I had two solicitors knock on my door yesterday.
The first solicitor was a girl, about 18 or 19, selling magazine subscriptions. She was very well spoken, very polite. I think she said that she was earning points for something to do with college.
I told her "no thank you" as politely as I could. I honestly get a ton a magazines. My mom, sister and I subscribe to many of them and share.
She pressed me to renew my current subscriptions through her. I had actually done that at one time for a relative who was doing some sort of fund raiser for school and it was a huge hassle.
Then she wanted to know if I wanted to "donate" a subscription.
Again, "no thank you."
She practically begged me. Poor thing. She looked so discouraged.
Later in the day, a young man knocked on my door. He looked to be around 20 years old. He was nicely dressed in a shirt and tie.
As soon as I opened the door, he shoved this can of air freshener in my hand claiming it to be a free gift. I was a little shocked and stunned at how fast he was talking and bouncing up and down on the porch. He asked me if I would accept his free gift and I said, "well... I guess so". He thanked me and said, "I'll be right back." He ran to his car parked in front of my house and out pops another guy, around the same age, dressed the same way, and they both practically run up my porch steps with this big box. I said "What is this all about?" And one of them said, "Oh, we'd just like to show you some cleaning products."
I said, "Oh, no... I am not interested in seeing or buying cleaning products. I don't clean." (lol)
He said "That's ok, I know you're not going to buy anything, but I just want to show them to you."
I said "No, I don't want to see them. My husband will be home any minute and we're going out." (It was Wednesday night = Date night)
He said "Just let me clean a little area of your carpet."
I said "We have hard wood floors."
He said "I can clean that too."
No thank you.
Good God!! How weird is that?
I feel really sorry for the people who subject themselves to this kind of door to door sales tactic. Does anyone really ever buy anything?
They are relentless and don't take no for an answer.
I don't like to be abrupt or rude, but Gosh... it was really annoying to have to fend off two of them in one day.
A couple years ago my next door neighbours' little boy came to my door (I really didn't care for the parents too much -- they were very rough around the edges, I guess you could say -- but their little guy was SUCH a doll!) He asked if I wanted to buy a comic book, so of course I couldn't resist his cute little face and said, "Sure!" I figured the little comic book shouldn't cost any more than a couple of dollars. That's when the father put out his hand and said, "That'll be 30 bucks." I nearly choked -- but felt like an idiot and didn't want to turn the little guy down after saying yes. Turns out it was one of those city-wide coupon books -- not a comic book -- and yes, while it did end up coming in very handy for exploring new restaurants n' whatever, these were back in the days when I was living alone and $30 meant a whole lot more than it does now. Jeez... I'm so glad I now live in an apartment and don't get door to door solicitors anymore.