Second reading of bill at provincial legislature not scheduled until June of 2017
By
Mark Schadenberg
Honesty
is the best policy. You gain more long-term clients by offering fair prices and
excellent customer service.
In
the Province of Ontario, a private members’ bill tabled at Queen’s Park this week is
taking a look at eliminating door-to-door sales in some areas of consumer
purchases – furnaces, air conditioners, water softeners, water treatment
services, and water heaters are on the list.
Introduced
by Etobicoke Centre MPP (Liberal) Yvan Baker, the bill, which is called ‘Door
To Door Sales Prohibition Act 2016’, is designed to make it illegal for sales
people with either rental or lease contracts to promote their services door to
door.
"I've heard from far too many
consumers who have been taken advantage of by aggressive, misleading and
coercive sales tactics at the door," Baker said Monday in a CBC online
story.
"It's absolutely reprehensible to
me that there are people who make a living off preying on people who are
vulnerable. Seniors are misled, those with serious health issues are taken
advantage of, many others are duped into contracts with no way out."
The
legislation is created, which is not law yet, to protect all consumers, but
most certainly those who may have been coerced into agreeing to a contract.
There
is a 10 days cooling off period currently for such contracts, but that concept does not
have enough teeth as many people are unable to reverse a deal which they regret
signing. If a consumer currently wanted to cancel such a contract they are not
required to supply a specific reason.
There
was a time when front door marketing was very popular -- vacuum cleaners,
encyclopedias, household cleaning products, insurance, etc.
This
elimination of door to door sales will make it a little more difficult for
Realtors, but also Girl Guides selling cookies. Let’s face it, in this day of
the Privacy Act many homes have a sticker which says: ‘I Don’t Talk To
Strangers’
In
Woodstock, anyone doing any door-to-door promotions – even collecting for a
charity and collecting census or voters' list material (I don't believe census is even a door to door practice anymore ?) – must have proper identification.
The
long process of passing a bill into law will continue with the second reading
of the proposal likely in June of 2017.
It’s
all about consumer protection. Michael Janigan of the Public
Interest Advocacy Centre said the bill is aimed at discouraging
"unscrupulous sales behaviour.
"The bill recognizes the
necessity to protect the public, in particular, the vulnerable consumer, from
possibly damaging financial decisions made on the basis of high pressure sales
tactics," he said.
Read the links below and maybe watch a video by CTV consumer reporter Pat Foran.
Part of the legislation is to make it
not legal to sign such contracts at your home, but rather to meet a sales
person at their office or to complete the transaction online.
You can see why
real estate is not included in the legislation as most of my work is done at
people’s homes, especially in negotiating homes sales agreements.
As someone who works in residences, I
enjoy delivering flyers to promote a new listing or to seek listings in certain
neighbourhoods, but I rarely knock on doors unless I know (personal
relationship of some degree) who lives there.
LINKS:
Pat Foran – consumer advocate reporter from CTV
April Story:
+ + + + + + + + +
Mark Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior Real Estate Specialist
(SRES designation)
Royal LePage Triland Realty
Independently Owned & Operated, Brokerage
757 Dundas St, Woodstock
(519) 537-1553, cell or text
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter: markroyallepage
Facebook: Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . .
Destination
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