Scam warning: How unscrupulous contractors take advantage of the elderly

An elderly woman in Cape Town was exploited by a company claiming to provide blind repairs.

According to her son Richard McDougall, the company left a flyer in the post box of every resident in her retirement village.

McDougall contacted the company and the owner said he would need to see the blinds in person to offer a quote.

When the contractor arrived at the house, he forced the woman to sign a quote for an excessive amount of R28,000 to replace all her blinds, despite agreeing to only correspond with McDougall regarding quotes and invoices.

“Once they have signed it becomes difficult or impossible to get them out of that situation,” warns consumer journalist Wendy Knowler.

He then pressured her to immediately pay a 90% deposit for the work; however, the transaction was declined as it exceeded her daily banking limits.

The contractor also took all the blinds in her house and loaded them into his bakkie, saying hewould return them after she had paid.

“I arrived at the house about two hours later and found my mother in a state as to what had happened and how she felt intimidated, but felt we had to pay him now as she said I would sort out the banking problem,” says Richard McDougall.

He reached out to the contactor after attempting to verify his details again and told him not to proceed and said he would collect the blinds.

However, the contractor said he had already begun the work and demanded they pay at least 70% of the quote.

McDougall paid a small fee for the company to dispose of the blinds and was forced to replace all of the blinds at a much lower cost than this company had quoted.

Consumer journalist Wendy Knowler suggests that families should not allow any unknown contractors to deal directly with the elderly, and never to pay or accept a uotation immediately in these situations.

To listen to consumer journalist Wendy Knowler in conversation with Pippa Hudson on CapeTalk, click on the audio player below: