# Interesting Marketing



## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

Today a guy came to the door and I noticed that Directv was embroidered on his sleeve. I told him I already had Directv. He then went into his spiel to sell me Dish. At that time I noticed he also had a Dish logo on his shirt. I guess if I had told him I had Dish he would try to sell me Directv. He told me how much cheaper Dish was than Directv. How can he say that while also trying to sell Direct? I told him I was satisfied with what I had and shut the door in his face.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Almost all of our independent satellite installers here sell both. Apparently, he is just trying to drum up some business


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## Lucavex (Apr 26, 2011)

Why must people "shut the door in his face" so much nowadays? Yeah I understand the stigma of the door-to-door salesman, and I guess some people forget that they're just people looking to put food on the table, same as you do when you go to your job.

Why do people have to respond so rudely when greeted by a door-to-door salesman? Last week, I had a fella come by wanting to give me estimates on a new roof. I offered him a soda, sat him down, and explained to him that I just had my roof replaced last year before me and my sig. other purchased the house.

He was very pleasant, congratulated me on my new house, thanked me for the beverage and went on about his business. It took a whopping four minutes out of my day, and cost roughly a quarter for the can of off-brand soda. How do I know exactly four minutes? I paused my DVR when the doorbell rang. A shiny quarter and four minutes of my life to be kind to someone, rather than slamming the door in his face.

Would it have been easier to slam the door in his face? Sure! But darnit, don't we have an obligation as human beings to kind to one-another when possible?

Cripes, I act more Christian than most Christians I know, and I'm a stalwart atheist. Hoodathunk. :nono: 

Anyway, I went way off topic there.

Most retailers sell both, as the previous poster had said. I'd imagine it's a fairly common practice to upsell the competition when making contact with a customer. Ten bucks says he inspects the home first to try to identify if you have a dish, and from which provider so he can prepare his pitch in advance.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Lucavex said:


> Why must people "shut the door in his face" so much nowadays? ...be kind to someone, rather than slamming the door in his face...


My sentiments as well. I have done the same many times.

_"...entertaining angels unawares.", "There but for the grace of God go I...", "Do unto others..."_


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

Politely shutting the door in his face is probably better than wasting four minutes in which he could be selling someone else.


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## Lucavex (Apr 26, 2011)

paulman182 said:


> Politely shutting the door in his face is probably better than wasting four minutes in which he could be selling someone else.


He told me I made his day. Most folks were really rude to him. He said it was refreshing to see some kind folks still out here in this world.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> Last week, I had a fella come by wanting to give me estimates on a new roof. I offered him a soda, sat him down, ....


Have you checked your medicine cabinet and other personal belongings? The roofing bit is one of the oldest scams in the book to get inside your house, even for just a few minutes. Once inside, it doesn't take them long to loot your stuff.


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## gilviv (Sep 18, 2007)

The Comcrap guy that came to my door didn't want a cool one or anything else but to sell me cable service. He actually told me that Comcrap had much more HD and a better signal than......, how did he put it, "that unreliable sat signal DirecTV thing I have on my house". I smiled and politely said "get OFF my porch, PLEASE....." and slowly closed the door. 
I get it they are all trying to make a living, it is just that they are not always as nice and polite as we expect them to be. 
So ya want to sell me something, try a different approach!

PS: couple weeks ago a neighbor down the street found himself looking down the barrel of 45 as he opened his door to what was a teen punk selling "newspaper subs" that neighbor, a retiree was hit over the head and had most his belongings stolen. 
Careful, these are dangerous and desperate times.:nono2:


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## chevyguy559 (Sep 19, 2008)

D2D sales is spam, bottom line....I just don't answer the door, I equate that to emptying my spam folder. If I need something I'll look for it online, in the phone book or get a reference from a friend, but overall I just detest sales people in general.


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## lee635 (Apr 17, 2002)

Do not feed the door-to-door salespeople. It only encourages them...


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## dsw2112 (Jun 13, 2009)

SayWhat? said:


> Have you checked your medicine cabinet and other personal belongings? The roofing bit is one of the oldest scams in the book to get inside your house, even for just a few minutes. Once inside, it doesn't take them long to loot your stuff.


Or worse... It's one thing to be polite, but I wouldn't recommend inviting anyone in the house you don't know.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

If the WIndowWizards folks show up to my door one more freaking time they get a 2x4 between the eyes and planted in my backyard.


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## A_Bear (Jun 16, 2011)

Can't we all just get along?


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

Lucavex said:


> Why must people "shut the door in his face" so much nowadays?


I had an ATT UVerse guy show up at my door. Despite REPEATEDLY telling him I was satisified with DISH, he continued to badger that ATT would be better, etc. I finally told him, "I said No, and closed the door (not slam). The reason you get door slamming is due to the "push until they give in" attitude many of these DTD sales people have. I've seen it with TV sales, magazines...you name it. That is why the door gets slammed in their collective faces - because they don't respect your answer and continue to try and sell you something you don't need or want. They hope that you'll give in just to get rid of them. It happens with tele-sales too, even from charitable organizations. I had reputable organizations call me, try to convince me to give to them, they keep lowering the amount to give, until at some point they give up and they hang up in my face without so much as a goodbye. 
OK, long winded response is over...did you read the entire response or slam the browser closed!?


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

If any contractor comes to my door trying to sell a new roof, or what happened to me, a great deal on windows if they could use my house to show their work, they get a "no thanks" and a closed door.

Same thing for teens selling magazines, my wife almost got that one. Came home to two teenagers in the house trying to sell magazines, supposedly a well known car dealer was offering scholarships if they sold so many. Sounded fishy, and the one mentioned she wanted to go to OSU but didn't know the name of the school's President. Of course at the time my wife was also wearing an OSU sweatshirt.

Considering how pushy salesmen can be, when it's on your turf, you have to use your options. So many door to door sales are scams, it's just not worth it.

There was one door to door I did do. When I saw a guy approaching with a shirt for our phone company's equivalent to FiOS, I approached him and said "Where do I sign?" That was probably his easiest sale that month.


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## pfp (Apr 28, 2009)

It extremely rare that I will answer the door - mostly only if I think it's a neighbor. If I do answer and it's someone trying to sell me something or convert me to whatever religion they are I very politely tell them I'm not interested. If they continue I tell them again but if they persist i have no problem closing the door. As for letting them in the house - hell no!


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

One I refused to answer the door and someone was trying to tell me that my car had been sideswiped in a hit and run.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

There was a news article on the radio yesterday about these door to door scams. The bottom line is that you should NEVER deal with someone you didn't seek out. Always do your research. Check out the vendor and ask for references and actually call the references. I did this for an unemployed drywall contractor I found on Craig's list. The recommendations were good...not great, but good. The guy and his friends did a nice job for what they were hired for at a very reasonable price.


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

I leave my door unlocked-I encourage intruders-


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## brant (Jul 6, 2008)

i had a job working outbound phone calls in college. it changed my whole perspective on people in general, sadly for the worse. 

a lot of people won't let you get a word out past "is mr xxx there?" and then they start dropping f-bombs and telling you what a piece of crap you are.


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