How do you deal with solicitors?

[madelise]

Question: why do you guys care if they think you're weird for not answering? I never give a sh*t about anyone that I don't care to talk to. I beeline by those mall cart salespeople and ignore them when they try to put things in my hands. I will let flyers and promotional products fall to the floor. They're strangers to me, and if they get offended by my lack of response, I'm offended by their pushiness and lack of respect for my wanting privacy/my own space.

 

[blingbunny10]

Question: why do you guys care if they think you're weird for not answering? I never give a sh*t about anyone that I don't care to talk to. I beeline by those mall cart salespeople and ignore them when they try to put things in my hands. I will let flyers and promotional products fall to the floor. They're strangers to me, and if they get offended by my lack of response, I'm offended by their pushiness and lack of respect for my wanting privacy/my own space.

I don't care about random strangers' opinions of me, but I don't want to potentially snub neighbors or other legitimate visitors. I live in a pretty trusting neighborhood, so I don't want to be the new weirdo couple! I'm like you when people try to get my signature or hand me a flyer on the street, I don't acknowledge their existence. My mom thinks I'm crazy, of course, but she's from a different time.

Based on everyone's comments, I think I will try the no soliciting sign in combination with a video doorbell. Thanks for everyone's comments! I think ignoring is another good option when my husband is home, but my fear when I'm alone is that intruders often ring the doorbell and then break in if nobody answers, because they assume the house is empty.

 

[Karl_K]

The electric and gas creeps are the worst. They have some really creepy people.
What they do is hire an outside company who brings people in from other towns.
I have caught them out back by the garages and called the cops
.
We have a sign up so I ask them to see their permit and call the non-emergency police number and report them.
They usually don't come out because they are busy but twice they have and ticketed 3 people so far.
Both companies now avoid our area and it has cut back on it a lot.
Its a $100 fine and a mandatory court appearance.
There is also a fine for the company but I don't know how much.
Do not call 911 unless you feel threatened or they are doing something other than knocking on doors, use the non-emergency number for your local department to not take resources away from emergencies.

As far as calls go we do not answer the home phone, the answering machine gets it and if its important I call back or pick up if I happen to be in the room and hear it.

 

[ame]

I am looking at getting a RING doorbell. We're having a bit of a ...spirited discussion about this right now. DH doesn't get the point of having such a thing, he really doesn't get the point of any sort of security systems at all. It's infuriating. But several of my neighbors have one, and they've proven very beneficial with the craziness happening around our neighborhood of late.

Anyway...

We do have a sign posted, a large one, at that. It basically says "We don't answer for unexpected guests. NO SOLICITING OF ANY KIND: We're not interested!

 

[cflutist]

I walk by the front doors, make eye contact with them through the triple glazed cut glass, then walk away.

Our city does not allow soliciting door to door, but people do it anyway.

They annoy me.

 

[mary poppins]

For unwanted phone calls, we signed up with nomorobo.com years ago and that has effectively gotten rid of solicitations and cold callers. As an example, we live in an election battleground state and nomorobo has eliminated all campaigning calls during the time we've had it. Love, love, love this technology and definitely recommend it!

For the front door, our doorbell rings to our home phone so we can just talk to someone on our front porch through the intercom outside. The doorbell phone ring is different than a phone call phone ring so it's easy to distinguish. I always answer the doorbell phone ring so the person at the door knows someone is home. I don't want someone to get the impression nobody is home and think our house is prime for crime. If someone knocks on the door instead of ringing the doorbell, I usually go downstairs, look out the door and make a determination based on who is standing there. Open if it's a neighbor or make "no" head and hand signals if I'm not going to open the door for someone else.