Have you ever had the dreaded knock on your door from someone wanting to sell you the latest, greatest product?  I have never encountered more door to door selling than when we moved to Kingston Springs.  We used to live in Nashville, and door to door selling there was quite rare.  In East TN, where I grew up, it’s unheard of.  So for me, that unexpected knock on the door was quite a shock.  The KS Facebook page has a recent post, altering all to increased numbers of door to door selling.  So, in light of this post, here are some of the funniest [and at times most disturbing] door to door encounters.  In no particular order:

1.  We have “Gutter Guards” installed at our house.  Imagine my surprise one day when the Gutter Guard salesman knocked on our door.  I merely pointed to our roof and said, “But why would you stop here?  We already own your product.”  The man said, “No, we don’t want to sell you those Gutter Guards, we have whole new ones we want to sell you.”  I politely closed the door. 

2.  I have tried to post signs reading “No Solicitation” on our front door.  Apparently, salesmen/women don’t know what that means.  The inevitable knocking lead to this particular encounter.  I said, “Can’t you read the sign?  I don’t want people soliciting this home.”  The man said, “Ma’am, I’m not trying to solicit you, I’m trying to sell you something.”

3.  So, I changed the sign.  At one point, I simply posted “No Salesmen.”  So, the salesMEN stood on the road while the salesWOMAN knocked on my door.

4.  I changed the sign again.  I posted “No Salespeople.”  The next person to knock told me, “I’m not trying to sell you something, I’m trying to make your life better through the use of my product.”

5.  I changed the sign again.  This time to “No Salespeople.  Yes, that really does include you.”  That one sign helped so much.  Unfortunately, the sign wasn’t laminated, and so the ink ran after a heavy storm. I took the sign down and had meant to replace it.  The day after I took the sign down, another salesperson came a knockin’. 

6.  Then, there was the guy who got very angry about my telling him no.  He proceeded to pace at the end of my driveway for 45 minutes.  He would call people, talk about his “anger issues,” fret about not being able to sell me anything, and then talk about how he didn’t want to go back to prison if he lost this sales job.  I called the police on that guy.

Yes, door to door salespeople are an interesting breed.  I admire a person who could go to a total stranger’s home, wear a smile, and try to sell me something.  I just wish there weren’t so many of them hovering around.