Doorstep seller outburst leads to 999 call

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Yesterday I heard someone knock very hard on the front door, went to answer it and was confronted by a salesman holding out a flier for double-glazing and conservatories. “No, sorry. I’m not interested but thank you,” I told him, before he had a chance to start his scripted sales pitch.

We get these unsolicited visitors coming round our street at least once a week. It’s tiresome and annoying. But I was entirely courteous, and so was taken by surprise when he kicked the front door and started effing and blinding. I called 999 and spoke to the police.

I gave them a very good description (the most notable bit of which was ‘orange skin from spending too much time on a sunbed’) and was told that a police car would be sent to patrol the area to see if the man could be caught. I thought, as most would these days, yeah, whatever, we’ll see… But, to the credit of the local police, an officer arrived about fifteen minutes later to tell me the man had been apprehended and cautioned for his behaviour.

I told the policeman that I was primarily concerned for all the old people who live on the street behind our house, where there are lots of bungalows housing mentally and/or physically disabled, as well as elderly, people. If this man had been as verbally vicious and threatening to a more vulnerable person the way he was with me, I could envisage heart attacks at worst or the victims being left severely shaken and probably unwilling to open their doors to anyone ever again. And a lifelong aversion to answering your own front door is much too high a price for anyone to pay for some prick having an off day in a crappy job and taking it out on them. It is the right of any homeowner or tenant to refuse to engage with complete strangers on the doorstep. Even if I had been rude—and I wasn’t—he had no right to act so despicably. He was a thug.

Once upon a time it was pretty standard practice for people to sell all sorts of wares door-to-door. But they were polite. Today’s sellers are geared up to be pushy, rude and get their foot in the hallway by whatever means necessary. When they’re pulled up for bad behaviour, the companies they represent disown them and don’t take any responsibility. It seems to me the only way to stop them in the 21st Century is to ban them altogether along with doing something about cold calling by phone as well.

I handled the situation pretty well but even I was shaking for a while afterwards. I can only imagine what would have happened if my elderly parents were hit with the same hard sell and bad attitude. But I’m certainly not the first person to encounter a nasty salesperson. I’m giving serious thought to my boyfriend’s long-held desire to own a large, scary-looking dog (albeit likely, in our extended family, to be raised a complete softie). My beloved is away on business often, sometimes three or four days a week but usually just a night or two. However long he’s away, I’m on my own most of the time when he’s not around. I think a big scary dog at my side might have made a difference when answering the door. I don’t know. But it would have made a difference to how I felt, that’s for sure.

Bruiser’s a good name for a dog, don’t you think? :-)

categories: rattle bag