Cold-Callers Preying on The Vulnerable ? What About Manx Gas The MUA ?Et Al??
NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE
David Quirk Chairman of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) wants the Isle of Man to be the first place (I presume in the British Isles) to outlaw cold-calling at the door. He explains why in this interview (audio clip):
Now I don?t want to criticise OFT if this is a serious problem it?s just that I?ve never heard of anyone experiencing this – obviously if there is an endemic problem I would expect this post to attract comments to that effect.
What is a major problem are telephone cold-calling and the more serious scams where your bank and other personnel details are sought. Now OFT are not doing anything about this because as these calls invariably emanate from outside Mann there is nothing they can do.
Interestingly one of the most annoying (albeit legitimate) tele-calling is when people ring up and asks would you like to switch energy supplier. You carefully explain that much as you would like to the option does not exist in the Isle of Man and at that point the caller hangs up!
Doorstep callers may well be a problem perhaps OFT have evidence of this but more often than not the old and the more vulnerable have difficulty sourcing someone to do maintenance tasks rather than face a queue down the drive soliciting their trade.
Sorry to be cynical but I and I would imagine many others would prefer it if Mr Quirk and OFT made a few ?cold-calls? themselves to Manx Gas, the MUA, the Telecoms and the Oil companies. Now they are a group of companies that, as Mr Quirk puts it so emotively, are preying on the vulnerable.
Meanwhile we are all just ?praying? Mr Quirk and OFT do something about them ? after all that is part of the ?day job? for OFT as well!
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News
27/01/16
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The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues
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