Frankly, it’s just as easy to say “no” to either one. Do you really need a law for that?
Personally, I find it harder to say no to the fund raisers. I seem to manage it though in the end.
And if she is reading this - the incredibly cute girl who did fund raising for the DNC door to door last week in Alexandria. Come back! I will give you lots of money!
But the law cannot discriminate between them.
Well, the law manages to discriminate pretty well between charitable/political and commercial phone solicitations.
While I agree with villa that it’s hard (for me) to say no to little kids with a legitimate cause for fundraising (I have a giving nature, which is likely why I’ll never be monetarily wealthy), I am not in favor of a law prohibiting solicitation, when you can put up a sign on your property or ultimately, just say “no”.
I think that if you cannot say no to someone trying to sell you something that you don’t want or need, then it’s your problem, not the legal system’s.
But I also agree with the OP that it is indeed annoying. Having a large, muscular dog that I give the appearance of barely being able to control helps!
If anything, the only thing I would want outlawed in all this would be religious solicitations. If we cannot have prayer in schools, ten commandments displayed at public buildings, why then are religious kooks (particularly magical underwear-wearing Mormons) allowed to knock and my door and try to get me and my money to join their 'effing church?
It’s not like they’re trying to sell me a product or a service that I can actually use.
Because those are two different things. In the former you’re talking about the government establishing a favored religion which is specifically unconstitutional, in the latter you’re talking about a private citizen asking to discuss his philosophy with you which isn’t unconstitutional by a long shot.
I don’t like D2D intrusions either, so I’ve got a “No Solicitors” sign. If I open the door and somebody is trying to pitch something I just point to the sign, say “I’m sorry, no solicitors” and shut the door.
The latest is that various people respond that what they are doing “isn’t soliciting”. I tell them “Yes it is” and continue shutting the door.
Don’t get a lot of pitches at the door. I don’t like the flyers but they just go into the recycle bin. What I hate are the plastic bags with a flyer in them and a handful of gravel, pitched onto my driveway out of a vehicle going down the street. Lazy, annoying and environmentally unfriendly. Way to get my business.
While I agree that they are in fact different, is the latter example really just a private citizen wanting to “discuss his philosophy”, though? Or is it more like a representative of a religious organization, told by said organization to go out and harvest some souls?
Because the Mormons aren’t using a government-owned school or public building to do what they do, nor are they using the authority of government-paid teachers or other public employees to add to the impact of their message.
They’re allowed to do that, just like religious organizations are allowed to tell their followers to do other things, like not eat pork.
Speaking of not eating pork, I’ve found that telling religious proselytizers that you’re Jewish usually gets them to go away.
I need a law that prohibits them from waking me from my nap, or interrupting my game, or interrupts my cooking. I usually sleep in two or three naps in the daytime. I have a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep. Signs that say “No solicitors” or “Day sleeper” don’t deter people, especially the missionaries, who apparently feel that I am just aching to discuss their god with them.
Delivery people can wake me up, and I’m not too upset about it, because I do want to receive the package. This is the only reason I haven’t installed the moat.
I’m sure I’m not the only one to whom the thread title evoked the following image:
[ding-dong]
“Prostitute!”
That kind should be legal, at any rate! 
Apparently, you’ve never met the jack-booted Kirby salesman. I think they are now wearing lasers on their heads.
I fail to understand why a simple no solicitors sign isn’t sufficient, backed up by a “no thank you” response if needed. The hostility of some posts here is more indicative the real problem exists inside the house and not outside.
Duckster: See Lynn’s previous post. A sign doesn’t always work, either. Plus, it’s unsightly.
The reason I even threw the Kirby reference out there in my previous post was because, yep, I now own one. Of course, my wife bought it without my permission or knowledge, and the sales experience she had was quite pleasant.
Of course, she was a willing participant and an easy mark, so there was likely no need to put on the strong arm tactics on her.
And in Kirby’s defense, the thing is an amazing vacuum cleaner. It’s just not worth what they sell it for.
/hijack
I have no problem at all with door to door soliciting, aside from a few school fund raisers, I’ve never given money to any D2D solicitor. However, one of the magazine-sales scams (mostly a scam against the D2D solicitors themselves, because the young adults in these systems are paid very far below minimum wage, are promised rewards and benefits they will never receive and et cetera) did result in an incident that almost resulted in a dead or seriously wounded sales person.
This early 20s kid was at my door one day, I open it up to ask him what he needs. I’m never one to lock my screen door because I’m not particularly worried about telling someone to leave/I don’t want your product, so I don’t feel I need the screen door as a “guard” against them talking their way into my house.
Well, this guy actually just stepped into my home after I told him I wasn’t interested in a magazine subscription. He stepped in and started to do a harder sell–I don’t necessarily fault the kid, I imagine this is what they were trained to do and he didn’t realize that what he was doing was illegally entering my property and could result in harm to himself. I immediately told him, “You’ve just entered my home without my permission, if you don’t leave and get off of my property immediately there will be serious consequences.” Not only did he leave, but I walked with him to the edge of my property line and told him if he set foot on my property again I’d call the police and/or assume he was a criminal and respond accordingly.
I realized what a relatively safe (in my head at least) place I lived in when one of the magazine people came to my door while I was playing games in my living room one day. I didn’t know who it was, but when I heard a knock on my door I said “Come in.” Then I heard this timid voice say, “Um, you don’t know me.” I replied, “That’s okay, come in anyway.” I’m sure most of the world that wouldn’t occur to people to invite a stranger into their home without at least looking them over.
-Eben
My wife once let a Kirby salesman in our home, and it almost got ugly. He was amazingly pushy, and used a lot of painfully obvious hard sell tactics. Took an hour and a half to get him out. At one point, he “called” his “boss” to see if he could give me a discount on a $1400 vacuum cleaner, after I told him “No, Thank You.” more than a dozen times. He had this one-sided conversation with a dial tone, by pretending his boss was on the other end. How dumb do I look? I remember him laughing from a “remark” his “boss” made, then repeated it, bacause it was just too funny! “WHAT?! Even a paperboy could afford THAT?!? Hahahaahahhahahahh!” :rolleyes:
Anyway, short of getting Tangina over here, he was about as hard to rid from my house as a poltergeist.
Oh, I don’t know. We’ve had one for years that seems to work 99.99 percent of the time:
No Solicitors.
No Sales People.
No Religions.
Please respect our privacy, especially if you want to wake up tomorrow to see the Sun rise again.
After the first “please leave” you simply call the police. They’ll leave.
A friend of mine is a devout Orthodoz Jew with a mezuzah on his door. And the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons still ring his doorbell.
I tell the Jehovah’s Witnesses that I don’t like their stand on letting people die rather than having a blood transfusion, and I tell the Mormons I will turn Mormon when they get their first female President, but I’ll be damned if I’ll join any organization that practices discrimination against women.