To be furious about salesmen knocking after kids bedtime!

[Murane]

Just answered the door to a dodgy looking "salesman" in a tracksuit who claimed to be part of an ex-offenders scheme selling cleaning products. Out of a sports bag at night! Gave him very short shrift for waking my DC and slammed the door. Rang the police and apparently it's legit! Why on earth do the organisers think it's acceptable to send dodgy blokes round on a school night when everyone's kids will be in bed? I am absolutely furious and now have screaming DC to sort out!

You called the police? Who are you going to call if something happened, the Nato?

If someone rings the bell (which is loud so I can hear it in the back garden) the dogs bark, which makes the baby scream, and then everyone is awake. Currently sitting on the sofa with my dinner going cold, the baby being breastfed to calm him, and other DS cuddled into my side watching tv. Will have to do the whole bedtime routine again an hour after everyone was down for the night!

Well, thats your problem. Turn the damn bell off if it causes you so much trouble!

Turn your bell at bedtime.

Nobody other than con artists goes door to door these days

Add a sign that says you won’t snswer to people wearing tracksuits. That should help.

Just put up a 'no cold callers' sign, and get a quieter doorbell!

Rescue pastilles are good to calm the nerves...

The last person I had knocking at that time was our Lib Dem candidate...he looked about 12!

Perhaps the last straw at the end of a long day with little ones, I get that it’s knackering and once they are in bed you just want to chill and eat alone in peace for once, totally get that you’d be irked by someone who had no business ringing your bell waking the house up. Frustrating it must’ve been. Tiredness affects us all differently I do get a bit irate with silly things, and that guy probably would’ve had a few words where he could stick his bag of crap.

I would have a no cold callers sign and change your bell or switch it off. My dog barks when the door goes too so training him not to would be ideal but he’s also a deterrent I feel as I’m on my own with the kids so feel safer if he’s a bit woofy, they don’t know he’s a big soft lump as he sounds quite ferocious lol.
Hope you got your dinner eventually and kids settled back down to sleep x

Lol This is hilarious. Surely slamming the door would have more of a negative effect on the children than a tap on the door. It’s really not that late. Chill out!!

@murane
I'd accept my household being disturbed by the police, or by a neighbour if there was a good reason. Family would probably telephone first. The unsolicited Kleeneze man would be met with fury! (and told that his book was in the recycle bin and if he wanted it he shouldn't have dumped it on my property)

I just can't get my head around the level of anger you must carry with you constantly. Whether you want to order from Avon, Kleeneze etc it doesn't hurt to just kindly yell the person that because they don't know without leaving a book who would or wouldn't be interested. I've got a lovely Avon lady who I buy tons from but before that we didn't have anyone local doing it for about five years. So when someone sets up how are they supposed to know who is or isn't interested without asking? If someone repeatedly comes by after being told you don't want them to then I would get being pissed off (although still struggle to understand fury). These people have to pay for the catalogues they give out which is why they ask for them back. To throw it in the bin rather than just leaving on the doorstep with a note asking them to kindly not call at yours again I just find really spiteful. I'm not that kind of person - live and let live and all that. If your kids are such extremely light sleepers then you should really put a sign on your door asking people to not knock. I would think that would be more for their benefit anyway so that they don't have to encounter someone who loses it for no reason. In my view fury is what you feel when you hear of children being abused or of terrible murderers - not some poor sod knocking at the door.

Also trying to get your kid back to sleep by sitting them in front of TV while you post on Mumsnet is another thing I can't get my head around.

@JaniceBattersby
No homeless shelter in the land is going to make its service users go out and sell a load of marked-up pegs and dusters door-to-door before they allow them to have a bed for the night. That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.

At no point did I say that's what happened. I said that if they sell over a certain amount they get a discounted space. The people who run the scheme subsidise their place for the night. If you're going to start calling people's comments ridiculous then you could at least make sure that you actually read it first. It didn't say they wouldn't get a bed if they didn't sell enough. I just love how some posters here are so desperate to put their reply in and educate all us "stupid people" that they don't even read the post properly.

Also I don't know what you've looked into but when this first happened here I checked with our local community officer who confirmed that this was a genuine scheme. I've bought plenty of things over the years and I've never had someone come back and burgle me. I know that many of the posts have made reference to this but I guess that there is a big difference between areas as to how this is run whether it's a scam or not

I remember opening the door in my PJs and getting cross with some guy selling something or chugging or something because it was "too late to be knocking on doors" - he looked completely bemused and said "But it's half past six!" In my defence, it was dark already, but I think your sense of time, especially "too late", gets a bit doolally when you have little ones. I used to get annoyed by the noises of children playing outside or people having BBQs when I was trying to get PFB to sleep at 7pm, when only 6 months before I hadn't even been home from work by that time.

Oh and the young offenders thing is a scam. Young offenders they may well be, but they have not been bussed down en masse by their probation officer, as one tried to convince me was the case.

Hells Bells mummyofmany, so much anger there!!
Some people are just trying to make a few quid. Sometimes they hardly had 2 pennies to rub together. Many years ago DP was beyond skint and did a Kleenex round to try and supplement the budget. Thankfully everyone was kind and those that didn't want anything was gracious enough to just say no thank you and not a furious bad tempered loon like many people on here appear to be.

We try to live by the adage 'it's nice to be nice'. However it appears many people on MN live by the motto. 'I'm furious and livid,how fucking dare they!!!'

If someone knocking on the door results in screaming DC, I think you have bigger issues to worry about.

on a school night when everyone's kids will be in bed?

You do realise that not everyone has kids, let alone ones small enough to be in bed at 8:30 and that the world doesn't revolce around you?

I think you need to calm the actual fuck down to be honest

Completely get what you mean but I would turn off the bell or take the battery out and not respond to the door. If it was someone important they would call my mobile.

Oh I remember those days when pfb was asleep and we tiptoed around the house, phone off the hook, strict instructions to everyone we knew to tap on sitting room window instead of ringing on the doorbell. By number 5 it was a free for all. It does sound like a scam but still no reason for fury imo

Your dogs have a problem with barking at the doorbell and that's not fair on your neighbours, sort it out.
You have a problem with noise, either switch your doorbell off at 6 o'clock, or remove it permanently (what do you even use it for?).
8 o'clock is a perfectly reasonable time for salesmen to call.
YABU for not having a sign outside your house saying 'no salesmen'.
You are being a snob for mentioning the guys clothes.
You are being silly for complaining he was using a bag, wtf else was he supposed to use.

On the whole YABVVVVVVVVU

All I want to know is why you slammed the door?!

We had two of them call round last week. Big threatening pair of guys, just after sunset. Didn't use the bell just hammered on the door until I answered. Strange really, cos I usually love a big pair of knockers.

I am also a retired Police Officer. My ex-Force always advised householders to treat these callers with caution. We advised the elderly and insecure not to answer the door.
But for everybody else-why not see what they have to say?
You will not find these kind of callers on the Charities Register. They do not work for Charities-they work for commercial organisations. Unemployed young men (often with previous convictions) are employed, for peanuts, to try and earn some kind of living. What else would you have them do? Languish on the Dole? Or make some kind of effort to earn money? Give them a break!
I always used to look through their bags when they called on me at home, and buy something I sort of needed-even though I could have bought the same thing cheaper at a Pound Shop.
Unless anyone has some kind of real issue...……..I say again, Give Them a Break!
Young unemployed people who sell door to door are at least making an effort. If financially comfortable people just turn them away like "scum"....what kind of lesson will they learn?
Finally, the sellers I have come across usually have a an ID badge round their necks-the badge is something called a "Pedlars Certificate". If they do not have that, then be very cautious.

In our old flat the DC's bedroom was right next to the front door, so a knock would absolutely have woken them up.

Bravo @OnlyaMan !

Very eloquently put

Yanbu it annoys me too. I now have a sign saying no cold callers/salesman/charities. Make sure you get one that includes charities or they will ignore the sign as they claim it doesn't apply to them

Why should we need a sign saying "No cold callers"? Why should it be an opt out system? I don't think I've ever met anyone who wants to be sold to on their doorstep (I'm sure someone here will pipe up now). I certainly don't let them even get as far as their introduction before sending them on their way.

Should we not have a system where you have a "Cold callers/ chuggers /im not selling anything, its a survey /scammers welcome" sign instead?
The cold calling business obviously works - if it didn't nobody would be wasting their time doing it so please stop paying with money or information etc to people who turn up uninvited on your doorstep, send them packing every single time.