Door to Door Sales...

[teachercd]

I saw this on another site and it kind of cracked me up...I guess I did not know some people were so crazy and such a$$hole$...

 

How do you guys deal with Door to Door salesmen?

 

For me, personally...I never answer my door...after I hear a knock or a ring I look out a window (hope not to get spotted) and see who it is...usually its the neighbor kid that wants to shoot hoops

 

[TGHusker]

Ignore. My wife yells - "don't answer it!!". Normally it is a kid. We had one at the door a week ago and after I turned him a way (selling candy bars for school fund raiser) my wife and I felt sorry for the young boy that we called him back over and purchased a bar each. Ok, I'm a softy for the young kid approach. One of these days as we look out the library window blinds, someone's eyes will be staring back at us - won't that send me through the ceiling!

[BigRedBuster]

I have no problem with kids coming to sell something to support an activity. I would much rather them doing something like that where they actually have to work for the money to do something than the parents simply asking for donations or a "sponsorship".

 

I live 8 miles out in the country around a small town. I don't get door to door salesmen very often. Really, the internet pretty much sent those sales positions packing. The only ones I get are maybe every other year someone comes around selling areal photos of our house. I enjoy seeing the photos and have purchased them before.

[ColoradoHusk]

I get annoyed when people go around trying to sell new windows or house painting services. Yes, I know my house probably needs that done, but I don't want to get harassed by people calling from those companies to ask "are you ready to get those new windows put in?" I will typically tell those people that I rent the house and the owner makes all those decisions.

[JJ Husker]

I answer the door. If it's neighborhood kids that I know, I'll buy whatever they're selling to help support their sport/activity/school. If it's anybody older or selling for any other reason than a youth sport or activity, they get sent packing right away. I've got no problem whatsoever making it short and decisive that they are wasting their time with me. I do the same thing with phone sales- tell them that I'm not interested and hang up on them before they can get another word in. My wife will ignore the call and let the phone ring, I'll pick it right up and I sort of enjoy being a rude dick. I pretty much despise phone sales people. At work, I will usually throw in the request that they remove us from their call list. I think it works sometimes.

 

I actually scheduled a business consulting firm to come meet with me. They had called numerous times and were very pushy. They were based out of the Denver area (we're 50 miles north of there). So, I finally said "yeah, come on up, I'll meet with ya". When Mr. McDouchebag arrived I simply asked him if they would quit calling us now because every time they call, I was going to schedule them again and didn't care how many trips they wasted. These business consultants are the absolute worst in my book. Still get numerous repeat calls from a few different ones. I'll tell 'em to F off whenever they call.....but they still call back more. Slime of the earth IMO.

[JJ Husker]

I get annoyed when people go around trying to sell new windows or house painting services. Yes, I know my house probably needs that done, but I don't want to get harassed by people calling from those companies to ask "are you ready to get those new windows put in?" I will typically tell those people that I rent the house and the owner makes all those decisions.

Here's another good one- If it's for vinyl siding, act all interested but then ask them how they attach it to brick because your house is 100% brick. Sometimes they are dumbfounded and don't know how to answer. Other times, the really stupid ones, will act like it would make sense for you to put their inferior product over a brick exterior. Usually though they will just hang up.

[ColoNoCoHusker]

It depends who it is & how much they annoyed me. If it's a kid trying to raise money for a legitimate cause/activity, we will almost always buy or donate something.

 

With true salesman like the "insurance chasing" contractors that hit the area after floods, storms, fires, etc., I will give them a polite "no". If they persist, I will waste as much of their time as possible (scam the scammer style). After the last big fires, I made one company bring out every person that *could* potentially be involved with the project for on-site, in-person interviews. I had them over on days we were replacing posts for ~150' section of fence. I actually got a couple of them digging post holes at one point. I easily wasted over 300 person hours of the company's time. Can't imagine someone didn't lose thier job over it...

[ColoNoCoHusker]

I answer the door. If it's neighborhood kids that I know, I'll buy whatever they're selling to help support their sport/activity/school. If it's anybody older or selling for any other reason than a youth sport or activity, they get sent packing right away. I've got no problem whatsoever making it short and decisive that they are wasting their time with me. I do the same thing with phone sales- tell them that I'm not interested and hang up on them before they can get another word in. My wife will ignore the call and let the phone ring, I'll pick it right up and I sort of enjoy being a rude dick. I pretty much despise phone sales people. At work, I will usually throw in the request that they remove us from their call list. I think it works sometimes.

 

I actually scheduled a business consulting firm to come meet with me. They had called numerous times and were very pushy. They were based out of the Denver area (we're 50 miles north of there). So, I finally said "yeah, come on up, I'll meet with ya". When Mr. McDouchebag arrived I simply asked him if they would quit calling us now because every time they call, I was going to schedule them again and didn't care how many trips they wasted. These business consultants are the absolute worst in my book. Still get numerous repeat calls from a few different ones. I'll tell 'em to F off whenever they call.....but they still call back more. Slime of the earth IMO.

 

I like that approach

[NUance]

If it's a neighborhood kid I always buy candy, popcorn or whatever they're selling to support their local group. If it's an adult that I don't know, especially someone from out of town, I tell them I'm not interested and ask them not to return. Then I keep an eye on them until they are off my property. I also keep a baseball bat in the hall closet. You never know when some crazy meth head will show up on your doorstep.

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

When I was young and telemarketers would call, they would always ask for my parents while we were home alone. We were instructed by my dad to tell them that my parents were "mowing the roof" and promptly hang up.

[strigori]

I'll answer the door, but leave the screen door closed. The somewhat agitated one hundred pound German Shepard standing next to me does tend to make most conversations as short as I want them.

[The Dude]

Answer the door.

 

Nekkid.