When "No Soliciting" means bang on my door...

I have a sign on my front door to let those coming up my driveway to leave me alone. No Soliciting. Pretty straight forward. Big letters. It turns away many, but from time to time someone feels they can out whit me.

Like yesterday. Saturday afternoon, sitting down to start a movie. Bang on the door. I thought it was my neighbor, as I was watching their dog for the day while they have a party. Nope, its some short dude with a vague company name on his shirt. He says he’s there to offer me something for free. eh?

I tell him I don’t need anything. Oh, he’s got a quick response that I must need something. Everyone does. I point to my sign, which has him switch to the next item on his pitch, “Do you know the definition of soliciting?” Amazing, the guy wants to joust with terms so he can justify the interruption to my afternoon. I am of the opinion that if you are on my doorstep & I don’t know you, 99% of the time my money is the object.

To get this guy to leave me alone, I tell him I don’t care what he has to say, he’s on my property & to please leave. He wants to get the last word in, but I get pretty sharp when it comes to this point in any conversation.

Annoying, oh yeah. Maybe I should set up a wireless video camera above the door so I can check who’s there. A friend of mine did this - it pumps the video stream out onto the home network. Extreme, maybe. Extreme would be facial recognition announcing if it someone I know.

After my movie, (the superb Red Cliff parts 1 & 2), my mind wanders to touch on where’s the return on door to door sales. I mean, what is your time worth? How many deals do you need to close per day to make it worthwhile? But as its physical & the dude has to go to the customers, a huge inefficiency. Wouldn’t a weekend be better used to hang with family & use the internet to drive business to you? In this day and age of virtual store fronts & Second Life, why not use it to your advantage?

I just want to be left alone when home. Neighbors knocking to say hi or ask a favor, no big deal. Called being a neighbor. But some sales dude that claims he is offering something for free, read the sign & learn about the Internet.

-Mike M.