It cannot have escaped your notice that Blackpool is a No Cold Calling Zone. But what does this mean? Well, a No Cold Calling Zone is a designated area which discourages door to door sales (or cold calls) and offers protection to those older and more vulnerable residents who are so often the target of such calls.
While many callers may be legitimate businesses offering goods and services which may be of interest to you, there are also unscrupulous traders (or bogus callers) whose job it is to unfairly persuade you to part with large sums of cash.
Such callers are made aware that Blackpool is a No Cold Calling Zone by signs placed on the main roads around the area. Residents can then express their preference to not receiving cold calls by displaying a No Cold Calling Sticker in a window or door that is easily visible from the entry point of your property. By doing this you are saying that you do not wish them to call.
Whilst in this country cold calling is not at present illegal, should callers ignore your sticker there are a number of pieces of legislation that can be used to tackle this problem. Therefore should you experience a cold call from any person you feel has ignored your wishes, please report this to Trading Standards either by telephone on 01253 478385 or through this Report It link.
We would like to give you to give us as much information as possible to identify the caller. If they have stated which company they were calling from, please mention this as well as a description of the caller. We will target those traders who operate in this way, and thus reduce the potential for doorstep crime.
Please be particularly wary of callers advising you that you need rood or house repairs, gardening work or tarmacing. Reputable traders do not need to cold call. Also be aware that 50% of burglaries occur due to householders leaving open windows and doors. You can obtain assistance with regard to protection here.
Do be aware that some individuals or groups are exempt from the No Cold Calling agreement. These are Councillors and MPs, permitted Charity Collectors, market researchers and religious groups. The six largest gas and electricity companies have a voluntary code of practice to not call at houses displaying a sticker. These are: British Gas, EDF Energy, E-On, N Power, Scottish Power and SSE. Should any of these calls against your wishes, please let us know.
Blackpool Trading Standards has a list of approved traders that you can rely on. Please telephone for a copy or view it via this link
Click here for No Cold Calling advice for traders
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