people preying on my granny

molit

My granny has just been charged £700 for removal of a tree (well, more like a large shrub tbh). The annoying thing is she seems to now being targeted by all of the local <words deleted to avoid being banned by MSE> who come to the door and try it on.

She's sometime ok at getting rid of people, but there seems to be a queue forming, and occasionally they get through. Does anyone have any advice?

foreign_correspondent

yes, report it to your local trading standards and the police.

tanith

See if there is a neighbourhood watch in your grans area, if so contact them and ask if they have stickers or could regularly knock at your grans to put people off...or just ask if she has had callers..

more_money_for_me

Should think Community Support Officers would be good to alert as well, if they are seen about a bit it will at least discourage the *******. Do you know the neighbours? Can they at least let you know when people cold call? Can you talk to your granny about it and suggest that she at least calls you with quotes, as you may know someone who can do it more cheaply.
Good Luck

brettcta

i'm having a similar problem with people praying on my granny. she can't walk for long periods of time and often has to take a sit down when she goes shopping, but she can't sit for five minutes without someone jumping on her and firing out a string of hail mary's and a few our fathers. she's not the strongest of people either, so she can't fight them off, so we're having a real nightmare with people praying on her.

molit

yep, it's being mentioned to the police. The problem is she believes people when they say we have to do it now for this bargain price kind of thing, so she just says yes to get the overpriced work done.

The other thing is we are all quite some way away from her, it just seems to be that once you have one person there, the all seem to turn up day after day - I've even resorted to searching on the web to see if there is a site which tell people where the vulnerable people are.

Is there a way of getting someone added onto the electoral roll so that it looks as though she's not living alone, or anything like that?

tanith

To be honest I think that once a unscrupulous sales person gets money out of a vulnerable person they pass the details on to all their mates... and then the hoards descend..

trumpton

This may sound a bit drastic, but next time you see her could you persuade her to go see her bank (with you preferably)? Make sure her current account doesn't have loads of money in it, ask them to put a note on her account saying to check suspicious activity - like cheques for large amounts, people bringing her to the bank etc. These kind of people are absolute scum and really there are no depths to which they will sink to part people from their money.

Is there a neighbour you could ask to keep an eye on her? To intervene if they see anyone doing work at the house or garden?

Also, make sure your gran has numbers handy for the local police, Trading Standards etc. You should definitely report what has happened to the police - they will probably have had other complaints too. I am sorry your gran has had to put up with this distress.

foreign_correspondent

trumpton wrote: »

This may sound a bit drastic, but next time you see her could you persuade her to go see her bank (with you preferably)? Make sure her current account doesn't have loads of money in it, ask them to put a note on her account saying to check suspicious activity - like cheques for large amounts, people bringing her to the bank etc. These kind of people are absolute scum and really there are no depths to which they will sink to part people from their money.

Alternatively, it may be worth looking into power of attorney type arrangements

marleyboy

This happened to my mother a few years back, she too is disabled and at the time "vulnerable". Word gets around to these vultures quickly that there are "easy pickings" to be had. It was resolved after I spent a few weeks with her, enough to convince them that I had moved in there, and was taking over ALL the repair work for her.

After a few attempts they gave up, needlessly to say had they pushed I would have phoned the police myself. Since then my Mother has been wiser, and she is no push over anymore, far less afraid to say "No", and the vultures just "Flock Off"

Lippycow

Why not print out the free MSE no cold caller sign,in fact print a few off and stick them on her door...it might help:-)