The dodgy practices door-to-door salespeople use to target elderly

DOOR-to-door sales pests are taught to target elderly people by looking out for “roses, ramps and rails”— here’s how they’re getting away with it.

DOOR-to-door sales pests are taught to find elderly people to prey on by keeping a lookout for “roses, ramps and rails”, a whistleblower has revealed.

Insiders say greedy firms brand suburbs with many vulnerable residents “gold mines”.

One unscrupulous group of salesmen known for a sell-at-all-costs approach even called themselves The Wolfpack.

A former electricity salesman of several years’ experience told the Herald Sun dodgy practices were rife at several Melbourne-based agencies which trained and deployed sales staff across Victoria.

He said employees had a “cowboy culture”, and recruits who failed to reach sales targets were humiliated with “hazing-like” practices.

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Sales people are trained to target older people.

He said the agencies, two of which have since shut, advised a focus on areas of lower socio-economic status. Areas with many seniors and disability pensioners and lots of government housing were “hot spots”.

“It was seen as a chance for predatory salespeople to clean up. You were told to look for the three Rs: roses, ramps and rails,” he said.

Vulnerable people, particularly the elderly have been targets.

Another ex-seller was shocked on her first day by a “public dismissal” of a shaken worker who had to surrender a uniform shirt to the team boss.

Underperformers — often backpackers lured by the promise of fast cash — were routinely fired in public to “send a message”, she said.

One was said to have been stranded, shirtless, on a roadside; the tale was told to recruits as a warning to sell.

Complaints from the public would “disappear” or were blamed on juniors: “They were basically protecting valuable sellers from punishment.”

The Consumer Action Law Centre wants door-to-door sales banned.

Consumer Action Law Centre senior policy officer Zac Gillam called for a ban on door-to-door sales, saying: “It is clear that vulnerable people, particularly the elderly, are targets.

The companies have shown they’re not capable of changing by themselves.”

But Sales Assured chief executive officer Anne Whitehouse said the incidence of ­offending was low, and was the fault of “bad eggs”.

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