Starting Over Talk - Peer Coaching Support Site

I don't like telemarketers either...but I try to remember that they are just people like me trying to do their job and support their families. I think a short and sweet "we're not interested but thank you for calling" click does the trick without being mean.

I put a "No Solicitors" sticker on my front door and mailbox that I got at the hardware store for about a dollar. It too does the trick...short and sweet. I hated when they would tape something to my door and the tape would stick.

I can be really mean, but I've learned that a short and sweet approach saves me a lot of energy.

I don't think of myself as mean. What I thought was mean (and still do) is people who would repeatedly bang on my door and stuff things into my mailbox and call again and again when I was too sick to go to the door or read the mail. They would do it even once they had been told. I learned some things then - that friends and family have a tendency to back off a little too easily sometimes, but a solicitor won't back off for anything. "Just doing their jobs" isn't a good enough to excuse that kind of behavior. Thieves and drug dealers are "just doing their jobs", too. Practicing etiquette doesn't change what it is.

Serena wrote:

QUOTE:
I don't think of myself as mean. What I thought was mean (and still do) is people who would repeatedly bang on my door and stuff things into my mailbox and call again and again when I was too sick to go to the door or read the mail. They would do it even once they had been told. I learned some things then - that friends and family have a tendency to back off a little too easily sometimes, but a solicitor won't back off for anything. "Just doing their jobs" isn't a good enough to excuse that kind of behavior. Thieves and drug dealers are "just doing their jobs", too. Practicing etiquette doesn't change what it is.

It isn't only mean, it's illegal. Putting anything into a mailbox, unless it's the residents' properly stamped outgoing mail, or incoming mail put there but a mail carrier, is a federal offense. Maybe you need to put a sign, informing solicitors of this, on your door. With a warning, that if it continues, they'll be turned in.

I would consider doing that, turtle, if they actually put things inside the box. Being a rainy climate at times here, you just get soggy junk stuck to the outside of your box. Newspapers, umpteen phone books, stuff like that seems to grant them the idea that they have an entitlement to litter your place and a miffed attitude if you interrupt their workflow by making them stop it.

Those folks instantly go to the very bottom of my list of people to ever do business with. They may serve up some aggro, but they will definitely walk away empty-handed! It's really pretty amazing what all you can do with just google, ebay and amazon. When you can find whatever you want any time you want, it makes all the heavy-handed solicitation look kind of stupid and outdated. Heh - Envision a world where all those people who call during dinner and drop stuff at your door had jobs in Customer Service instead, so when you called them you could talk to a human. Plus, I bet it would be wayyy more profitable because you'd LIKE to do business with them then.

Have you gotten your phone number put on the "do not call" list? And, maybe you ought to make up a sign saying "no soliciting, survivors will be prosecuted" and put it on your front door.

I agree with you about online ordering. I got, by mail, an invitaion to join the Literary Guild. Five books for 99 cents (plus shipping and handling) and a tote (or 6th book) for free with my agreement to buy four books in the next two years. Unless you join online, there's no telling what shipping and handling will cost. Since they only offered two books I was actually interested in, I ordered them from Amazon.com with free shipping!

Exactly so. I had cause to investigate how Amazon does business recently. I haven't bought a great many items from them, but I've been a customer since the first or second year they were in business.

I took a look at their personal recommendations, and was very pleasantly surprised. Although I didn't buy anything, they did a fantastic job of presenting me with a list of 8 or 10 things I would love to own, based on the shopping around I've done there over the years. No other kind of store does that for you - even Neimann Marcus and Nordies don't give that level of personal service.

Gawd, but I do miss Webvan!! [sniff!]