its crackdown on rogue traders, with an approved code of conduct for builders and new protections around upfront payments on the way.

Doorstep sellers have been a recurring problem across the region. Trading Standards teams in Carmarthenshire issued their own cold-caller warning last year, urging residents to use vetted traders through the Buy With Confidence scheme.

The advice from Trading Standards is consistent: take time over any doorstep offer, never feel pressured to decide on the spot, and check that a business is who it says it is before money changes hands.

Anyone with concerns about a cold caller, or who has agreed a sale they’re now unsure about, can report it to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service.

Doorstep sales are also covered by cooling-off rights: for most contracts agreed at home over £42, buyers have 14 days to cancel, and traders must tell you about that right.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.