At 3:10 pm today. Friday, February 11, a young man knocked on my door. He said good day and said he was giving a six-question survey to neighbors.
He didn’t introduce himself or the organization on whose behalf he was offering the six question survey, and didn’t say what the survey questions were about.
He probably would have told me if I’d asked, but the fact that he referenced a name I was supposed to but didn’t recognize as a neighbor left me not at all in the mood to answer questions.
He showed up at my house too. I was just walking out the door with a friend and three dogs, and there he was at my front steps. One of the dogs reacted loudly to him and I suggested he leave, that I wasn’t interested in anything he might be selling anyway. He got very angry, waved a folded notebook at me and told me he wasn’t selling anything. I said if he was a Jehovas Witness I was also not interested in that. He became angrier and said he wasn’t doing that either and he had a police permit. I told him to move on, that we were just leaving for a dog walk. He backed off but became insulting and kept muttering insults over his shoulder as he slowly walked away. He very slowly walked north on Goodwin Way toward Christina’s house, but kept looking back at me and my friend. I noticed he skipped most of the houses up the block, then turned around and came back down the block toward my house. My friend had gone ahead with two of the dogs and I had the little slowpoke who can’t go far, so rather than encounter the guy again, I walked to a neighbor’s house until he was out of sight. This was a young man probably in his early 20s, stocky, dark skinned, about 5’10 or 11″. I felt he was up to no good.
That description matches the gentleman that came to the door on Friday. He thanked me for being “so positive and so rude at the same time.” I had just put in contact lenses for the first time and my head was aching from the adjustment (and newbie frustration of lens insertion) when he came to the door.
I had a guy supposedly selling magazine subscriptions on our street (11500 block of 20th) a couple days ago. He had no vendors license when I asked. My understanding is that all solicitors are required to have a vendors license. If they don’t and you don’t feel comfortable, call 911 to report a prowler.
You should definetly ask what organization they are representing, I usually ask politely at the very beginning at the conversation. After they have told me what business or organization they represent I decide if that is eomthing I want to talk about, usually not. I then tell them I am not interested. Since they told you where they work, it doesn’t make much sense for them to give me attitude after I tell them to leave.
Any reputible organizations- Democrats, Environmental (Environment Washington), Immigration/Healthcare (WA Citizen Action) or pro-choice (NARAL) they will tell you at the beginning of the script. Obviously “professional” door-to-door canvassers are familiar with being rejected and aren’t doing anything illegal, so they should be pretty professional. If something doesn’t feel right, you should follow your instinct.
Also, I wanted to clerify what Garth said- door-to-door solicitors do not need a special permit or license to go door-to-door and it is protected under the First Amendment as “freedom of speech”. Obviously the business or organization they work for, will have a business license.
I beleave this same man came to my house a while back. I had just moved in to my house on 14th ave, I was unpacking some boxes and the moving truck was on the side of my house. This was back in November. He said was selling magizines. I explained I didn’t have the time, but he still pressured me into giving him information (my name my number my address, I gave all fakes) So he can prove to his boss that he was out working. So maybe he was been learking around the neiborhood for a while?
This sounds like the same guy that stopped by our house a couple weeks ago. I didn’t answer the door so I didn’t see what he looked like, but Yolanda’s description was young w/ darkish hair, and she said that he was less than happy when she pointed out our ‘no solicitation on premises’ sign. He apparently changed his attitude when he noticed she had a shirt on from Northwest Kidney Center and started asking if she could diagnose why his back hurt, but when she said she couldn’t he went back to cranky.
She gave him a card for NKC and sent him muttering on his way down the street, but he didn’t appear to stop at any other houses on our block after being chased off from here (we’re on 17th at 120th).
I’m with Garth though. I thought I’d seen on the news that any peddlers in neighbourhoods were supposed to have photo ID badges visible so that you know they aren’t from one of the groups that does bogus subscription sales. Especially after there were all those problems a few years ago with less than reputable groups driving vanloads of teens/20 yr olds into areas to get as many ‘sales’ as possible before they moved on to the next towns.