STEPHEN LEWIS seeks advice on how to resist the hard-sell doorstep salesmen.

FAIR trade regulators have called for new laws to help close the door on high-pressure "doorstep" salesmen who use sneaky psychological tactics to persuade people to buy things they do not really need.

A new study by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) into the UK's £2.4 billion a year doorstep and home sales industry has found that a range of "psychological" sales tactics are being used to persuade consumers to make purchases they later regret.

Doorstep selling is a particular problem, the OFT says, because once inside your home, the salesman effectively has a captive audience.

The OFT has identified six psychological techniques being used by salesmen to pressurise you into parting with your cash.

They are:

Reciprocity - becoming your "friend" by making the sales visit seem more like a social visit and then using free samples, services and offers of discounts to make you feel indebted to them

Consistency and commitment - getting you to agree you would be interested in a product if the "price is right" so if a discount is offered it is hard to say no without seeming inconsistent

Scarcity and anticipated regret - making you feel you will be missing out if you do not buy something

Social proof - a form of "keeping up with the Joneses". The salesman makes you feel that if you buy something you will be like other people who have already bought it

Liking and similarity - gaining information about your likes and dislikes to build a rapport and make you identify with, like and trust them. We prefer to say yes to people we like

Authority and expert endorsement - working on the principle that we tend to defer to expert opinion.

Not all salesmen coming to your home are cowboys, the OFT stresses - and in the right circumstances, it can be a convenient way of shopping, particularly for those who are busy or those who cannot get out.

But the OFT says 30 per cent of those who have buy something as a result of a salesman visiting their home experience problems - and at least 15,000 people complain to trading standards departments every year about doorstep sales.

Now the OFT wants the law tightened to give the consumer greater protection.

As the law stands consumers have the right to cancel an order within seven days when a sales visit is "unsolicited" (ie when the salesman cold called) - even though 94 per cent of consumers are unaware of this.

There is no such protection, however, for consumers who invited a salesman or company to their home.

The OFT is calling on the Government to extend the law to give cancellation rights to this second group of people.

It also wants the Government to close a loophole being exploited by some unscrupulous salesmen to get around the seven-day cancellation rule even where it applies. The regulations provide protection for legitimate traders against the cost of removing work already completed. Some salesmen are taking advantage of this by deliberately installing goods before the seven-day cooling-off period expires to undermine the cancellation right.

To block this loophole, the OFT wants the Government to ban work and/or payment within the cooling-off period except where it is genuinely needed urgently by the customer.

Penny Boys, the OFT's executive director, said: "Doorstep selling can be a convenient form of shopping.

"However, the unique setting the home provides also means that high-pressure selling and psychological tactics can persuade (people) to make purchases they don't really want. It is therefore vital that consumers have adequate protection and are able to cancel contracts they later regret."

Rosemary Suttill, of York Citizens Advice Bureau, said people who were being pressured to buy something they were not sure about should never feel ashamed to say "No".

If a lot of psychological pressure was being applied, she said, there were a number of excuses you could use to buy yourself time.

"You can say you will have to talk to your partner, or will have to talk to a couple of friends," she said. "Ask them to call back later, and leave some literature. Give yourself some time to think about it!"

Updated: 09:57 Thursday, May 13, 2004