The city of London is warning homeowners after two dozen complaints in the last few days about salespeople asking to take water samples for analysis.

“The (salespeople) mention a company, and then suggest that the city of London has hired them to test the water in that neighbourhood. We don’t do that,” said Dan Huggins, the city’s water quality manager.

Once the salesperson is in the door, he or she does a water test of the tap water, adds some chemicals that show discolouration, and tells the customer it indicates poor water quality, Huggins said.

“People have been so frightened, they sign up to spend $3,500 on this water filtration system on the spot. I’ve seen real scare tactics to make people think the water is unsafe,” Huggins said.

Recently, reports have come from Lambeth, White Oaks, Northridge and other neighbourhoods.

Tap water in London exceeds the standards set by the province, Huggins said.

“There’s absolutely no reason to purchase a water filtration system.

“The bottom line is, if someone is showing up there from the city of London trying to sell you something, that’s not correct. That’s not the way we do business,” Huggins said. “Any City of London worker who was coming to the door would have a city of London ID and would be happy to show it.”

The city does free lead testing on tap water in older homes, and has done 12,000 such tests in the last decade.

If there is lead in the water, city employees can direct homeowners to ways to deal with it.

The city can’t complain to anyone about the water filtration sales tactics, but homeowners can, Huggins said.

“Homeowners do have some recourse. If they’ve bought anything from a door-to-door salesperson, you can cancel the contract without penalty within 10 days of signing,” he said.

Kate.dubinski@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/KateatLFPress

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