Public Defender: A lesson in cold calls and cooling off

DID you know you have a right to cancel a purchase made as a result of a cold call or visit by a door-to-door salesperson?

Tommy Temploneuevo with his driving school vehicle. Picture: Chris McKeen

DID you know you have a right to cancel a purchase made as a result of a cold call or visit by a door-to-door salesperson?

Tommy and Minh Temploneuevo got a call from Fairfax Media asking if they would like to advertise their driving instruction business, Learners 2 Pro’s.

Mrs Temploneuevo said: “My husband initially agreed, and was told an email would be sent out as confirmation and that he would receive a follow up call in a few days to talk about when the ad would go up and where — it was online advertising.

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“Almost a week went by and there was no contact, only the initial email which stated we had agreed to get the ad and that it would be reviewed and we would be contacted soon. There were no details of the contract in this email.”

Then Fairfax sent them an invoice for $275.

Tommy Temploneuevo with his driving school vehicle. Picture: Chris McKeen

Mrs Temploneuevo checked the NSW Fair Trading website.

She discovered consumer law provides for a 10-day cooling off period in an unsolicited agreement. Unfortunately, businesses aren’t protected by the law.

However, it would be possible for people in the Temploneuevos’ position to seek the help of the NSW Small Business Commissioner or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal arguing a breach of contract law. Instead the Temploneuevos turned to Public Defender.

The bill has now been killed.

“Thank you so much for helping us,’’ they said.

Fairfax is one of the chief competitors of News Corp Australia, owner of The Daily Telegraph. To be fair, over the five years of Public Defender there have been a handful of instances where I’ve been asked to help sort out problems with delivery of our newspaper. But nothing like what happened to the Temploneuevos.