Otherguy Overby
member
No, the solicitors might run for office some day...
Government should fear the people. If the people fear the government it is tyranny.
Solicitors and uninvited house "visitors"
- Thread starter Sean Dempsey
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No, the solicitors might run for office some day...
Government should fear the people. If the people fear the government it is tyranny.
TallPine
Member
I thought that I was a hardcore recluse, but I am downright extroverted compared to some of you folks
Since our house is in sight of the county road, we've had a couple different times that people have come to our house for help, and I've let them use our phone. Rural Montana folk are pretty friendly and helpful. I just try to be a little careful and suspicious at the same time.
Another time a stranger showed up while I was out digging up a garden plot for my wife. There I was... no shirt, jeans and sidearm plainly visible, and quite stern and suspicious, and it turned out he was reporting smoke from a wildfire about a mile away from our house.
Since our house is in sight of the county road, we've had a couple different times that people have come to our house for help, and I've let them use our phone. Rural Montana folk are pretty friendly and helpful. I just try to be a little careful and suspicious at the same time.
Another time a stranger showed up while I was out digging up a garden plot for my wife. There I was... no shirt, jeans and sidearm plainly visible, and quite stern and suspicious, and it turned out he was reporting smoke from a wildfire about a mile away from our house.
anotherKevin
Member
no soliciting signs
My sign says "no soliciting", and I used a label printer to add "scouts OK" to it. It's worked mostly. I have a window that overlooks the front door and I only talk through that if someone arrives at the door, and it's usually just to ask them to go back and read the sign.
My sign says "no soliciting", and I used a label printer to add "scouts OK" to it. It's worked mostly. I have a window that overlooks the front door and I only talk through that if someone arrives at the door, and it's usually just to ask them to go back and read the sign.
Glenn Kelley
Member
Half way through this thread the phone rang and Mary asked if i was Mr Kelley.Mary got the dial tone.First call I've had in a couple of months.
Grizzley Adams
Member
it just makes me damn happy i live in the mountains,where i will never ever see someone coming up to my cabin trying to sell me some stuff thats either stolen or just plain junk.all i am gonna say to you is be extra watchfull now that all this happened.because where there is one or more in your case even more will follow.
TallPine
Member
Mary is probably the clerk for an attorney, calling to tell you that you have just inherited a million dollars (or maybe a castle in Ireland) from your great-Uncle
History Prof
Member
I'm not LDS (I'm an evangelical Christian), but I live in a Mormon community and teach at a college founded by the LDS church (it is now a public institution). The Mormon students in my classes are the best behaved I have ever taught. The missionaries who come to my door are polite and kindly leave when I tell them I have a relationship with Jesus.Correia said:
By the way - around here, all the young men from my community get interesting missions in Latin America. What poor kid gets a Mormon mission to a predominantly Mormon community? I feel sorry for the poor fellas who come here. Very few people to try to convert, and as the OP pointed out, if we want info, we can just go down the street to the Mormon church!
Macpherson
Member
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- Sep 6, 2006
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- 161
Good heavens! After reading this thread it appears that things like manners, common courtesy and hospitality have been replaced by paranoia and hostility. Everyone has a right to privacy and to protect their loved ones and property, but a great many of the responses here go beyond the pall of unnecessary rudeness IMHO. People didn't used to answer the door with guns in their hands or keep large threatening dogs and/or signage, it was called hospitality back then, apparently its extinct now.
Yes these people are aggravating, but unless they appear threatening or do not leave when asked, they are either people just trying to make a living, or trying to fulfill the tenets of their religion. You may not subscribe to their religion, but recognize that many of them are really sincere about reaching out to others...something that is most definitely a foreign concept to a lot of members here, apparently. I hate to say it but attitudes and behavior like this fit exactly the "antisocial gun nut/freak" stereotype that anti-gun people like to paint all gun owners as being. Yes people can be rude, but is that an excuse to do the same? I thought this was the "High Road".
Yes these people are aggravating, but unless they appear threatening or do not leave when asked, they are either people just trying to make a living, or trying to fulfill the tenets of their religion. You may not subscribe to their religion, but recognize that many of them are really sincere about reaching out to others...something that is most definitely a foreign concept to a lot of members here, apparently. I hate to say it but attitudes and behavior like this fit exactly the "antisocial gun nut/freak" stereotype that anti-gun people like to paint all gun owners as being. Yes people can be rude, but is that an excuse to do the same? I thought this was the "High Road".
Travis Lee
Member
I'm full of kindness, but I feel no obligation to share it when a stranger comes to my door to convert me, or get money out of me, and I feel quite justified in getting rude when somebody doesn't get a move on when I'm polite.
I've encountered too many people who use a smile as a weapon, and have betrayed my "benefit of the doubt".
If you want to just stand there being "nice" while somebody does a victim interview and positions themselves for an assault, I'll leave you to learn the lesson.
Been there, done that, still got the T-shirt with my blood on it.
--Travis--
I've encountered too many people who use a smile as a weapon, and have betrayed my "benefit of the doubt".
If you want to just stand there being "nice" while somebody does a victim interview and positions themselves for an assault, I'll leave you to learn the lesson.
Been there, done that, still got the T-shirt with my blood on it.
--Travis--
p35
Member
I work from home, and I bill by the hour. I don't like door-to-door solicitors any better than I do phone solicitors-they're wasting my time (money) and/or cutting into my time with my family for their own benefit with something I have no interest in. I hang up on phone solicitors- why not get rid of door-to-door solicitors as efficiently as possible as well?
Gordon Fink
Member
The door-to-door salesman is an anachronism. He may once have served a useful purpose, but his time has long since ended. Telemarketers have always been an anathema and have made me loathe telephones.
Children should not be pushed into this obnoxious and dangerous pursuit to raise funds for their schools or recreational organizations. Girl Scout cookies are revolting in any case. I will make sure that my own daughter has no part of such business.
More than half of the “salesmen” I have encountered at my door have been the hard-sell type. These are often the teenagers hocking magazine subscriptions to “earn points” for some trip or to “win a scholarship” to college. When I politely decline, they always demand to know why I won’t help them out, refusing to accept my first, second, and even third no as an answer. This would try anyone’s patience and courtesy.
~G. Fink
Children should not be pushed into this obnoxious and dangerous pursuit to raise funds for their schools or recreational organizations. Girl Scout cookies are revolting in any case. I will make sure that my own daughter has no part of such business.
More than half of the “salesmen” I have encountered at my door have been the hard-sell type. These are often the teenagers hocking magazine subscriptions to “earn points” for some trip or to “win a scholarship” to college. When I politely decline, they always demand to know why I won’t help them out, refusing to accept my first, second, and even third no as an answer. This would try anyone’s patience and courtesy.
~G. Fink
XLMiguel
Member
I'm big and I'm [politely] blunt, at least for the first "no thank you, not interested". From there, the volume goes up with the"What part of 'no thank you' do you not understand?" followed by round three (rare) with appropriate explicative adverbs inserted (I hate it when that happens). I usually answer the door with a pistol SOB or sometimes visable in a holster. When the sidearm is visible, most everyone accepts the first 'no thx'. I'm putting up a "No Soliciting" sign at the foot of the driveway of the new house.
Just as an aside, has everyone registered their cell phone numbers with the National "Do Not Call" List [https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx]? All cell phone numbers were supposedly made availalbe to telemarketers as of Monday
Just as an aside, has everyone registered their cell phone numbers with the National "Do Not Call" List [https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx]? All cell phone numbers were supposedly made availalbe to telemarketers as of Monday
Gordon Fink
Member
Cell-phone numbers will never be made available to telemarketers, thanks to the vast number of justifiable homicides that would generate. 
~G. Fink
~G. Fink
Answering the Door Knock/Bell
Rule #1: Never open the door if you don't know who is on the other side of it. It's like telephone, you're not obligated to answer it if you dont know who's calling (or even if you do). Alternatively, just step to one side of your shut and locked door and communicate that way if you must communicate with the person. Once you crack open the door to a person that you dont know
he/she has effectively gained the first step of entry into your space - it maybe his last but he has an opening.
Rule #2: See above.
Rule #1: Never open the door if you don't know who is on the other side of it. It's like telephone, you're not obligated to answer it if you dont know who's calling (or even if you do). Alternatively, just step to one side of your shut and locked door and communicate that way if you must communicate with the person. Once you crack open the door to a person that you dont know
he/she has effectively gained the first step of entry into your space - it maybe his last but he has an opening. Rule #2: See above.
cambeul41
Member
During daytime, I often block entrance
by stepping outside and closing the door behind me so as to announce, "You are not coming in except over me."
At night, so far, no one has tried. But I am armed.
by stepping outside and closing the door behind me so as to announce, "You are not coming in except over me."
At night, so far, no one has tried. But I am armed.
trainwreck100
Member
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2006
- Messages
- 175
It seems like it's always late when people show up at our house, and just having one of us wander around outside randomly rattling bushes or being seen then disappearing behind fences usually make them uncomfortable enough to not hang around too long. Of course, a 20 gauge barrel coming around the door before the person does helps too...
Glenn Kelley
Member
Tallpine,
Mary works for a grocery company.my family migrated to Ontario in 1798..from New Jersey,are there any castles in New Jersey.
Mary works for a grocery company.my family migrated to Ontario in 1798..from New Jersey,are there any castles in New Jersey.
DerringerUser
Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2006
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- 238
If you want to have fun, then you can act like you are insane, or dont know what you are doing. You can act like you're completely drunk, or you can act stoned and confuse the soliciters. Thats pretty fun, but they dont always buy it.
If they're from the Church of Scientology, then start acting like an alien.
Something of that sort, just to confuse them.
If they're from the Church of Scientology, then start acting like an alien.
Something of that sort, just to confuse them.
TallPine
Member
Oh okay ... thought maybe with a name like Kelley that you might be Irish.
Mary "I'll get right to the point" Roberts keeps calling here about some satellite TV (I think that's what it's about) offer. I get right to the point and just hang up.
Openly carried sidearms do wonders for discouraging uninvited visitors. An armed homeowner is a polite homeowner
XLMiguel
Member
Source, please. I'll admit I just got about 10 notes from friends regarding releasing cell #'s, along with plenty of rumors to that effect, but (respectfully) what makes you think it ain't going to happen?
heypete
Member
It's false.
See Snopes.com's article on it.
Also, see the FCC's page on it. Note that FCC regulations prohibit automatic dialers from calling cellphones, and that practically all telemarketing firms use auto-dialers. Thus, even if the numbers were made available, they would be practically useless for any telemarketing firm (hand-dialing wastes valuable time and money).
tanksoldier
Member
None justifies the use of firearms, but all could have turned bad and THEN required the use of a firearm... which you didn't have. "Sales calls" are often an excuse to case potential targets. Is anyone home, do they have nice stuff, are they little old ladies or a house full of college football jocks, etc, etc...
The original poster was quite clear that his visitors were aggressive, unpleasant and wouldn't take no for an answer.
Answering the door with a firearm visible and actually drawing it and pointing it at someone are two different things.
If my dog attacks anyone it will be because they are in my house or in my back yard... in which case they deserve what they get.
The original poster was quite clear that his visitors were aggressive, unpleasant and wouldn't take no for an answer.
Answering the door with a firearm visible and actually drawing it and pointing it at someone are two different things.
If my dog attacks anyone it will be because they are in my house or in my back yard... in which case they deserve what they get.
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thexrayboy
Member
For those unsolicited phone calls that always seem to occur during dinner or your favorite TV show simply tell the telemarketer to hold for a moment please, set the phone down and go back to your dinner etc. They usually work for commision and making them waste time "holding" for you is a bit of pay back.
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