No solicitors sign - does anyone have one?

[distherapy]

I had a friend who sold magazines door to door. The stories he told were heartbreaking (of the way the company treats kids - no sleep, high pressure, etc). Check out http://www.travelingsalescrews.info/ if you want to get freaked out...

 

[here757]

LOL we always tell them we rent
depending on my mood sometimes i answer the door and smile shake my head no and shut it again
my husband made the mistake of donating to the local police dept. now the entire state calls the house! i just hand up on them.
my husband is the nice one that tells them we are not interested.

 

[BeenHereB4]

Just put my sign up not 1 hour ago and the guy from last night just returned and left!!!!!

Here's the thing. I have to go now to get my kids from camp and I'm afraid to leave the darn house!!! This is my oasis - why do I have to deal with these people and this hassle at my oasis?? So not fair. I wish I could get tougher - but they send these baby-faced kids around. Arrrgh!

 

[Starfish106]

Two weeks ago I had two men come to my door asking what security company we use. I told them I didn't give out that information, but would take a brochure. They say they have nothing I can keep, but show me a printed out diagram of a generic security system.

I immediatley shut the door on them. Two nights ago I'm eating dinner and the door rings. My husband goes to the door and once again, two men ask who is monitoring our security system. My husband begins to explain we have a security system, but are not currently being monitored. I can't believe it and call out to my husband to tell them we aren't interested. He just stands there, listening to the two guys.

I had to get up and shut the door myself! My husband thinks I was being rude and I think I was just being cautious. (I don't know if they were the same two men)

Who would go around sellilng systems or monitoring and not even have a business card?

We have that here and they come year after year knocking on people's doors that have security stickers.They do the shock selling tecnique "there has been robberies in the past few weeks [not true] and they have been cutting the phone lines to disable the system). The first company was called APX & they had the college kids out ringing doorbells and now it is a company called APC or something. Same spiel and no brochure and saying their system works with ADT, Brinks and another system because they are made by Honeywell. ADT confirmed to my mom their system is NOT made by honeywell. Also their system isn't compatible with ADT (like they claim) and when folks want to go back to ADT they are treated like a new customer because they will need a new system to activate because ADT cannot do anything with the stuff this other company installed.

I had to tell my mom to stop letting these folks in the house (she lives alone but is not elderly). She won't sign anything without me anyway so she calls me to let me speak to them. I tell them ever so nicely that I don't care if you are selling front row seats to witness the return of Christ I do not buy anything from anyone that I did not initiate the contact. Period so you can raise up out of my mom's house thanks. On another board for my area folks would talk about these kids in their neighborhoods selling this stuff. One poster did sign up for the system and proceeded to tell us about he nightmare they went through to get out of the contract in the approved cancellation time. They had to fed-ex their cancellation just to make sure the company got it (and they were not up against the clock either). It was a mess.

So nope....especially when you are selling lies at my door.

 

[Ava]

hmmmm.soliciting is selling something...not just talking,handing out flyers,etc- so maybe that's why some folks ingore the 'no soliciting' signs when they're technically not 'selling' items....probably a 'DON'T RING THE BELL' sign would work..... although my doorbell is broken anyway,so I don't need one

One summer when I was in college I worked for an environmental group going door-to-door asking for people to sign a petition and give a donation. Our supervisors specifically told us to just ignore "No Soliciting" signs because soliciting is selling and we were not selling anything. I was yelled at more than once by people with "No Soliciting" signs on their doors. Because of that I try not to be mean to the young kids who come around door-to-door, I know they're just doing their job & trying to make money.

 

[Pappa Bear]

We have that here and they come year after year knocking on people's doors that have security stickers.They do the shock selling tecnique "there has been robberies in the past few weeks [not true] and they have been cutting the phone lines to disable the system). The first company was called APX & they had the college kids out ringing doorbells and now it is a company called APC or something. Same spiel and no brochure and saying their system works with ADT, Brinks and another system because they are made by Honeywell. ADT confirmed to my mom their system is NOT made by honeywell. Also their system isn't compatible with ADT (like they claim) and when folks want to go back to ADT they are treated like a new customer because they will need a new system to activate because ADT cannot do anything with the stuff this other company installed.QUOTE]

APC is the name of a company that has been going around my area telling people that the police are REQUIRING upgrades to all alarms or the installation of a new one. They pressure less consumer sophisticated people into agreeing to the upgrade, based on the requirement story, and then, after making a mess of their present wiring, up the price. Pay the new price or we won't finish the job.

The consumer reporter for the local paper ripped them a new one last week over their sales practices and complaint record w/the BBB. Your description of their spiel and sales pitch match that article perfectly. The reporter also noted that the company has several names so beware of any outfit sounding anything like this one.

I am under NO obligation to be nice to people ringing my doorbell to annoy me w/presentations I never asked to hear or see. I will nicely ask you to leave once. After that I get mean and NASTY.

 

[surfergirl602]

oh, stay away from the alarm people!! Big scam with them going on around these parts, too.

 

[Blue.Fairy2]

Here is my answer to the various people that come to my door -

When I hear the bell, I look out the window. If I don't know who the person is, I don't answer the door.

Works like a charm!

Ditto!!!! I truly understand the frustration though of mom's who just got the kids down to sleep and the door bell rings or people who work nights and sleep during the day!

I guess we have just been lucky lately.

I think maybe companies are going back to door to door because so many people are joined the do not call list.

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

I put up a "No solicitors" sign a long time ago and one day the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find a small girl standing there, pointing at the sign, and she wanted to know what it meant. When I stopped laughing I told her and then assured her that it did not mean her.

When youngsters come to the door all I have to do is tell them that I have six grandkids all selling things and they understand. Not many come around anymore these days with all the horror stories and all. I donate to school programs directly so that they can keep all the money and I do not have to buy a bunch of useless stuff for far more than it is worth.

If a grownup salesperson ventures on my porch I just smile broadly and say that I sure would appreciate some company as it has been mighty lonely since my husband lost his job and we are so sad to be losing our home soon. They never linger.

Slightly Goofy but nobody's fool

 

[Dax]

I am thinking of making a sign for my house. While I dont have the issues with the salespeople, I do have the religious groups. They fan out in my neighborhood, usually parking right in front of my house, and come in pairs to the door. I live in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, and they seem shocked when I open the door. First thing out of my mouth is Not Interested, then they question me, asking if anyone in my house speaks Spanish. I say no, please don't come back. They usually apologize and go. One week, I got 4 knocks on the door. I finally got angry and told them if they come back, I was calling the cops..LOL..havent seen them since. With 5 dogs, every knock riles them up for a good 10-15 min...

I did have a Verizon guy show up once, around 8pm...asking me if I wanted FiOS. When I told him I already had it, he didnt believe me. I told him to go check his records, and closed the door.

A friend of mine had a sign hand made, saying someone in the house was ill, and that unless they had a scheduled appt, that they should not knock on the door. She said it worked...as the No Soliciting sign didnt work.

 

[reginaastralis]

We have that here and they come year after year knocking on people's doors that have security stickers.They do the shock selling tecnique "there has been robberies in the past few weeks [not true] and they have been cutting the phone lines to disable the system). The first company was called APX & they had the college kids out ringing doorbells and now it is a company called APC or something. Same spiel and no brochure and saying their system works with ADT, Brinks and another system because they are made by Honeywell. ADT confirmed to my mom their system is NOT made by honeywell. Also their system isn't compatible with ADT (like they claim) and when folks want to go back to ADT they are treated like a new customer because they will need a new system to activate because ADT cannot do anything with the stuff this other company installed.

.

This happened to me over a month ago. This kid came to my door telling me that robbers are cutting the phone lines ... blah blah blah. I live alone, and felt like telling him that it went to my cell phone, but didn't even want to bother with it. Instead, I told him my husband deals with all of that information, and we were happy with what we had ... a little lie never hurt anyone.

It's just creepy when they come to your house asking insanely personal questions. You know they are just trying to get information out of you.

 

[kidsicet]

I haven't read all of the posts, but I printed a "no soliciting" sign from the internet (I googled "free printable signs"). It worked some, but people kept ringing the doorbell. It made me mad, so one time when I was in the middle of making dinner and some guy rang the door bell, I pointed to the sign. He told me he wasn't soliciting, but was canvassing, so if I didn't want canvassing, I should add it to the sign. I wrote that on the sign, and since then, we only have people we know ring our door bell!

 

[here757]

I've got to find a way to keep people from putting tacks and pushpins in my mailbox post. In our neighborhood we all have the same wooden mailbox posts and the "thing" with the solicitors is to tack crap to the mailbox. They can't just put it under the flag or something. No, it has to be tacked to the post. So I end up with a post that's full of holes. Makes me so mad. And it's gotten worse lately with everyone being unemployed, they're all offering to mow my lawn, paint my house, clean, etc. I sympathize that you're out of work, but come on. Maybe I should offer one a job as a mailbox guard. Pay someone to keep others from tacking stuff to my box.

when u find the postings on ur box.. call the post office and let them know..
its illegal to put thing on or in a box!
the post is part of the box