So many door-to-door solicitations this summer! annoyed

[Nestof3]

First, we have a "No Solicitations" sign. I do this for two reasons: I don't buy things from telephone or door-to-door salespeople and because I don't like opening my door to strangers. I have never bought anything this way, and I never will. It is a waste of my time and theirs.

 

So.

 

The other day, a young man came by insisting that he wasn't selling something. In fact, he told my husband he would pay my husband to put a sign in his yard. My husband had to get quite firm to get him to leave our property.

 

Today, I was blow-drying my hair. It has to be done at a certain time and for a certain length of time or it will be frizzy and poufy. I hear Nathan yelling that someone was at the door. I still had lunch to prepare before we would head out the door to piano lessons. I opened the door, and this young lady had a big bag with her. I asked her if she was selling anything, and we both glanced at my sign. She avoided the question and said she was talking to my neighborhood about educational resources for children. She asked if there was a place we could sit down to discuss these things. She went on about how she had to ride her bike in the horrible heat, and how she had to do this for college.

 

I said, "I really am in a hurry to get to piano lessons." She asked if another time would work better. I said, "Honestly, I don't want to participate in this." She said, "Okay. Could you please tell me which houses on your street have children and what their ages are?" Finally, I said, "I am feeling violated here. I don't have time for this, and yet you are keeping me engaged in this conversation." She said, "I'm sorry, but it's just so hot out here." I said, "I'm sorry you have a difficult job, but I have to go." Then I shut the door. :tongue_smilie:

[Carrie12345]

While I miss door-to-door Girl Scout cookies, I like that our development is a (gated) no-solicitation zone. It usually works real well.

 

I did almost have twin cows one time though. Some private plow guy came and knocked on our door at ELEVEN THIRTY PM to see if we were interested in having our driveway done. :glare:

[Jean in Newcastle]

Do you have a peephole in your door? If you look out and see someone you do not recognize, do not open the door. Or use a side window (I use one of our living room ones) to open and see who is there. Somehow it is easier when you have not opened the door.

[Mrs Mungo]

Peepholes are very easy to install. I had my dh install one in our door at our old house, it maybe took him 10 minutes.

 

The last person who came to my door told me he was going to clean the air in my home for free. I said "I'm not interested, thanks." He said "aren't you even going to find out what it's about?" I said "nope," and shut the door.

[mrs.m]

I put a no solicitors sign on the door and included "even if it is 'free'!" on the sign. I have too many say, "I'm not tryin' to sell ya anything ma'am. This is free with no obligation." grrrrrr. It seemed to help.

[StephanieZ]

I've been getting a lot lately and got exactly that one (school books) last week!

 

When she told me that she had resources that would help the kids with their school work and homework, I told her, "We don't participate in the school system." so she asked if we hs, and i said yes, and she started naming various publishers wanting to know what we used. I felt very uncomfortable and pretty much told her that I knew plenty about school resources and just was not interested. . .

 

She also wanted to know about the neighbors. I told her a few houses that had no kids, so she could skip them. . . and one that has a mean lady there. . . but I told her "I feel uncomfortable giving out private information about my neighbors" when she asked ages, etc.

 

I really had to be firm. She had obviously been well trained in the hard sell. I hate these door-to-door things.

[i.love.lucy]

We had a bunch of break-ins recently where they would try to see if you were home and then break the door in. So my sign says - "No Soliciting * We will not respond even if we are home".

 

I have no idea if it gets the point across, but I had to do something. Seems our neighborhood is a magnet for these door to door types.

 

I have a friend who peeps through the peep-hole and then just yells "Not interested!!". Seems to work well for her too!:lol:

[Tap]

I open the door and say pleasantly "not interested, and please note that so you don't come back in the future"...and shut the door. NO Conversation. My neighbor across the street, laughs at me and says I am rude, but honestly I don't care. He will get sucked into a 10 minute conversation with someone that he doesn't want to talk to. I didn't ask them to come by. They were rude enough to knock on my door uninvited, I can be just as rude back.

[Allearia]

The other day we had a woman come by wanting to give estimates for carpet cleaning. We have absolutely no carpet, just hardwood floor. She said they could demonstrate how to clean my hardwood floor and she would still get $25. I declined. She was begging to come in and do a tiny piece of floor, "Please? Just one tiny hallway? It won't take long!" I just had to close the door. I try to be polite, I am just lucky not to be in a position to have to do that job, but seriously - I HAVE NO CARPETS! So an estimate for carpet cleaning would be about $0 for my house!

[mrs.m]

The other day we had a woman come by wanting to give estimates for carpet cleaning. We have absolutely no carpet, just hardwood floor. She said they could demonstrate how to clean my hardwood floor and she would still get $25. I declined. She was begging to come in and do a tiny piece of floor, "Please? Just one tiny hallway? It won't take long!" I just had to close the door. I try to be polite, I am just lucky not to be in a position to have to do that job, but seriously - I HAVE NO CARPETS! So an estimate for carpet cleaning would be about $0 for my house!

 

I learned the hard way to NEVER allow them into the house. DH had to threaten to call the police on what ended up being 3 Kirby sales people at our house that would NOT leave. I was a kid and didn't know better! I honestly thought they were going to clean my carpet for me for FREE. :glare:

[Mrs Mungo]

I really had to be firm. She had obviously been well trained in the hard sell. I hate these door-to-door things.

 

"No, thank you, we're not interested," and shut the door, even if they are still talking! They are violating your space, you aren't in the wrong and aren't being rude.

 

We had a bunch of break-ins recently where they would try to see if you were home and then break the door in. So my sign says - "No Soliciting * We will not respond even if we are home".

 

There have been break-ins here where they were offering a "free service" to scope out your house and came back later to rob the house.

[runmiarun]

I have a sign on my front door that says "Cranky children FINALLY sleeping. If you knock or ring the doorbell, you are putting your life at risk." It stays up from about 9am til bedtime. So far this summer it is working. It will definitely be staying up until it falls apart and then I will make another one just like.

[Brilliant]

I am in the "don't answer the door" camp. I just don't feel safe. So what I do is, I look through the peephole and if I don't recognize the person, I'll call out, "Who is it?" When they start their spiel, I call out "I'm not interested, have a nice day!" and I walk away from the door and go about my business. Sometimes they keep talking to the door. :tongue_smilie:

 

It's too bad they have a hard job. But there's no law that you have to engage them in conversation. I do the same with phone solicitations - try to be halfway polite but not waste any of my/their time. "I'm not interested, have a nice day!" and hang up before they can responds.

[G5052]

We've had a very hot summer, the driveways are long, and there aren't really that many houses in our area, but they still show up.

 

This summer I've had the educational book/software guy, the magazine subscription girl, the frozen meat man, the driveway sealer, the roofer, and probably a few that we missed somehow.

 

Must be the economy, because I've never had more than maybe one or two a year before...

[Jackie in AR]

First, we have a "No Solicitations" sign. I do this for two reasons: I don't buy things from telephone or door-to-door salespeople and because I don't like opening my door to strangers. I have never bought anything this way, and I never will. It is a waste of my time and theirs.

 

So.

 

The other day, a young man came by insisting that he wasn't selling something. In fact, he told my husband he would pay my husband to put a sign in his yard. My husband had to get quite firm to get him to leave our property.

 

Today, I was blow-drying my hair. It has to be done at a certain time and for a certain length of time or it will be frizzy and poufy. I hear Nathan yelling that someone was at the door. I still had lunch to prepare before we would head out the door to piano lessons. I opened the door, and this young lady had a big bag with her. I asked her if she was selling anything, and we both glanced at my sign. She avoided the question and said she was talking to my neighborhood about educational resources for children. She asked if there was a place we could sit down to discuss these things. She went on about how she had to ride her bike in the horrible heat, and how she had to do this for college.

 

I said, "I really am in a hurry to get to piano lessons." She asked if another time would work better. I said, "Honestly, I don't want to participate in this." She said, "Okay. Could you please tell me which houses on your street have children and what their ages are?" Finally, I said, "I am feeling violated here. I don't have time for this, and yet you are keeping me engaged in this conversation." She said, "I'm sorry, but it's just so hot out here." I said, "I'm sorry you have a difficult job, but I have to go." Then I shut the door. :tongue_smilie:

 

You talked to her longer than I would have. :tongue_smilie:

 

I don't have much patience with people showing up at my front door wanting my money.

[Mimm]

I'm pretty sure she's working for this particular company whose name escapes me at the moment (haven't read the replies, one of them might have it). In my opinion, it's basically a scam. They give these college students what amounts to a high pressure sales pitch to get them to sign up for the program. They go to this training week that promises them that if they do certain things and try hard enough and work hard enough, they'll meet their quota and make lots of money. They're also told that this looks really good on a resume. Then they are sent across the country (far from family) and they have to find a living situation on their own. They usually have to rent a room or something. They don't have transportation, so they have to ride a bike. They go from door to door selling these books which, according to the accounts of former salesmen of them, are really low quality books. (Low quality content, not sure about printing/binding etc.) If you don't get people signed up for the books, you are made to feel like a failure. The program can be very damaging to a person's self esteem and also their pocket book because the way the program is set up, the salesperson has to buy the books and resell them or something of that nature.

 

It's basically a totally miserable job. I feel sorry for the girl and the people who have come to by door doing the same thing. They got themselves roped into a situation (didn't do enough research- the information about this company is online) and they're going to learn an expensive lesson from it. But this isn't to make you feel bad one bit. You did the right thing in not buying those books (why give profits to a company like that?) They are expensive and almost certainly not worth it. I never have bought a book from them and I don't regret it at all.

[Photo Ninja]

I wonder if the economy has something to do with the number of door to door sales people. If people are not going to the business, then the business is going to the people. :001_smile:

 

We have had a lot of maid services come by offering services. As much as I would love to have someone else clean my house, I'm not spending any money on that. I don't even know how many gardening services and lawn aerating companies have come by looking for business, as well as painters and pest control people.

 

The worst was a guy selling some kind of spray cleaner (apparently you can drink it and it won't hurt you, but it will easily clean off dirt, grime and will polish metals). I told him I was not interested, and he kept talking. I told him I was not going to buy anything. He said he just wanted to demonstrate the product. I told him that even if he demonstrated it I would not buy it, especially since I had already told him twice that I didn't want to buy it. I was polite, but getting irritated. He became rude and angry and told me that I should be more willing to listen to him because he knew I would like the product. I told him that I was just respecting his time and effort because it would be inconsiderate of me to listen to him knowing I would never buy his product when he could make better use of his time talking to someone else who might buy it. He stomped off.

[Penelope]

I really dislike the bicycle "college student" educational books salespeople. They come almost every summer. They ask to come in the house. If you say no they want to make an appointment with you for when they can come. They are very pushy. They ask which houses in the neighborhood have kids and what the family's names are.

 

We have had a lot of door to door local students raising money for this or that trip/project/fund, too. I don't donate to people I don't know, even if they seem like nice kids. Last week a teen came by and wanting to be nice, I told him I wasn't able to donate right now. He asked me when I would have some money so he could come back then! I will be more direct in the future but it seems the trouble might not be pushiness, but a lack of social skills in some cases.

[Guest Katia]

The worst was a guy selling some kind of spray cleaner (apparently you can drink it and it won't hurt you, but it will easily clean off dirt, grime and will polish metals).

 

 

I had this guy come to my door as well. My dad was on the way out the door to bring in the mail and he collided with this sales guy trying to come in our house! The guy started right in on his great 'green' cleaning product and he started licking it while he was talking. It was really gross. Dad didn't know what to do (he's 81yo) and the guy just kept talking and talking.....so I came to the door and said, "I'm not interested. I already make all my own cleaners, they are safe and 'green'. It's a good idea, but I already do it."

 

Wow, he was mad. He just gave me a really nasty glare, turned and stomped off. I stayed outside until my dad had the mail and was back inside before I came in and locked the door behind me. I'm a BIG gal; people don't mess with me. I might sit on them!

 

The last gal that came to my door was a Jehovah's Witness. It was so, so hot outside and she said she didn't care what religion I was, she just wanted to share some Scriptures with me to give me hope. So, we stood and chatted and she opened her Bible and read some of the most uplifting Scriptures to me and it was beautiful. I didn't really care what religion she was; God's Word is God's Word. She was such a nice lady.

 

Anyway, after all the nasty salespeople coming this summer, I almost put up the No Sales/No Religion/No Exceptions sign, but after this lovely experience with the JW lady, I think I'll just keep answering the door :).....but I keep my storm door locked and talk through the screen. ;) That way I can close the solid door if I so choose.

[Rebecca VA]

My husband got scammed this evening. He had just arrived home, and we were in the kitchen talking. When the doorbell rang he answered it. It was a "sales trainee" supposedly taking money to buy books for poor kids in Washington, D.C. (???) My husband is so kind-hearted; he stood on the front porch for ten minutes listening to her sales pitch and then donated $45.

 

I was furious. I WARNED him when he came in to get the checkbook -- I was hissing "It's a SCAM! Close the door!" but he couldn't back down. In return for his donation he got a flimsy receipt from the sales organization. I looked it up on the Internet, and the website simply lists officers of the organization and mentions that they "train" people.

 

I'd like to stop payment on the check, but my husband is already so embarrassed by getting scammed that I don't want to rub it in further. He's just not used to these people because he's always at work; I would have sent that girl on her way before she said two words.

[flyingmommy]

My four barking dogs usually keep them from ringing the door bell. If they do, I just take my sweet time telling my dogs to quiet down, which they don't do, then I grab one by the collar and crack the door open. "Sorry, I have to hold her or she'll attack. No thanks, not interested!" Works like a charm. And my dogs are big noisemakers, but that is the limit of their ferocity! :)

[RanchGirl]

We used to have this problem. It really bugs me -- just because I have a front door doesn't mean I owe someone my time. And that's what they're doing -- stealing my time. Perhaps with the intention of casing the joint as well. And 9 times out of 10 they are incredibly rude as well. I even had one that I called the people on because she made vague threatening comments about my children. Very disturbing. Oh and the phone book thing bugs me too. Several different companies are producing these huge phone books and by dropping them off at private homes, they increase their circulation numbers and thus charge their advertisers more - even though 80% of people are tossing them into the trash (and phone books are supposed to be recycled separately, not like regular paper). It's a huge scam.

 

I had a sign that said "no soliciting", but that didn't work. Some of these doofuses think it doesn't apply to them. 3 weeks ago after no less than 4 phone books were left here within 1 week, I printed out and hung up a sign that says "No Trespassing. No Soliciting. No Distribution of Materials". Works like a charm. I think it's the no trespassing part. My kids have seen salespeople come to the door, read the sign and leave. I call that a major success!