Should doorstep sellers be banned?

Antispam

I dont want anyone at my door accept friends/relatives and odd neighbour and maybe meter readers

I think your home life should be left alone from precious of commercialization if companies want new customers then do the right thing and pay for advertising not go to peoples homes to pester them and possible lie as they do

nelinuk

Hi - my simple solution to this is if I am not expecting somebody I do not answer my door. If it's a friend looking for me they'll then call to see where I am.

I employ the same system with my mobile - which is my only telephone. If your name isn't already saved in my phone chances are I don't want to talk to you and I don't answer the call. If it's really important the person will leave a message.

I agree about this all being intrusive and uninvited. If only I could step outside my home and not have chuggers, power and telecommunications companies accosting me and all variety of papers, fliers and cards thrust in my face.

If anyone's got a solution to that I'd love to hear it. I'm often tempted to let a chugger stop me and then ask them how much they know about my financial situation before asking them what then gives them the right to ask me for money I may well not be able to afford. But I just can't be bothered!

And Antispam - I'm sorry to hear you've got "odd neighbours".

chinup_3

interesting in a somwhat dark/depressing way reading these posts. against my better judgement i will reply as someone who has door-canvassed and still has the odd half-hour at it. 1st] it is NOT ''against the law to be on your property [ god can't you tell the daily mail readers- shouty and ill-informed] , only when asked to leave and a person doesn't does it become ''trespass''. 2] the often unpleasantly toned ''no canvassers cos we hate you etc'' window stickers..here's the reasons you still get knocked a- some people forget they are there/from previous owners, and DO buy from you = true! b- because the stickers are stroppy+ aggressive in nature and a pro hard bitten canvasser has WAAAY bigger verbal + phsycology skill set then the vast majority of the public [ lights blue paper + stands back] wether you like it or not [thus he is NOT at all concerned about your predictable attempts at being ''scary'' sarcastic'' ''clever'' [right] etc etc.it's been heard before and they handling ' rejection' daily for a living- something most of us are frightend of recieving twice in a lifetime] they are going to either interrupt you to wind you up or to test their skills or...and hey here's an idea.. but they have a living to make /kids to feed/ mortgage to pay just like some of you !!!
as for ''if i want to get the best deal etc i will look it up/do my own research etc'' = no you won't, you will ''get round to it when eastenders is finished/not so tired/ had better day at work etc etc '' ie you won't OR go to a company that spends a ton on advertising [ increasingly expensive] ''because ''you've heard of them'' [!] and soak up their costs on your bill . a small business can keep his costs low for the customer by 'direct marketing' which door-canvassing i [dc] is. get a supply of referrals and he's off. a guy who was redundant now paying taxes...nah can't be right, ah ? ie yes utility companies ARE a pain, but banning ALL canvassing? a guy 'canvassed' yesterday for''any scrap'' and took away the old water tank! there are some excellent services and products out there people that if you were given ENVIROMENTALLY POOR leaflets you would bin [ i % conversion rate on average] without reading..and you know it.
you want to know the best way, as opposed to the usaul hostility? be polite. smile and lie convincingly where appropriate ie ''im renting'' works for most things. use you brains not your anger.
or you always bear in mind an awful lot more people in the coming two years could be canvassing- graduates ''chugging'' is the new thing. what will you do when your 3 months behind on the mortgage ?

kermitfrog

A friend who lived in London used to buy fresh fish from a fisherman who drove down every week from Grimsby or thereabouts and sold door to door. The fish was good and it was cheap. The fisherman made a reasonable living as he avoided middlemen, and it would be a shame if the livelihood of people like him was taken away by a blanket ban.

domster_2

Sheepster wrote: »

Totally

We get at least on average two charity bags a week. Just how much stuff do these businesses think we all have to give away to them!

As for doorstep sellers - if I want something I will go to them, not the other way around.

The only people who are going to not want to ban sellers - are sellers.

to be fair its hard to get a job anywhere in the uk at this pressent time and people who knock on your door have bills to pay and morgages to pay and children who have a need to eat and have a roof over there head so i think people are being a bit harsh on people who do door to door sales pay there taxs and n.i. the lazy people who sit on there !!!!!! are the ones who you should be slagging off. not all door to door sales are bad people and are just trying to make a living.

Charliee123

Regarding post no. 55: "always bear in mind an awful lot more people in the coming two years could be canvassing- graduates ''chugging'' is the new thing"

I also think there is going to be a lot more charities doing door to door 'recruiting'.

Because, when I complained to the National Deaf Children's Society recently, for sending round one of their 'recruiters' to our house, they told me that "75% of their total income comes from supporters recruited in this way". They certainly invest a lot of their money in this type of fundraising, for example, they have paid the company that organises their 'recruiters', four million pounds to deliver their current door-to-door campaign.

If you get charity door-to-door sellers, and you want to stop them coming again, you can contact the company that manages them and ask for your address to be removed from their lists and they will promise in writing to tell their recruiters not to come round to your house again. You can get the name of the company from the recruiter.

The company that was responsible for the person that came to our house is called Support Direct, I think they work for a few charities, so in case any one will find this useful, the person to contact to get your address taken off their lists, or 'blacklisted' as they like to call it, is Renalda Ruginiene, Licensing Officer, Support Direct, Studio 320, Highgate Studios, 53 - 79 Highgate Road, NW5 1TL. Tel 020 7424 3900. She will send you confirmation in writing that none of their reps will visit your house again.

Hope this post was interesting and maybe useful for someone!

pannetteb

What about people like Avon reps, would people like to see these banned? I would only initally drop a boooklet to a household, but would never pursue to try to sell to people who were not interested.

Eco_Miser

@pannetteb I really wish people wouldn't put catalogues and the like through my door if they would like them back -- because they never come back for them when I'm around and they eventually go in the recycling bag.

ernest1

So far I have reduced my energy bills, found a local window cleaner, now getting my milk delivered, enjoyed carol singers, enjoyed the fun of kids trick and treating and all through people caring to knock on my door. I have not got time to make appointments and phone calls to organise all of the above so to have somebody turn up and do it for me is a result. Some of the canvassers have been really nice people and I am pleased to have met them.

Door to door knocking is obviously something many people like otherwise the door knockers would not do it. If you are someone dead against talking to a local chap promoting himself then dont answer the door unless you are expecting someone - simple.

I can understand it is annoying to be interrupted sometimes and some national companies set out canvassers with scripts which bore people - but I feel for the local guy who just wants his neighbourhood to know what he can do. It can be a nice community thing.

sue2010

My husband is a nightshift worker and has been woken up four times this week by sales people knocking really loud on the door, we are now having an MSE sign up. Hopefully that will do the trick.

The one that annoyed me this week - trying to sell me cavity wall insulation, spoke such poor english that I had to get him to repeat himself several times - he was trying to explain that 'our' government would give me the insulation free if I was over 70 (I am 48!).