City of York Council's Trading Standards is launching a citywide campaign this week to warn residents of bogus doorstep sellers.
 
The new campaign, called Your Doorstep, Your Decision is part of a national campaign run by the Office of Fair Trading. The campaign sends out a warning to residents that some doorstep sellers may use the bogus endorsement of DIY programmes, as a subtle way of getting their foot in the door, to make consumers buy expensive repair work their homes don't really need.

Matt Boxall, trading standards manager at City of York Council, said: "Bearing in mind the popularity of home improvement shows, our aim is to support consumers in York, to become more aware of the risks of rogue doorstep traders.

"Our campaign wants to highlight this issue and ensure that homeowners take the time to consider their decisions carefully, with the support of family and friends. We want residents to have the courage to refuse making on the spot decisions about buying costly home repair services, that may be of poor quality and that they may well not need."

According to national Trading Standards statistics, over 7,000 complaints regarding uninvited doorstep sale approaches were received in the first seven months of this year alone (source - Consumer Direct database, January to July 2009).

The Office of Fair Trading's Your Doorstep, Your Decision campaign is a government initiative to encourage consumers, in particular older people, to exercise caution and seek advice before agreeing to buy costly goods or services as a result of doorstep trader approaches.

For a Home Services Directory list of traders, who have been vetted by Trading Standards and the Police, or for advice on doorstep selling please contact Consumer Direct on 08454 040506 or visit www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.  Alternatively, the Home Services Directory list is available from Age Concern on 01904 621020.