AITA for being a dick to a door to door salesman?

r/

Look, I know everyone has to earn a living. But I have two small children who need to nap and two dogs who freak the fuck out when the doorbell rings. Plus my wife and I work shift work, myself overnight. I have a sign that says “no soliciting please” clearly on my front door. Still, these guys consistently ignore it and ring my doorbell. I’ve had my fair share of times where I’ve been pretty unpleasant to them as a result but today I really lost it.

This guy rang my doorbell, setting off the kids and the dogs per usual. I go outside and he immediately starts going into his canned sales shit. I stop him to ask if he saw the sign and he says “yeah but I saw-“ followed by a weak ass excuse. I cut him off and said, so you chose to ignore the sign? And he just kept trying with the sales shit. I told him listen man, I have kids and dogs etc and don’t appreciate it when people ignore the sign. Then he has the audacity to tell me I should put that on a sign and put it on my front door.

I basically told him to fuck off and just went inside. He was clearly surprise how pissed I was, but I’m so tired of these guys.

As a side note, I actually had a sign that explained I had kids napping hanging from my door knocker a while ago, guess what happened to it? It was broken by a salesman using the knocker.

Comments

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    Look, I know everyone has to earn a living. But I have two small children who need to nap and two dogs who freak the fuck out when the doorbell rings. Plus my wife and I work shift work, myself overnight. I have a sign that says “no soliciting please clearly on my front door”. Still, these guys consistently ignore it and ring my doorbell. I’ve had my fair share of times where I’ve been pretty unpleasant to them as a result but today I really lost it.

    This guy rang my doorbell, setting off the kids and the dogs per usual. I go outside and he immediately starts going into his canned sales shit. I stop him to ask if he saw the sign and he says “yeah but I saw-“ followed by a weak ass excuse. I cut him off and said, so you chose to ignore the sign? And he just kept trying with the sales shit. I told him listen man, I have kids and dogs etc and don’t appreciate it when people ignore the sign. Then he has the audacity to tell me I should put that on a sign and put it on my front door.

    I basically told him to fuck off and just went inside. He was clearly surprise how pissed I was, but I’m so tired of these guys.

    As a side note, I actually had a sign that explained I had kids napping hanging from my door knocker a while ago, guess what happened to it? It was broken by a salesman using the knocker.

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    > I was a dick to a door to door salesman and might have overreacted to someone just trying to do their job

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  3. EwwDavvidd Avatar

    NTA. He should have respected your no soliciting sign. Also, his response was ridiculous. A no soliciting sign is enough. You don’t have to explain yourself. You were justified in losing your cool with him.

  4. wondering88888 Avatar

    NTA He saw the sign and chose to ignore it. Bravo for teaching him a lesson.

  5. ProductDependent6186 Avatar

    NTA, seems pretty reasonable, he ignored the sign, you explained why you did not want salesmen. I was expecting there to be aggression, but no, drawing his attention to the sign and telling him to leave.

    Better for him to go quickly anyway.. If you are not going to buy then he might ass well go to the next potential customer.

  6. arseholierthanthou Avatar

    >Look, I know everyone has to earn a living.

    No. You can justify a whole lot of bad things with that line. It’s not an excuse.

    This man’s job is to harass people. He uses psychological manipulation to persuade people to spend money they can’t really spare on things they don’t really want.

    The main problem is that most people don’t react to it as strongly as you do. NTA.

  7. Apprehensive-Toe6933 Avatar

    I think I’m on some danger list bc ever since I gave my trained protection dog the command to, Hold (stand in front of me and bark at danger), and push (walk towards the danger barking pushing it back) we no longer have salesmen. He’s just lucky I didn’t tell the dog to pummel

  8. Direct_Switch_1847 Avatar

    NTA;
    also who would want to read a long as sign on a door.

  9. Healthy-Scallion4387 Avatar

    Get an air horn, open the door and blow it while you point at the sign

    NTA

  10. Shoddy-Potential5727 Avatar

    Nta. Uninstall the fucking doorbell. Problem fucking solved.

  11. Tasty-Slide411 Avatar

    NTA – you had a sign. He ignored it. On your property. Fair enough to be annoyed, he should have expected it

  12. CollarLast6572 Avatar

    NTA. Trespassing in an attempt to sell something should be illegal.

  13. freyaBubba Avatar

    NTA I’ve been dealing with this one guy and his coworkers who keeps coming back. He would ignore the “no soliciting” sign we have on our door and still knock AND ring the bell. A couple months ago I answered and asked if he read the sing and he said. yeah, my bad, and left. He did it other times but we ignored him.

    My husband had a serious operation recently and is recovering. We get tons of deliveries and usually we just ignore the knocking and doorbell by UPS or FedEx, especially since there is major package theft, so we like to grab them quickly. Unfortunately, right now any knock or bell at the door interrupts his sleep, which he really needs as he’s not sleep well from pain. So I finally put a large post-it note on the door that said “do not knock, or ring doorbell (unless requires signature)”. It’s been a huuuuge blessing! Only one UPS driver rang and when I opened the door she was apologizing on the way to the truck. No worries, honest mistake. So the same solicitor guy shows up and knocks and rings the bell. It was a crazy day so I was even more irritated, especially since I heard my husband move about. When I answered the door asked if he read the sign. He said “yeah”. I asked him “why did you ring the bell?” he said “I have a job to do”. So I told him to get another job then and fuck off and if he or anyone from his company came back again, I’d report and trespass them. Apparently he didn’t share the message because someone came by the next day, so I called the nonemergency line and reported them. So frustrating! They just don’t care.

    All that to say, sorry man, you weren’t being a dick, you were responding appropriately. Fuck inconsiderate people.

  14. Ok-Presentation-2068 Avatar

    NTA.

    It is true that everyone has to make a living, but how they conduct themselves while making that living matters. He can be a door-to-door salesman who respects “no soliciting” signs.

    At the same time, you probably should not have engaged with him. A smile and a point to the sign, followed by quietly closing the door is all that was needed. By having an agitated confrontation that your children could likely have heard, you’re modeling behavior that you don’t want them to follow. I’m not accusing you of anything, but when I see angry parents yelling or swearing at others in front of their children, it makes me feel sad for the kids.

  15. Organic-Mix-9422 Avatar

    I had a aign that said shift worker sleeping do not knock in big black letters. Well one knocked. My infuriated husband just off the plane from a week of 12hr night shifts, got up in boxer shorts ripped open the door, threw the folder the guy was holding down the driveway and him to f.off. my husband is big, bearded and tattooed and loud. Problem solved.

  16. kittygirl0117 Avatar

    no they actually frustrate me sm

  17. flecktonesfan Avatar

    NTA. Alternative solutions:

    1. Just close the door while they’re in mid sentence
    2. Disconnect the doorbell.
    3. Replace your sign with one that reads “solicitors will be shot” or some other overly aggressive tone. Buy a starter pistol, and answer the door with it in hand.
  18. White_eagle32rep Avatar

    NTA. He asked for it.

  19. LiJiTC4 Avatar

    My “No Soliciting” sign says that I will sacrifice violators to “the Old Gods, not the New”. I haven’t had many solicitors since I posted that one.

  20. Flimsy-Fortune-6437 Avatar

    Sign saying solicitors will be pepper sprayed. Then aim poorly (so you’ll definitely miss) and fire away. If they still come back aim better

  21. DBW53 Avatar

    I just got a sign from Amazon that says “No soliciting! All violators will be sacrificed to the old gods, not the new!”

  22. lokis_construction Avatar

    New Sign to try: “Knocking on this door (or ringing the doorbell) if you are not a personal friend of mine will be interpreted as a sign of aggression and will be met with force. Either 9MM or 45 caliber (although you will not get a choice)”

    Just try us. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

  23. moonbeammaker Avatar

    NTA. I worked as a door to door salesmen before. They specifically tell you to ignore the no soliciting signs. However, if someone had a sign that said they have kids napping I would not knock. I have gotten many sales from people who have no soliciting signs. It’s your house and is your right to tell him to fuck off.