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Purge on satellite TV equipment warranty companies
COMPLAINTS against companies in West Sussex that sell extended warranties for satellite TV equipment have dropped following a drive by the County Council's Trading Standards Service.
However, Trading Standards is still warning viewers to make sure they know who they are speaking to when they get calls about satellite equipment.
"And never give your bank account or credit card details. Tell them you will check your paperwork and ring them back. If the caller is legitimate they will have no objection to this," said Rob Scovell, Senior Trading Standards Officer.
The warning follows evidence that a number of new warranty companies have just been set up and are using the former customer database of Satellite Direct UK, which has ceased trading.
Peter Evans, County Council Cabinet Member for Public Protection, said: "A saturated market has become even more crowded and our Trading Standards Service is closely monitoring their behaviour."
At one time, there were 28 satellite warranty companies in West Sussex. Many of them were set up by former employees of Satellite Direct UK.
"They were all trying to get SKY customers to change from one warranty company to theirs. This meant a free for all market with some companies pretending to be a SKY customer's existing warranty provider in order to take their bank account details and get business by whatever means they could," said Rob.
West Sussex Trading Standards took the worst perpetrators to court.
"Others gave formal undertakings to improve their behaviour and last year, after many months of work, all but three of the companies had signed an agreement with Trading Standards to trade fairly and legally.
"The result is complaints are now dropping and the companies themselves complain to Trading Standards about any sharp practices of their competitors rather than just copying them" said Rob.
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Weather for Haywards Heath
Saturday 04 February 2012
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