When a stranger knocks on your door, it’s almost always someone asking for something rather than someone willing to give you something. So it’s understandable to have a closed-door policy unless you see through the peephole that it’s Ed McMahon. And even if it is Ed McMahon, he’s most likely a zombie rather than a Publishers Clearing House representative because he died last year.
But sometimes it’s a Girl Scout offering you your annual shot at Thin Mints, and once in a while it’s someone from a valid, worthy charity. A post by Revanche at A Gai Shan Life describes an encounter with a newspaper salesman who claimed to be working his way toward a college scholarship. She didn’t like his vibe and sent him on his way, but feels guilty because she can’t be sure he was a con artist.
What’s your acid test for determining whether someone who approaches you for your dough is worth your time?
Scammy scam scam? [A Gai Shan Life]
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These days, it just is not safe to trust anyone that comes knocking on your door – even if it appears to be a legitimate charity. As for Girl Scout cookies, there are enough opportunities in my office and even in front of the grocery store (where they always set up a card table to ambush every shopper).
Even the Fuller Brush Man and the Avon Lady don’t come a-knockin’ anymore. Everyone should adopt a closed-door policy and give to those charities that you know and trust through other means.
I’m seriously considering a no trespassing sign in the front yard.
Just came here to say I am not that Revanche.
I have a “No Solicitors” sign on my door… below it it says various things like “we already found God” and “we don’t want a free estimate”. After a few of these it says on the bottom “If you don’t know us, go away.”
Our neighbor’s daughter is the only person who we allow to approach us to buy stuff, since she’s always participating in some fundraiser for school, it seems.
When I hear a knock on my door I did not expect I usually follow the steps below;
A. Check my phone to make sure I did not miss a call
B. If I feel like it, I will glance out to see if I know the person
A. If it is someone I have known more than a decade I will occasionally answer
B. If someone I do not know, I sit back down
C. Ignore them and keep doing as I was
No one calling me (other than my wife) really has any right to expect me to answer the phone, no one visiting unannounced is a visitor, they are a pest. My daughters always want to answer it, and I tell them that anyone worth talking to would ask to come over before they did.
We had some prosletyzers come by over the weekend.
Really, we’re not interested, but don’t want to be rude.
I listened to their introductory patter–clearly a memorized spiel they’d run through many times before–and when it was my turn to speak, I said:
I appreciate you’re doing work you feel is very important.
I am not interested. Please get off of my property and don’t come back.
With the last batch, my wife gave them a polite “some other time”
The next week there they were–”You said you’d go with us to our church some other time. It’s some other time; here we are!”
Some people CHOOSE not to take a hint.
If “we are not interested, please go away and don’t come back” doesn’t work, I have some even less polite comments ready.
The trick to being an a**hole is to be just enough of an a**hole to get the job done.
I’ll never buy anything sight unseen, so it continues to amaze me why companies, particularly legitimate ones, still bother paying people to do cold calling?
The last time someone came to the door, I was in my sweats and was busy cooking dinner. I answered, and it was a kid asking if I wanted my lawn cut. I noticed his dad standing outside of their truck with a lawnmower in the back. i just said “No thanks!” and closed the door. I made a comment to my boyfriend about some man making his kid go door to door for $10, thinking it was weird.
A few nights later my boyfriend called from work and asked me if I remembered the kid, saying he was upset that I “slammed the door” in his face. Turns out, it was a coworker of his just joking around after they had done some lawn work at his mom’s who lives in our area. Now they joke that I hate kids lol
When the spouse and I moved in to our house, we had some witness-religious folks come by; not sure which branch. Instead of being abrasive or toying with them, I had the idea to use some of the general teachings of those groups to my benefit. I said my husband wasn’t home (though he was, just out of sight), and surely it would be inappropriate for a married woman to be alone with two young men in the house — and it worked! One of them blushed so hard I thought he was going to pass out and they apologized profusely. Now whenever they go down our street, they always skip our house.
It’s simple, you just need to have a house rule that you don’t buy anything from someone on the phone or at the door. You may take information to consider for later, but you never let them inside (if they’re selling something). Doesn’t matter if it’s for donations, or anything else. Except girl guide cookies.
Every time my wife has given in to one of these scumbags she’s always felt ripped off and I have to use the cooling off period law to undo her mistakes. Although, she’s now at the point where it happens just once a year…
If someone is trying to sell me something unsolicited, they do not get my business.
I will answer the door and pretty much buy anything from any of the kids in the neighborhood. I have a 2 year old, and he’ll be making the rounds soon enough. I expect reciprocity.
If I don’t recognize you as one of my neighbors kids, or you’re over 18, then you aren’t getting more than a minute of my time to hear your pitch (just in case) followed by a firm “not interested.”
In the past, if someone I didn’t know knocked on my door I simply didn’t answer it. Short of a police officer I don’t open the front door for anyone I don’t know. It’s easier to ignore them, than it is to be “polite” and say I’m not interested 20 times before they leave.
Thankfully now, I have a doorman, no more unwanted solicitors at the front door.
Same goes with phone calls, if I don’t have your number in my phone it’s not likely I will answer it.
I let the dog answer the door. He’s so much better at that sort of thing. He is kryptonite to people Witnessing.
For everyone else, if they are still there by the time I get to the door, I might give a listen. The last guy was selling alarm system monitoring with a free installation, and it had a bit of a creep factor to it. I had him repeat things several times on as I could not hear him over the dog who was threatening disembowelment by then. Normally, I would have corrected the dog, but I think we were both a little creeped out.
Finally, he looked down in exasperation at my dog, and when he paused to catch his breath (the dog that is) I asked “do you really think I need an alarm system?”.
He thanked me for my time and moved on.
Never give money to anyone from off the street. Only give out money to organizations that you’ve researched and gone to yourself.
I generally am sympathetic to kids who actually making the rounds themselves, and I will often buy from them or contribute to their fundraiser. I have a lot more respect for them than those who just let Mom & Dad take their order forms to the office and hit up their co-workers for wrapping paper, cookie dough, magazines, etc. What is bothersome though is the trend lately for some school fund raising projects to essentially just be “begging.” Not a car wash, not selling any candy or popcorn, not a barbecue lunch — just blantant requests for money to support their cause. Once I was approach by some boy scouts outside of Walmart asking for money to support a trip they were taking somewhere — Disney World I think. I kept waiting to here the pitch for what they were selling — but nothing, they just wanted me to give money. A rather appalling example to be setting for young people I would say.
Our band always did that. It was “tag day”, and the whole band went out in uniform. Actually, our reception was usually better than those selling items & drew a lot of thanks for not selling garbage. You got a receipt for taxes, and the entire amount went straight to the band. So, even $5 is decent… you’d have to spend a hundred or more on giftwraps to get that much to the school.
I’d more gladly give to something like that if I supported the organization/cause. No, I do not need $30 rolls of giftwrap, $40 magazine subscriptions or $25 popcorn tubs.
We also ran a haunted trail for Halloween, and a car wash in the summer. However, people did not like those as much and the costs ate into the donations by a good bit.
Well, I agree about the expensive giftwrap, popcorn, etc. Still though I’m bother by the whole notion of kids being directed to go out and just ask for money. Although I understand it could be argued that the cost of holding a car wash, bake sale, spaghetti supper, etc. could just be contributed to the cause to begin with, I think maybe there is something to be said in teaching the kids (or at least trying, these days) the concept of earning their way. My observation has been that those kind of events usually do “turn a profit” — when you consider the cost of material and the free labor. It only takes a few chocolate chip cookies at 2 for $1.00 to be in the black.
I agree with you. It’d be one thing to ask for donations with nothing in return if it’s for something like the Red Cross or cancer research but if it’s just to take a trip they should be earning that money instead of just asking for it.
The best response I’ve found to people selling something, on the phone or whatever, is “I don’t have any money.” That works on everyone from lawnmower people to the Police Fund.
As to knockers, it’s generally not safe to open the door, although I have done it from time to time. Usually it’s someone wanting to mow the lawn, pick up the perpetual branch pile I seem to have, etc. I’ll let them quote me a price and then if it’s too much, I tell them no thanks. Most of them go away quietly.
I have a sign attached to the stoop railing that says “No Soliciting, No Proselytizing, No Leaflets, Now Get Off My Lawn.” It’s cut down on knocks, although I still find a leaflet or two when I get home sometimes. People sometimes ignore it and knock anyway; then I ignore them.
How do you all feel about companies like Edward Jones, then?
Unlike most commenters on this article, I don’t get an ego boost, belittling other, by saying no to D2D salespeople.
The only time i get pleasure in saying “no” is when the narcotics cops called looking for donations…the guy was a cop and, as you might guess, a real arrogant bastard. trying to guilt me into making a donation to win the war on drugs.
they especially don’t like being told that they suck, they’re wasting billions and they’re STILL LOSING! BTW – “We” are winning!
No, I’ve never assumed a cop to be an arrogant bastard.
At the very least someone would have to post like they were for me to assume so.
I never get door-to-door solicitors anymore so it’s not something I have to worry about. It only happened once since I’ve been in my current apartment. It was a lady looking for people to have a Bible study with right then. Even if I had been interested I wasn’t prepared to drop what I was doing to do that and I certainly wasn’t going to go off someplace with a stranger.
Unfortunately, as someone else mentioned earlier, I have had people bang on my door and then immediately try the knob. I think it’s either thieves or people being assholes.
I was much more likely to get harassed while waiting for the bus. Highly irritating since you can’t just get up and leave.
Like a lot of you my policy is to say ‘No’. My office does a lot of volunteer and charity work so there’s plenty of opportunities to give at the office and my employer will match my monetary donations to reputable organizations with proof.
Someone tries the doorknob on my house (usually unlocked when we’re home and awake) and they will find themselves getting hit with the big heavy mirror by my door before they get any further then the entryway as I defend my property from the home invaders.
My acid test is as follows:
If they can fog a mirror, I don’t answer the door. I ALWAYS do research before buying goods or services or donating to worthy causes.
I had 2 pushy “college students” try to sell me magazine subscriptions. Of course it was extremely aggressive yet vaguely worded so I didn’t realize it was a paid subscription and not a free sample until I was filling out forms. I told them they were being deceptive, sent them on their way, and used the cancelation form as soon as they were out the door.
The only time I ever give money to a charity in exchange for cookies is at penny arcade expo when they are going around selling cookies to raise money for Child’s Play. Then again the founders of Child’s play are the same guys who started the charity and it is a charity I support anyways.
You come to my door though and no way.
We finally posted a ‘No Soliciting’ sign last night. We’re not going to buy anything from you, we don’t want to hear about your religion, and we don’t want your burglary ring to scope out our home. GO AWAY.
Friends and family (most of them) are welcome.
I always get annoyed at the kids (who knows if they even live in town) begging for money so they can go on a trip to Europe. If I don’t get a trip to Europe why should you get one? Sheesh.
I’m extremely paranoid, so I don’t open the door to anything I’m not expecting. Nor do I answer the phone for any number I don’t recognize if I’m not expecting a call from some place.
I am always very polite, and am happy to sign whatever someone’s pushing (clean water, save the trees, whatever “green” happening people are soliciting for in Austin). However, I always say something such as “I’ll be happy to sign your petition, and I support your cause, but I’m not giving any money at the door. Please send me some literature in the mail, and I’ll consider it.” The fact is, I already have my favorite charities.
I never answer the door for anyone with a clipboard.
I have made it a habit to never give money at the door – no matter what. In the case of Girl or Boy Scouts – I have one of each, so I’m covered.
I always slam the door and hang up the phone when someone I don’t know is looking for money. Period. Making rash decisions without doing research rarely works out well. They can leave me paperwork and I’ll look them up when I get a chance — maybe.
I have also done this for a charity I did know too — some environmental group that comes by once a year that I almost ran over as I was pulling into our driveway with my son around 6PM one evening. As my wife and daughter weren’t home yet, I knew I had to start dinner, get the pets fed, make sure homework was done etc at the end of a long day and this guy couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to do more then take his paperwork and sign his petition and send him on his way.
If my doorbell rings unexpectedly and there’s no car in the driveway that I recognize, or no car at all (meaning someone is going door-to-door), I simply don’t respond. They’ll go away soon enough.