Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The Good and Bad of Door-to-Door Solicitors
When we first moved into our home, I noted that one of my least favorite things about living in a house (as compared to an access-controlled apartment building) was the ability for solicitors and other strangers to knock on our door. To be fair, this hasn’t happened with too much frequency — and there is a range of just how obnoxious they are. Well, recently, we had two very different experiences with salespeople knocking on our door, with one resulting in my very first service sign-up from a solicitor… and the other leaving a bad, annoyed taste in my mouth. Here’s what happened.
A Tale of Two Salesmen: My Recent Experiences as a Homeowner
The Wrong Way to Solicit (Or Why Your Cringe Tactics Won’t Work on Me)
One day, in the evening, I heard a knock on the door followed by the doorbell. This pattern is almost always a soliciter, as those delivering packages usually do one or the other (or nothing at all, really). Immediately, I sigh and head downstairs.
When I answer, I’m greeted by a guy wearing a construction vest and riding a “hoverboard.” He then tells me that he’s from “the trash company,” that they’re starting a new route, that all of my neighbors are signing up, and that they’re going to save me money. Before I can even really speak, he’s already getting his iPad ready as if this were a foregone conclusion.
I should back up and explain that, in Springfield, there is no city-run trash or recycling. Instead, there are a variety of privately-owned companies of varying sizes that service the metro area. Ours is a locally-based service that we’ve used since we moved here. In that time, we haven’t had any issues or missed pick-ups.
Back to the sales guy, this is where I started to ask questions. In response, he pulls a contract from someone nearby to show me how easy it is to sign up. This was also the first time I saw what company he actually worked for.
Ultimately, even though the price he was offering was lower than we pay now (a few dollars a month), I declined the offer. He then asked if I liked saving money, to which I told him, “Nah, I hate it.” Yeah, I was done with this guy.
Unfortunately for the company in question, this salesman’s smarmy tactic made me less likely to trust them. Immediately, I figured there was probably a catch — such as the price increasing after a promotional period — that I didn’t want to be surprised by. Looking back, even though I do see that some of my neighbors made the switch, I’m happy to have stuck with our current company, who I know do a good job rather than take a risk.
A Solicitation I Took Them Up On
Cut to last week when the same knock-then-ring pattern sends me back down the stairs and to the door. Funny enough, this pitch started off similarly, with the salesman saying that they were already servicing some of my neighbors. But rather than trash service, this time, they were offering pest control.
Luckily for him, I had already been thinking about pest control for some time. We haven’t had any major issues, but I have wondered if we should have regular service — and how much something like that would cost. Thus, this it at least seemed like an opportunity to get an answer to that latter question.
After taking a look around the exterior, he broke down how the service worked. Basically, I’d pay a one-time upfront fee followed by a monthly amount for quarterly service. Moreover, if we have issues in between those set visits, they’d come out for free and take care of it. Looking at the paperwork, the only slight catch I noticed was that, if we didn’t cancel in writing 30 days before our renewal, it would renew automatically. That’s kind of annoying, but I made a note of it in case we do want to cancel. Hopefully, though, things will go well.
As you can probably tell, I did take him up on the offer. In turn, just two days later, the technician showed up to perform our first service. Now, seeing as it’s only been a few days, it’s hard to say whether things are going well… but the guy was nice and seemed to do a good job.
If there was anything I did wrong in this episode, though, I probably should have looked up the company before signing. The good news here is that, once I did (immediately after he left), I found that they had thousands of positive reviews and an average of 4.9 stars on Google. Phew.
All in all, I’m happy with how this all went down, as it helped me check something off my list without having to seek out a solution. Might I be paying more than I should? It’s possible — but I’m paying an amount I’m happy with. So, maybe door-to-door sales aren’t all that bad after all.
In the two and a half years that we’ve lived in our house, we’ve had dozens of people show up at our door unexpectedly. Sometimes it’s to have a petition signed, sometimes it’s to invite us to church, and sometimes it’s to sell us something. Of the three, the last category is probably my least favorite — with the first interaction I described explaining why I tend to get a sinking feeling when I open the door to salesmen. Yet, as it turns out, there can be upsides to solicitors, provided that they’re 1) honest and 2) offering something you need.
With that, perhaps the next time I hear that signature knock/ring combo, I won’t dread answering quite as much.
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