Sale Person

Cynthia

I received a phone call last week and thought the caller was from Arthritis Care. The next day a woman called to see me, I thought she was coming to have a chat and advise me on massage. Having already explained to the man on the phone I have a thoracic aortic aneurysm. He assured me she would just have a chat, anyway the chat lasted for 2 hours. The hard sale kicked in and I was foolish enough to say I would buy a mattress from them.
I have a seven day cooling off period and it says on the copy order form, I can email to cancel. My email was returned by mailer demon. The company is arthritis we care ltd. Sugar Mill, Oakhurst Ave. Leeds, LS11 7HL. I am 75 and so worried the cost of the mattress with built in massage is £1695 and they said I can pay it off monthly with a £200 deposit on delivery.
I will ring them tomorrow their number is 0113027206055. I am just so frightened this is a con and not having any family to turn to, thought you may be able to advise me please.
yours sincerely
Cynthia Rood

stickywicket

Hello Cynthia. I'm not a member of the Helpline team, just an ordinary forum member but I can well understand your fear. I also recall a very similar post from last year – a lady who was concerned about her mother being ripped off, also about a mattress.

I don't know about 'con' but it's certainly a very hard sell and trading on the good name of Arthritis Care, relying on people to be confused as you were. If you were told only a chat and advice would be involved, and no selling, it's quite despicable to take advantage of someone's illness to pressurise them into buying anything.

I'm no expert on these things but what I would do is:

1. Check that I'd got the email address correct, maybe check it also online if they have a website, and check that I'd typed it up exactly right. Fear makes us all wobbly and prone to make mistakes.

2. Do make that phone call tomorrow too.

3. Possibly write a letter also. For something as important as this, and people as untrustworthy as these, I think a printed, dated, letter is safer.

4. If you want to be 100% sure, then post a copy of the letter to yourself but don't open it when it arrives. That way you have proof of what you wrote and also, thanks to the postmark, when, if the need should arise.

5. If all else fails, enlist the help of CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau). They will have a local phone number,

This is what Martin Lewis, the MoneySavingExpert, writes about the cooling off period.

The best known protection for consumers is the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Here, the cooling off period is 5 days, applies to credit agreements and commences from the time the second copy of the agreement is received by the consumer. It assumes the contract was signed away from trade premises and there have been face to face negotiations with the seller.

http://www.moneyonly.co.uk/dictionary/abc/coolingoffperiod.php

I hope it all turns out well. Why not also contact the Telephone Preference Service so that you don't get sales calls in future? It doesn't work for all nuisance calls but it certainly cuts them down.

By the way, I'll 'bump up' the other thread I mentioned from last year, in case you're interested. It's called 'Can anyone help?' by jude73

Cynthia

Thank you for your reply. I have taken your advice and photocopied all the details I can get hold of. Checked the email address again and it is not active. I have taken a few hours sorting everything and written a letter to enclose with the cancelation details. I will let you know how it works out.

dreamdaisy

Hello Cynthia, I too am an ordinary forum member but I felt I had to say how upsetting I found your post. There are some despicable people in this world and it sounds as though you have had the misfortune to tangle with some of them. I am not as clued up as Sticky about these matters but please contact your local Trading Standards office today, I reckon they would be interested to hear about this malpractice (for surely this is what it is). For what it's worth I'm right beside you with moral support, OK? DD

Megrose489

Hi Cynthia.

Your post made me very angry on your behalf. I agree with DD that you should contact Trading Standards and tell them of your experience. I do hope that the cancellation goes through smoothly.

Meg

helpline_team

Dear Cynthia

Thank you for your posting. I am sorry you have had this experience and that it has been such a worrying time for you. I can see that other forum members have responded to your post and I cannot add any more to their suggestions and signposting about who to contact regarding this company and about your concerns. In particular your local Trading Standards will want to know about this practice. Thank you also for letting us know about this. If you would like to talk things through you can always call us here on the helpline team on our Freephone number on 0808 800 4050 (10am-4pm weekdays).
Best Wishes
Dawn

tkachev

Bumping up.

Mods can this be moved to LWA as there is another member asking about this company?

I have mentioned on the thread that is on the chat to the helpline team and that I have bumped it up but some new members might not understand the layout of the forum.

Elizabeth

helpline_team

Hi Elizabeth,

The key information we pass to people who are having problems with pressure sales is to contact their local Trading Standards and take their advice. (Mods feel free to copy this paragraph)

Kind regards

Guy
Helplines Service