Woman’s sales scam alert

By Melissa Grant
A HAMPTON Park woman is urging residents to be wary of dodgy salespeople after two people claiming to be from a hot water company paid her a visit recently.
Donna Chapman says the pair, a man and a woman, visited her Plateau Crescent Road house trying to sell parts for her hot water system.
Ms Chapman said she thought nothing at first of the woman who knocked on her door claiming to be from a company which visited the area every four years.
“At first I thought it was something to do with water restrictions so I let her in,” she said.
“She went out and looked at the valve on my hot water system then got to the anode.
“She said she couldn’t fix it and that a guy already in the area would come out to have a look.”
Ms Chapman said she became suspicious when the man wanted her to buy a replacement anode for the system.
“He was trying to talk me into buying a new one. He got a bit annoyed when I said no,” she said.
After the pair left, Ms Chapman said she started to go over what had happened during the visit.
“In conversation he asked me what type of dog I had, and how many people lived here.
“I really didn’t think anything of it until afterwards,” she said.
“The woman was in her 20s or 30s, a short blonde girl. I thought nothing of her; maybe that’s how they get in.”
Ms Chapman said the man was wearing a Rheem hat and shirt, but thought it was strange he drove off in a green utility and couldn’t produce a business card when she asked for one.
Ms Chapman said she later discovered that it wasn’t the first time someone in the area had been visited by someone trying to sell hot water system parts.
“A friend of mine used to live closer to Pound Road. She actually bought the part, now her hot water’s stuffed,” she said.
A spokeswoman from Rheem Australia’s service department said the company only visited households on request.
“We don’t knock on doors,” she said.
“There’s a few companies that do and pop up every now and then under different guises.”