subject: To Trust Or Not To Trust The Appliance Repair Man [print this page] Look both ways before crossing the road, respect your elders and dont talk to strangers, all things that are drummed into us as children by our parents and while it stands they undoubtedly stood us in good stead when we were young, innocent and unaware, the last one rule is not one that can be realistically applied to adult life. When we go for job interviews, buy a car, order a drink at the bar or go on a date, were talking to strangers without even really knowing it but were also applying common sense. The rule still applies to men or women in the street, on public transport and it still applies in the case of hailing unlicensed taxi drivers.
The important thing about adult life is to take talking to strangers as seriously as when we were children but to do so sensibly and without becoming some sort of paranoid recluse. Lets take the example of the appliance repair engineer because weve probably all needed one at some point and if you havent, well you probably will and its then that this will make sense. The first thing to point out is that most people in the world are good, the bad are definitely in the minority but they are the ones in the forefront of life because the media knows that their deeds are often of interest to the law abiding public.
The easiest way to keep yourself safe in your own home is to do thorough research before you even book an engineer. The emergence of the internet has without doubt made daily communication and knowledge sharing practically instant and it really couldnt be easier to find the information you need. The anonymity that the internet offers anyone who uses it comes with its own fair share of problems, not least the ability to pretend to be someone else, con somebody innocent and unprepared out of money or bank details and then hide behind their online persona to avoid the letter of the law.
User reviews and ratings as well as the set up of websites can be a good indicator of whether or not a company or business is legitimate. Of course most things online should be taken with rather a large pinch of salt but if a website is a price or quote comparison site or a community for a certain industry you can usually assume that its ok, after all it takes a lot of effort to build a decent online reputation, more effort than most con artists could ever be bothered to put in.
