Success comes in small amounts and we should be proud of ‘our’ small achievements. For those of you who could not attend Thursdays meeting, one of the items of concern raised was a cold caller – who was Young, Good looking and Charismatic in his approach. ‘I am calling to apologise for the noise and inconvenience which we may cause, we are working a few houses down.’ He blabs on for a while until he reaches the ‘REAL’ reason he is there – Selling Windows and Doors etc. No I.D. visible, a few of our team had already been visited – although no law as such is being broken, it is against cold calling rules which all companies who do this type of selling must sign up too.
The very next day (Friday) our member Averil C – herself just arrived home to find a knock-knock on her door. She was given the same blab as above, but when she asked to see where ‘they’ were working, the story changed to‘ Well we haven’t quite started yet.’ After the Young, Good Looking and Charismatic man left, Averil called 101 and got through fairly quickly, she relayed her story to them.
The Police contacted our (2) PCSO’s (who were present at Thursdays meeting) – they were in Chatteris at the time. They came over to Whittlesey, tracked down the guy along with two others and their Boss Man. Words of advice was given and a dressing down on Trading Laws/Selling etc, plus the No show ID was raised. Although not illegal as such, but with lots of scammers around knocking on doors, it is rather refreshing that this incident turned out well – and thanks to our small team in blue – it was not an emergency but they have done very well in this occasion. Please be very aware – and please tell your neighbours – Do Not Open Doors to Strangers…..If necessary speak through the letterbox, Always ask to see I.D. – do not always believe a telephone number on the I.D. – call a number either from your Bill, Bank, or check on the Internet, the genuine caller will wait 5 minutes if necessary. Better still place a No Cold Calling Sticker in Your Windows and Doors, it may not do much, but may send a message to the would be person at the door.
Thanks to Averil….
