Consumer Action Law Center calls on the Australian competition and the consumer commission to implement a nationwide ban on the scourge of undesirable sales, including door-to-door and telemarketing sales of solar energy systems.
The problem was addressed with the ACCC by a “named complaint”. Such complaints can only be submitted by consumer and small company groups that are referred to by the responsible minister and must refer to an important or systemic market problem that has a negative impact on Australian consumers or small businesses.
Consumer Action Law Center (CALC), Choice and the Council of Small Business Organizations Australia were selected by the Federal Government as the first reported complainant in July last year.
“Today we hear from the undesirable sale of door to door and telemarketing of many objects, especially solar collectors of the past, it was encyclopedia and educational software-es a persistent systemic problem, the thousands of Australians, especially for those who live under dangerous circumstances,” said Stephanie Tonkin.
The behaviors identified by the center, which may have violated undesirable sales provisions, include:
- Do not provide the necessary information.
- Refused to sell the consumer on request.
- Do not inform consumers about cooling rights.
- Document signed.
There is also a laundry list of questions related to consumer agreements, behaviors according to the contract and the misuse of state discount programs and other incentives as sales instruments.
The center specifically comment on solar and related products and says that the widespread bad practices:
- Damage of the consumer onto the market.
- Steered from the advantages of solar energy on the roof for households and the wider power grid.
- Undermining the efforts to transfer Australia to the cleaning of energy sources.
In a related note, while the sales of solar systems are prohibited from door to door and telemarketing from the Solar Homes program from Victoria, practice there seems to be still widespread there. According to Calc’s complaint, this indicates that a legislative ban on the undesirable sale as part of the ACL (Australian Consumer Act) will stop this. if necessary supported with enforcement measures.
BNPL -Finance risks highlighted
Solar receives a special focus in Calc’s complaint – the word is mentioned 53 times. Another term that is mentioned in dozens of occasions and often mentioned in connection with solar/battery sales is BNPL – now buy, later finance.
In the complaint states, BNPL financing enables larger purchases such as a solar power system or a house battery for many other households – as an enabler for poor undesirable sales behavior. The specific BNPL problems, however, include the failure of the full costs of the solar collectors and the BNPL financing and the non-setting of the customer to conclude a BNPL contract.
Also require the reforms of the lead generation
Calc also wants to see the regulatory reform of the lead generation practices.
“A person entitlement in their contact details on a website that looks legitimate and offers something tempting. Then they quickly call cold calls and a sales talk in home,” said Ms. Tonkin. “We believe that companies use lead generation to avoid the (very limited) protection that is available, whereby this consumer protection may not apply to the website.”
Solar quotes earns his money through lead generation Australians and we meet your requirements with selected installers, who then compete for your business. These companies pay SQ for the management, regardless of whether the person buys a system or not.
However, solar quotes does not affect poor behavior that identifies the calculation complaint, nor would it be tolerated by installers in the SQ network. We give a customer’s details to a maximum of 3 solar companies that we trust (and not call center), and with the approval of the customer. You can display our golden rules for dealing with contact details – part of the reason why the company is still strong after 16 years.
Calcs “Super complaint” can be viewed completely here.
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