FWIW... the lovely Fuller Brush building in the North End of Hartford is now a State of CT unemployment office.
Posted on 03/07/2011 3:55:28 PM PST by BRL
Most “free gifts” are offered as an incentive to listen to the pitch. It’s pretty much implied and commonly expected that people understand this.
However... If you had to say “No thanks” more than twice then he deserved it.
Sounds like he needs to read his potential customers a little better. I bet he listens next time... but yeah... you may have gone over the line a little.
Still funny though.
The guys in the factory, the engineers, the marketers, the delivery guys, the secretaries, managers, etc. all owe their jobs to the salesman.
Thanks for sharing. As a young boy I sold newspaper subscriptions door to door after school. I mastered my stage fright during the first couple of pitches. Before long the whole mystery of discovering what lurked behind next door offered up entertainment. Sometimes a butler, sometimes a mom holding a baby. Everybody received that day’s paper for free. A totally fascinating opportunity to observe people in their natural habitat. LOL.
That’s what happened! A van dropped guys off over two days. Previously THAT day another guy came to our door asking to use our phone....we told him we’d make a call for him (he wanted to be picked up) He never even asked us to buy anything. Later when the other guy showed up...I think it was because we had yet to be asked to buy anything. Funny, by making the phone call for the one guy, we were able to give the police a phone number. They haven’t been back...YET....we wondered if they may have been casing the neighborhood. The phone number was for some offbeat cell phone company.
I NEVER, NEVER, EVER open the door unless I know exactly who is there. My neighbors know that they need to call first and that I won’t open it. It is accepted around our neighborhood. Most of my neighbors will do it. The funny thing is that I have three dogs and one of them is a large German Shepherd. Listen, at 8:45 in the evening, people should be home. If it was a neighbor, they would have called or said it was them. You never know if someone is watching and waiting to know that you are home alone. Always, better safe than sorry and it is NOT rude to NOT open your door. Maybe my area is a bit rough but we have learned to be more “street savvy” than a lot. Be safe!
I once applied for a sales position back in college when I needed extra money. The company responded and had a bunch of us meet for what seemed to be some kind of seminar about sales. As it turned out they were looking for traveling knife salespeople. Rather than just tell us this, they actually tried to hide what the job was while they try to sell you on how great their organization was. Only after a very long time do you find out the real truth, and once we did most of us just got up and left. I learned my lesson from that and have never trusted these sorts of seminars, coaching scams, etc, ever again. This served me well when I had to travel overseas for many years because I was on the look out for scammers. Lots of people I know got suckered by various sales scams, gem fraudsters, etc by being too trusting.
For the OP. Seems to me like you might have been a little rude. As much as I hate these sorts of salespeople, if you wanted to keep things cool you probably should have just said "no thanks, not interested, have a nice day". I am sure you already know nothing is free and it was just his hook to sell you stuff.
FWIW... the lovely Fuller Brush building in the North End of Hartford is now a State of CT unemployment office.
Every home should have a large array of pop-up sprinklers attached to a motion detector, and a second set with an inside switch.
“I cannot believe any company still operates under that paradigm”
That struck me as odd as well. I remember as a child back in the ‘60s, we had Fuller Brush and Avon making door to door sales. In those days, Fuller Brush was a very reputable company and sold very fine brushes. I recall my mother bought one once. But you are right, in those days most homes had a mother and/or grandparents around and there was a different atmosphere. My mother and the other ladies on our street enjoyed the visits from the Avon lady too. I loved her free samples of lipsticks and perfumes! But those days are gone forever. We live in a very hectic and suspicious world which is anathema to the door knocking sales pitch. I do know, however, that in rural PA in Mennonite country, they still have door to door Bible salesmen.
There was a nicely done made-for-TV movie (2002) starring William H. Macy. Door to Door was based on Bill Porter, a door-to-door salesman in Portland, Oregon who was born with cerebral palsy. In spite of his handicap, his dogged persistence paid off. Even realizing that certain portions were glossed over and likely fabricated, I found it to be an inspiring film.
One lesson that I was taught from it was to be much nicer to people in what might be classified as menial jobs, bank tellers, grocery store clerks and such. I recently witnessed a man reaming out a hapless bank teller because the lines were too long for this person of obvious grand self-importance.
She was working rapidly and accurately handling the transactions. He really should have directed his complaint to the bank's branch manager instead of this woman who was just on the frontline and the target of his wrath (complete with foul language).
Of course, if the clerks are union members, then my kindness goes out the window. Fortunately, I'm in Texas and there jes' ain't too many of those types! :-)
I tell them I don’t do unsolicited business, thank-you, have a nice day, shut door.
Except for the Jehovah’s Witnesses who came by last year when I was home sick from work. I pulled back the curtain, pointed to my mouth, grabbed my throat and made puking motions.
Many door to door “salesman” that offer that free gift are checking to see if/when you are home and the spiel if you let them in the door is cover to check out what is wirth stealing later.
As many people have said, door to door types are an anachronism. Many of the ones working now have bad intent. Seen a lot of those scams
My old boss, who was the company salesman, always referred to himself as the scum sucking sales pig. He was right. But truth be told, we needed him. I just wished he hadn’t been such a lying facetious lech.
The person in the world that I treat with the most disrespect is the telemarketer, whose time is so much more important than mine that he has a computer call me to make sure I’m available to speak to him.
Sales Guy - "Blah, Blah, Blah!"
Excuse me, were you invited here?
Sales Guy - "Blah, Blah, Blah!"
Sir, this entire sub-division is marked as Private Property, No Soliciting, and You are soliciting. My HOA covenants say I am in violation to speak with you.
Sales Guy - "Blah, Blah, Blah!" usually followed with, but I have a permit.
Sorry - That doesn't fly, because it doesn't hold any authority here on this private property.
Sales Guy - "More Blah, Blah, Blah!"
Listen, you seem to be a nice guy and I know you are trying to make a living, but our HOA tells us when you folks won't leave, that we should just call 911 and report a trespasser!
Sales Guy - "More Blah, Blah, Blah!"
I suggest you leave now while I think about making that call, and if I observe you going to my neighbor's house, then I certainly will make that call!
What I usually do is to call the local company and speak to a manager, getting their name and them informing them they have someone representing their firm, violating private property rights. When I get a mealy-mouth manager, then that when they get more of my tirade, that not only will they not get my business, but others will hear from me about their company. Yes, I do have fun.
They are outlandish. Once a paving company showed up and parked their rig in front of the neighbor's house - A 10 ton dump truck, pulling a large trailer, with a paver on the trailer. I am working in the yard. As the guy approaches the house, I meet him half-way still holding the shovel. He starts his line as to how they were working in the neighbor and thought they would offer their services to some of the neighbors.
They got a full dose of my tirade, which embarrassed my spouse, me out there, having a heated argument while holding a shovel.
This time I should have called 911. They never did any paving jobs for anyone, even the supposed one they were there to do, and when they left, they had done damage to my neighbor's front lawn by how they had parked their rig.
Don't get me started on telephone calls. Excuse Me, but I represent your insurance company, will you give me your name and address please?
What part of the Do Not Call list, don't you understand??
Around two years ago, I had the same guy ring my doorbell at 5 A.M. three different times. He was always smelling of alcohol and asked for my neighbor.
Now my nearest neighbor is around a quarter mile away but he did used to live in this house. The fourth time I had the presence of mind to open the door with a pistol. Sure enough it was the same guy and drunk as usual. Still it had the desired effect. He never called again.
You shouldn`t feel so bad. People come to our door and just ask for money, panhandling door to door. I kid you not. It happens at least four times a year.
I had a guy the other week ask for a gas can because he ran out of gas. I told him to walk up the road and get one from the gas station..... were he could also get some gas........
Real unemployment is at 20%. You should have had a little more compassion for this person. He was doing what 95- 99% of everybody in the World could not or would not do.\\
Think how many guts it takes to knock blindly on someones door and try to get them interested in purchasing something.
Yes, I have worked door to door and could do it again and make a six figure income, Could you? I have also never stolen from any body and have always worked for companies that have 100% satisfaction guarantees.
The last few that have come by here left after I told them I was unemployed.
>> My son thinks it is funny, and my two daughters are really mad at me for being so rude.
Your son is right. Let him school your daughters.
Question: who pays the house payment for the porch and the front door? You, or the D2D salesman?
Question: who pays the property taxes for the front porch and front door? You, or the D2D salesman?
Don’t bother pointing this out to the D2D salesman — they won’t listen. But think on it before allowing anyone to make you feel guilty.
You owe unsolicited salespeople who try to force their way into your life exactly NOTHING. Use the most expedient way you have available to you to get rid of them, as YOU (not they) choose. Often the most expedient way minimizes contact time, as well as rudeness.
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