Normally we report on this type of incident when it happens to one of our readers, but on this occasion, the potential victim of a bogus butano man was me! The good news is, I read the Gazette every month and knew what was happening from the outset.
The man who rang my doorbell was a well presented chap of about 40, and wearing a polo shirt with some sort of logo on the breast. He was also sporting a laminated ID card which was attached by a clip to his belt. Along with the shiny metal briefcase, he really looked the part.
“I have come to perform butano safety checks on your boiler and any other butano appliances,” he announced.
“I’m English and don’t understand,” I replied.
Not put off, he gave me a piece of A4 paper with an explanation in about ten languages. He pointed to the English one and I wandered off to get my glasses. The explanation was very brief, stating that he was there to do the said safety check. Returning to the door I said, “thanks for calling, but I don’t want a safety check.”
“I thought you said you don’t speak Spanish, and besides, these safety checks are obligatory,” he said.
“I took a crash course while I was away from the door, and if your checks are obligatory you can come back with paperwork from a court or a police officer and then I’ll let you in,” I explained.
And that’s it… my encounter with one of the ‘scam butano’ men, plying their trade around the Almunecar area and taking advantage of unsuspecting extranjeros, doing, in some cases, completely unnecessary work, then charging large amounts of money when the ‘work’ is complete.
Not exactly illegal, but arguably a scam nonetheless, as the victim is deliberately mislead into believing that he has no option other than to let him in, and secondly, leaning on the fact that foreign people confuse Butano with Repsol: the former is just the name of the gas whereas the latter is the name of the company that distributes the butano bottles.
Remember though folks, this is a serious matter and at the Gazette we know of several local foreigners who have fallen foul of these tactics
If there were a check to be done it would be done by a Repsol engineer, who would not ‘cold call’ at your door… just because someone mentions the word ‘butano’ a few times in the conversation and has the word ‘butano’ on his ID does not make him an legitimate Repsol engineer and if in doubt phone the local Repsol office or the local police.
In my case, someone else in the building had already phoned the local police who unfortunately turned up too late to move the chap on with a flea in his ear (a warning).
Be on your guard!
Finally, these callers are legitimate gas fitters working for a legitimate company, what is underhand is the deliberate misleading of customers. We cannot publish a statement declaring them as conmen, even if many would consider that what they doing is a con, because of possible libel.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)