ACM study reveals: doorstep selling is a major nuisance to consumers

Consumers are very dissatisfied with doorstep selling (also called door-to-door sales). This has been revealed by a consumer study carried out by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). More than half of consumers have regularly had salespersons at their doorsteps. Primarily energy contracts are sold in this manner, but also lottery tickets, telephone and broadband plans, as well as donations to charities. Of the people that have experience with doorstep selling, 45 percent experience this selling method as negative or very negative. Consumers find doorstep selling not useful, unpleasant, and unreliable. In addition, 90 percent of respondents say that doorstep selling is not in their interests. When asked what they would like to change about doorstep selling, almost half of the respondents said that a ban on this selling method would be a good idea. ACM has shared these outcomes with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK).

Consumers are negative about doorstep selling

ACM had a study conducted into the experiences of consumers with doorstep selling, since ACM’s information portal ConsuWijzer regularly receives complaints about this. The study has shown that consumers do not appreciate doorstep selling. They feel that the salesperson forces them to buy things they do not really need, given the fact that the interaction is initiated by the salesperson, not the buyer. Of all consumers that have bought something through doorstep selling, 63 percent say that the salesperson in question put them under pressure to say ‘yes’, and 20 percent even say under great or tremendous pressure.

The complaints that ACM has received about doorstep selling mainly concern the sales of energy contracts. One energy supplier, about which ACM has regularly received complaints, has, following discussions with ACM, changed its protocols for doorstep selling, and has tightened its internal control procedures. As soon as this supplier resumes selling energy contracts door-to-door, ACM will check whether the adopted measures are sufficient in practice. Due to the current situation on the energy market, suppliers hardly offer any fixed-rate contracts door-to-door. Since other products besides energy contracts are also sold door-to-door, ACM believed it to be beneficial to focus on this topic.

Next steps

Edwin van Houten, Director of ACM’s Consumer Department, says: ‘Our study shows that a large group of consumers experience doorstep selling as unpleasant. This may not be a surprising conclusion but still an important one, also for the government. We will present these findings to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy to see whether the rules regarding doorstep selling can be tightened’. In that review, according to ACM, consumer protection should come first in this sales method, since many consumers experience undue pressure to conclude contracts when faced with salespeople at their doorsteps.

See also:

24-10-2022 Study into consumers’ perceptions of doorstep selling (or door-to-door-sales) (in Dutch)