to think, please don't post stuff through my fecking letterbox if you're then going to want it back..

[snowpoint]

That means you, Betterware, Avon and the like. Dog eared catalogue appeared on the mat last week, it was from Betterware but had no sticker on it or sleeve like they usually do if you're meant to put them back out. I promptly stuck it in recycling and forgot about it.

Now I keep getting cards while I'm out. They want it back. They're not giving up. I feel guilty. Recycling has gone. It's like avoiding the Jehovahs Witnesses all over again...

Yanbu. It's really passive aggressive.

M&S did this with a mattress once. No, I lie - four times.

Bastards.

I do put out Betterware though if it comes, which it rarely does as we have a side door.

But I don't think they should expect you to do this.

Betterware and Kleeneze are not a useful or vital public service. Most of their stuff is crap AND a rip off anyway...like my pumice toilet cleaner on a stick which fell apart when it got wet.

Lovely. That's 2.99 and a load of hassle later that I will never buy anything from them again.

Some people here are frighteningly unreasonable (Avon lady here). I don't understand the blanket "no catalogues!" either, as there is no obligation to buy, it doesn't hurt to have a look. You never know you might like something, and you will be helping someone in your community to earn a living in the process. If you don't, it doesn't take much energy just to put the thing back out on the doorstep.

We are charged for the catalogues we use. It works out over £4 for the first 30. We earn nothing on the first £64 worth of orders. We earn a small commission on orders above this. Therefore we are encouraged to reuse and recycle the books. Surely this is good sense, not to mention environmentally friendly.

I have stopped canvassing because with the recession the orders never got above £50. I was losing money month on month because they charged so much on the catalogues. Now I only do friends and family and I just get 1 catalogue which I share round. I don't earn anything, but I love the products.

However, I never got funny if I didn't get a book back, it was par for the course as far as I was concerned, if you post something unsolicited it can hardly surprise you if you don't get it back. Saying that, I would have been shocked and upset if I had knocked on someone's door to ask for it back and got a load of verbal!

Toastie, with much respect, many people just don't have time to 'just have a look' at something they probably have looked at at some point and know they will not order from - because of the system of ordering, etc etc. It just doesn't suit everyone.

So I can understand the frustration with what is perceived as 'junk mail'. I hope that makes sense...no offence but I can't stand the products in most of the catalogues that are distributed in this way.

But as I said I always stick the catalogue straight outside and if it isn't gone in a week, it goes in the bin.

I think the whole thing stinks, I understand that the sellers typically have few other employment options, and are working on very small margins and that the cost of the catalogue itself can be the profits for the week... but personally I think the sellers are getting ripped off by the larger conglomerate on the price of the catalog. They are using you like slave labour. Loathe as I am to suggest more regulation in the world, it shouldn't be allowed.

Or at least put a sticker on the catalog to admit you will be out of pocket if they don't return it. Ooh, let me guess, you're not allowed to do such a thing as part of your T&C of the franchise? You are being abused, I say.

And the goods are always rather over-priced, to boot.

oh lord, if people come to pick one of these things up, they'll get it back if it's never made it out of our porch (at which point I'll find it under a load of boots and trainers), but otherwise it'll get thrown in the recycling. I've got enough stuff hanging round the place without adding someone else's crap to it.

I can honestly say I've never bought anything from a catalogue like that, even Avon. But then I don't get why anyone would buy make up they've not tried first.

Toastiewoastie are you saying they charge £4 per catalogue, or £4 for 30 catalogues...?!

I'm struggling with the vision of that M&S mattress being shoved repeatedly through a letterbox

Well tbh Cat they left it on the doorstep. In the rain, when I was out. Then insisted I give it houseroom for two weeks till they could be arsed to pick it up, and if it got wet or damaged I'd be liable.

As I said...bastards.

I'm with Ragged on this - it smacks of exploitation. I refuse to be a part of that when it's so blatant.

I think that's why I hate the catalogues.

I wish I was brave enough to put a sign up on the front door NO BETTERWARE HERE PLEASE. I would do it but it makes me seem grumpy and nasty and puts me in the wrong AGAIN iyswim.
Anyway, what gives people the right to leave stuff on the doorstep and tell me what I can and can't do with it? It brings out the rebel in me and I'd like to tell BETTERWARE exactly where they can put their catalogue.
I have never bought anything from a catalogue and I never buy anything from anyone cold calling on principle. Somebody must be buying stuff though or they would be out of business and stop the whole silly routine.

Unsolicited?

That would have so been in a deep puddle for 2 weeks.

Berlimey

I did order it, but I cancelled the order about half an hour later.

Apparently the warehouse:internet order communications were shoite. That's why it took about a month to get them to stop turning up with the blardy thing - and a lot of phone calls, which were not paid for by them, and most of which were ineffective.

Not even an apology.
I hate M&S!

I have the opposite problem to the OP with my avon catalogue, I like avon and quite often fill out the order form but my avon lady hardly ever bothers to turn up to collect the order so I have pretty much given up now, if I want to order from avon I am more likely to do it through the website.

I just put it straight in the recycling.

If you are daft enought to work as an agent and to actually fork out for marketing material, that's not my problem.

'I don't understand the blanket "no catalogues!" either, as there is no obligation to buy, it doesn't hurt to have a look.'

Toastie, we are on a debt management plan and a very strict budget, so I'm sorry if my sign saying 'no catalogues' offends you somehow, but I KNOW there is nothing there I want/need, especially in an Avon catalogue! It's not up to me to support your job choice! Wouldn't you rather not waste your time and move on to people who can actually afford to buy something? YOur assertion that I should 'help people in my community earn a living' by buying useless shite is ridiculous. But so is capitalism generally, ho hum.

CrosswordAddict, what's 'brave' about putting a sign up? It is your house, you have a right to say what gets shoved into it.

Here is mine:

POLITE NOTICE
Please do not leave any of the following:
? Take-Away Menus
? Charity Collection Bags
? Leaflets
? Business cards
? Catalogues (you will NOT get them back!)
? Estate Agency Advertising

Please, No:
? Charity Representatives*
? Sales Calls*
? Religious Callers

(*We do not buy things from or give bank details to unsolicited callers)

People can think what they want, I really don't care. I'm sick of 5 charity bags a week for suspect-looking previously-unheard of organisations and volumes of junk coming through, and I don't appreciate being pressured on my doorstep about ANYTHING when I'm trying to wrangle a toddler and a puppy.

When the girls were babes I took to leaving Betterware junk in the rain without the plastic sleeve on. The agent knocked on my door, most annoyed, but decided not to leave any more of his junk when I warned him that anything else which dropped through my letterbox with a plastic cover on it when I had 2 toddlers and 2 dogs who might get hold of it would be torn up, left in the rain and then dumped back through his letterbox sans plastic sleeve. :o

I dont buy from catalogues

I will not "just have a look".

They go in the bin

I agre with the OP. I don't like catalogues either, if I need something I will buy it from a shop where I can see/feel/try it first. Particularly makeup - I wouldn't trust a catalogue to get the right shade (sorry Avon lady but that's the truth).

Also, I don't like feeling responsible for a catalogue I didn't ask for. I don't open the catalogue but put it on the doorstep straightaway with a polite notice "NO MORE CATALOGUES AT (ADDRESS) PLEASE, THEY WILL BE DISPOSED OF." But I don't like leaving it on the doorstep longer than that as I think it makes the house look unoccupied and could invite burglars. Sometimes i blows away and makes the drive look untidy.

Sorry to disappoint all you hard working catalogue distributors - I'm sure you do work hard -but if your employer is making you PAY for catalogues with no guarantee of an income then it's a bit of a scam and I don't want to support scams.

The only one I look at is Avon, and only because I know the lady well.

Other calagues have arrived and neighbours tell me the people generally come round during daytime working hours, when I'm not there.

I have put notices in the other catalogues to politely ask that they do not post any more through our letterbox, or they would be recycled. The Kleeneze catalogue did not show up again, but the betterware one did, so I recycled it.

On a rare day off, I was actually in when the chap called for it and got irate when I told him it had been recycled. I pointed out that I'd put a note in the previous one that had been collected, where it would have been highly visible and it was his fault if he didn't note the address.

Surely there is no money in this door to door selling these days anyway? I really think people who try to make money from this are on a hiding to nothing. I would never order something from a catalogue that I had to wait several weeks for, especially something that is most likely overpriced and that I didn't need in the first place. Like others, I also do not have money spare for idle makeup or cleaning product purchases, so I will not look through your catalogue! I just leave this stuff on my doorstep, and if the weather has ruined it by the time it gets picked up I'm sorry but am not responsible. Door to door selling is an outmoded business model with the internet in every home, I'd rather small businesses/reps got the business, but it's not the way the world is these days.

I don't feel horrible, mean or nasty. I do feel fed up with the constant cold callers on the phone and my doorstep. I have a sign on the door saying we don't buy or sell on the door step but that doesn't stop them. Buying and selling on the door step includes catalogues. I'm not handing over money or card details to you, so whats the point of leaving one?

I've only once knowingly had someone try to get their catalogue back and they were very rude to me when I had NO idea what they were on about. I really don't keep tabs on everything that's posted through my door, I didn't realize they were meant to be returned.

These days I chuck them straight back near my doorstep asap. I don't want one cluttering up my hall until they come to collect. I'm not going to keep tabs on the day they're planning on coming round to put it out that morning, there are better things to do. It stays near my door step for a day then goes in the recycling bin. Dirty, sodden catalogues on the drive aren't a good look

Maybe they do call to collect but I don't give people much time to explain why they're disturbing me. Despite being a grumpy cow with cold callers and catalogue dumpers I'm not entirely horrible. As a SAHM I do seem to take delivery of any parcels for the neighbours

"how presumptuous of you, to put something through my door that I did not ask for and then insist that I carry out your instructions."

And there's the rub. I totally agree!

yanbu
Avon keep leaving catalogues and never collecting them ,chucked one out yesterday that had been hanging around the front door for weeks.
Betterware and kleeneeze are nightmare.

Does anyone else get a charity bag almost everyday shoved through the door.Annoyingly they put the day they are collecting without a date,just monday.I literally must get one everyday.