DECO says it annually receives around 4,000 complaints related to the practice and has called on consumers to carefully ponder any purchases made from sales people.
The ‘Sales at my door NO!’ campaign was launched to mark World Consumer Rights Day, which fell on Wednesday.
“Many consumers are already paying for a product or service that they don’t need when they ask us for help”, the watchdog says, explaining it launched the campaign “because [such practices] are disloyal, not transparent and targeted at more vulnerable consumers who cannot complain or ask for support.”
On its website DECO offers a range of information and advice on how to avoid falling prey to pushy salespeople and shady dealings.
“Door-to-door sales are a problem that we have been experiencing since the 1990s, from mattresses, to vacuum cleaners, water purifiers and time-shares. Today it is a completely different problem: these sales have been extended to public services, namely gas, electricity and telecommunications contracts”, a DECO spokesperson explained.