News

Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action) has launched new polling data from IPSOS, one of Australia’s leading polling agencies, on unsolicited sales.

Unsolicited sales are commonly performed through “cold-calling” or door-to-door sales.

The key findings for the poll of 1045 Australians* were:

• More than three-quarters of Australians (76.9%) agree that unsolicited sales should be made unlawful. This rises to 84.4% when you look at the views of Australians over 50. An astonishing 91.3% of widowed Australians want the Government to ban unsolicited sales.
• Eight in 10 Australians (81.2%) have a negative opinion of unsolicited sales
• Nine in 10 older Australians over the age of 50 (90.2%) have a negative opinion of unsolicited sales.
• Only 5.4% of Australians have a positive view of unsolicited sales, this drops to 1.2% for those over 50.
• In a similar survey in January 2012, when Australians were polled about their views on unsolicited sales, 77% of Australians had negative views on this form of selling. This negative perception has increased by over 4% from a very high base.
• Those Australians that work part-time or don’t perform any work outside the home (82.7% / 80.7%) are more likely to support a ban than those who work full-time outside the home (69.9%). We believe this is because unsolicited sales is mostly only lawful during business hours.

Australians want change to stop pushy and unfair salespeople disrupt the enjoyment of their own home. While, as a recent Sydney Morning Herald article showed, unsolicited sales also led to bad consumer outcomes that harm vulnerable people.

Do Not Knock stickers and the Do Not Call register is a good start, but the Australian people have spoken, the Government needs to go further to ban the practice.

*The poll was conducted between 5-9 May 2016