The Failed Sales Pitch

We were warned by some friends about the vulture salesmen in the neighborhood once you move into your house.

The day DIY almost ruined our marriage, the doorbell rang 4 times. I thought that was impressive since we were only in the house from 10 to 5. We had technically owned our house for over a month before we moved in, so it made me wonder how many people had gone by our house and rang the door bell before someone actually answered it. I kept thinking (after our friends mentioned the doorbell ringing) that because we had waited over a month to move in after the closing date that maybe they would have all given up after almost 5 weeks of no response.

Apparently not.

We had 2 different security system companies, a woman who wanted to build us some custom closet organizers, and a man who wanted to install our blinds and do our landscaping. If you read the disaster DIY post, you can probably guess that we WERE NOT up for friendly visiting and listening to people try and sell us some stuff. Or have time. They are lucky I answered the door at all, frankly.

The second day we were putting up ceiling fans and I left after about an hour and was gone at Costco for 3 hours and then came back for about 2 hours. I was at the house for a total of 3 hours that day and the door bell rang 3 times. It was a landscaping person, a person selling water conditioners/softeners (who we actually called the next week and bought a Puronics water system), and repeat security system person from the day before. He apparently didn't get the message that we were busy and not ready to have a conversation yet.

Brian, who ended up calling later for the water purifying stuff, was great. I came to the door and said hi and he IMMEDIATELY was like "I know that buying a new home is an incredibly busy time, but I wanted to leave you my card. I sell water softeners and conditioners, please call me at your convenience for an estimate and demonstration of our Puronics water system."

Short, sweet, to the point, and not pushy.

Mr. Repeat Security guy needed to take notes.

I answered the door and recognized him from the day before. He apparently did not get the message that we were busy and not ready for sales pitches and conversations when we could barely deal with the problems we had created for ourselves inside. Mr. Oblivious had brought a trainee with him, hoping to intimidate me into hearing his schpeal and letting him in, but if you know me, you know that I don't intimidate easily.

This is how this conversation went.

Natalie: Hi. I remember you from yesterday.

Mr. Oblivious: Yeah, I thought I might have better luck today.

Natalie: You won't. We are still handling some things inside and aren't ready to talk to anyone. Our movers are coming soon and we need to handle as many of the interior projects as possible before the furniture arrives. Please come back in about 2 to 3 weeks. As I stated yesterday.

Mr Oblivious and really stupid who is about to put his foot in his mouth: Can I speak to the decision maker in the house instead?

Really? Like I don't make any decisions. Like my husband makes all my decisions for me. It's more like the other way around. No offense honey. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Natalie while raising eyebrows and pursing lips: That was totally the wrong thing to say to me.

Mr. Oblivious and try to back out of his words while removing his foot from his mouth: What I meant was the person who you make decisions with.

Natalie: Oh honey, it's too late for that. You obviously aren't married or you would know that if the wife don't approve, it don't happen. Don't bother coming back. We are done. Thanks.

I promptly shut the door in his face without a good-bye.

I told Troy what happened immediately and he BUSTED up laughing because he knows. "Happy Wife = Happy Life." Learn dude. Learn.

Can you believe that? I don't know who trained HIM but he certainly shouldn't have had a trainee.

Lesson 1 to all sales people. DO NOT INSULT YOUR INTENDED CLIENTELE. You will not make the sale.

PS. CPS security in Las Vegas...train your people better. That was awful. You would have gotten a call back if you had been polite. We went with the polite retired Air Force guy from ADT. Who came back EXACTLY when we asked him to. Not the next day. Better luck next time.