How not to sell anything door to door

[Annamal]

I had a guy come up to our door to try and sell me a power deal, I said "no thank you" straight away since I don't buy *anything* door to door and that should have been the  end of it , instead I had to spend the next few minutes telling this guy to leave over and and over again and getting progressively more annoyed when he would not listen.

I phoned in my very first ever official complaint to the power company in question (the woman on the phone was extremely sympathetic).

I get that selling door to door is a hard job but ignoring someone asking you to leave their property is not a winning strategy.

[regulator]

I think I would have threatened to call the local police and report trespassing, slammed the door in his face and if he did not get the message after that - rack the slide on a 12 gauge pump action.

[Rural]

 Nobody tries door-to-door around here – that's a really good way to get shot.

[firewalker]

@Rural.  Would someone in your area actually murder another human because they knocked on their door to sell something? Where do you live?

[Kriegsspiel]

Idaho, probably. Why, is this uncommon where you live?

[Rural]

@Rural.  Would someone in your area actually murder another human because they knocked on their door to sell something? Where do you live?

Not the people like us, but lots of meth labs about, and they totally would if they hadn't yet pawned their guns for meth. If you're a salesman from outside the area, you don't know which until you go find out.


Rural life has its downsides...



Other places dogs could be an issue, though not here unless they came inside the fence - which I'll note is a quarter mile beyond the no trespassing signs.


And it just doesn't happen. We've never had anyone selling door to door, and I'll wager the neighbors haven't either. Never had anyone just knock, for that matter - neighbors pull up in the drive and we go see who it is on those rare occasion, and we do the same with them. Did have a methhead, once, trying to break into the bedroom. Him I definitely would have shot of I'd needed to, but the dogs ran him off.


Some areas are conducive to selling door to door, but they tend to be the kinds of places where things are close together and you can see the houses from the roads, and the driveways are clearly marked and aren't gated. Here you might have a driveway or it might just be access to someone's field, and no way to tell without getting off into unknown private property to explore. It's just not a door to door sales kind of place, and if you've always lived in a city or town, you don't think about places like this much, but they're the majority of the country in terms of area (not population).


It's part of why census takers were locals, back when they sent out census takers.

[Bob W]

I sold investments door to door.  It is Edward Jones entire marketing strategy.   Works great.  We had an entire class on how to knock on doors.    Within 10 minutes I knew your networth and when your big CD comes due.

[mrs sideways]

I phoned in my very first ever official complaint to the power company in question

It may not have been the actual power company. Around here we're plagued by referral solar companies who try to sell to you under false pretenses: the sales rep will SAY they work for the power company, or a solar company, or even the city (one woman even had a fake name tag from the city, bonus points for effort, I guess) but in reality they just get you interested and then sell your lead to a solar installer.

[MsPeacock]

I put up a no soliciting sign and the door to door folks stopped. The sign actually worked! I was more plauged with fund raising people's for various charities.

[Annamal]

I phoned in my very first ever official complaint to the power company in question

It may not have been the actual power company. Around here we're plagued by referral solar companies who try to sell to you under false pretenses: the sales rep will SAY they work for the power company, or a solar company, or even the city (one woman even had a fake name tag from the city, bonus points for effort, I guess) but in reality they just get you interested and then sell your lead to a solar installer.

I think that kind of thing would be a violation of the consumer guarantees act here ( dude was wearing a branded jacket which suggests he either belongs to the power company or is a really dedicated scammer)

[vern]

[GuitarStv]

When we first moved into our house several years back we had a run in with a door to door energy reseller.

I was upstairs unpacking stuff and my wife answered the door.  The guy said he was with our natural gas supplier (enbridge) and since we had just moved in to a new house, he needed to do an efficiency check on our furnace and water heater.  My wife let him in, and they went into the basement.

I heard voices and came down to the basement to see this guy angrily pushing a clipboard at my wife and trying to get her to sign something.  I asked him who he was, and he said that he was with enbridge, then started speaking very quickly and pushing a clipboard at me, telling me that we were in violation of code and needed to do energy upgrades.  I took his clipboard, ignored him for a minute, and looked at the first paper that he was trying to get a signature on . . . which listed the company name that he worked for as Direct Energy.  At this point I figured out that he was running some kind of game, so I pointed to the stairs out of the basement and told him to go.

The guy started yelling at me at this point.  I took a step towards him, pointed at the stairs and yelled back that he should get the hell out of my house.  Realizing that I was pretty pissed off at this point, he turned around and I literally chased him out of my basement, foyer, off the porch, and last I saw of him he was running down the street.  I headed back inside and figured that this would be the last I hear of the matter.

Two weeks later I get a phone call from Direct Energy welcoming me into their new program.  I told them that we didn't sign up for any program.  They said that I did.  I told them that nobody in my house had signed up to anything.  They told me that if I wanted to cancel the contract it would cost a large fee.  I told them that we wouldn't be paying any fee, because we didn't sign any contract . . . and then threatened to escalate this to legal action if we were sent any bill or if our service was changed in any way.

Haven't heard back from them since, but we have had a policy of not dealing with door to door solicitors of any time since then.

[bwall]

I had a guy come up to our door to try and sell me a power deal, I said "no thank you" straight away since I don't buy *anything* door to door and that should have been the  end of it , instead I had to spend the next few minutes telling this guy to leave over and and over again and getting progressively more annoyed when he would not listen.

I get that selling door to door is a hard job but ignoring someone asking you to leave their property is not a winning strategy.

If a poor soul ever has the misfortune to knock when I am home, I politely tell them 'not today'. If they do not accept the hint and as former door-to-door salesman I know that they are trained not to accept the first  'no', I tell him in a calm, rational voice that if they ever receive abusive treatment, they should not be surprised as their actions elicit ever-increasing direct responses, finally culminating in irrational, emotional and abusive statements in a loud voice. I then proceed to ask them if I need to be abusive or will they leave on their own?

This way, you draw a clear line between cause and effect and they have no illusions why some people get upset.

[Playing with Fire UK]

I'm initially polite, but firm as I never buy anything at the door.

If they won't piss off I tell people they are trespassing and the dogs will be set loose unless they clear off.  [I don't have any dogs, but clearly not the point]

If I'm not expecting any visitors I'll open the window to see who it is so that they can't do that awful foot in the door thing.