While mobility aids can provide the elderly and disabled with a new lease of life, allowing them to stay in a home which might otherwise become inaccessible for them, some mobility companies are about to be reprimanded for questionable sales tactics.
Trading Standards is in the process of taking a mobility firm to court, following several complaints from the elderly residents of Bradford about pushy sales practises.
Officers have applied for an injunction against ABM Mobility, based in West Yorkshire, after they received sixteen individual complaints from the relatives of elderly people living in Bradford, Keighley, Haworth and Bingley.
Trading Standards officers at Derbyshire County Council have been investigating ABM Mobility, based in Long Eaten, Derbyshire because of the complaints. One such complaint regarded an 89-year old widow called Marion, whose son contacted the police to complain that a pushy salesman forced her to pay 100 pounds to a salesman as a down payment towards a stairlift, despite the fact that she was planning to move into a flat.
The mobility firm refunded the money to Marion when her son contacted them, but this has not spared them a court hearing about their sales practises. Trading Standards said that complaints about hard-selling were made by friends and relatives of vulnerable older people, mostly aged in their 80s and 90s, frequently with dementia.
This comes after a separate set of complaints in October last year which culminated in Derbyshire County Council got an injunction against ABM forcing them to trade legally and fairly. Statements are currently being collected from the complainants, to support the legal case against hard-selling ABM.
It is unfortunate that these morally bankrupt people can stoop so low as to pressurise vulnerable older people into handing over money. While mobility aids can revolutionise someone's life, making every part of their home accessible, it is unacceptable to use pushy sales techniques.
Life-changing mobility aids can mean the difference between an elderly person being forced to downsize into a retirement bungalow or home, or being able to stay independent in their own home, for example with a stairlift and a mobility scooter. It is a crying shame that some disreputable mobility companies are sullying the name of the mobility industry.
Unscrupulous salespeople must be outed and condemned, there is no place for hard-selling to the elderly, even if the products being offered offer only positive change for the people in question.
Author Resource:
Stannah are a British family-owned company dedicated to quality, safety and service. Building relationships of trust with customers, we don't cold call, don't install a stairlift where it isn't practical and never, ever compromise on safety.Distributed by Content Crooner
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