SC spotted in mirror

[pitmonkey]

I just come to the door with a side arm visible. Most of the time they end the visit quickly.

[qwerty]

I do not think you were rude. Personally, I find it rude for charities and/or companies to send people to my door and disrupt my limited family time.

We have threatened to call the police when salespeople have refused to leave our porch in the past.

[Mishi]

You weren't rude! Try not to feel guilty, you were polite and handled it pretty well.

The last one I had, I listened politely to the spiel and said no as nicely as possible. Didn't stop him from asking "Are you SURE that you don't have just $10?!"
Which triggered the slightly snappy response of "No, no I actually don't!" and a suddenly closed and locked door.

[Talasar]

Most door to door charity types don't stay long at my place either. The sight of two large dogs barking up a mad storm when they get to the door generally runs them off faster than my far ruder refusals to give them my money. The fact Bully likes to jump up on the screen tends to scar most people of. Makes getting delivery food a right pain in my ass however.

[wolfie]

If you'd been driving northbound on I95, and passed Pedro's "Come back, you meesed us" sign, you'd definitely have a case of seeing SC in the mirror.

[Cookie]

Ugh, we get those types standing on street corners around here with clipboards cutting you off on your way to "take just a moment of your time". These guys aren't volunteers, they're paid employees. I have the same issues the OP does with the whole method. When you try to get away it's:

<insert homelessness guilt trip>
<insert environmental guilt trip>
<insert political guilt trip>

Sigh.

[BeeMused]

It's even worse here in Germany, the guys collecting donations for the Red Cross and other charities aren't even employees, but freelancers who get paid per sign-up. It works like this: Guy signs up to donate 100€ per year, the first years 100€ go to the chugger, the second years 100€ go to the chugger-organizer company, only after that the charity sees any money.
Sadly enough, that's legal.

[Ben_Who]

Yugh. I used to do a paid canvassing gig; there is no job for making you feel more like you're selling your soul for rent. I cheerfully call it "whoring" these days. Having been on the other side of the door, I don't feel even remotely bad for refusing to listen to a pushy pitch and that whole "don't give up until they say 'no' three times" crap. One day, that canvasser will also be in his forties, working a steady job, and despising paid canvassers because he knows all about it. Working retail gives you sympathy for retailers; working canvassing makes you loathe canvassers. Nobody should take a paycheck for that. And nobody who's good at it should be allowed in polite society.

I was let go after about ten days for not scamming my quota; apparently insufficient mugging is a fireable offense in that industry. In my case, I was put out of my misery; rather than collecting a meager allowance from lowball donations and thus limping along in the job for a month or two, I feel I was the beneficiary of a mercy killing. (Just to totally frost your chaps, the paycheck for a paid canvasser comes out of the donations he/she takes; fifty percent of your kind donation is going directly into the pocket of the person asking you for it. Via payroll, minus taxes.)

The industry is so volatile that a month after I was fired, my manager at that business was my EMPLOYEE, working under me as a temp on a data-entry project at the magazine that hired me as an assistant. So the person who fired me wound up working for me. The temptation to rub my hands together and cackle is a strong one, but you don't want to think back twenty years to what an ass you were when you were 21, either. (I probably was an ass. I don't really remember. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

[MadMike]

The worst ones for me were the Verizon FIOS salespeople. I have Verizon for my landline, and also my cell phone since they took over the company I had originally signed up with, but I have Comcast for my cable and internet. I'm not crazy about them, but I'm satisfied enough not to switch service, especially since doing so would involve not only switching to another company, but also gathering up all my cable boxes and returning them to the company. And if I ended up not being happy with them, I'd have to go back and do it all over again.

Once FIOS became available in our area, they started sending their salespeople door to door. I don't like getting rude with people, but the third time it happened, I may not have been as nice as I should have. As soon as I saw her uniform, I cut her off and told her politely but firmly, "If this is about FIOS, I'm not interested. I told the last two guys the same thing."

She told me, "Oh, I'm not affiliated with those other guys, so I had no way of knowing. But just out of curiosity, why aren't you interested?"

I refused to keep going back and forth with her, and told her, "I have my reasons, and I do not wish to discuss them." That seemed to put an end to things. She promised to put me on the company's "Do not knock" list and went on her way.

[PepperElf]

O yeah, repeat visits suck too. Off-name Power Company (Not really an obfuscation, I just don't remember their name!) came knocking at my last apartment every year. I always turned them down.

The last year I was there however it really sucked cos they came by like 3 times. Every time it was the same... "No thank you" on repeat until they went away.

Until the third time. "No thank you... no thank you. ... I've already told your company 'No' twice before." ... after that they finally stopped for the year.

[sms001]

You would think that being any good at the job would entail sizing up the people for whom 'no REALLY means no' and cutting their losses and moving on down the row. I've yet to find that to be true.

[Jay 2K Winger]

When I get my own place, I'm half tempted to get a sign made that says "Trespassers Will Be Shot. Solicitors Will Be Shot Again."

[Ahbugger]

When I get my own place, I'm half tempted to get a sign made that says "Trespassers Will Be Shot. Solicitors Will Be Shot Again."

My place has an engraved brass plaque on the door which reads:

" Doorstep Salesman?
Bugger Off!
(JW's & similar religious loonies still welcome)"

This is one of the many reasons I get pissed off when people still knock on the door after hours to sell me stuff.

Oddly, despite the fact that I think they're quite fun, since I put the sign up I haven't had any JW's call.

[raudf]

It takes a brave soul to solicit in my neck of the boonies. And an even braver soul to come up the drive with two dobbies and an assorted mutt pack waiting to great them with barking and licks. (Usually, sight of the bobbies and the Shepherd mix keeps people in their vehicles.) If they manage that, they must then make the roulette choice of three houses and all of them are loaded. First, my dad is a gun nut. Second is me, which I tend to greet the door with a screaming kid and a disaster area, with hair flying.. and third is the sister, who can and will slam doors in peoples' faces. Most of our neighbors are drunks with guns.

Between that and most places are a good hike apart in distance, it's just better to stick to the cities and towns. Only the occasional JW makes it out to us and even they don't last too long.

[tSubh Dearg]

I get numerous calls to the door from the Firmament tv company (those in the UK & Ireland will know who I mean). They will not take no, I do not want your ugly dish on my house for an answer.

The funniest day was when they came to my parents' house when I was there, my parents get free cable tv as their house is an important junction point on the road for the cable company. The Firmament guy could not get it into his head that unless they were going to give their service to my parents for free forever, they were not going to make a sale.