A group of women from the Karen community are taking a stand
against door-to-door salespeople, telling retailers to stop knocking on
their doors.
The women have partnered with Women’s Health West and Wyndham
Legal Service to put an end to salespeople “targeting” their community.
They have sent letters to energy, phone and internet companies and
have taken part in education classes so they can teach their community
to stand up to salespeople.
In the letter, the women said they were aware of many people in
their community who had experienced problems as a result of door-to-door
sales, such as signing two contracts for the same service.
“Due to our culture and our experiences of oppression, we are
fearful and stressed when salespeople knock at our door. We feel like we
must open the door, and even let salespeople in our home,” the letter
stated.
Moo Noe said she was fed up with salespeople knocking on her
family’s door. “We would try and shut the door but they kept coming back
or they would wait outside,” she said. “Because of our level of
English, we didn’t know what to say or how to stop them.”
Moo Noe said she was now confident about turning salespeople away
and had encouraged members of her community to display “do not knock”
stickers near their front doors.
Women’s Health West promotion worker Shifrah Blustein said
high-pressure sales tactics had left many Karen people in debt and
distress.
Ms Blustein said the women wrote to 35 retailers and had received responses from two, who advised that they would look into stopping door-to-door selling.
