Is door to door selling suddenly popular again?

[thatgirl]

I have gone many a years without hearing or seeing a door to door salesperson.
In the last 6 months we have had:
--A furniture company
--Meat/ Poultry
--Poultry/fish
--Patio furniture
--Lawn company
--mobile car detailing

All come to the door with a team ready to sell and deliver on the spot. These companies have 18 wheel tractor trailers filled with furniture and they carry off the truck and set it up in your home.

The meat companies come with freezer trucks.

There are no orders no waiting they have/do whatever on the spot.

I always hear, "in a van down by the river" in the back of my mind.

Anyone have any experiences they would like to share? I am always leery of these people.... :-|

[Deleted]

The only people we get door to door around here is home improvement companies. Though since we replaced all our window/doors/siding we haven't gotten many of those lately!

[thatgirl]

Oct 16, 2012 14:19:46 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

The only people we get door to door around here is home improvement companies. Though since we replaced all our window/doors/siding we haven't gotten many of those lately!

Are they showing up with a truck and a team to do the work on the spot or just looking for potential clients?

[Deleted]

No, they don't have a truck/team. Just trying to find potential clients. Usually the pitch is that they were in the area giving a free estimate to a neighbor and they thought we might be interested in one too.

[Deleted]

We have those people selling meat come to our house. They came once when DH was home and sold him some kind of line about how they deliver to a restaurant, but the restaurant cancelled their order, so they have all this beef in the back of their truck and he will cut DH a sweet deal, he can have it all for $179, with a check made out to him. Blah Blah. The guy told DH to leave the "pay to" on the check blank so he could write his own name in.

DH gave in and I was enraged.

[flygirl22]

We have gotten a meat guy coming door to door twice in the past few months. I find it completely bizzare. He just drives a regular pick up, where is the MEAT!?

We have also had a person selling cleaning suppliers, and carpet cleaners (a few times).

Yes, actually they have seemed to increase over the past few months.

[thatgirl]

Oct 16, 2012 14:27:03 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

No, they don't have a truck/team. Just trying to find potential clients. Usually the pitch is that they were in the area giving a free estimate to a neighbor and they thought we might be interested in one too.

THIS I am ok with and we get at least once a week from some service or another.
BUT I am CREEPED out the guys inviting me in to a tractor trailer to look at 'factory direct' patio furniture!!
I could be missing out on the deals of the century. LOL

[Deleted]

Oct 16, 2012 14:55:44 GMT -5 flygirl22 said:

We have gotten a meat guy coming door to door twice in the past few months. I find it completely bizzare. He just drives a regular pick up, where is the MEAT!?

YES. Who are these people!?! I gave all the beef away because I wasn't sure where in the hell it came from. Seriously, only I could be married to someone gullible enough to buy shrink wrapped meat from the back of a pick-up.

[whitemerlot]

We don't have anyone selling things like meat, but our doorbell rings daily. It's usually cable companies, fundraising, home improvement companies, or Jehovah's Witnesses who ask for my husband for some reason. I really need a sign on the door because I have a dog that barks and wakes my kids up.

I would not want to buy anything from a random truck. That seems so strange!

[suburbanzookeeper]

We get 2-3 a week but we lived in a planned community with just under 2000 homes, so it's easy for the door-to-door guys to walk. Lately it's been a large number of people selling solar or looking for people to lease panels to. I normally just point up to the roof (we already have them) and shut the door quickly, otherwise they want to chat about how happy we are or if we'll refer our friends.

[Pom]

Saturday night there was a semi that pulled up to our house selling furniture. H asked me if I wanted to look...my first thought was ummm, no. Probably hot stuff. Apparently the neighbors bought stuff, we saw it being unloaded. My neighbors who are also close friends said the items were kind of expensive for being "straight off the truck". I thought it was totally weird.

[SKP82]

This is one of the reasons I like living in a gated community!

[penguingrrl]

I've never seen a door-to-door salesperson in my life! Honestly if someone came to my door selling something I would assume that it was stolen goods and that's on the off chance I even opened the door.

[thatgirl]

Oct 16, 2012 18:38:32 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I've never seen a door-to-door salesperson in my life! Honestly if someone came to my door selling something I would assume that it was stolen goods and that's on the off chance I even opened the door.

Ha I never thought of stolen goods! The rigs and trucks all have company names of the business on the side, BUT that does not really mean anything.
Most actually leave business cards and coupons to their store/website.

I have to admit I would LOVE to see the look on DH face when he walked in to a room full of new furniture that I bought off the back of a truck. I do not know if he would believe me!