To say I have a love/hate relationship with my cable company is to overstate half of that equation. After many many years of being disappointed by them (service, price, communications), I pretty much approach any interaction with them with trepidation.
A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail and then a couple of texts about upgrading my gateway. Since I wasn’t even sure what that was, I ignored the texts. Then a few days later, I got two more texts. These day, I hardly click on any links that are sent to me…. way too many scammers… so last Thursday, I made a quick appointment and headed over to their store. I wanted a straight answer about what this was, was it really necessary and the most important, if there was a cost attached. I wanted a live person to look me in the face to give me the facts and then hand me their business card so I had their name.
Turned about to be fairly easy. Although they’re calling it an upgrade for me, it was clear that they are trying to get everybody on the same platform with the same connections/software so it will be easier/cheaper for them. But since it wasn’t going to cost me anything, I said “OK”. But before he went to get the new modem, he launched into a pitch for getting my mobile phone service. This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this so I fended him off pretty swiftly. I got the new modem, went home and set it up. It went better than I expected.
Next morning, I had to take the old modem back; I got to the store at 10, their opening time. A different young man waited on me. I told him I wanted a receipt, since I don’t have much faith in their ability to keep track of whether I’ve returned equipment (previous bad experience). He looked me up to get the receipt and then promptly headed down the mobile phone service path. I cut him off and said I wasn’t interested and I had told my salesperson just yesterday that I wasn’t interested in “putting all my eggs in *_____*’s basket”. He kept going so I had to amp up a bit. I said “we’re still paying down our phones (not true) but even if we were not, I STILL wouldn’t give you all my mobile business.” He did stop at that point. Sigh.
In a perfect world, I won’t have to confront the dragon again for about a year but I’m thinking that I’ll wear a namebadge that says “Please don’t ask me about my mobile service.”
Have you had to handle any pushy salesfolks lately?
Trail Baboon 
We got the hard sell after we agreed to have a young man inspect our roof for free. (Company out of Rochester, DaB….) There was supposed to be a 20-minute evaluation that turned into a two-hour presentation. I told them we always get a second estimate, that we wouldn’t be signing anything today. Part of his spiel was that he then had to have a (lengthy) conversation with his supervisor, in front of us of course. I said I had to go and start dinner, which I did. He left angrily…
I know of someone who was pressured into signing, and then tried to cancel it. What a mess.
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I just had a young man come to the door yesterday afternoon saying he was doing work for a neighbor and he noticed that my roof and my neighbor’s roof… At that point I cut him off and said no thanks and I shut the door. Maybe 20 years ago I might’ve felt guilty and let him talk a little longer but all of the phone sales and Robo calls and scamming that goes on these days. I just can’t dredge up any guilt any longer.
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It’s very polite of you to give them more time, but they do come to your door, then proceed to waste your time. The whole sales model is terrible.
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I suppose the sales model works, where it does, because a certain percentage of homeowners are too polite or too passive or too malleable to simply say “no!” upfront. The door to door technique is designed to subvert the homeowner’s priorities and short circuit the normal process of starting with recommendations from a trusted, or at least disinterested source and getting competitive bids. When a salesman performs a free evaluation, he never ever finds that everything is satisfactory.
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An excellent article in The New Yorker, August 4, 2022, helped me understand and deal with these guys. People here in town get bent out of shape when someone knocks on their door. The article helped me to de-code the pitches, smile, and send them on their way with nothing inspected, nothing signed, and nothing but good will. Ask your librarian to find the article for you.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
If we disregard all the push notifications and online algorithms which are nothing but really pushy salesmen, I actually encountered a really good saleswoman 3 weeks ago when I purchased my electric lawnmower. This was at the Shakopee Lowes. This woman knew her stuff and explained to me all I needed to know. I asked for time to consider this over night. SHe stepped back and gave me information about when the sale ended and where to go to find a salesperson when I returned. The next day I returned to buy the mower. Yesterday I mowed for the third time with it. I LOVE this mower. I have purchased several things at that Lowes. I will return in the future because they know what they are doing there.
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When we got the seriously good service from Bonnie at Gertens a year and a half ago when we bought our fake tree, I actually called Gertens and asked for a manager and told them that if they have any kind of a program where great customer service is recognized than she should put in about 1000 votes for Bonnie for me.
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I discovered that with my phone, you really do need to go on and straighten things out (when you get hacked), because the people on phone lines are there to sell you something.
So much for “progress”. It’s very discouraging.
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Go *in*
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As a general policy I do not consider, or encourage in any way, companies that promote themselves door to door.
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An excellent article in The New Yorker, August 4, 2022, helped me understand and deal with these guys. People here in town get bent out of shape when someone knocks on their door. The article helped me to de-code the pitches, smile, and send them on their way with nothing inspected, nothing signed, and nothing but good will. Ask your librarian to find the article for you.
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Just a general thought, I’ve had the best luck hiring people recommended by friends/acquaintances.
I recently had the gutters redone by the guys who did the roof shortly after COVID. Recommended by a guy at church many years ago- never nagged me, but I remembered (and still had the contact info in the computer).
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My next-door neighbor Don is a construction guy and had a contracting company for a while and then worked as head of projects and construction for the Minneapolis school district for many years. I let him recommend everyone who touches anything in my house.
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A few years ago, after a hailstorm that had roofing companies flood the neighborhood with door to door salesmen and after a couple of my neighbors had successfully made insurance claims, I contacted my home insurance guy and asked him for a recommendation of roofing companies he trusted. That way, I figured, there would be less hesitation to accept the verdict of a preliminary inspection. He gave me two and I contacted one. The young man from the roofing company came out and climbed over the roof, marking spots he deemed problematic. Later, when the inspector from the insurance company came, he returned to show the inspector what he had found.
Everything went smoothly. The roofing was replaced and also some gutters at no cost to us and completely free of hard sell by anyone.
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That was me.
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When I first moved in, about 9 months ago, I had internet salesmen coming to the door. They were persistent, almost bullying. They were from #1 MediaCom, and #2 T-Mobile. I do have phone service through T-Mobile, but I don’t want their internet. I have had internet service through Northfield WiFi since 2016. They were a new company when I moved to town. The internet they provide is via satellite receiver dishes. They promised me their price would never go up at all as long as I kept their service. They told me that the WiFi service I would have would be consistent except in rain or hail storms. That has been the case for 10 years. The price has never gone up. I’m still paying the same price I started with in 2016, $47.43. When I moved, I kept my account. The technician came and hooked up a little satellite dish on my new roof and made the connections. Very little break in service, no change in price. I did have to pay a fee for the hook-up, but that is to be expected. Great service and a great price!
After being harassed by MediaCom, T-Mobile, and Xcel (about starting some kind of credit account), I put up a small “No Solicitors” sign near my front door. It has worked well, and I haven’t had a problem.
I’m not looking into making any large purchases right now. I’m working with a young man from Nerstrand to have my patio door replaced. He is so polite and nice! He was a little slow getting me his quote. I wasn’t terribly surprised at the price. I knew it would be expensive. He will pull the construction permit for me, give me all the paperwork I need to submit my application for architectural modifications to the HOA, remove my old door and the framing, check for rot, make any repairs, properly dispose of all materials, and install a matching new door. He hasn’t bugged me at all – yet – but I’m so charmed by him that I might ask him if he knows how to install gutters. Apparently we have to install our own gutters if we want them. I do want them, but I’ll have to see how much it costs and how the door project goes.
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I haven’t encountered a single Jehovah’s Witness in years. Did they change their strategy?
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No. They used to come to my old condo in Northfield regularly. I haven’t seen them in Dundas.
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I have to rant about that. The arrogance of a religion which sends people to your door to basically tell you that your beliefs are inferior and that you face eternal damnation for them really disgusts me. My “No Solicitors” sign includes anyone coming to my door trying to sell religion to me. They can just take their arrogance and go away.
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How hard is it to say “already got one?”
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I still remember my mother being absolutely furious when they came to our house (the parsonage) one Christmas Eve.
When I lived in Alexandria, VA, I had a run of Mormons who seemed to always know I was just about to jump into the shower. Made for a very brief exchange!
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It is not hard to say that. But they do not listen well.
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I used to get visits from Jehovah’s witnesses on a regular basis. My long-departed cat, Georgia, would always run to the door when the doorbell rang. She had a deep-seated belief that anyone who came to the door was there to see HER.
There was a lady named June who came regularly for years. She always had someone with her, but never the same person twice. June paid lavish attention to Georgia, and talked about her cat, TC. TC was short for Thunder Cat. He earned his name by making himself heard, running down hallways at maximum velocity.
June had the usual Watchtower pamphlets, and would say a few words about the topic addressed in the latest issue. Still, she seemed a little embarrassed to present them, and I suspect she found it difficult and was only doing what her church expected of her.
I can’t remember when she visited last, but it was probably ten years ago or more. She did get to meet a couple of the subsequent felines. Sammy would come to the door to greet her, though with less alacrity than Georgia showed. He would allow his head to be scratched, yawn, and purr politely.
The Watchtowers went into the recycling.
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they all turned muslim , its so much more fun
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Last week when I was working on the boulevard garden, a boy of maybe 14 came up on his bike and told me how he and his brother do mowing, some landscaping, garden jobs if I ever needed some extra help. I told him not this year, but maybe by next year I might want more help, and he pulled out a business card from his pocket. Lives just a couple of blocks from here – might be a family business. I’ll keep this card…
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Meant to add – he was the opposite of pushy…
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My salesperson encounters have been limited to SPAM calls.
When I hear the background noise of a call center…hangup and block.
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I don’t even wait to hear the noise of the call center any longer. If there’s any kind of a pause between when I say hello and another voice coming on, I just hang up. That means that some computer is automatically dialing — hence a sales call. Not that I pick up too many calls from numbers that I don’t recognize.
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I answer the phone with “Good Morning”, “Good Afternoon” or “Good Evening”. If there’s an AI waiting for a “hello”, the pause is longer while it figures things out.
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Have not received a spam call in years. I have a blocker. No one ever knocked on my door in my apartment in Mankato.i doubt they will here. I usually fixed things myself. When I hired I asked my assistant and my neighbor who was an independent appliance repairman. I asked a man for a bid on duct cleaning at a home show. He asked how old my house was. He said he would stop in sometime when he was in the neighborhood. He did. He looked in one register and the new furnace. He said our ducts could be cleaned. He said some people would say they could but they were liars.
That was a hard non sale.
Clyde
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Could NOT be cleaned
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I was thinking I should write a couple posts about the interesting things my missed up vision does to me. But with my bad typing . . .
I just tried to stick my hand through a window.
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Yikes!
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Oh dear!
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do it clyde
tim
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A couple of nights ago, a young man was going door to door in our neighborhood trying to sell extermination services. Husband spent a fair amount of time trying to educate him about the importance of these critters that we don’t want in our homes, but which nevertheless have a rightful place in our environment. Poisonous chemicals aren’t the answer. (He has been reading a lot of Barbara Kingsolver lately.)
Today, while talking with a neighbor (who is a master gardener and an environmentalist), we learned that he too had been approached by this young man, and essentially had given him the same lecture. Who knows if either of them had any impact? But they tried.
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An excellent article in The New Yorker, August 4, 2022, helped me understand and deal with these guys. People here in town get bent out of shape when someone knocks on their door. The article helped me to de-code the pitches, smile, and send them on their way with nothing inspected, nothing signed, and nothing but good will. Ask your librarian to find the article for you.
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