Cold callers at the door

The only ‘cold callers’ I have are religious zealots trying to sell me their particular brand of rubbish. But as I’m quite well known …( in their community) for reasoned out …well delivered, and totally staggering argument for secular humanism , they now give me an extremely wide berth! It’s like my house has the plague!?( no doubt sent by their latest invented god….apparently gods are good at sulkily blighting us infidels! )

Saggi

The only ‘cold callers’ I have are religious zealots trying to sell me their particular brand of rubbish. But as I’m quite well known …( in their community) for reasoned out …well delivered, and totally staggering argument for secular humanism , they now give me an extremely wide berth! It’s like my house has the plague!?( no doubt sent by their latest invented god….apparently gods are good at sulkily blighting us infidels! )

That used to happen quite a lot in an area I lived in previously in the 1970s.

When you dissect it - the idea that you can go around disturbing people in their homes in order to convert them to your own philosophy on life, it's staggeringly presumptuous isn't it!

There you are, preparing dinner, washing your kid's sports gear because he forgot to tell you he needed it tomorrow morning, checking the 'fridge to see if you've got the makings of a sandwich to take to work the next day, rushing upstairs in between to make the bed because you didn't have time to do it before you left for work earlier... and some random individual wants to stand on your doorstep to inform you that you are a sinner but can be redeemed through subscribing to xxx which is all explained in the fistful of leaflets he / she is clutching, often with an accomplice standing by their side, mute, and blinking at your responses.

It's really not on is it?

I do open the door if downstairs after a peep. But then, f, safe area.

But one was a new national firm called the Modern Milkman which delivers a range of milks yoghurts etc and no plastics or tetra packs, milk in glass bottles so very glad I did that time. (you can google it and see if it delivers locally to you). Been great.

On one rare occasion when I opened the door to a cold caller, I pointed out the No Cold Callers sign and got a very unpleasant response that he was dyslexic and I should be more understanding!

Must admit, looking through my peep hole, and saying nothing today. Thank-you. Chap said," but I'm from Amnesty International,", don't care where you're from, from if I choose to donate I will. Cold calling not necessary. Straight talking does the trick.

Jaxjacky

I wish BT/EE would call here, we’re thinking of changing from Sky, I’d be interested in their packages and talking face to face is far more pleasant than on the phone.
For cold callers generally, I look out of the window to get an idea of who they are, it’s nearly always thanks but no thanks.

I made the switch from Sky broadband to BT a couple of years ago after some bad customer service from the former over satellite TV services.

I now have an inexpensive broadband package with BT including landline. The landline is only there for incoming calls. I don't bother with a landline call plan as I make all my calls on my mobile. BT threw in six months of Britbox (now ITVX) as a reward for switching.

Within two days, they came to replace the old copper wire cabling with fibre and delivered a SmartHub2 router which was simple to set up.

Last week's switchover to digital voice could not have been easier. Unplug the phone cable from the wallsocket and plug it into the back of the router.

I accept that some people don't like being bothered by cold callers and there is no excuse for rude behaviour but I do think that BT/EE are providing a genuine service here. I know that friends are paying far more than I am for similar services with other suppliers because they say they don't want the hassle of switching but why pay more than you have to if a company is offering a better service for less money and incentives to switch? It's a competitive business so there are some good deals out there.

I still have the Sky Entertainment package from Now for only £4.99 a month. I have cut my bills for TV and phone by half since leaving Sky but still have access to all the same programming.

BT have a current offer of Now and Netflix for £1 a month for six months rising to £20.00 after that but that's for a 24 month contract. I have the two separately for £12 a month and am not under contract so am free to cancel and restart each as and when.

Sky Entertainment with Netflix through SkyStream is currently £26 a month for an 18 month contract.

Coco51

It can be an offence if you are displaying the sign No Cold Callers and people ignore it.

tradingstandardsblog.co.uk/doorstep-cold-calling-the-law says -
"Door stickers that say things like ‘No Cold Callers’ can be provided to householders. The purpose of these is to empower the householder to simply point at the sticker and say ‘no’ to the cold caller. They do not have any legal standing and a cold caller is not breaking any laws by ignoring the sticker."
and
"It is not illegal to cold call on the doorstep. Councils have absolutely no powers to stop cold callers"
and
"Trading Standards may get involved if there is mis-selling or there is some sort of aggressive practice (i.e. the same business keeps coming back after they have been told to go away).
Of course our involvement would be to protect the consumer from misleading or aggressive sales practices – not to protect them cold calling in general.
I say may rather than will because different Trading Standards have different approaches to dealing with doorstep issues. Some put lots of resources into it and some just tell people to go to the Police because they do not have enough staff to do anything about it."

for most this would be a v low priority, unless there is special funding as part of a cross-agency project perhaps.
trading standards depts struggle to complete their statutory duties as all local govt expenditure has been severely cut.

Granmarderby10

Gosh! Has it really got so bad here ( the UK) that we should be so very suspicious of everyone who comes to our door?

Sure if you physically can’t come to the door then that is that….but…..really?

In some areas, and in some instances - yes. It is that bad.

In my small Cotswolds town we regularly have Nottingham Knockers knocking on people's doors. The local police have advised us to call 101 and report them.

We do, the police arrive, the NNs speed off in the car that is used to bring them into the area - and then a few months later, they're back again.

We have a community group on Facebook and now everyone who spots these NNs reports on FB on the group Noticeboard giving the location and time the NNs were spotted and indicating the direction they're going.

Only once did I unwittingly answer the door to one of them - he was aggressive and rude when I ignored his ID and told him I had no intention of buying anything from him.

"WHICH" has some useful information on Nottingham Knockers. They are scammers - they often 'case' your house and if they think you're vulnerable - or the property might be easy to access, they will often sell that information to criminals.

There have been two instances of a man selling fresh fish from a van - when I told him politely that I'd just been to the supermarket and didn't need anything from him, he turned nasty. So then I did too and told him to go away and not bother me again otherwise I'd report him - I'd already noted the number of his van. Others were pestered by him, too.

So, yes, I am suspicious of people knocking at my door - especially when they want to sell me something. I am obviously elderly, my partner is disabled, and I don't want some random individual looking up the hallway into the conservatory leading into the garden - because I've opened the door. So I don't open to strangers now.

Ring type doorbells are your friend. If you are worried about "missing" something (such as a new and useful delivery service) you can have an entire conversation without opening the door. Or you can satisfy yourself before you open it.

Mine now has 3 settings:-

#1 normal voice
#2 deep male voice
#3 disconcerting robot voice

You can have hours of fun!

biglouis

Ring type doorbells are your friend. If you are worried about "missing" something (such as a new and useful delivery service) you can have an entire conversation without opening the door. Or you can satisfy yourself before you open it.

Mine now has 3 settings:-

#1 normal voice
#2 deep male voice
#3 disconcerting robot voice

You can have hours of fun!

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these.

Setting Number 3 sounds like fun!

Please don’t talk about ‘Gypsy looking character’, especially in this context. If you want to know if a phrase is racist try replacing the Gypsy word with ‘Black’.

There is no longer any need for cold calling, so no one should be doing it.

It is a hark back to a time when we had no other form of communication but the post and even the idea of the printed flyer was way beyond anyone's budget.

Nowadays there are so many other ways to reach people, even just the aforesaid flyer through the letterbox. I wanted a tradesman recently and just put a request on the village Facebook page and got recommendations from other people for tradesmen they ahd used and been pleased with.

We often get cold callers, some quite aggressive. I am unfortunately not a patient person. I just cough deeply a couple of times while informing them: 'You must forgive me, I have Covid'. They soon scarper...

Like it,Suzi - 😂

I used to have Jehovah’s Witnesses frequently, always on a Thursday morning. I would smile and before they said anything I’d say “I don’t think I’m going to be interested thank you” and they’d thank me for opening the door and leave. I don’t think any have called since the beginning of Covid. As a general tactic, speaking first puts you in the driving seat.

They paused calling while CoVid was on, but I heard that they will return to it soon. They sent letters to the people on their "round" instead.

I've a relative who is a witness. They do appreciate a firm but polite "No thank you" instead of a mouthful of abuse for just doing what Jesus said his followers should do - spread the good news and the chance of everlasting life to their neighbours.

We have a Jehovah's Witness temple/church in our village. I understand that a condition of consent for it was that village residents would nt be visited more than once a year.

I find Jehovah's Witnesses, considerate and kind. I simply tell them that I am a catholic and we exchange a few remarks and off they go on their way. DH, who is not a catholic uses the slightly misleading phrase 'We are a catholic family' for the same effect.

All the ones I have met have been very pleasant people. I keep off the subject of religion, My relative's lot don't call it a temple or church. it is just a meeting place. The sign outside says "Kingdom Hall" On Sundays they have meetings, not services.

During CoVid they had Zoom meetings instead, and everyone got lessons in how to use their I-pads and tablets to join in them (had to buy them themselves, though, if they wanted to join in the meetings). They are all supposed to have a hospital bag packed, in case it is needed (as we all should, so we are not scrabbling around in an emergency for our toothbrush and pills). Along with the nightclothes, slippers etc, they have a card that says that they don't want to have blood tranfusions, or receive any blood products.