Reversal of the door-to-door salesman rant

The BBQ Pit
101

Not that I like cold calls or telemarketers, but there are cases when you really do need to touch/tryout the merchandise before you can tell if it will suit you.

Vacuum cleaners, for example, vary widely in how convenient they are to use – how heavy is it, how maneuverable, how hard is it to switch attachments, etc.

Or clothes, or home furnishings. Cases when exactly how the cloth drapes or how shiny it is or the precise color are critical aspects. Stuff like that you simply cannot tell on the web.

There is a local home furnishing company that will bring samples of fabrics, and entire rugs, and paintings and lamps and pillows and knickknacks and I don’t know what all to your house, so you can see exactly how those drapes would look against your Venetian yellow walls in the light from your western exposure.

I’ve heard of other companies offering similar types of service – personal shoppers who will interview you, take your measurements, and then bring by only what they think would suit you best for you to look at. People who will ‘organize’ your office/closets/life.

It’s a wonderfully civilized way of conducting business: a genuine service, a way of proceeding that makes the customer’s life easier and more convenient.
BUT – and this is the critical point – these companies do NOT call people up about this service, bothering a thousand in the process of finding the two who are interested. They do NOT send salemen knocking on random doors, dragging mothers away from bathing babies, interrupting meals, waking up night workers, disturbing people home sick.

They advertise in the local newspaper and the yellow pages and send out mail flyers. YOU call them, and set up appointment times when it will be convenient for you.

102

Exactly. So, it’s not door to door soliciting and therefore, not really relevant to this thread.

103

I’m one of those people who cut off the door-to-door salesman in mid sentence and close the door. Something along the lines of: “Hello, I’m a college…” “Thank you, I’m not interested.” Shut. I don’t slam the door, but I don’t listen either.

The OP seemed particularly annoyed that people don’t listen to the introductory spiel before closing the door. Interrupting and closing the door violates my own sense of civility as well. I rationalize it by considering the door-to-door salesman as an advertiser’s attempt to “guilt” me into listening to information I would otherwise choose to ignore.

These clever marketers realize, I suspect, that I don’t open spam e-mail and discard junk snail mail (yes, even Publishers’ Clearinghouse). They probably have a clue that the few telemarketers that get past caller ID are still summarily hung up on. They may even consider the possibility that I mute TV commercials. But! Aha! There’s still the possibility that I will succumb to the more personal approach of a salesperson.

And, I must admit, that I AM more likely to buy something under these conditions. I find it extremely difficult to resist such things. I know my weaknesses–I like to make people happy.

So, when you show up at my door, with a canned sales pitch, I use my voice and my door to stop the enticement as rapidly as possible. I used up all the politeness I feel that I “owe” you when I answered the door. I have no obligation to subject myself to a sales approach that may entice me to purchase something I don’t need or want.

You are a major intrusion and an advertisement and need to be discarded rapidly. The rejection of the advertisement must be separated from a rejection of you as a human being, precious and unique.

If we were playing football, and you had the ball, and I tackled you, it would not be an attack or a rejection. It is part of the game. It’s not personal. I may hurt you. But, hey, you joined the team and you set yourself up for it. Put on some pads and accept that the knocks are price you pay for choosing to play the game.

104

Uh, didn’t SiFiSam explicitly say that he would fool around with “No Soliciting” sign folks?

105

Your excuses are irrelevant to the fact that soliciting at a house with a no soliciting sign is being an asshole.

You’ve made numerous factual errors, which I’ve pointed out. I made one small error in phrasing (by saying ‘quit’ instead of ‘quit quickly’) and one non-error. You’re showing yourself to be a typical dishonest telemarketing defender, so I’ll let the rest of your nonsense stand on its own merits.

106

This, by the way, sums up why I have no problem with any and all rudeness to intrusive salesmen - they are being rude, and are preying on people’s sense of civility to make sales. Now, there’s an easy way to stop legitimate door-to-door salesmen (though not ones like SiFiSam) - put up a ‘no soliciting’ sign.
Since telemarketers have fervently resisted the telephonic equivalent of ‘no soliciting’ signs, all of them are just being rude and preying on other people’s civlity.

Of course, with the national ‘do not call’ database rudeness to telemarketeres is even more justified, since any of them calling me will be doing so in spite of my having joined the list.

107

as_u_wish -

That’s a good point. It would definitely be a healthy attitude to take. However, the problem is that some people don’t separate the advertisement from the person. Riboflavin has repeatedly called me an asshole for the heinous crime of not noticing a sign in the dark. He’s not separating the task from the person at all.

So, sigh, back to the vitamin guy:

I am female, and have already referred to myself as ‘she’ in this thread. I wouldn’t usually bother correcting your use of my name, but since you did it in your next post as well, please note that there is a c in scifi.

And I never said that I would do that. I said it happened a couple of times by accident, but as long as I did see the sign, I didn’t knock. That is explicitly stating that I wouldn’t fool around with ‘no soliciting’ sign folks.

Yet more factual mistakes on your part then.

On this point we will have to agree to disagree. I hold that occasionally in a boring job, in the dark, it is difficult to see a sign. You hold that that makes me an asshole. Whatever.

I have made no errors whatsoever. Yours are mounting up.

If they do so after it comes into force, sure. But it hasn’t yet, so you have no point at all.

But I guess that would be too much to expect from you.

108

Because I think it’s such a classic.

I give you Cervaise’s response.

109

Holy jalapenos on a stick.

It’s a good thing my boss just went to the bank because I would be so fired right now for giggling like a madwoman and snorting Diet Mountain Dew all over my desk.

Ava

110

You’re welcome, avabeth. I think that thread needs to be resurrected every now and then…just for its pure inspirational genius.

111

SciFiSam-
I think it’s more the way you write than any perceptual shortcoming of Riboflavin. I’ve been stumbling at the same places. You’re just not coming across very clearly.

Oh… and the thing I notice in this thread is the vast majority of non d2d salespeople / telemarketers seem to agree that the entire practice of d2d sales / telemarketry is inherently rude, while all of the d2d salespeople / telemarketers agree that it’s not. I spent a summer canvassing back in the 1420s, so I’ve been on both sides of the fence, but I can’t help but feel that, in general, what’s perceived as rude probably is. No matter how vehemently the offender says it isn’t.

Of course, answering rudeness with rudeness, while highly diverting, is also rude.

But then complaining of rudeness in answer to your own is just asshat buttmunch fuckwittery.

Have a nice day.

112

However, it’s not just my posts where he’s made mistakes. And really, how hard is it to read ‘when I was 16 with rent to pay …’ How ambiguous is that? How obscure is ‘she?’

:smiley: Funny, you don’t sound that old! Hmm, perhaps that’s why you can’t understand me …

It’s the degree of rudeness that’s the issue for me personally. I don’t agree with much of what Jonmarzie said - I certainly don’t think householders should feel obliged to stand there and listen to every salesperson’s spiel. But the other extreme, as shown on this thread, is to call the police, shout names, ‘make their lives hell.’ That, IMHO, is over the line. How hard would it be to just say no and shut the door? Seriously? Why go further than that?

113

The problem with “No Solicitors” signs is that they are too commonplace, and many solicitors will ignore such a sign on the basis that they think they can slip their pitch by on some technicality or another, given that the resident may not be as agressively anti-solicitation as the sign would imply.

On the other hand, a hand painted sign which reads “Solicitors will be tortured, sodomized, publicly humiliated, beaten and summarily executed.” may be more effective.

-FK

114

Perhaps there’s no good reason at all to go further. But door-to-door salespeople have no (moral) right to complain when people DO go further by slamming the door, etc.

115

Well, you’re wrong. Believe it or not, the law actually protects people’s right to decide who will be allowed on their private property!

For instance, North Carolina General Statute § 14-159.13 states that if a property owner tells someone to stay off their property, or posts a sign “reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders,” anyone failing to obey these instructions to stay away is guilty of second degree trespass, which is a class 3 misdemeanor.

Obviously, whether the signs you missed were reasonably likely to come to your attention is a factual question. But in general, Riboflavin’s statement of the law is correct, not “bullshit.”

116

I think the way that Steve Oedekerk handled the insurance salesman in High Strung was hilarious! Pulled the old “bait and switch” on a salesman for a change!

And how about that guy in Duluth, MN that called that telemarketer about 100 times in two days? * (Sorry, I can’t get the link to work). That was sweet!

*I just did a search for Minnesota Auto Glass and then clicked on the “news about” link. However the link I was going for only wanted to link to the search.

117

Wow. Either I was misunderstood, or I was in a really weird mood when I typed that. I think what I wanted was for folks not to be rude. It was mostly the attitude of the folks who slammed the door in my face or wouldn’t let me get in at least a “Hello.”

Well, that’s not exactly true, and I realize again I wasn’t exactly clear in the OP. I actually had a few conversations go something like this:

Me: “Hello! My name is Jonmarzie and I’m a college student…”

Homeowner: “Wait a minute. Are you selling something?”

Me: “Yes I am.”

Homeowner: “Magazines?”

Me: “Nope. Educational books.”

Homeowner: “Oh. I’m not interested.”

Me: “Okay, sir. Thank you. Have a nice day.” (I leave.)

I really didn’t mind if I got my introduction in. If they didn’t want them, I wouldn’t press them any further.

At any rate, Riboflavin, I hope you realize that some No Soliciting signs are actually hard to see, even in the afternoon. I had knocked on a door, and took my three steps back, and I turned toward the street to see the color of the house across the street, and I noticed a wooden sign about the size of a post card about a foot above my head facing the door, so that someone who answers the door can see it. :confused: Not only was the placement bad, but it was half obscured by a hanging plant. As soon as someone answered the door, I quickly told them that I saw the sign (and it opened up my eyes…) right then, and I left right away.

:eek: :smack: So . . . you couldn’t complain if I were to bash this sentence?

It makes me sad to see that the majority of the folks here are genuinely willing to be asinine to someone simply because of their profession.

118

And that’s the problem. See, the very act of making unsolicited sales calls at peoples’ residences is rude. So you have no (moral) right to complain when people are rude back to you.

**

I’m sure that’s annoying, but you cause a lot more annoyance and aggravation than you receive.

**

I’m not sure what you mean by “asinine,” but let me point something out. Your “profession” is not typical. You make your living by invading peoples’ lives and causing annoyance and aggravation. The social costs of your profession far outweigh the benefits.

119

Tough shit. You seem to have missed the point of just about everyone who’s posted to this thread. We don’t care what you want. You are commiting an act of rudeness simply by knocking on the door. Therefore, you have NO room for complaint when people are rude in return. Sure, I bet you’d like it if everyone were nice to you. Of course. But when they aren’t, you have no right to complain, because they’re just reciprocating in kind to your rudeness.

120

Maybe I’m just ignorant, but knocking on someone’s door isn’t rude. If that were the case, those brass rings on doors would be asking for trouble. I agree that for the most part, door to door salesmen are rude. However, that doesn’t make all door to door salesmen rude. You shouldn’t assume that a salesman at you door will be that way. It’s like not bothering to speak to someone of Middle Eastern descent because you assume they only speak Arabic. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get something out of the conversation. Maybe the salesman will be nice. You never know.

I will venture to guess that the real reason folks are rude to door to door salesmen is they assume the salesman will be rude if the folks are nice. What’s the worst that can happen? You have to give up being nice and kick them out. Certainly a little civility is much better than not trying. At the very least, you’ll spend time gaining a little character instead of losing it.