Thanks for the responses. At least I know I'm not the only one, and since I didn't get any scoldings I figure I'm not overreacting to that person coming to my door. If he had come during daylight hours I wouldn't have had so many issues. I was also a little worried since I'm not in the greatest of neighborhoods. I figure this was a side job for him that he did after his normal work day... but, he also wouldn't take no for an answer. I kept telling him no, and he was ignoring me and said, "just five minutes" and kept asking me questions. That just irritated me even more.
Census people are still coming to your door now? I thought collection was wrapped up a while ago and now they are in the data processing stage.
I know my area had lots of follow-up in-person field visits. I am not sure if some were also preformed over the phone.
My understanding of the process is if for some reason your submission was not accepted then someone will come to your door (or per above responses over the phone in some areas) to try and collect the information. Some addresses could be bad or mismatched too, resulting in more than one address listing for the same property in the system. Or if multiple households reside at the address, or had in the past, there may be multiple address listings for the same property In the system. Thus you may have a visit for a response for this other address variation/other household, even though you already submitted.
Aside from collecting the data, there are also follow up visits to insure data integrity. Kind of a check on the collectors. I think the figure is around 10% may experience these follow up visits.
You must have hit the jackpot and been the recipient of all of the above! But it still seems odd to me that people are still going door to door, unless there are perhaps some data verifications still occurring. Is there a local census office you can call and see if these people are legitimate?
He did have a badge hanging around his neck, but I wasn't about to open my security door to get a closer look. Since I did answer three times already, I'm not too concerned about following up on him. No one has come back since that visit.
If some one showed up at my door about the census months after I mailed it in I would kindly tell them " I mailed mine in have a nice day" If they insisted to talk to me I would ask for their managers card and I would call them. If they said they did not get it I would tell them" If they want me to fill out another form leave me one and I will mail it in."
In this day and age people randomly showing up at my door with no appointment, I will not let them in my home and will not give them any information. I do not know who they are even if they have some sort of ID, how do I know it is real.
I wasn't going to go on my porch in my pajamas to get a card from him (plus I didn't think about it). I like the idea about leaving a form for me to fill out and mail in. If they come back I'll remember that. If they come during the day (again) I won't have such an issue.
We also kept ignoring the surveys when they came in the mail. Not on purpose, we were just busy, and they kept getting put in the junk mail pile. Then they started coming by the house and leaving us “we were here” notes. At that point we tried to find the paper surveys we’d been sent, so we could fill them out, but they were long gone. Finally they stopped by when DH was home, and he gave them all the info they needed. Done!
I responded to the mailed survey right away, and the first person left a note three times. She caught me at home on the fourth time and I answered the questions. A week later, someone called me to verify that the answers were right, and asked me the same questions. - so that's three times in my book.
Another response above reminded me of a call I received around '89 or '90 (before home computers were commonplace). A collections agent asked me to go to a neighbor's house - someone I didn't know - and leave a message to call them back. I asked how they got my number, and they said that they had a database with everyone's addresses/phones. So, I left a message at that neighbor's house. A week later, the Collections agency called me back and TOLD me to go to that neighbor's house and tell them to call them, or get some information (I forget the details). I told them I wasn't comfortable doing that and that person told me I was OBLIGATED to do that for him. Yeah, I told him that there was no way I was going to continue contacting that neighbor or any other neighbor, and to never call me again. Then I hung up on that person.