Don’t let anything turn you on: consumer center warns of dubious scams on the front door

Nobody actually likes representatives at the door. This also applies to a current scam in connection with the fiber optic expansion, which the NRW consumer advice center is currently warning of. Anyone who has concluded a contract prematurely can revoke it.

As part of the expansion, all German households are to be supplied with fiber optics by 2030 in order to meet the increasing demand and ever-increasing amounts of data.

But apparently it is also unfair, as some citizens of the consumer center in North Rhine-Westphalia report. Various representatives wander from door to door and sometimes aggressively advertise their offers.

Don’t be taken by surprise

Customers have reported to the consumer advice center that they were put under pressure during the sales talks and felt badly informed. Free riders also like to use this method to foist Internet contracts on naïve residents.

According to the consumer center, the representatives often try to sell customers normal cable connections as fiber optics. Then obscure terms like:

cable fiber optic
coax fiber optic
Gigabit connection

A real fiber optic connection, however, is called “Fiber to the Home” (FTTH). If the cable is only laid to the curb (“Fiber to the Curb”) and the rest to the apartment via copper, then you have no speed advantage.

Therefore, do not let yourself be taken by surprise and do not sign any documents. Otherwise you may incur unnecessary costs. In any case, you can revoke a contract that was concluded at the door, on the Internet or by telephone within 14 days. Exercise this right if you have been caught off guard by a representative.

Which tariffs make sense for me?

The fiber optic expansion is definitely important and makes sense, as the bandwidth requirement continues to increase – for example due to high-resolution streaming, large downloads and a large number of devices in the home network.

So if you get the opportunity to have a connection laid in the house as part of an initial expansion, you should seize the opportunity. If you decide to do this later, this could entail additional costs, since you then have to dig again.

However, you should inform yourself about the providers and compare the offers instead of signing a contract at the front door.

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