Door to Door Salesmen

I've been known to be a shy, and sometimes anti-social person. However, I am extremely nice and a big push over. I have a hard time saying no to people. For this exact reason, I will not open my door for anyone that I do not know. I won't even let them know I am home. If need be I will turn off my TV and go upstairs until they leave the premises. That may sound extreme, but some of these door to door solicitors do not take no for an answer. I learned this the hard way.

When I was seven months pregnant with my son, I was living in Hawaii. I had just moved there about a month earlier, and I didn't know more than one neighbor at that point. My husband was out to sea for a short period of time, so I was home alone. I was getting ready to curl up with the remote and watch an "E!" special about "Child Stars Of The 80s" when I hear the doorbell. It is 8pm. I couldn't imagine who would be ringing my bell so late.

I peeked through the hole in the door. I could see that it was a woman. I thought perhaps she was a neighbor that needed help, so I answered. She went into a big speech about how I was the last house on her route and no one had let her do her demonstration of her little dust buster and would I please please let her show it to me, it would only take a few minutes and I would be able to keep the dust buster as a free gift. She said she was part of a contest and I could help her win a college scholarship. So I made the big mistake of saying yes. She said she would be right back.

Twelve minutes later she finally came back. She opened my door and in came her with two big huge men with a giant vacuum. A Kirby Vacuum. Suddenly, she left. I never saw her again. I was left alone with the two guys. My guess is that she is the one that initially gets the people to let the Kirby people into their homes and then leaves and goes to the next house. The first guy claimed to be the boss of the second guy. He said that his apprentice was going to do a fifteen minute presentation on how the vacuum itself worked, and all it's functions. If I wanted to buy it, great, if not, no pressure. Riiiiiight. No pressure.

Over the next hour (Yeah, long fifteen minutes.) the guy drags the vacuum all over my house, showing me the various functions, explaining how dirty my house is without me know it, and how he didn't imagine that (caution: guilt trip coming.)I would ever want my soon to be born child crawling around in dust mite poop and all the dirt and dust in my house and that I could cause the baby to have asthma. Then he explained how he was brought up in the ghetto and selling Kirby Vacuums is how he makes his living, but no pressure! Bare in mind that the entire time I am slowly panicking, wondering how I get myself into this situation and how I would ever get this guy out of my house. Not to mention I was missing my show!

Finally, his boss came back and they kept pressuring me to buy the vacuum. Hmm. Didn't they say if I didn't want it, that was ok? No pressure? I guess that went out the window. I kept telling them that while it was a great machine and I'm sure worth the money, it was way to expensive for me to buy, not to mention I could never buy it without talking to my husband first. For the next twenty minutes they tried to convince me over and over I needed this machine. Finally, I did something stupid, but brilliant. I said ok, I will buy it. They scribbled down some fake numbers and claimed they could give it to me at fifteen dollars a month. Yet, they didn't call anyone or take any of my bank account information. How do they know what my credit situation is how much I would have to pay? They took a five dollar check from me took my vacuum in trade and left me the Kirby. You know what I did? I called the number on the paper immediately the following morning and canceled it. It took me all day to actually get a hold of someone, and I had to call twice to actually get the message acrossed that I wanted to cancel, but I did it. Telling those people that I would buy their Kirby Vacuum was the only way to get them out of my house!

My husband came home a day later and he called the number again, as I hadn't heard from them about giving us back our vacuum and taking their machine back. He had to call twice himself. He finally got the guy that sold me the vacuum on the phone and told him to come and get the Kirby. I decided to go for a long walk when the guy was supposed to get there, so I wouldn't have to deal with that again. Well, to my horror, after my hour long walk I got home and the guy was STILL there. He was trying to convince my husband, who had been telling him for an hour that we didn't NEED the Kirby, that we needed it. Finally, about fifteen minutes later, the guy packed up his vacuum and bitterly said they would drop off our vacuum off a few days later. Well, they never did. So I was out five dollars and a vacuum. That was my big mistake. I have no disrespect for people trying to make a living, but some of the Kirby people treat people like pond scum, they really do. I'm sure there are honest Kirby salesmen out there, but I believe I was taken advantage of because I was pregnant and home alone. I should have known better though. Something funny, is that in the process of trying to get me to buy their Kirby, the salesmen told me that my neighbor got a great deal but I was getting a better one so "don't tell them we gave you a better deal." My husband and I asked our neighbor a few days later about it and they said they saw them coming and refused to answer the door, so that was a lie.

Then I will sometimes get people at the door that want to sell me children's books. These people are not as persistent(thank god) as the Kirby salesmen, but they are trying to make a living and get that sale. I politely decline, and they take no as an answer and move on to the next house. Mary K and Arbonne reps tend to be very polite and nice. I appreciate that they would rather invite me to a party where I can sample the products and decide for myself in a no pressure atmosphere than have them force it into my face by inviting themselves into my home and making me feel trapped. I love Arbonne products. I will attend any party at least once for a new product. I just, like I said, don't want to be pressured to by something. Especially so late at night like the Kirby people.

My husband had a bad experience as well. There was a home based company on wheels that was selling bulk meat and seafood out of their truck. I told my husband not to do it, but he bought a lot of meat that really did save us money. However, when we thawed some of the meat and cooked it, we found out it was rotten. He called the number and no one answered. Ten months later he saw the same truck driving down our neighborhood. My husband ran outside and yelled "Hey, Stop!" but they saw him and sped up and drove away. I guess they remembered him.

Again, I respect people trying to make a living. We all need extra money and are all just trying to make ourselves a better life. I just wish people weren't such scam artists about it. I guess they feel they have to be in order to make the sale. I'm sure they are trained that way. The only product I will buy from a door to door salesmen is from the little girl at the door selling Girl Scout Cookies. I might possibly buy a magazine from a high schooler trying to do fund-raising, as well, as I feel that is different. More often than not though, I just do NOT answer the door.