[Neil Williams]

Received this from one of my customers

Trading Standards Warning
It has come to the attention of the Trading Standards that carpet cleaning

companies are contacting Hampshire residents and offering the cleaning of one or

two carpets. Initially, a low cost promotion is offered; however depending on what

services are carried out the final price can greatly increase. Many home owners may

feel pressurised into agreeing to the higher prices, as the technician demonstrates

different priced services whilst in your home. For work costing over £35 that is

agreed in your home cancellation rights in notice form should be given prior to any

works being carried out and you must give your written consent if they are to start

within the 7 day cooling off period, therefore please read any paperwork thoroughly

before you sign any documentation. Make sure the price you agree is in writing

before works are carried out. If anyone has any information that may be connected

with such incidents, or requires any advice on doorstep crime they can contact

Hampshire County Council's Quick Response Team on 01962 833666, where

specially trained officers are on hand to receive information and/or provide

assistance. They would advise you not to deal with cold callers at the door or by

telephone. If you are considering having some work done, why not use the Buy

with Confidence Scheme at http://www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk/. These are local

traders who have been checked by the Hampshire County Council Trading

Standards Service

[David_Annable]

Hi

Tha trading Standards say that you need to survey the job, give them a quote in writing & aseven day cooling off period.

How many cc do that.

Dave

[Steve Gunn]

We have a safe traders up here and they were going to throw me off the list because my terms and conditions didn't show the cooling off period now have to give additional sheet showing this but as David said most customers book one day then you do it within the week so does not really apply to us but trading standards were having none of it its the law

[clinton]

Wonder if any other c c have this now onthere terms n conditions now?

[Ian Gourlay]

Again that is officialdom gone mad complain to your Councillors,

In the blind trade we say once the item has started being manufactured the cannot cancel

I am told that is the law on custom products .

I would have thought it applied to your trade also .

[Dave_Lee]

Interesting, however in the first post, it does say that the companies have been contacting people, in other words touting for work. Do these paperwork rules apply when a customer has contacted you, asking for a quote or simply requesting that you go along and do the work, as so often happens.
Dave.

[Steve Gunn]

Even if a customer contacts you your supposed to give them a written quote which gives them the option of the 7 day notice of right to cancel we all know this doesn't happen in the real world but legally that's how its supposed to be done

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

There are 7 ways of forming a contract:

I-implied

W-written
O-oral
N-necessity
D-deed
E-estoppel
R-ratification

I think what this is about is touting for business which happens BEFORE a contract is formed.

Rog

[Helen]

As per usual (no offence trading standards ) the information is written and constructed poorly, Yes this is about the Enterprise type of carpet cleaning, but the latter part is about any trade, which I don't think they make clear. Of course the buy with confidence is made crystal clear making us that are not part of it seemingly not good enough :
Unless Trading Standards are prepared to name the businesses that are proven to operate unethically then they should not put out info like this

[Brian B]

We were contacted by "Trading Standards" three years ago and they informed us we were operating outside of the law! 

When I asked then to clarify exectly what they meant, the lady on the phone told me we were not leaving a written quote that contained the 7 day cooling off period fully explained.  She then went on to trell me in no uncertain terms exactly what could happen if we didn't co-operate and change our written quote to conform with trading standards requirements.

After a few minutes of asking why they had decided to contact us and if they were contacting all carpet and upholstery companies, she told me that someone had brought our trading practices to their attention and then gave the area that we had done the quote.  After a long conversation with her and telling her that we aren't travellers or operating bait and switch and we are a registerd Limited company and have been for the last 17 years she relented a little bit, but she was still adamant that we had to change our quoting procedure!  But after questioning what would happen if we didn't, she was non commital and she sort of intimated that they couldn't do a lot as in a lot of cases we quote and clean in less than seven days?

When I checked we had only done one quote in that area in the past month and the householder had been completely shocked when I gave her the price for cleaning her carpets, and tried bartering on the price trying to drive it down but as I always say the price quoted is the price.  She wanted a thirty pound per room job doing.

I got the impression that Trading Standards are a bit of a toothless tiger, I don't think they can actually enforce with any real clout!

[MAX Carpets]

Good old Enterprise, giving the rest of us a bad name!

[Simon@arenaclean]

Would this apply to all 'service' industries? Painters, gardeners, window cleaners. What about prostitutes "Here's your quote sir, now you have 7 days to cool off

[Ian Gourlay]

So if a Landlord phone up wants a house cleaned because tenants are moving in at end of week, we have to say sorry we cannot do the job the Government says you have to cool off first for 7 days

Well I guess if we operated this way we could all be booked a week or two in advance

[BDCS]

You can get them to sign a "right to cancel waiver" which allows you to start work there and then - thats what the big drain firms are starting to do because most customers don't want to wait a week before you go round to unblock their toilet

[Helen]

From business link.gov:

However, there are some exceptions to the right to cancel. Consumers can't cancel if the contract is for:

accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services
package travel
food, drinks or other goods delivered regularly to the consumer's home or workplace by a 'regular roundsman' such as a milkman or domestic oil supplier
goods made to the customer's specification
goods that are perishable or can't be returned, such as frozen food and fresh flowers
audio or video recordings or computer software that the consumer has opened
newspapers or magazines
betting, gaming and lotteries
premium-rate telephone and website services
services that begin, by agreement, before the end of the cooling-off period

Services....that must be us

But I suppose the "cooling off" details should be somewhere on your written quote :

[Dave_Lee]

I don't think anyone should rush to get these cooling off period literature printed. According to EU law, of which the UK is part. It simply means that if the correct cooling off literature is not given to the customer at the outset, they then have an extended cooling off period of up to 3 months.
By that time the job would already have been completed, after which it doesn't apply.
Dave.