Say No to Door knockers!

Win­ter gen­er­al­ly means home own­ers get a reprieve from the bar­rage of Door to Door marketer’s aka Door knock­ers, that inter­rupt evenings with offers to replace Hot Water Tanks, sell cheap­er ener­gy or pro­vide Free Alarm Sys­tems.

So should you buy from some­body that knocks on your door at dusk…unannounced?  The answer of course is NO!  Be aware that the Door knock­ers are per­sis­tent and insis­tent. They are a force to be reck­oned with. The per­fect can­di­date for a door knock­er is a home­own­er that is trust­ing of strangers and will­ing to let them in the door.  They are trained to keep push­ing until you say no at least 9 times! And while they are busier in the sum­mer months, even in win­ter you can find them in neigh­bor­hoods all across the GTA.

Some are not sales­peo­ple at all. They’re just imper­son­ators try­ing to find out about any exist­ing alarm sys­tem you have. They may ask to come inside to inspect your home. What they’re real­ly doing is cas­ing it for a pos­si­ble bur­glary.

Here are some tips from the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau regard­ing Door­knock­ers.

1. Don’t let a stranger in your home. No mat­ter how per­sis­tent or nice they may seem, don’t let the sales­per­son through the door. Thieves are known to pose as sales­men to case a house they may be plan­ning to bur­glar­ize.  You can nev­er be sure who this per­son is, and whether they are even rep­re­sent­ing a com­pa­ny.

2. Ask the sales­per­son for writ­ten mate­r­i­al about the com­pa­ny and let him or her know you are going research the com­pa­ny before mak­ing a pur­chase. Check the company’s BBB Busi­ness Review at www.bbb.org. and do a google search about com­plaints and ser­vice his­to­ry.

3. Nev­er show or give a copy of your alarm con­tract, state­ment, or ener­gy bill to a door­knock­er.

4. If you decide to make a pur­chase, (which we high­ly dis­cour­age) ask for a dat­ed can­cel­la­tion form and a dat­ed receipt. Note: The Con­sumer Act In Ontario allows for a “Cool­ing-Off” peri­od.  The law gives buy­ers a 10-busi­ness-day peri­od to can­cel a pur­chase.

Home PROTECTION PLUS ® does not rec­om­mend let­ting any door to door solic­i­tor into you’re your home. Be wary of open­ing the door to strangers, and teach your chil­dren about when it is safe to open doors.  If you are inter­est­ed in a new ser­vice we rec­om­mend you research com­pa­nies first and then con­tact the cho­sen com­pa­nies to sched­ule an appoint­ment for a pro­fes­sion­al to vis­it your home.

Remem­ber the gold­en rule. “If it sounds too good to be true…it prob­a­bly is”. Do not be pres­sured into sign­ing any con­tracts etc with the promise of great sav­ings. If the offer­ing is legit­i­mate, it will still be avail­able AFTER you have time to think about it and inves­ti­gate.

Exer­cise great cau­tion at all times.