Man at door 'to fix appliance'. Had my address on phone, but I hadn't booked a visit. New scam?

[buddug]

Earlier today a man with what sounded like a strong Polish or Russian accent came to my door and said: 'Appliance.' When I asked for a bit more information he said: 'Fix it,' When I said I knew nothing about this he showed me his smartphone which had my exact address on the screen, with the word 'oven' above it. So I said: 'Oh. You've come to fix my oven?' (I hadn't booked and oven was fine) but he said: 'No, dishwasher'. I don't have one, sadly.

He had so little English it would be very difficult for him to understand anyone telling him what was going wrong with an appliance if they had booked him to come out. Surely he'd need to know.

Did anyone else experience this? I did, by the way, have a little growling snappy dog in my arms at the time, something I was glad of later, when I thought about it.

(Sorry about edits. I'm a sub editor - can't help myself)

[lane lover]

7 edits. wow!

Someone turning up at your address, with your address on your phone? they must be really smart!

common sense usually prevails ...

[buddug]

So what was he up to? Casing? I can't make head nor tail of it.

[Sue]

Possibly he had taken the address down wrong? Did he have your name as well, or just the address?

Maybe one of your neighbours is wondering why he didn't turn up to fix their dishwasher!

[buddug]

Initially I thought it was just a mistake, but then I started thinking. He didn't have my name, just my address - there was no name, which is odd. And the word 'oven' was also there, but he said 'dishwasher'.

[Callie]

Did you ask what company he was from?

[buddug]

No Callie. I got the impression he was a one-man-band. He was very scruffy though. But then, so am I, most days.

[grace3]

Quite: customers can be very scruffy looking nowdays and they expect working tradesmen to look like a Jeeves character

[Chick]

grace3 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Quite: customers can be very scruffy looking

> nowdays and they expect working tradesmen to look

> like a Jeeves character

Good grief

[buddug]

So, anyone else experienced this?

[JohnL]

Maybe its practice for when the oven or dishwasher can call the repair man itself.