Door-to-door and telephone selling

You have extra consumer rights when a salesperson comes to your door or calls you on the telephone trying to sell you something..

You can ask them to leave at any time. If you do, they must leave immediately.

It is also ok for you to say no at any time (or end the call). You do not have to agree to buy something or sign a contract, no matter what.

If you don’t want businesses to phone you or a person you support, you can register your phone number with the Commonwealth Government’s Do Not Call Register.

If you don’t want salespeople to knock on your door at all, you can put up a ‘do not knock’ sign or sticker.

Order a free do not knock sticker.

Permitted hours

Door-to-door traders can only visit you between:

• 9am–6pm (Monday to Friday)
• 9am–5pm (Saturday)

People who call you on the telephone (called telemarketers) must also follow the same rules, but their times are a little different.

Telemarketers can only call you between

• 9am–8pm (Monday to Friday)
• 9am–5pm (Saturday)

They must never call you on a Sunday or a public holiday. If you tell them to go, they must end the call right away.

How to protect yourself

Some steps you can take:

• Ask for ID and any other contact details.
• Ask them to explain the full costs, including delivery charges.
• Shop around. It might be cheaper to buy it somewhere else.
• Make sure you get a written contract for anything over $100. This should set out the total price.
• Never sign a contract unless you’re sure you want the product or service.
• Don’t sign until you know all the details of what you need to do.
• Be careful of competitions (read the fine print before entering).
• Ask the salesperson to leave if you are not interested.

The cooling-off period

You always get a ‘cooling-off period’ when you spend more than $100 on a door-to-door or telemarketing sale. This means you have 10 business days to change your mind for any reason. If you do, you don’t have to buy the product.

Some facts about the cooling-off period:

• If they’re selling an item under $500, they can give it to you right away.
• If they’re selling an item over $500, they can’t give it to you for 10 days.
• They mustn’t do any services until the end of the 10 days.
• Don’t pay a cent until after 10 days, even if they give you the product.
• If you buy but decide you don’t want the product after they leave, just contact  the trader within 10 business days and say you’re cancelling.