Summertime is almost here and with it comes door to door sales people. While many people have issues with door to door sales people, there are also many who have fond memories of being kids and being able to buy that tootsie roll bank , that first came full of tootsie rolls, or being able to purchase a really cool new book series. Unfortunately sometimes it was just within price range and other times it was nowhere near and on the limited allowance of a child, you can’t buy everything. There were of course also the boring sales people who were selling encyclopedias and such, which you didn’t care about as a kid, but parents usually weeded those out. The point is that while there are some annoying door to door sales people, and there are some people who aren’t really sales people at all, they are the few and far between, and most door to door sales people are very nice people.
If you are worried about sales people being legitimate, you might not have parents to weed them out anymore, but there are a number of ways you can tell while the person is right there trying to sell to you. Knowing that people are worried about this, some companies such as Southwestern Company will send their direct sellers with an identification card. You can also ask to call their company and find out if they are who they say they are, or find out if the company has a website and a way to look the seller up directly. Many of them will. Some companies will have all of that and more, such as a blog that you can read over, like this one by The Southwestern Company and find out what behavior the company promotes.
You can also contact the BBB or look them up on the DSA if you are still unsure. A legitimate salesperson will come back around if you ask them to come back later to give you time to check up on them, or if you ask them to, might wait around so that you know it isn’t them talking on the other end of the number they give you.
No matter what, don’t let the few bad people posing as salesmen to keep you from opening your door to everyone.