SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Christopher Belt led a new law that will protect consumers from being charged fees when service providers fail to give adequate notice before arriving at a residence.
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“I don’t think that people should be left holding the bag if a company failed to communicate with them,” said Belt (D-Swansea). “If a service provider fails to follow the rules and shows up without proper notice, we shouldn’t be stuck paying extra fees.”
Senate Bill 3066 will establish new consumer protections for service appointments involving companies such as cable, plumbing or other home service providers.
Under the law, companies will be required to provide customers with a service appointment window of no more than two hours. If a company provides a window that exceeds two hours, it must notify the customer by phone call at least one hour before arriving at the residence.
Most importantly, if a company fails to provide the required notice and the customer is not home when the service provider arrives, the company will be prohibited from charging the customer a missed appointment fee, trip charge or any other additional fee related to the missed visit.
“Consumers often take time off work, rearrange their schedules and spend hours waiting for service providers to arrive,” said Belt. “The least these companies can do is provide proper notice before showing up.”
Senate Bill 3066 was signed into law on Friday.
