Do "No soliciting" signs work?

[flybye023]

We get a lot of door-to-door people at our house. It's gotten to where we get 3-5 a week. I want to put up a "no soliciting" sign but I read on another forum that many d-t-d marketer train their employees that such a sign simply means that the homeowner has trouble saying no. Is this true?

I realize that the sign won't get rid of all soliciting, but I'm hoping it will at least cut down. I have no problem saying "no" I'm just tired of repeating myself.

What are your experiences?

[pitmonkey]

They mean nothing. Just like the no trespassing signs mean nothing. The path to your door is for access.:(

[fireheart]

One of my best friends has a sign on her door stating something like this:

"If you are asking about Religion, we have already found it."
"If you are selling things, we are already happy with our lives."
"If you are surveying us, our opinions don't matter."
"If you are with a political party, we vote the other way."

"So please don't bother knocking, because those are the responses you will get."

Technically it's partially right-my friend was raised Catholic, they're fairly isolated so they don't need the door-to-door stuff, surveying is fairly rare and politicians-ditto.

[crazylegs]

Current crime prevention advice from the UK.

Don't bother with chains on the door, fit a spyhole instead. You DO NOT have to open the door to anyone who is peddling their wares (be they material, religious or political), so don't. These people are usually pretty obvious by the simple fact you don't recognise them and those you do need to open the door to will normally be in a recognisable uniform.

Hope that helps :)

[draggar]

I'll second the spyhole / peep hole.

Also, is the same company? All you need to do is tell the person ONCE that you do not want to be contacted by their company. Any further attempts could be considered harassment.

We had an issue with some people trying to recruit us to their church. We tried being polite and it didn't work. Finally we told them that they were harassing us and next time they knocked on our door we'd call the police.

They tried to throw the "freedom of religion" right in our faces with that and we just told them that the freedom goes both ways.

[TelephoneAngel]

I had a great one with the religious people this morning, opened the door to find a very little boy and presumably his mother, mother was at the gate saying to him, "don't be shy, go on", little boy said to me "leaflet for lady", then turned and ran back to mother, both were giggling.I said thank you and had to laugh as I shut the door.

Non intrusive to me, and acheived what they wanted and without any irritation.

[protege]

At one of my last jobs, there were "no soliciting" signs all over the place. All of which were merrily ignored. The only thing that did work...was to send the idiots down to the building owner's office (400, IIRC). He'd listen to their little spiel, and then promptly toss them from the building...with a stern warning that if they returned, he'd have them arrested for trespassing.

[Sunsetsky]

My mom once told me that when my parents first got married they lived in an apartment complex and one of their neighbors there had a sign that read:

Every third solicitor will be shot.
The second one just left.

I wonder if their neighbor had any issues after putting that sign up. I've only had one issue with a solicitor here. After that incident I learned that they're not supposed to be on apartment property. Explains why I never really have issues with them. :D But once I get a house I can see myself getting a sign to hangup on the door.

[BookstoreEscapee]

They tried to throw the "freedom of religion" right in our faces with that and we just told them that the freedom goes both ways.

Also, freedom of religion refers to government interference.

Also, private property.

Maybe it's just that New Jersey doesn't have as high a concentration of Evangelicals as other areas, but I can remember only once when I had people selling religion at my door. I think they were Jehova's Witnesses, I told them I already had a church (technically true, even if I had stopped going by then; I hadn't been removed from the member's list yet ;)), they said OK, and moved on.

[taxguykarl]

And now back to the OP:

For the most part: NO!!!!...I had a job d2d selling and those signs were warnings of an easy mark. Try a 'Day Sleeper' sign.

[MadMike]

I haven't had that many people come to the door that I felt the need to put up a sign. But if I ever did, and they chose to ignore it, I wouldn't say a word. I'd just point to the sign and close the door on them.

Also, freedom of religion refers to government interference.

Also, private property.


Exactly. Their right to free speech ends at my front door.

[Eric the Grey]

One of my best friends has a sign on her door stating something like this:

"If you are asking about Religion, we have already found it."
"If you are selling things, we are already happy with our lives."
"If you are surveying us, our opinions don't matter."
"If you are with a political party, we vote the other way."

"So please don't bother knocking, because those are the responses you will get."


Oooohh, I like this. :devil:

And now back to the OP:

For the most part: NO!!!!...I had a job d2d selling and those signs were warnings of an easy mark. Try a 'Day Sleeper' sign.


I think we got less people knocking on our door after we put one up at the old place. It could also have been my yelling at them when they did, because they invariably woke me up while I was sleeping for my night shift.

The ones that always got to me were the fuckers from the meat company that came by every other month and always insisted that "We're not selling anything..." The last one that showed up at my door got me staring at him deadpan while I "dialed" my cellphone and called the police to report him for trespassing. He left pretty quickly but we moved before I had a chance to see if it was going to be a permanent retreat.

Honestly, I should have gone ahead and called for real. They had been warned time and again to keep away, but I needed more sleep for that night, and nobody else was home to talk to the cops.



:cool: Eric the Grey

[Kiwi]

My "friend" is an award winning door to door sales person, she literally comes top in her company quater after quater.
She has told me that "no soliciting signs" usually mean the people in the house have are actually more likely to be conned...err...convinced about buying something so she targets those houses more. She always pretends not to see the sign.

She said the best way to get rid of her is to just not answer. She can argue the hind leg of a donkey so even if you open the door to tell her to go away she takes that more as a challenge and will not let up. She can't argue to no one. Just don't answer the door.

[crazyofficeclerk]

I used to have one on my door that said "Do Not Disturb. Insominac trying to sleep." It worked fairly decently. Matter of fact I had friends that were standing on my porch one night for about 10 minutes trying to figure out if they should knock or not.

[draggar]

She said the best way to get rid of her is to just not answer. She can argue the hind leg of a donkey so even if you open the door to tell her to go away she takes that more as a challenge and will not let up. She can't argue to no one. Just don't answer the door.

And if I tell her to get off of my property and she refuses - that's criminal trespassing. :)

[blas]

I'm contemplating a sign that says "Night shift worker with a gun".....it'd be pretty hard to ignore that one.

Wonder how long before I'd have to take that sign down.

[Gravekeeper]

Its pretty easy to stop them. Especially religious ones.

Just show up at the door with no pants or no shirt on and listen really intently to every word they say and keep asking them questions if they try to excuse themselves. If you feel particularly cruel, take your shirt off and grab some suntan lotion or something and absently lotion up your chest really slowly while they talk.

They won't come back after a round or two of that. Trust me. -.-

[flybye023]

Well, I might try again to convince my parents to get a peephole. My mom says we don't need one because we've got a small window next to the door. I have 2 problems with this window though. 1) It's really faceted so all you can tell is that someone's there, not who it is; and 2) The person on the other side can also tell that there's someone (me) standing at the door.

As for the religious folk, well, we belong to that church so it's even harder to get rid of them and rude to ignore them:o.

I can't just not answer the door because sometimes its the postman or the UPS guy (my dad orders a lot of stuff online), other times it's someone from church bringing something to one of us and I feel bad later when they come back 'cause then I've made them make 2 trips to our house.

Most of the people coming seem to be from window replacement companies. It doesn't seem to be the same one though--there's like, 3 or 4 of them. I usually can get them to go away fairly quickly simply by telling them that I'm not the homeowner (which is true), that I don't know when/how they can get hold of the homeowners (since technically I don't know "to the minute" when my parents will get home :devil:, I just don't tell them that), and just generally play dumb. I'm just frustrated at the sheer number of them.

[Eric the Grey]

I'm contemplating a sign that says "Night shift worker with a gun".....it'd be pretty hard to ignore that one.

Wonder how long before I'd have to take that sign down.

A friend of mine simply has a sign of a gun, and the words "We don't dial 911" on it.

Believe me, he wouldn't. . .



:cool: Eric the Grey

[protege]

Exactly. Their right to free speech ends at my front door.

If I get that line, I should tell people that as soon as they're on my property...they're in the little-known paradise called "Protoria" which happens to be a dictatorship :p

[Caveat Emptor]

A friend of mine simply has a sign of a gun, and the words "We don't dial 911" on it.

Believe me, he wouldn't. . .



:cool: Eric the Grey

Reminds me of an episode of American Pickers. They got a lead for a man that had several buildings on his property filled with old stuff, but the fence in front of his property was covered with signs that said "STAY AWAY" in several forms, most of it not printable here. He had that "I don't dial 911" on his front door.

[Bloodsoul]

I can still recall the sign outside of Taz's home on Taz-mania:

"Solicitors will be eaten."

[ApolloSZ]

I have a sign for burglars, I might tape 'Solicitors' over it.

Warning Mr Burglar.
If the Dog doesnt
eat you alive,
your ass is mine.

:angel:

Whats funnier, is the closest to a dog in my flat is the mischevious tabby my flatmate has.

[Barracuda]

Personally, I like the sign that says, "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot repeatedly." Or, you could always muss your hair before answering the door and with a crazed look on your face ask the person if they too would like to know the love of the Church of Cthulhu.....

[Damien]

I was visiting a friend of mine, when through the frony windows, we saw the door-to-door people coming up his drive - so we each got a pair of boxer shorts, put them on our heads (we were fully clothed), made some strange faces...

we answered the door yelling 'ALL HAIL THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER... have a nice day'

and slammed the door shut.

The door to door person walked away laughing.

[Sunsetsky]

Personally, I like the sign that says, "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot repeatedly." Or, you could always muss your hair before answering the door and with a crazed look on your face ask the person if they too would like to know the love of the Church of Cthulhu.....

That is brilliant! I should suggest that to my fiance. I think he would love sharing the great word and love of the great Cthulhu.