A BAN on door-to-door sales to public housing residents must be introduced to protect the vulnerable, according to a new report.
Footscray Community Legal Centre’s Strangers are Calling! report outlines the negative impact of door-to-door sales in Melbourne’s refugee communities.
The study, released last week, found door-to-door energy sales practices disproportionately affect vulnerable consumers, including public housing residents, refugees, the elderly, young people and women home alone.
Centre manager Denis Nelthorpe said it was clear certain communities were being targeted and that doorknocking was not taking place in middle-class areas.
The report found high-pressure sale tactics leave the vulnerable feeling pressured into switching energy providers.
“Many vulnerable consumers receive misleading or false information about the nature and content of energy contracts,” it said. Case studies showed breaches of a number of laws and the failure of self-regulated industry codes of practice.
“Migrants and refugees are telling us that door-to-door sales practices are harmful and unwelcome and have a negative impact on their social, emotional and physical well-being.”
Report recommendations include making it simpler to join a “No Contact” list and trialling “Do Not Knock” areas in public housing.
There’s also a call for the code of conduct and sanctions to be beefed up against illegal door-to-door sales practices, and to urge energy retailers to look at alternatives to doorknocking.
The Energy and Water Ombudsman had 7445 complaints in the 2011-12 financial year related to switching electricity providers.
