Pusher column

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As pusher column are colloquially seller referred to in the field, often outside the legal regulations for doorstep selling and without conditions for their protection provisions of the commercial agent law mostly magazines - subscriptions , phone lines or ostensibly charitable donations solicit and thereby immoral or criminal use methods. The name is derived from the older use of press for "harass" or "harass".

Basics

The distribution policy in the media sector, but also in the area of ​​financial services, telecommunication services or in the area of ​​dubious fundraising , often legally decouples the pure acquisition of contracts from the main business in that subcontractors are commissioned to recruit customers.

Columns of pushers differ from regular sales representatives primarily in that they regularly lack legal and technical training as well as extensive economic and often personal dependence on their direct clients. This violates legal provisions, which, however, often cannot be proven due to a lack of written sales promises (e.g. test subscriptions that do not exist or withdrawal options that are not explained and backdated). Pushers are often organized in changing companies that are strictly hierarchical and often change their company name. In individual cases, physical force is used within the teams to secure sales. Since employees with legal ignorance are regularly employed without social security and without regular commercial agency contracts, high fluctuation has to be accepted.

By outsourcing advertising activities to small companies, the contracting providers legally decouple themselves. You receive the customers acquired by the handle columns without being formally responsible for the behavior of the handle columns when recruiting. If the methods of commissioned push teams become public, the provider in many cases declares its regret about the methods, terminates the contract with the push team that has become too conspicuous and assigns it to another.

Methods

Suppressor columns are generally in the travel industry operates and use methods of direct marketing , but in a way that is generally regarded as immoral or criminal or as unwanted advertising is perceived.

Internal pressure situation

  • In training courses, employees are set on negotiation schemes that are determined by sales psychology and are sometimes subjected to brainwashing in order to fixate and swear them to sales activities. Such "training courses" also take place in the evening after the working day if one of the pushers does not reach the fixed amount of the subscription.
  • On the part of the client, the representatives are threatened with job loss, so that they are less inhibited by personal pressure against customers, but this rarely happens.
  • The advertisers are given quotas for subscriptions to be acquired: the best of the day are praised, the worst are put under heavy pressure ( threats ), humiliation in front of the group, withdrawal of money and food. Violence is not uncommon in these organizations. Young people with little commitment are preferred.

Pressure situation in the sales pitch

  • The personal confrontation with customers is stronger than in comparable telephone sales . The prospect is informed by intrusiveness until he concludes a contract , just to get rid of the representative.
  • The advertiser becomes inappropriately private. In this way, he can take advantage of the customer's characteristics, such as shyness or a need for social contact.
  • Young and good-looking advertisers are preferred for street advertising.
  • If the person cannot be persuaded to sign a contract in the course of the conversation, aggressive words and handling are used to try to build up pressure in order to put the potential customer in an uncomfortable position ( coercion ).
  • Defamation is used when a passerby addressed does not react to the advertiser, e.g. B. with the exclamation you are against animal welfare .
  • Feelings of compassion are addressed. The recruiter states that he is in a difficult personal situation and that he urgently needs business success. This appeals to the pity of the courted and abuses the willingness to help through subtle pressure build-up.

Deliberate misinformation

  • Targeted incorrect information or the omission of important details give customers wrong ideas, which exploits the asymmetrical distribution of information .
  • For membership contracts, e.g. B. for social organizations, the addressees are not told how much of the contributions go to the advertiser.
  • You gain access by first stating that you are doing a scientific survey ( malicious deception ).
  • A contract is concluded by claiming that the advertiser only needs the signature as proof of the conversation: in truth, a subscription is taken out (fraudulent misrepresentation or false pretense ( fraud )).

Contract manipulation

  • Contracts are backdated, legally a forgery of documents , which should create the false impression that the buyer's withdrawal period from the conclusion of the contract expires earlier.
  • The conclusion of the contract including the signature is forged.

protection

Protection options are available to the consumer at different levels, should the addressee fail to reject the trigger:

  • Personally
  1. Reject advertisers immediately.
  2. Compare the original identity card and travel business card (no copies!) (According to § 55 GewO ) of the advertiser and, if necessary, the client's certificate and check that it is up to date.
  3. Record the data and the course of the conversation in writing in front of the seller.
  4. Only provide signatures with the correct date.
  5. Keep the possibility of revocation open.
  6. In any case, keep a copy in hand before the recruiter receives the original.
  7. Questions about which contribution shares go to the advertiser and his organization.
  8. Offer help, e.g. B. have the telephone number of an employment agency ready.
  • Legally
  1. Revocation of the declaration of intent made with regard to the conclusion of the contract within 14 days in accordance with § 312 BGB .
  2. Possibly. Contestation of the contract due to fraudulent misrepresentation in accordance with § 123 BGB or notification of fraud in accordance with § 263 StGB

Here, a record of the conversation with the date and time should contain the seller's statements regarding his personal situation, possible intimidation attempts and reports of fate.

In case of doubt, the police can be notified, the advertisers checked and, if necessary, sent off. If several customers report to a government agency with similar protocols, the credibility of such evidence is likely even without witnesses.

Industry sectors

  • Electricity and gas industry: Direct sales ranks fourth among the distribution channels in the electricity and gas industry. Utilities such as RWE often commission external service providers whose employees sell electricity contracts on a commission basis.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.dwds.de/wb/Drücker
  2. ↑ a b c Corruption - The Drückerkönig, the Sex Orgies and the Bauer Vertriebs KG , in spiegel.de, January 12, 2007.
  3. ↑ Push column should operate from Gronau , in Westfälische Nachrichten, October 12, 2007.
  4. ↑ a b c d e What can be done against push-button gangs? ( Memento from November 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), at anwaltzentrale.de, July 25, 2007.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Attention, pusher! - How consumers are tricked ( memento from September 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), mdr.de, September 9, 2010.
  6. ↑ a b c Milking cow animal lover , in the daily newspaper , October 2, 2002.
  7. ↑ Wirtschaftslexikon: Drückerkolonne ( Memento from February 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
  8. ↑ a b Animal Welfare - Shops with a Dachshund Eye . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 2009, p. 54-56 ( online - October 5, 2009 ).
  9. ^ Columns of pushers make house calls in Minden , in Mindener Tageblatt, October 22, 2009
  10. ↑ Push columns for the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund to catch members , at presseportal.de, September 13, 2010.
  11. ↑ POL-AC: column of pushers caught during police video surveillance  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at presseportal.de, August 5, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.presseportal.de  
  12. ↑ a b Telephone fraudsters caught , in Märkische Oderzeitung, from February 25, 2009.
  13. ↑ Controversial door-to-door sales in the electricity industry: When the RWE representative rings three times ( Memento from May 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), WDR, February 10, 2014.