Page 24 - January 2017

January 2017 January 2017

DORSET TRADING STANDARDS

Dorset County Council Trading Standards Service check and
approve businesses so you don’t have to.
For more information visit www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk or
call 08454 040506.
Small load - £75 Large load - £160 To report or seek advice about problems you have
experienced when dealing with a trader call 08454 040506.

Mattresses

Trading Standards have been cracking down on rogue traders selling illegal
mattresses after an increase in complaints from consumers about cheap
mattresses sold online or from the back of a van.
The law requires that mattresses meet a level of fire resistance as laid down in the
British Standard, however it does not require that mattresses have a label to that
effect.
Rogue sellers may entice customers into thinking they are getting a bargain, for
example by saying that they are selling clearance stock, or excess stock from a
large hotel order.
The mattresses typically fail all fire safety tests as well as being filthy and
unhygienic. The items are often old and discarded mattresses that have been
recovered and repackaged to look new. Some of the more brazen traders
are even using the logos of well-known manufacturers and retailers on
their vans to further fool consumers into believing they are ‘bagging a
bargain’. Paper work given with the mattresses may contain limited or false
information.

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