Door to door sales & junkmail

G

Graham_07

Registered User
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Gearing up for a rant here. Being fed up of the increasing number of door-to-door salespeople and junkmail, we recently got two nice little signs in B&Q. They are both about 6'' x 2.5''.

One reads "no door to door salespeople" and we stuck this right next to the doorbell.

The other reads "no junk mail" and we stuck that onto the flap of the letterbox.

Now one might be forgiven for thinking that this would reduce the number of unwanted callers but no...no way.

Latest in a long line of incidents :-

" Oh I didn't see the sign until I had rung the bell, but since you're here now....."( sales pitch for SKY TV )

" hey, I saw the sign, but hey, we're not selling you anything...we're here to SAVE you money by switching you to Vodafone". (Now give that fella 11 out of 10 for initiative)

The junk mail one to be fair, has worked. We now no longer get the junk THROUGH the letterbox, they just leave it on the ground in the porch in front of the letterbox.

Rant over.
 
Move up to my neck of the woods Graham - In 4 years we have had exactly 3 unexpected/unsolicited callers!

(The local priest, SF canvasser and 3 very attractive young women selling insurance of some sort. I let them talk for a while as I observed their lovely....er... pitch...)
 

Collect all your junk mail, then select one of them - go there and dump it all on their premises.

See how they like it..
 
I also got a No Junk Mail sign - has improved the situation but still get the odd junk.

Then I put up a 'No cold callers, no salespeople, no canvassers' and the first to call since was last week, a girl about electricity or gas or some such - I answered the door on the intercom and interrupted her spiel with 'can you read'? She muttered 'oh, yes' and I said 'goodbye then'. Which is really no less effort for me than it was before - so not sure the sign is worth it!
 
I always talk to cold callers but politely say no. Junk mail goes straight into the green bin.
When it's religious people selling God I argue with them (argue the points they make, nicely) if I have time. I find it very entertaining. I must look like I need saving because I get stopped in the street the odd time by people selling This post will be deleted if not edited immediately.
 
Purple said:
I must look like I need saving because I get stopped in the street the odd time by people selling This post will be deleted if not edited immediately.
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My OH terrorised two poor aul wans at the door from the local church a while ago telling them not to be calling peddling God and that this house had no need of the church etc...

I asked him what had annoyed him so much and apparently it was they just couldnt 'get' that he didnt believe in God and continued to make comments about how someday we would 'need' the church - when he asked how we would need it they said 'well to get married or have your children baptised' and he was gobsmacked that they actually couldnt understand the concept of not believing in God and thought that you 'needed' a church to get married in etc...
 

I'm the same when I have the time. In my student days I did once open the door wearing a "This post will be deleted if not edited immediately saves...Cantona scores the rebound!!!" tshirt. I didn't have to say much that day to get rid of them.
 
We get the odd caller, have to say that the Airtricity crowd were very irritiating for a while but seem to have stopped now. Main rubbish through the door these days tends to be for clothes collections.

What really bugs me is that none of them close the gate after themselves. It only takes 2 seconds

tempted to get one of those "beware of the dog" signs with a picture of a Rotweiller on it
 
Usually, I am polite to these people. They have got to make a living and if you dont want to do business with them just inform them accordingly. It is no big deal.
 
Leper said:
Usually, I am polite to these people. They have got to make a living and if you dont want to do business with them just inform them accordingly. It is no big deal.
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Good point. I remember my dear departed mother telling me a few years ago that she had had some poor girl on the phone trying to sell her something and that she thought it must be a very difficult job, with people being rude to you all the time.

It gave me a different perspective on things. I always used to get annoyed with cold callers and could be quite short with them. After that discussion with my mother, I developed a bit more empathy and have tried to be nicer, while still saying no most of the time.

I don't always remember this, but it's worth bearing in mind (particularly in today's job market) that most people don't end up in that type of job because they have loads of alternative options.
 
I don't get too many callers, but the main ones are:

1) Eircom. Either selling broadband or PhoneWatch - both at silly prices I may add.

2) Bags for clothes collections for charity - yeah right! These I use to put rubbish in. Handy.

3) Junk mail is normally delivered by my postman, usually for credit cards and Sky etc.

4) The odd local takeaway leaflet. Doesn't bother me as I use them the odd time.
 
Various, dubious sponsorships appears to be a new one too.

I understand it's the individual's job, but then why should I respect that when they have no respect for my privacy or wish to be left alone? Their sales patter is verging on the aggressive and offensive. The insinuation is you're stupid for turning them away, when you eventually get them to understand you're saying no.

I know I couldn't do that job, largely because I personally couldn't walk past a house, see them sat down to their dinner and still ring the bell and expect to engage them in a conversation, as they seem to do to me.
 
Leper said:
Usually, I am polite to these people. They have got to make a living and if you dont want to do business with them just inform them accordingly. It is no big deal.
Click to expand...

And by putting up a sign I would have thought that I was making clear that I did not wish to do business. The big deal comes when people ignore that and ring anyway.


True, and I understand that, but when someone ignores a clear written request not to be disturbed by such sales, it can sometimes be very hard to remain polite.
 
Mpsox said:
What really bugs me is that none of them close the gate after themselves. It only takes 2 seconds
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Ah, thought I was the only one who got annoyed at this....however my problem isn't with the junk mailers (who, to be fair, close the gate every time), it's with the postman who never closes it!
 
usually I hear them out mainly because my wife calls me down after she answered the door !!. When I decline and they persist, this is when I shut the door. Found little snotty nosed Sky agents the worst - he couldn't believe I didn't want to switch to Sky ! And guess what...I never switched
 
I have a "No Junk Mail" sign that has largely reduced the amount of rubish coming in the door, which is great.

Now when it comes to cold callers i have come up with a novel approach of getting them to go away. I dont like being rude to people, however i am running out of ways of telling these people as politely as possible to F off away from my front door.
Instead of standing there and pretending to listen to their waffle i just say "I'm sorry, my parents (ie. bill payers) aren't here at the moment and i have no idea when they will be back".
This works fantastically well, it means they just go away without bothering me and if they do come back i just say the same thing. Obviously i can get away with this by being in my mid 20's.
 

My Mam did this recently to someone trying to sell her something. Just said, "my mammy is not in at the moment" with a perfectly straight face. My mam is 64. Person did not know what to say and just went away.
 
Have to say I don't get too much at all and don't have the signs on the door. In my last place I could see who was at the door and just didn't answer it even though it was clear I was in.

When I'm buying makeup the SA's are always trying to get you to buy another product to get the gift. I have started telling them I'm just collecting it for my friend and they stop the sales pitch.
 

That's a great idea, i'll have to try that!!
 
I have an enclosed porch/sliding door thing . . I super-glued a bell (unwired) onto the frame. I guess most callers ring that and then go away after a while. Determined callers will open my sliding door and press the original bell . . but I disconnected that when I moved in so I'm unlikely to hear them either. For those who then knock I politely explain that 'we have a policy not to sign up to, or give, anything at the door' (except for politicians, whom I delay as long as possible, when it suits me). My kids direct all the junk mail into the recycle. My wife has vetoed 'Callers by appointment only' and 'Beware of dog' signs, but I'm not sure they work anyway.
 
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