Have you had someone come to your door selling childrens reading material recently?

[mtemm]

we had somebody come on sunday morning. dh answered the door and was a bit creeped out by the guy. kept asking our kids ages, and ages of kids in the neighborhood. I'm sure 30 years ago nobody would have thought twice, but dh laid it on the line to the guy that he wasn't talking to him about our kids or any other kids. The guy kept pressing and pressing and was apparently hard to get rid of.

we thought it was odd, but today it came up on another board I belong to. 3 or 4 other people started talking about the same thing, and in each instance it was a youngish sort of creepy guy, very persistant. Each mom or dad got a distinctly weird feeling about it. Now, it could just be that we don't live in the days of door-to-door salespeople, or it could just be too much on the news these days, but I thought it was odd. And it all seemed to happen to everyone over the last week or 2, from all over the USA.

Curious if anybody here knows anything about this or has similar experience?

 

[onecoolmama]

Yes, someone did come to my house selling childrens books. Came 3 times woke my kids from naps all three times. And the last guy started pushing his way in. I was really mad, so I shut the door. If I say no..I mean it.

And they did ask about my kids and others in the neighborhood...I said nothing.

 

[grinningghost]

Yes! About 2 weeks ago. Same exact description of the creepy guy. I told him I don't have any young children (which I don't) and no thanks. He was pretty persistent, and he also wanted to know which houses on the street had young kids. I told him I had no idea.

Creepy - big time.

 

[MosMom]

I also had someone selling the books but she also sold religious material. I think it is a religious group selling them. I had looked at a Kid's cookbook that was vegetarian and had a bible verse on the back. I had a woman though.

 

[FTWFAN]

Yes, a guy came by our house yesterday! He introduced himself as a college student, from TEXAS. What is he doing here in ALABAMA?? Selling educational materials!!!! He kept asking how many kids I had, their ages, their interests and what grades they were in. I tried to politely tell him NO the first time which was around 2pm. He didn't take the hint and said he would come back later yesterday evening. Well, about 6pm, he pulled into the drive again. This time I think I may have made him angry, but I didn't care. I did not want what he was selling. I understand that college kids have to make money, but please don't try to pressure people into buying something they don't want!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Robinette]

We had a "college" girl come and try to sell some religious children's books last week. DH said she ask questions about our kids like their ages, things they like to do. He very quickly told her he was not interested and then she ask for a donation!

 

[BrerMom]

We usually get them once a summer. Haven't seen them yet this summer, though. Most of the time our salespeople are non-US kids trying to earn college money.

We've definitely gotten more cautious. Yet another reason not to answer the door to somebody you don't know, I guess.

 

[tinkerbell27]

I had someone come by about a month ago, very pushy. Tried to give me the "But all the other moms in your neighborhood bought them " line !! Please ! I'm not 10 ... thats not gonna work on me !!!!

 

[BrerMom]

Originally posted by tinkerbell27
I had someone come by about a month ago, very pushy. Tried to give me the "But all the other moms in your neighborhood bought them " line !! Please ! I'm not 10 ... thats not gonna work on me !!!!

Oh, thank you! Now I know where to borrow them!

 

[slo]

I had somebody also - but she didn't creep me out.

She was a girl from England and she was selling these childrens books to make money to pay for her next years college tuition. The books she had were really nice, but I didn't buy anything because I had to pay for them now and then not get them until Sept. 20th. She looked really bummed out and when I said no thank you - but she'll get over it.

 

[powellrj]

we have had them come to our house before. The last time was 2 summers ago when DS still lived at home. When I got home from work he was telling me about these girls who had come to the door selling kids stuff. The next day on the front page of the paper was a picture of the girls that had been at our door. They were arrested for shoplifting! They were listed as being from all over the country.

 

[MelessaG]

I had a college girl come to our door earlier this summer. She made a mistake and told me she came as a referral from our "good friends" on the corner. I can't stand the couple on the corner and I don't think they even know our names first or last. She wouldn't take no for an answer from me, so DH stepped in and got rid of her. She was selling homeschooling materials if I understood correctly.

 

[ilovepcot]

Never on Halloween do we have children and their parents come to our door trick or treating.....we're told it's too scary here! But let somebody be out selling something and we're never overlooked.

About 2 weeks ago a young boy (perhaps 12) knocked at our side door. He had to walk up a pitch black curving driveway and climb a flight of stairs..... again in the pitch dark. He was selling reading materials of some sort. It really was too late for him to have been selling in an unfamiliar area that time of night. (I was told 9 p.m. was permissible by law but it was pushing 10:00.) This young boy didn't know what kind of people we are. Arriving here in the black of night could have provided an unstable individual an opportunity to have done this young boy harm. What he couldn't have known.....and our neighbors don't even know, is we have a trap door that leads underneath our house. That's potential for who knows what! I wish this practice of young people selling door to door could be stopped!

 

[sheilarose2]

I had A creepy boy(20 or so) come to my house on friday. Get this, he came to my back door which was in the garage!!!!He should of went to the FRONT door!It was like him actually coming into my house then knocking. I answered it thinking it was the neighbor boy but when I saw it was a salesman I was shocked. He introduced himself and told me what he was selling. I told him I wasn't interested and he kept on. He asked if I had kids and I said yes that I was trying to put them down for a nap when he banged on my BACKdoor. He then threw in the line about my nieghbor way down at the end of my street. He said "Do you just have 5 minutes-we could pull up a couple of lawn chairs here in your garage and I can show you." I told him again that I was not interested and that I was trying to put my kids asleep. I told him he needed to leave. I didn't want to shut the door in his face because he was in my garage and I had no idea of what he might do. I just kept telling him"Not interested" Finally my husband who was layingdown heard the whole conversation came to the door and pushed it open, stuck his finger in his face and shouted"Look man she told you she was not interested now get out of here,NOW!!) On saturday my nieghbor was having a craft party and people were walking up to the door and here he comes again. Pulled into the driveway-blocking space- and proceeded to hagle the guests arriving. Luckily my husband and son were outside mowing and husband ran over there and told him to leave and never come back on our street again or he would call the cops. Needless to say he hasn't been back.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

Two women came last week. They told my husband that they noticed all of the children toys and were sure we needed their reading materials. He told them that I was a former teacher and that I had everything my children could possibly need to read. They also said that so and so down the street had bought some. He said, "good for you" and shut the door.

Lori

 

[Cebhfhionn]

Wow! You all have made me feel much better. I had the same kind of creepy guy here in Central Florida. He had come around last week on a bicycle asking one of the neighborhood kids about which houses kids lived in. Then the other night around 7:30 he came to our door trying to sell us an educational book(like the kind you get in school anyway.) He dropped my neighbors names because he had already bothered them and kept saying that he only had 5 minutes then picks up his stuff like he's going to come in! "I don't think so buddy!" Anyway, I told him that we were in the middle of dinner and I wasn't interested in buying anything. He acted shocked and I finally had to say "Bye!" and shut the door.

Who are these people?!!!!

 

[brerrabbit]

My son finished his freshman year at Texas A&M in May and was looking around campus for a summer job (he wanted to stay in College Station for the summer) and responded to an ad for a job that said you could earn tons of money over the summer. He interviewed for the job and they told him it involved going through sales training and then moving to some other state where the company got hi, a place to live with a family and his job was to go door to door selling childrens books. He said no thanks and left the interview ASAP. It seems this is a huge thing at campuses here in Texas where they heavily recruit for college age kids to do this. They make it sound to good to be true and apparently it is. I wonder who this company is and if they have any success at all using this sales method.

 

[meandtheguys2]

Yeah...a college student from Austria! How they trick these kids into this crap... A friend tried it in college, there were offers of travel etc. They crammed 6 of them in a hotel room and fed them junk!

So the kid last week was put off by the fact that I have every book we could ever want and athen tried to get me to name the other folks with kids in the neighborhood.

I honestly don't know if he realizes how dangerous and stupid that would be!

Argh!

 

[JESW]

Funny you should say that....

yesterday there was a young girl walking around the neighborhood talking on her cell phone. She had been "dropped" by the group and was canvassing our neighborhood for magazine subscriptions. My neighbor called to alert me and I just didn't answer the door - I was upstairs with a sick child. My neighbor said this girl was VERY persistent and even had her foot in the door so my neighbor couldn't shut it. She finally had to get a bit rude to get rid of her.

Every summer we get the college kids around selling children's books. One year I did buy a couple as DS was young and they were good books.

I understand that kids need $$$, but I HATE having someone come to my door. We used to have the Jehova Witnesses come by until one day I invited the entire group in (several adults and kids) and told them that no matter how many times they stopped by I was NOT going to convert and if they didn't stop I was going to have to get nasty and call the police. I actually said it very nicely but I got my point across. It had gotten to the point that I didn't want to go outside with the kids because they kept coming by!

Jill

 

[FroggyinArk]

think the guy that hit ftwfan got us about 2 weeks ago,, i answered the door,he introed himseelf with a name that didnt fit his face, asked about our kids and all the other kids in the nieghbor hoods,, we of course didnt tell him anything,, he even asked well how many children live in the house across the street, i see they have kids because i see the stuf in the yard( my granmny is 80, she has our dd's stuiff in her yard) he then drove his 2004 expedition across to one of our neighbors houses and told her we sent him over there,,, what he did nt know was dd was on phone telling her dd what was up while i was talking and her mom was listening to me tell the guy off my question was if he was selling cheep kids books the one he pulled out was not even well made) why is he driving one ofthe most expensive suv's around? earning college money,, but hes carrying thios high dolar cell phone,,,andf why is a texas student in rural small town arkansas?