‘Hard sell’ salesmen made Chch ‘killing’

Press, 29 May 1982, Page 6

‘Hard sell’ salesmen made Chch ‘killing’

.Door-to-door photographers using “hard sell" methods had “made a killing" in Christchurch, said Mr J. 8. Ainsworth, the district officer for the Consumers’ Institute: yesterday.

Mr Ainsworth said his office had been inundated with calls from anxious people ...after a report of the salesmen’s activities was printed in “The Press” on Thursday. “Dozens" of telephone callers from a wide area of the city had asked for advice about their rights after they had been visited by the photographers. Many of the calls came from the eastern suburbs.

“We only get the tip of the iceberg from these calls. It must mean that there is widespread dissatisfaction,’* he said.

Similar selling techniques used by photographers in the North Island have been the subject of numerous news-

paper articles. Although the salesmen do not break the law, the Consumers’ Institute has argued that they disregard the basic rules of fair business practice.

Earlier in the week, Mr Ainsworth said that the sales talk used by the salesmen intimidated householders. Some householders had signed order forms just to be left alone. The salesmen who use various “ploys" to get into people's homes, did not identify themselves or their company, they did not leave copies of the order forms customers had signed and they did not leave price lists. Since the newspaper report Mr ’Ainsworth said, callers had said that they had asked to have copies of their order forms, but the salesmen had refused to leave them.

Another woman was told that 12 small photographs would cost $470. When she

had queried the price, the salesman dropped the price to $238. In another case, a woman who was discussing photograph prices with her husband was told that the cost would drop from $19.95 to $12.95 if she said she was a solo mother. Another woman who decided to cancel her order after she had paid nearly $l2O for photographs was “fobbed off” by the salesman. She cancelled her cheque. Mr Ainsworth said the Consumers’ Institute had received several calls from pensioners and their relatives after the photographers called at a block of flats in Dallington. He. was not aware of any other door-to-door photographers working in the city. Publicity had made people more aware of the way to deal with salesmen who did not work for the traditional door-to-door sales companies. he said.