Moving door-to-door, they enter your home and then try to defraud you by "detecting a fault" in your equipment, force you to replace a part, and thus force out of you a couple of hundreds.
What is even more alarming is that these "service men" could actually be hardcore criminals trying to gain entry into your house.They could also be operating as personnel appointed by a company or government department for "surveys."
With the police clueless on how to tackle the menace, the safety of residents is in their own hands.
Claiming to be employees of a water purifier, refrigerator or air conditioner companies, these service men are allegedly fleecing people, replacing the functional parts of the equipment, claiming that the part is defunct.
Wary of males, they target houses after 10 am in the hope that the menfolk would have left for work. Women, especially the elderly, are easy preys.
Vimal Khanna, a resident of Panchkula, informed TNS that two young men approached her house yesterday morning and inquired if a water filter had been installed at her house.
Upon confirmation, they said they had come from the company to offer free service. "Once inside, they took minutes to announce that the filter in the cylinder had become defunct and a replacement would cost Rs 300.
"Though I confronted them, saying I had bought the filter recently and it was under guarantee, they convinced me that the part was defunct. By chance, my son was home.The moment they realised that a male member was home, they made an excuse and fled."
In a similar incident, a young man claiming to be a service representative of a leading refrigerator company tried to gain access to a house in Sector 18 when the lady of the house was all alone.
"He claimed he was sent by the company for free service. However, I had got the refrigerator serviced a few weeks back and did not allow him inside. He then went away, but I called up the company office and was told that they had not sent anybody," she said.
When the matter was taken up with Chandigarh SSP S.S. Srivastava, he said indeed it was an area of concern and some preventive steps would be taken in this direction .
He, however, said he was not aware of any legal provisions by which they could regulate these "service reps" as everyone had the right to market their products.
"However, we will take up the issue with leading FMCG companies and try to find a way out. The residents should remain cautious and check the antecedents of any person before allowing him access to their homes. In case of any doubt, the police must be informed."
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