People knocking on my door to sell

[mumof2monsters]

I get people knocking on my door nearly every day at the moment. Callers vary from: Religious people to "Do I want a quote for sofits valid for two years?" to will I donate to charity.
To be honest I am sick of it now. Everytime I am right in the middle of something like the kids tea and I get a knock on the door. When I say I have conservatory or new windows already the salesperson then tries to corner me by offering quote valid for two years.
I also had last night whilst we were eating someone asking me to donate to the British Heart foundation.
I donate to charity thru direct debit so really do not want this at my door, also cannot afford to donate more.
Finding it more and more difficult to be polite now as it is happening nearly every day.
So today I bought from Ebay a "No Hawkers" sign which basically explains I do not want to buy anything or donate anything so please respect this notice and do not knock.
AIBU to expect people to leave me in peace? If I wanted new windows, sofits or a conservatory then I would go into a shop and buy one! Also fed up with getting telephone calls like it but not sure how to stop those . Any advice anyone? {angry}

[fedupofnamechanging]

YANBU. Hopefully the sign will work. If they knock anyway, just point to the sign and shut the door.

Good luck

[MumsieNonna]

Register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) which should help rid you of the telephone callers.

[pearlsandtwinset]

No advice, but sympathy. Cannot bear it, just as I manage a bit of time with DH and we're sitting down to a nice dinner around come the charities. I also donate but not at the door, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, like I am miserly.

Sympathy

[off to buy no hawkers sign from ebay]

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

don't open the door. Look through glass / spyhole / window and if you don't know them - ignore it!

don't answer the phone. get one of those caller display phones, or an answer machine.

You don't actually have to answer phone or door.

I don't answer the door if it's some sales or chugger or religious type. Not even when they can see me through the window.

I don't make eye contact though. I don't think I could look someone in the eye and not answer the door. I wish I could. just look right at them and stay put.

I could tell you that I do that but you'd know I was lying.

[MissAnneElk]

We have a sign that says 'Door to door sales? Please don't ring'. Doesn't work. Cheeky feckers usually open with 'i'm not selling anything' then launch into their replacement window, conservatory, soffit speech. I argued with one bloke one night about him ringing and he argued back that of course he wasn't selling anything as he didn't have a van full of replacement windows with him. I did ask which company he was from so that when I decide to replace my windows I know who to avoid - arse.

[DinahRod]

Dh tells every political canvasser he'll vote for them, it cuts the convo short and they go away happy.

[sapphireblue]

I either just ignore the door, which I find difficult to do because we are quite blatantly in, or open it and say "not interested thanks" before closing it again.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

I open the door, then after they've said about 3 words I look at them in a very shocked and irritated kind of way and say 'I've been working nights and you've woken me up' or and then shut the door.

I don't work nights....

[JaxTellersOldLady]

we have a 'no door stop selling zone' in our neighbourhood, doesnt stop them. Nor does the sign on my front door that says;

No leaflets
No canvassers
No sales people
No religious sects
Please respect our privacy

They STILL knock on the door!

Pisses me off no end.

[craftynclothy]

I do the confused woman look "Um, dh deals with all that."

[SlightlyJaded]

my dad (who is a bit eccentric but absolutely sane) once told a salesman that no, he wasn't the home owner, and no, there was nobody there right now and he was in fact a ghost who had lived in the house 100 years before. The salesman soon scarpered with his £3.50 a pop dusters and 'magic scissors'.....

[Bucharest]

I just think there but for the grace of God go I and am nice to them.

Could be you one day selling dishcloths and mopheads.

[IMoveTheStars]

I HATE this. Ignoring them doesn't work as they just come round later in the day/evening.

When DS was a baby N Power always hammered on the door the second I'd finally got him to go to sleep. One week when they'd been round 3 times in as many days I finally snapped and told them where to go.

British Gas are doing the rounds at the moment.. always come round when we're having dinner..



There was a nice one once though - lovely guy who was trying to sell Sky. I told him I'd sell my soul before signing up to Sky and they haven't been back since

[thedollshouse]

Drives me crazy. I had an ex-prisoner call the other day and I told him politely that I wasn't interested in buying anything.

He replied "For Gods sake some of us are trying to earn a living you know". I said "Well I'm trying to get my 6 year old to do his homework whilst feeding my baby, I really haven't got the time or money to buy anything from you". And then my jeans fell down and I feel the sight of my stretchmarked jelly belly will prevent him from knocking on my door again.

[SeaTrek]

YANBU

I increased the number of signs to THREE before they worked 100%.

I have recently installed a video intercom on the door and gone down to 1 sign next to it again...so far so good!

[FindingMyMojo]

you have my sympathy. I guess one of the advantages of us all living in a pokey one bedroom flat is we don't get any of this ever. We only get the lady who is dropping of election rego stuff and she is very nice.

[JuicyLips]

I just smile and say I wont be agreeing to sign anything today, but if they want to give me some information to read I'd be happy to do so. I had some welsh chaps being very flirty with me the other day but it still didn't work. Although sometimes they ask if my mum or dad is in and rather than admitting Im the house-owner I just say "no, sorry. I dont know when they'll be home". Cant be bothered with the faff.

[Anenome]

YANBU I don't even open the door...I now when someone I know is calling...if I am not expecting a caller then I call out through the door "Who is it please" and they stutter...erm "Bolloxy doors and windows madam" and I sing out "Not today thank you!" and walk away without even looking at their face! Lovely and satisfying.

[HettiesMum]

We are on the TPL but occasionally the odd call slips through. The last one was a company in India wanting to do a "survey" and asked to speak to my husband. I calmly told them I had just shot him, he had been irritating me for some time and he was sprawled across the kitchen tabled dead.
They put the phone down quickly and have never rung since.

[conkie]

The TPL doesn't work in my opinion. I get at least one cold caller a day and we are registered

[emptyshell]

None of it works. The only thing that did was the sign I had up for the election campaign saying "no canvassers or party leaflets, ignore this and I'll vote for the other guy" - that got me quite a peaceful few weeks.

We're lucky - we have a porch with inner/outer door - I open the inner door and if it's got a clipboard/charity tabard/pile of double glazing sales leaflets/bible... I just turn around and go back inside. Going to miss the porch when we move - may have to get a door chain and do the paranoid old woman thing to stop them sticking their foot in it.

Telephone calls are what ARE driving me nuts. The number we got given when we moved in here (couldn't port our old one as we moved across area codes) seems to have been someone who ticked the "please bombard me with marketing calls day and night" box for every single company known to man. They won't remove us from their lists and TPS seems to be no joy because they're ringing for this named contact. Considering I rely on the phone for my work - agencies/tutoring... it's a pain in the rear.

[pluperfect]

I opened the door the other night, to someone selling the dishcloths and so on, and had to tell him that I had tried buying at the door before (true), and I'm sorry, but "it just "wasn't any good". His shoulders fell, and he said, "Oh, please, just- I've been round so many houses tonight..."

I don't think he was lying, and I really felt a bitch, but I just didn't want any tea towels, and didn't want to lie. I think it's very unfair of the organising companies/charities to put people in this position. The day of door-to-door is over.