…people are a nuisance and a half.
Not one has ever sold me anything because no matter what it is they are trying to sell I will never buy from them due to their rudeness. No matter how decently you try to tell them you are not interested they will not shut up and they keep cutting you off in an attempt to make the sale. In the end you just have to speak over them and abruptly tell them the conversation is over and it’s time to move on. I do close the door at this point but slamming my own door in their face which may break it if you do it to forcefully to “make a point” never made sense to me.
As you can probably guess, Once again I just had that lovely experience.
I’m hip. You just have to realize: you won’t be first person that says, “NO”. Nor that last. They get over it, esp if they ever want to make it in that biz.
I recall when selling ‘extended warranties’ thing became…a thing. Was buying some gizmo and the sales dude tried to get me to pay what amounted to 25% of the entire cost of the gadget! After one, “no thank you”, he couldn’t let it go. I ended it with, “So, are you saying there’s something inferior with this thing?”. Or words such. “Ohhh, oh no, not at all…”. Silence followed.
Had a run-in with the TV ‘closer guy’ a few months ago (wanted to cancel the account). HE REALLY pizzed me off with his attitude, “Oh, you’ll be back…sir…I guarantee it…etc”. Slamming the phone down is a lost art (cell phones are expensive).
I tried retail sales, once. I didn’t have the personality for it and hated every minute.
I’m surprised it’s still a thing in Western countries. I thought Japan was being backwards about it because they’re incredibly annoying here, but the 26 years I lived in the US I only recall “sales” (proselytizing) coming to my door once. In Japan, it’s especially bad when you’ve just moved into a new apartment, so I’ve made it a point to only live in apartments with a locked entrance and video intercom system. If I can’t visibly identify the person as a cop or postal worker I ignore them.
Might work on sales people, but we live at the end of a 2km unsealed ‘No Through Road’ that you have already had to drive 20km of another dirt road to reach. This is followed by a 1km driveway and two locked gates.
Here in Germany doesn’t happen all that much- and I can reliably depend on my other languages. As soon as they understand I don’t speak German (a lie- I do speak it and understand it, of course) , either by speaking perfect Italian or decent English they usually understand their time is better spent someplace else.
I just imagined you doing your best “Italian badly speaking German” cliche impression, while trying not to laugh.
“Iche nixe spreche Deutsche, iche vone Italie”
(You know, kinda like people do it in the famous “Umberto” joke).
I have a problem with door to door salesmen. I am way too friendly. I think I even bought something once or twice. Postcards made by children or something. But I enjoyed talking to some friendly young Mormons from America for a bit, testing their faith I guess.
Almost 30 years ago my wife went door to door selling life insurance for almost a year. She did ok with it, but it’s unsurprisingly not a very good way to make a living. She went from that to health insurance and then property/casualty where she’s been ever since.
There is a grand total of one time I can recall buying something from someone knocking and that was our water filter for the house. We coincidentally were looking into it so it was a case of the guy having perfect timing.
When we were kids (and kids always answer the door no matter who is ringing), one Sunday we opened the door to hear an encyclopedia salesman began his spiel. Eventually mom showed up, then dad in his bathrobe, wife-beater T-shirt, pjs, and slippers. Frustrated that he couldn’t get a word in, my father turned and disappeared. For about 10 minutes.
This did not dissuade the peddler, who continued unabated. When he finally paused, dad’s first words were, “You were so smooth, I went out back to see if our boat was still there.”
Then he went back to tinkering with his hi-fi equipment and let us deal with it.
I am normally polite with unannounced callers but I do like to have a bit of fun with them.
One Halloween there was a knock on the door at about 8.30pm
A bit too late for the young neighbourhood kids who had already been around and I opened the door to 3 or 4 surly teens who said “trick or treat” as soon as I opened the door. Now if they had been in costume or at least made an effort (we had at least one kid in a bedsheet with eye holes cut in it) I might have been OK but instead I said:
“Sorry I’m all out of treats but if you come back at midnight I am planning a human sacrifice”
As much as I detest door-to-door salespeople, whether they are peddling goods or salvation, I realise they are just trying to make a buck. As long as they remain polite and reasonable, so will I.
I had to admire their tenacity in taking a punt that someone would be home and walking all the way down to the house, it is a decent hike. So we invited them in for a cuppa, politely but frimly told them we were not interested and as soon as we had finished our tea and bikkies I drove them the 1km back to our top (locked) gate where they had parked.
If they had been pushy on the other hand, they would have been walking back and it is uphill all the way.
Due to my natural tendencies, I have found a different strategy.
We all know I’m not great at self-control in conversation. I tend to “infodump” but can also get REALLY preachy.
So to me, when a stranger rings my doorbell to preach, the deal is: they get to preach at me, but I get to preach at them. Since
I don’t know them
they started
they can walk away at any time
, I can literally completely let go of trying to control myself and just talk all I want, it’s so liberating.
Last time Jehovah’s Witnesses rang my doorbell, I talked food politics and ethics with them. I am always so happy when they ring but they don’t come often. I did move recently though so hopefully I’ll get another chance to preach as much as I want soon.
now they were fun to slam down 
