A few minutes ago I was sitting in my flat listening to the highly irritating sound of someone outside my building ringing each doorbell progressively trying to gain access to the building (our building has all the flats coming off a central core so you can hear neighbouring flats’ doorbells through the wall). Eventually some idiot must have let them in and they ended up outside my actual flat door and rang the bell and when I went to the intercom said “do you have five minutes to spare for the British Red Cross?”. I opened the door and she smiled and started her “sorry to disturb you, good cause” spiel but I just stopped her and said “We don’t want cold callers in this building, that’s why we have a security door on the outside”.
She looked kind of disappointed, apologised and left, to her credit. I guess I’m supposed to feel bad that someone invading my privacy didn’t get to take any money off me, but I don’t.
Telephone cold callers I don’t care about, I just put the phone down the moment I realise it’s a cold call. Someone barging into my building and actually knocking on my door?
If someone buzzes in a stranger, that’s a security flaw. Can you talk to the building management about putting out a flyer, noting the dangers of buzzing just any random stranger into the building?
Many buildings with buzz-in security doors like this also have rules that specifically prohibit door-to-door solicitations as well. Check your community’s bylaws or the rules/regulations.
Does the British Red Cross really hire people for door-to-door solicitation or was she just pretending to be from them? Because I’d imagine that they have better approaches for fundraising than that.
I have a “No Solicitors” sign prominently displayed by my front door. What really annoys me is when somebody ignores it, and when asked if they saw it, either say “yes, but I’m not a solicitor” (all the while trying to sell me something), or worse “yes, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I paid attention to that”, which warrants a door slam.
I would guess she was a chugger who was soliciting for a repeat monthly donation. They don’t actually work for the charity but for a third-party, usually for-profit, organisation.
I had an enlightening conversation with one once where he revealed he was on a generous commission, and that he got his mates to sign up and then cancel after a week because even though the charity didn’t get any money he still got his commission. Since then I’ve not given them the time of day.
Given that I live with part of the building management, I don’t think that’ll be a problem Thing is most people who live in my building are tenants of the owners, so they don’t really give a shit if they’re doing things properly or not.
I’m not sure there’s anything like that in the UK, or I’d have heard of it. As **Lynn **suggested, I think a note on the door is in order.
I see teams of these folks on the street in San Francisco, one facing each way so they don’t miss any likely prospects. They are nearly always wearing vests promoting some charity like the Red Cross, and they always act like they’re my new best friend (“Hi, beautiful day, isn’t it? Spare 5 minutes to save the world?”). I ignore them. I wish they would go away.
Roddy
I lived in a three-story enclosed apartment building once, with about 10 units on each floor, in Berkeley CA. Outside front door, a panel of buzzer buttons for all the apartments. Also an intercom so any tenant can talk to a visitor before buzzing them in. Except, like in ALL older buildings, that intercom didn’t work.
So when anyone out front buzzes any button, ya think most tenants will run down the stairs to see who’s there? In a building with 30 tenents, there will ALWAYS be SOMEONE who will buzz ANYONE in without knowing who’s there.
We had a drug-addled berserker come do that one fine evening. Just buzzed doors until someone let him in. Then he went to various doors, banging on the doors, and attacking whoever opened the door, or that was the story that went around the next day. By the time someone called the police, others has somehow kicked him out of the building. I heard the cops caught him somewhere in the neighborhood.
Anyway, the story: There was a set of inconspicuous electrical contacts at the edge of the door, where the current could go from the door frame into the door where the bolt was. You would never notice them if you didn’t know where to look. (Well, maybe. I somehow noticed them.) I went down there next day and… uh… caused those contacts to not contact any more. Thereafter, you COULDN’T buzz anybody in from your own apartment. Anyone who wanted to let someone in had to trudge all the way to the front door in person to open it.
The way the door buzzer works in my building is that there is a building directory by the outside door, listing each tenant and giving a three-digit code for their apartment. You have to enter the code into the building buzzer, which then calls their apartment telephone. The tenant can then talk to the visitor and, if they want, buzz them in by pressing nine on the phone. So you can’t just hit all of the buzzers at once hoping that someone will let you in.
New buildings in the UK have something similar - the intercom also has a camera and you dial the number of the flat you want, it rings them and the person in the flat either buzzes you in or not. I think what you describe is better though, as there’s nothing to stop someone just dialling numbers one by one any more than they could just hitting buzzers.
I wouldn’t, because my response would be “I already have, bye”. Anyway, Satanists aren’t proselytizers so it’s unlikely to happen, sorry to disappoint.
Ah, Sydney is infested with paid-on-commission chuggers, (a portmanto of charity and mugger), who aggressively solicit people on the street to sign up for periodic charity donations. If I was to donate, I wouldn’t give them a slice of the pie. They swarm around places people need their full attention, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were indirectly responsible for lots of traffic accidents[/rant]
Thing is most people who live in my building are tenants of the owners, so they don’t really give a shit if they’re doing things properly or not.