Consumer Advice
Consumer Direct North East is a new government backed service in partnership with local authority Trading Standards Services, providing clear practical advice for consumers on all sorts of issues or complaints. You can call for information before buying goods or services, or if you need assistance when problems occur.
This can be problems with bills, warranty disputes, faulty and dangerous goods, and poor workmanship. This information will normally help you to solve the problem on your own.
Consumer Direct provides a quick efficient service dealing with the majority of consumer complaints. County Durham residents, with more complex consumer problems will be referred to Durham Trading Standards Service, for additional support in pursuing their case through to the civil courts if necessary.
Consumer Direct North East Contact Information
- Telephone - 08454 040506
- Text phone - 0845 1281384
A confidential translation service is available in many languages if required.
- Monday to Friday - 8.00am to 6.30pm.
- Saturdays - 9.00am to 1.00pm
You can submit a complaint online at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/cotact?action=complain
Further information on your consumer rights can be found on the internet at www.oft.gov.uk and www.consumerdirect.gov.uk
If you are unable to access the telephone based service of Consumer Direct North East , please contact us at:
Durham County Council
Environment
Trading Standards
Durham County Council
County Hall
Durham
DH1 5UB
Telephone: 0191 3833589
Email: consumerservices@durham.gov.uk
Registered Trader Scheme
A County Durham Registered Trader scheme has just been set up to help consumers choose reputable tradesmen to carry out work on their homes.
For consumers, the benefit of our advice service is not limited to giving advice when things go wrong. We also give talks to consumer groups and schools. You can also request a talk online and we have information on how to complain if you have bought goods, or services which are faulty or unsatisfactory.
We also carry out work in the market place helps to ensure that consumers get a fair deal. A brief outline of this work is shown below.
- Controls at packers and importers
- False trade descriptions
- Credit
- Overloading checks on heavy goods vehicles
- Safety of consumer products
- Retail checks
Controls at Packers and Importers
As a result of UK membership of EU, the system of average quantity is used in this country for the packaging of food and many other commodities. Each local authority is required to enforce the law in this respect and officers make visits to packers and importers. There they see that equipment is used properly and test many of the items being produced to ensure, on average, the quantity marking is correct. They also examine food ingredients, product recipes and packing records to check that food contents are acceptable and agree with their descriptions.False Trade Descriptions
As a result of complaints, or through special investigations, we question the accuracy of a wide variety of descriptions of goods and services.
Sales of used cars are a constant problem. Many cases of unroadworthy or misdsescribed motor vehicles are investigated and the practice of altering a vehicle’s odometer to register less miles than has been travelled continues to require officers' attention.
Counterfeit products are one of the many areas which lead to prosecutions under trade descriptions law, and compensation for complainants is often awarded by the Court.
Credit
We pay attention to the use and abuse of consumer credit. Traders offering credit have to be licensed by the Office of Fair Trading, a central government department, but the suitability of traders to be granted the licence can be assessed only by monitoring carried out locally.
The advertising of credit is scrutinised to ensure it is not misleading and complies with legal requirements. Particular attention is given to ensuring the APR (annual percentage rate) is quoted, as this allows a true comparison of the cost of credit. Interest rates of over 5,000% have been charged by unscrupulous, unlicensed, moneylenders. When discovered, these "sharks" are prosecuted by the service.
Overloading Checks on Heavy Goods Vehicles
In association with the Durham Police, we make checks to detect overloaded goods vehicles, which is given a high priority. Heavy goods vehicles cause 90% of all damage to roads, 20% of this being due to overloading, and it costs about £50 million to repair each year (source: Peter Bottomley MP).Regular checks are made on goods vehicles using County Durham roads. Vehicles found to be seriously overloaded are prohibited from further movement and drivers and owners are usually prosecuted.
Safety of Consumer Products
All products are required to be reasonably safe and/or have to be made to certain standards. We carry out inspections of goods at retail, wholesale, manufacturer and importer levels. Sample purchases are made and submitted for testing. In general, the safety of goods is measured against a harmonised European Standard or its equivalent. Products which are found to be unsafe are dealt with by suspension of the goods and/or prosecution of the supplier.Retail Checks
Officers visit shops and supermarkets, factories, petrol stations and markets on a daily basis. Checks on petrol pumps ensure that correct measure is given and the required price information is available to guide the motorist. Price displays in shops and supermarkets are checked as these give valuable information which helps buyers to assess value and protect themselves.Retail sampling of food is carried out in a programme designed to maintain compositional and labelling standards. When complaints are received that cigarettes, or age restricted videos and computer games are being sold to under-age children, these are investigated.
