European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 29, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday december 29. 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 weary of persistent peddle so Sas photo by Lynda w. Spain. _ Iff -T5 photo Yokote mane Doucette Loki through the door peephole after a Vendor knot i. I it wants Lei know i re nor he Toimi she i 1lint in nun nil she s weary of  paddlers.  a Imp screens visitors by peering Lorr in. Peephole m her Doof. Her neighbor.  Sumner Hill. In l As fart note she rut no peephole. Iii Hart n peephole chances Ore i would t open the door Summerhill said. But As i Don t. I usually open up because i m curious and i want to know who is there when i see the caller is Selling something i Don t want. I always end up closing the  go Ulm. Samuel and surname rail Are military wives living in government housing in Germany. Goulet said an average of six vendors visit her stairwell each week at Frankfurt s Gibbs housing a Lutious in opening the door she is just As cautious about dealing with unsolicited visitors. Ii they Don t have a permit i won t talk to  she said. I Learned the hard Way to be careful. I was stuck on an earlier tour in Augsburg. I ordered bocks Tram to Ever so Friendly English girls then Learned they had no connection with the firm hey supposedly represented " vendors Selling Oil paintings furniture and encyclopedias Britannica and world Book have rung Goulet s door Bell. Solicitors Lor the handicapped Call regularly. Every month their s a different person collecting for the  she said we Are pestered try bums who hit up residents Lor Money and who get drunk and fall asleep in the stairwells. One fellow has been taken away by military police on numerous occasions but he keeps coming  at Vogel Weh housing in Kaiserslautern Summerhill has seen a Parade of Thorp Are vendors Harp in hip Limp you name it arid they up ii they in pushing re i. Puppets  Cha Warp. Pots and pans picture and  summer i l said i m leery about dealing with these people i Don t want to he Gyp Ped i be never bought a single Hern from any of them when i see who it is. Act say i m not Insp tested and those the door i be never asked to see a permit because i in not Intel cited in buying " Many vendors work Vogel Weh housing without authorization a military policeman said. I checked a fellow who was Selling dishes without a permit and asked him to  the Mpa Aid. I reminded him that he needed a permit and specific appointments with residents to sell in government housing. He said his Boss told him he could sell without a permit. When i told him he was in violation of regulations he left the stairwell. But i think lie entered the next building and continued to sell " in three years at platen housing in Frankfurt. Phy Lis Fulton has answered the door Lor ail and Ruy dealers car washers and Jehovah s witnesses one army wife in Gibbs housing said she has seen vendors throw tantrums when you Don t  their behaviour can be quite  she said usually they re jelling sweaters cheap shoes or other imported clothing items that Are not Worth the asking Price. The openness of so much of our government housing is the real problem it makes it easy for vendors and Lor people who distribute junk posters and circulars. Our mailboxes Are always stuffed with unwanted junk. There s nothing to Stop anyone from wandering into a housing  if people would just think before signing contracts m military buyers lose thousands old Ollars each year to door to door vendors by failing to read contracts never receiving their goods or buying shoddy items at expensive prices. The files of Legal assistance offices contain hundreds of cases involving Oor to door vendors and a variety of contract disputes. Just last summer a sales Blitz by teams of vendors pushing silverware and other luxury merchandise caught housing residents in Germany Oil guard. Customer who bought from these roving salespeople paid $50 Down in instalment contracts for silverware valued at $960. Gerhard Volk. German attorney at the Usa eur Legal assistance d  in Heidelberg said that in most cases the silverware was Worth Only a fraction of the Purchase Price. If people would just think before signing contracts they could save themselves Money and embarrassment said Maria Hill army Community service Counselor in Heidelberg. My advice is Don t sign anything on the spot. Sleep on it. And Don t sign until you understand All the provisions. If the contract is in German or you Don t understand it for any other reason take it to your Legal assistance office. If pays to be cautious. Once you be signed you la have trouble breaking the contract Hill has seen contracts that underwrote furniture for 29 percent interest plus credit insurance that brought financing charges to More than 30 percent. Volk cautioned buyers to beware of contracts that Call for payment in Lull before goods Are delivered. This is the worst kind of contract because the buyer is completely unprotected if anything goes wrong. Ii the company goes bankrupt the buyer is left holding the  German Law Volk said gives the buyer one week to Back out of an instalment contract. This one week period becomes indefinite if the contract failed to Alert the buyer in prominent print of his right to terminate the agreement Volk said. But buyers should note that it is the instalment feature of a contract that allows for the one week Cooling period not door to door solicitation As commonly  when in doubt it s Best to have contracts reviewed. Legal assistance lawyers said. With a fresh group of Consumers arriving in the european Market every two to three years the Cycle of rip offs by roving vendors is self perpetuating if people would remember that solicitors must have appointments to work housing areas they could avoid most problems Hill said. A. Jeffrey Guilford chief of client services at Usa eur Legal assistance division until last summer said housing residents can do a lot to help themselves. They should report door to door  to local authorities he said and before signing any Condrac for a Large Purchase they should have it reviewed by Legal  air Force capt Richard Yeager. Executive officer Lor the Kaiserslautern military Community said residents often take the easy Way out and simply Tell vendors to Bug  for their own Protection stairwell residents ought to Call their local Law enforcement office when paddlers make a nuisance of themselves Yeager said but people seem to have a false sense of Security in Europe. Most of them Don t read the local papers so they Don t understand All that is going on