Dear LPG,

It is still so easy to be taken in by someone you are talking to on the telephone who offers an idea which involves you buying something new.

My friend and I went to a talk on this very subject recently and know that there are some tricks that we should not fall for.  The first one being; if the person offering you anything calls you rather than the other way round it is time to really worry about what you are getting into. 

Only a couple of days later that same friend started having problems with her broadband connection and so she called her telephone service provider to get some help.  Somehow they persuaded her that her router needed replacing and she would be better off with a bigger better one which would allow her a much faster connection speed for just an extra £6.00 or so per month.  She tells me that it sounded really impressive, even though she was not really sure about everything they were trying to explain, so she said, ‘yes’ to having the new equipment.  Luckily her nephew visited a day or so later and she told him all about the episode.  He pointed out that for the most part the speed of the router is not that important to us oldies. 

He asked her if, when it worked, she was happy with the speed of her existing broadband. Her answer was ‘yes’.  He told her that people who play music, films and online computer games are likely to need a faster router but that her online habits of googling and shopping are not that demanding.  He also pointed out that £6.00 per month will cost her an extra £72.00 for the year in spite of the fact that all she really wanted was her router working again.

She then found herself in a position where she had agreed to something and wanted to change her mind.  The good thing is that if you buy anything distantly (online or over the phone) remember that there is usually a ‘Cooling Off Period’ where the law dictates that you have 14 days to change your mind.  My friend got her nephew to phone the telephone company again and arrange to have her existing broadband fixed and, using that rule, also cancelled the extra payments that the new contract and router would have incurred.

To my mind, if you buy anything distantly, the moral of the story is fourfold….

1,

Make sure you know exactly what you are being offered

2,

Even if you called them, you need to be careful that you are not sold something you really don’t need.

3,

You do have time to check the details with someone who knows more about it than you do.  Make sure that you check with someone you know and trust as soon as you can.

4,

You most probably have 14 days to change your mind or ‘cool off’ as they say

WM, Grove Park

LPG found some related information ….

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