Do Trading Standards Officers Exist ?

[KTMsm]

I've tried to report a dodgy car dealer - selling clocked cars - to Trading Standards

Doing it online you go around in circles and end up with Citizens Advice

Have Trading Standards as a department been closed ?

[loskie]

no but like most council departments they are ineffective

[Johnnytheboy]

All (not) working from home.

I provide office services to a local TS office. It's not just quiet, it's locked up.

[KTMsm]

Johnnytheboy said:

All (not) working from home.

I provide office services to a local TS office. It's not just quiet, it's locked up.

Thanks that makes sense of why I can't find any info about them closing, yet can't get through

[C Lee Farquar]

About a year ago I tried to report a builder to Bath TS. They will only accept cases that come via Citizens Advice.

I was trying to report someone whom they'd already prosecuted and obtained a jail sentence, he's since been released and is doing exactly the same again. I didn't want to involve CA because I didn't pay his bill for fictitious work so had suffered no loss.

[Sheepshanks]

They pretty well all got chopped in ‘the cuts’ years ago now.

Always makes me laugh when people on here say “report them to Trading Standards.”

[Mojooo]

Trading Standards do exist

For most things you have to report it via Citizens Advice first and it is sent to the electronically to the relevant TS dept.

http://tradingstandardsblog.co.uk/contact-trading-...


Don't be surprised if they do not investigate - cuts of over 60% in the last 10 years and some areas only have 1 or 2 TS officers covering an entire council area

[Sheepshanks]

My impression is they mainly focus on things like organised counterfeiting of goods, or places where they get multiple complaints, ie a garage selling to the public but insisting the cars are on trade terms.

[semisane]

loskie said:

no but like most council departments they are ineffective

like most council departments they have suffered year on year cuts since 2010

apologies for bringing some objectivity to proceedings

[semisane]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Indeed - frequent restructures, when senior people leave, trying to achieve budget cuts, coupled with having to make the new structure fit the existing officers and difficulties in making officers redundant (redundancies cost), leads to making people 'fit' the role.

Far from ideal, but the rules, and to a lesser extent the unions, dictate the process.

[Mojooo]

Sheepshanks said:

My impression is they mainly focus on things like organised counterfeiting of goods, or places where they get multiple complaints, ie a garage selling to the public but insisting the cars are on trade terms.

They can deal with any form of trade to consumer misselling an can do clocked cars, see example
https://saddind.co.uk/oldham-car-dealer-fined-for-...

But the reality is that its a postcode lottery as to how much staff your local TS has and what areas they focus on.

[Sheepshanks]

Mojooo said:

They can deal with any form of trade to consumer misselling an can do clocked cars, see example
https://saddind.co.uk/oldham-car-dealer-fined-for-...

If you read that, it's obviously not a one-off.

Oldham Trading Standards have a bit of history though: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-1...

[Mojooo]

Sheepshanks said:

If you read that, it's obviously not a one-off.

Oldham Trading Standards have a bit of history though: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-1...

Unless the matter is quite serious then unlikely they will prosecute. so that is why complaints are important.

IIRC Vance Miller was subsequently prosecuted and was on the run or something.

another one
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2020/12/...

[loskie]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This is exactly right. Bums on seats that's mostly the case. Apologies to the very few good uns. You know who you are.

[db]

Sheepshanks said:

My impression is they mainly focus on things like organised counterfeiting of goods, or places where they get multiple complaints, ie a garage selling to the public but insisting the cars are on trade terms.

I can't comment on reports about countereit goods etc, but in my experience, they are focused on commercial trade.
My old company made animal feed stuffs. To comply with various regulatory authorities ((UK and worldwide) we had to have them come to the factory a good few times.
Initially, they concentrated on weighing machines and calibration etc, latterly they provided guidance about regulatory needs and liased with other authorities.

While counterfeit goods and dodgy car dealers still exist, they are far less common than they were years ago. Their focus has changed.

[Mojooo]

According to Citizens Advice who collect the data - used cars are still one of the most complained about issues

But that doesn't necessarily equate to enforcement action . it is perhaps morel likely rogue traders (home improvement) will be prosecuted because they tend to be more serious in terms of losses to consumers and organisation of the offenders

[loskie]

DB

Counterfeit goods are most certainly NOT IN decline.


TS visits to a feed mill should have also included sampling and testing to ensure that the statutory declaration that you made for your feed was within the required parameters and to also see that there were no unwholesome and deleterious materials used.

[KTMsm]

db said:

While counterfeit goods and dodgy car dealers still exist, they are far less common than they were years ago. Their focus has changed.

On the contrary I've seen a marked increase in the last 5 years probably because TS haven't done much

[XCP]

I suspect that TS is one of those services that no-one wants to pay for. Until they need to use it.

[KTMsm]

XCP said:

I suspect that TS is one of those services that no-one wants to pay for. Until they need to use it.

That's the same as the Police, Fire & NHS too !

With all the dodgy cheap imports being sold on Ebay / Amazon / Aliexpress etc I'm surprised we haven't invested in more of them