So I open the door and the guy says "Hi, I'm $NAME" -- and I cut him off and say, "Hi $NAME, I guess you can't read?" and I point to the sign on the window next to the door:
Yeah, a pretty jerky thing to do, I admit it. But this guy quickly recovers and says that he's not actually a solicitor because we're actually paying for his service, and he starts to talk about hot water heaters. Before he finishes saying "hot water heaters" I'm laughing and going through my "we're not interested in participating" routine and closing the door.
The next morning I'm leaving to go to work and I find this love note stuck in my door:
Classy. So what do you think the odds of me seeking out this company to business with them are? Did he really think that insulting me is going to somehow change my mind?
And that's not even addressing the fact that most of the flyer pictured above was about telling me how Direct Energy was evil for trying to squash door-to-door water heater sales, and didn't tell me at all how it might be better for me to do business with National Home Services instead.
I've heard anecdotal stories about others who have had... lets say "issues" with door to door hot water heater people. One person reported that when she declined to participate, the person on her step cussed her out. Not that this person was necessarily associated with National Home Services, mind you, it just seems the mentality of the people doing the sales, which is driven by those hiring those people who do the sales...
Most of the time I don't have a problem with door to door salespeople or telemarketers. They are just trying to make their way in the world and there's nothing to be gained by being mean to them. And most of the time I don't give them a window to be mean to me. But sometimes... sometimes they just ask for it.
