AIBU to feel uneasy after a pushy doorstep call?

[poetryandwine]

Posting for traffic . Title from MN

I am WFH today and answered the door to a former prisoner. He understandably needs a fresh start but he wasn’t very coherent and when I declined he got pushy.

Can anyone help me with what this is about?
Thanks in advance

Sometimes if you refuse to buy anything these people can become aggressive. Your best friend is a ring type door bell so you can monitor callers and not answer at all if you dont fancy the look of them. However if you do answer just tell them politely that this is a rented house and the landlord deals with "all that" in the case of services. If they are offering goods just say "Sorry I dont buy at the door". My doorbell allows me to answer in a deep male voice and I find that unexpected callers quickly move on.

No. It's a well known scam run by gangs.

A rather interesting doorbell!

We have an Alexa show in the living room, if the door goes and I’m not expecting anyone then I check that first and the image from the doorbell is there for me to ignore or click the microphone on to see what they want

Get them occasionally, they can be incredibly pushy.

Some of the ones here hand you a little laminated card saying they are deaf and dumb - I doubt they are - but you're left holding this card that they won't take back off you!

Ring doorbell is life changing.

The ones selling tea-towels etc? They’re scoping for vulnerable people to target further. They’re run by criminals, not by probation services.

Anyone who chooses to imagine they’re legit should try calling the particular probation service / organisation they claim has sent them. You’ll find they don’t do that.

If you buy from them you’re encouraging them to return to harass and scam your more vulnerable neighbours.

This is awful.

Today I defo see the advantages!!

It's a scam. I did buy a "chamois leather" from one of these guys once and it was total crap. Just a cheap cloth, not chamois leather at all.

Just politely decline and shut the door. I had one like that the other month and I did feel a little intimidated.

Even though he wasn't saying anything horrible.

He had an accent from somewhere far away and think he said he'd just left the military and been placed here? It was all quite garbled and I probably had a look of alarm on my face.

I did just apologise and said I couldn't help.

I'm sure your one won't come back and do anything bad. If it was genuine it's true it must be hard for people when they just get out of prison as they probably burned all their bridges.

They're not legit, it's a well known scam.

Doesn't sound like a great salesman

I felt sorry for him until he got nasty.

Yes, it can be. Those people I know who have got one have become much more paranoid about who's at their door. Such a shame

I would suggest OP that you tip off the Neighbourhood Watch in your area or the Community Police Officers and they will check it out.

There are, unfortunately, a lot of these type of scams about.

I know you've been quoted a lot on this thread but for fucks sake please don't post dangerously wrong shit like this.
They are not legit. At all.

I have had several of these. The first time, I was foolish and bought some dishcloths. They were very small once unfurled. Now I firmly say no. One turned on me and was verbally aggressive so I called 101 with a description.

I don't understand why people don't like these ex-offender guys that sells things on doorsteps. They're quite common. They sell stuff. Buying is completely optional.
I had one knock one spring a coule of years ago. As it happens, I really wanted one of those long reach duster things for the cobwebs. I asked if he had one, he did. I bought it. It was maybe a couple of quid more than it would be in the shops but only what I'd have spent on busfare to the shops or on a delivery charge.

I really don't understand what's "not legit" about it. He had a thing I wanted, he stated a price. I bought it. It's good quality. I still use it now. A perfectly reasonable transaction.

Whether or not he's really an ex offender or whatever is pretty irrelevant to me and entirely on him.

I didn’t open door just the window and then found out later that it was a dangerous person actually. Not sure what were his intentions towards me but I was alone and all neighbours were out.

I used to be quite sympathetic to these guys and felt sorry that they were given such poor quality merchandise to sell door to
door.
Then I came across an article about the Nottingham Knockers and realised
that they were in fact criminal gangs gathering information to sell on
to other criminals or marking properties with chalking or etchings.
The last time one of them called it was in the evening.
Knowing that next door were away I discreetly watched him after he left my drive. He left the road without calling on any other neighbours, which I thought was odd.
I think he knocked because our
house has steps and a handrail dating back to a previous elderly resident.
Within a week an elderly neighbour, who also has a handrail, woke up to find intruders in her home.

Quite a while back one of these got into the warden controlled (not 24hrs)flats where my mum lived. Loads of residents left their flat doors unlocked in the day(at the time all women) so they went into a panic to find unknown men in their lounge. Luckily one of the carers called the police but they legged it. A few people had paid stupid money for dish cloths and cctv picked up what looked like him and his mate trying to get in later in the night.

Wasn’t there a Sunday newspaper expose of these schemes some years ago, that they were a con, that the men were just exploited, and the generally poor products were vastly overpriced.

None of this helped by the fact that they didn’t seem to train the sellers in basic manners and how to make people feel like buying your stuff. These chaps are often quite scary and abusive. I’d like to help prisoners but am not going to deal in cash with a man at my front door who is rude and threatening.

An actual dangerous person had come to kill you? Oh, my!

I had one of these come round once, it was a fairly young man, who flashed some kind of ‘military id’ at me. Basically something about how he earned the money from the products, and he got various perks back for them, i.e. he could earn a bed for the night.

Stupid me didn’t think quick enough, ended up buying some microfibre cloths off him for a vastly inflated 9.99 for three.

Honestly, I think I was just so flustered, and I was on my way back from the bin, if I’ve been at the door, I probably wouldn’t have bought anything.

In the process of putting a barn stable door on the back of the house, so I will only open the top half to people in future. And I will let my very loud dogs run free in the kitchen so they know they are there. Also getting a ring doorbell. Felt cross with myself.