I get the late evening knock on the door last night. Pest control guy says he is going to be at the neighbor's tomorrow and needs to fill 3 extra open spots. Of course he has a discount for me. Hard pass. Thanks though.

Does anyone actually purchase anything from a solicitor? With the exceptions of local kids or girl scouts etc. I have never taken any offers.

I just dont see it as being a successful business practice.

Nope. Just the neighbor's kid selling Girl Scout cookies.

Years ago, I bought a packet of coupons for a local Jiffy Lube that turned out to be a great deal. They were one of the wider service JLs that did brakes, exhaust and fluids.

The local owner of the franchise was competent, and a good guy who took good care of me and honored the coupons even after they had technically expired.

It was a good experience, and the guy selling them was a clean cut young kid.

Be careful. Criminal Travelers use a similar MO to scam homeowners. You gotta know who you are dealing with. AND not unusual to use pest control scheme as a means to get into your house. If the deal seems too good, it is

I haven't seen this before with pest control, but it is common with roofers, driveway pavers, auto body repair and such. He'd have torn up your walls, applied a fake treatment, taken your money with a promise to return and finish the job, but you'd never see him again. Before it became unfashionable, we called people and scams like this "gypsies."

Fuller Brush man ?

I don't open the door to anyone unless I know them. Hypothetically, if a young hottie came knocking...but that's hypothetical

Girl Scouts & the occasional candy fundraiser, that's it.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Girl Scouts & the occasional candy fundraiser, that's it.

This....I will normally open the door and politely say "no thank you"

The only time I answer the door to a stranger is to tell them they have 3 seconds to remove their ass from my property before things get silly.

I have a long driveway in the country with no trespassing signs prominently displayed.
On weekends there is gunfire around my area from others practicing their craft.
Very few uninvited people show up at my door.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
I don't open the door to anyone unless I know them. Hypothetically, if a young hottie came knocking...but that's hypothetical

I knew who wrote this while reading it, scrolled left, yup it was Shugart.

And no I've never purchased anything with the exception of local HS fundraiser, or Boy/Girl scouts.

Brings this joke to mind:

A blonde canvassed a wealthy neighborhood looking for odd jobs. She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had anything for her to do.

"Well, you can paint my porch out back. How much will you charge?"

She replied, "How about $50?"

The man agreed and told her the paint was in the garage. A short time later, the blonde came to the door to collect her money.

"You're finished already?" he asked.

"Yes," the blonde answered, "and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats." Impressed, the man reached in his pocket for the $50.

"And by the way," the blonde added, "that's not a Porch; it's a Ferrari."

I only get very sketchy salesmen. Mostly, we try to ignore. Sometimes I'll answer but prepared for any aggression. I need to look into CCTV again - I don't want those networked things unless I create a local subnet that's not connected to the internet.

Only the neighbor kids, which has only happened 2 times in 10 years.

I'm in a gated community, with posted "no soliciting" signs. That doesn't stop AT&T from doing it, thought.

Had a home automation guy roll through our no-solicitation neighborhood Sat. First that's happened in two years. He was, of course, working at a neighbors house and wanted to give me a chance to join in.

I asked him for a card 3 times in our 5+ minute encounter but of course he didn't have any. No trail. I kept asking if he could do all sorts of impossible things and continued to embellish greatly the systems I'd already installed, including some virtually impossible shit they supposedly did that had him scratching his head. Stopped just short of a time machine or Star Trek transporter.

After I'd had enough and tried to nicely cut him loose, I asked if he had any steaks or furniture in the truck too? He was puzzled at that and questioned why he would, I observed the only people I'd ever met so desperate to be this persistent and selling shit door to door usually had some steaks, seafood, etc. and if he could run grab me a steak we could talk some more.

Apparently that was a conversation ender. So sad.

And yes, we are suckers for cookies after having been the Cookie Mom a few years for our daughters troop.

In all the years I have lived in my townhouse, my door to door types have been:
Girl Scouts. Cookies were bought.
Jehovah's Witnesses. Not buying any of that!
Some other obscure Friends of Jesus. No sale.
Nobody visits on Halloween either.

Cookies and school fundraising coupon books (only if I know it is legit).

I have 4 very loud and very angry sounding dogs that loose their collective minds if someone rings/knocks, that usually makes 90% of them retreat pretty quickly

every now and then 'legit' high school kids, boy scouts, etc are selling raffle tickets, coupon packs etc and we will pay for them

really consider it a donation more than a 'sale'

and i have done it when I actually know the kids, friends of kids' friend, etc

door-to-door meat guys ?? that's not happening

take that back - in NC there was a guy and his crew who would come through the neighborhood with a huge trailer selling pine straw bales... I bought pinestraw for the yard that way a few times. having them drop off 15-20 pine straw bales as opposed to handling it myself was a nice convenience

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I will say that one reason I bought the coupon book was that the guy understood the Central Florida Door Knock. He knocked, and then retreated about 30 feet into my yard, and kept his hands in front of him. I answered the door with a 229 in my hand hidden behind the door, and he stated his business. I also saw that he had a buddy, of about the same age, working the other side of the street.

I figured he wasn't going to be a problem.