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	TX: 24.07.08 - Mobility Aids PRESENTER: PETER WHITE

	Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 麻豆约拍 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WHITE An undercover investigation by Which magazine has revealed that some companies are using high pressure and unlawful practices to sell mobility aids - things such as scooters, bath lifts and adjustable beds. The consumer group secretly filmed sales reps from 11 companies as they tried to sell mobility equipment in the home of a 72-year-old investigator who claimed to need equipment for herself and her husband who was soon to be discharged from hospital. Well the author of the report is Joanna Pearl, a senior researcher at Which. Joanna, you say that some of the companies used high pressure sales tactics, I mean what kind of practices did you find? PEARL Yes, good afternoon. The sort of tactics that we're talking about which the BHTA - the largest trade body in health care - deemed inappropriate are offering an high initial price reduced for - reduced or discounted for an immediate sale. So you have to sign up there and then to get this supposed discount. WHITE So sort of in a way what you'd call classic foot in the door selling methods? PEARL Absolutely, absolutely, pressuring the person so they don't have time to seek advice or speak to somebody else. Another tactic would be withholding price information until the end of the visit, so the person doesn't know how much the product costs and how much they could potentially be paying. WHITE They can always ask of course. PEARL They can ask but remember people are in quite a vulnerable situation - they're in their own home - and sales people, we found, were very adept at bombarding - giving information and actually making it quite difficult for the person to ask the price or to enquire. WHITE What about the medical claims they made? PEARL Yes well the sort of medical claims we're talking about are - one sales person told our older person if she used the massage facility on the bed it would stop the pain of arthritis temporarily and make her feel like a different person. And as one of our expert panel who assessed this practice said you know people have very different experiences of this sort of massage facility - some are positive but equally some people find that they can really aggravate the condition. So it's very irresponsible. Another company told our older person that the bed would definitely stop her husband snoring - which of course is a ridiculous medical claim. But these - of course these sort of false medical claims do lead people to buy products and since our mystery shopping that has become illegal, law has been brought in and companies can be potentially prosecuted for this. WHITE Can I just ask you what evidence prompted you to do the survey, what was the evidence there were problems in the first place? PEARL Yes well I think there's long reported evidence in this sector and we wanted to see for ourselves but also we had had a number of complaints about the selling of mobility equipment from our readers and we chose six of our 11 companies on that basis - that we'd had negative feedback. WHITE Clearly one of the problems about this kind of equipment is it's very individual to individual people. I mean were people assessed - did the companies seem to know what people's individual needs were? PEARL No, unfortunately 10 of the 11 companies were quite happy to sell a product to our older person's husband without seeing him and this is potentially quite dangerous. You can actually have equipment that could make your condition worse if it's the wrong equipment. And in fact our older person said to one company - one salesperson - selling her a bath lift: I think it's unsafe him, I think he may fall using it - or words to that effect - and the salesperson just carried on trying to sell that piece of equipment. WHITE Which company displayed the poorest practices? PEARL Yes the lowest scoring company was a company called Craftmatic UK Ltd. WHITE And what did they do - I mean what were the things that made you anxious about their pitch? PEARL Well they're the sort of inappropriate selling techniques we've been talking about - the discounts, discounting, you can only get the quoted price on the day and pressing our older person to give a deposit, telling her it's not money it's a cheque, which is clearly ridiculous. And also making the sort of claims we've talked about and the sort of medical claims, not demonstrating the product fully, clearly enough. And not wishing to assess the husband. WHITE Liz, I gather we've just had a statement from Craftmatic? BARCLAY Yes Peter we have and they say the research undertaken by Which and the article published today was inept, inaccurate and unfair. "Which refused to give us details of the alleged visit, including the name of the salesperson. Although they claimed to have a video of the visit they refused to show it to Craftmatic. Craftmatic does not belong to the British Healthcare Trades Association but belongs to the Direct Selling Association whose rules have been approved by the Office of Fair Trading, no breach of the DSA rules is alleged. Craftmatic operates a strict vulnerability testing procedure drawn up by an independent psychologist to protect vulnerable consumers. The discounts we offer are legal and genuine. Craftmatic allows any customer up to 10 working days in which to cancel the contract." WHITE Okay, well you've both had your say about that. I want to put one last point to you Joanna. A lot of this equipment is available from social services if you qualify, did any of your companies suggest to their clients that they should perhaps contact social services to see if they could get this free? PEARL No, no, our panel of experts, who helped us design the research, agreed with you and were looking for evidence that companies were telling people that they might be able to get the equipment free but none of the companies did actually give that advice. WHITE Joanna Pearl thank you very much for joining us. And if you want to contact your social services about this kind of equipment well you can go to the You and Yours - on the website then click on Care in the UK and then go to our care map and this item will also be one of our disability podcasts. Back to the Transcripts homepage Back to the You and Yours homepage The 麻豆约拍 is not responsible for external websites

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