I was working from home and waiting for a repairman to drop by and give me an estimate. When the doorbell rang, I thought it was him.
I opened the door to find a clean-cut young man with bright eyes and an obvious streak of self-confidence. He was selling solar panels for Infinity Solar USA.
He began his pitch with a lie, and it was downhill from there.
All told, he made three crucial errors a door-to-door seller can make. No, wait, make it four. I forgot the part where he flipped me the bird.
Once again, I must remind all door-to-door solicitors not to knock on my front door. I say this for their own good. Just ask Solar Guy.
Sales scenario
First, let me tell you how it played out.
Solar Guy knocks on my door, and that’s violation No. 1. There’s a big sign that reads “No Solicitors” hanging. In my town, it’s a violation to ignore the sign.
“Did you know,” he starts in, “that your electricity costs are going up three times in the next six, 12 and 18 months?”
“No,” I say. “That’s completely false.”
This sacrificial lamb to The Watchdog is not going to enjoy the next few minutes of his life.
Poor sap does not know that in recent days I’ve talked to both the chief executive and the chairman of the board of my electricity co-op about pricing. They both told me that they expect costs to decrease, not increase.
Darryl Schriver, the CEO and president of Tri-County Electric Cooperative, told me, “We have no master plan to raise your rates. We’re trying to figure out ways to lower rates. Why would I want to raise rates?”
The guy at my door tells me it’s on Tri-County’s website.
I run inside to check the website and quickly find a statement that the co-op’s debt for winter storm Uri “is expected to decrease” not increase. I print a copy for him.
Solar Guy wants to sell me solar panels by scaring me about my electric bill.
That’s violation No. 2. Door-to-door salespeople are often sketchy. The first sentence out of his mouth shows right away he is not credible.
Let me educate him. Armed with printouts, I run back out and find him two doors down.
When I show him the printout, he discounts it, saying, “You just gotta do research on it.” With that streak of self-confidence, he brags, “I know. I have facts.”
At that point, I tell him about my job. I have facts, too.
“You’re following me from door to door,” he complains. “I was hoping for a mature conversation like adults, and you’re following me around and being all weird.”
I ask his name. He won’t tell me. I ask why he isn’t wearing his city-issued identity card. He yanks it out of his back pocket and shows it to me from a distance where I can’t read it. (I later learn his name looking at police records of sales permits taken out by his company. Permits show that 15 Infinity Solar people flooded my town.)
Violation No. 3. You gotta wear the card, pal.
So what do I do that makes him lose it? I give him a nickname. NOS, for no soliciting. I ask NOS if I should email him a copy of this story to NOS at his company website.
He turns and walks away, and while doing so, he flips me the bird over his shoulder, which is more effective than a face-to-face bird flip because the over-the-shoulder move is so dismissive.
On the audio recording of our encounter, you hear me say, “How mature?”
Violation No. 4. The finger thing. Infinity Solar USA CEO Matthew Lay told me in a brief phone interview that meeting customers with challenging ideas is part of the joy of selling. He apologized for the bird thing.
Both Lay and marketing manager Dylan Olson told me the intent is to show that electricity prices will continue to go up and solar can relieve that.
“We’re not a perfect company, but we try to right our wrongs and fix them immediately,” said Olson, who works in the company’s Farmers Branch office.
But he said in this case he believes his salesman was correct. “They’re going to raise their prices,” the marketing manager insisted.
What he apparently doesn’t know is the co-op signed a 2½-year contract with Constellation Energy to buy power at a locked-in price.
Check door-to-door permits
In many Texas towns and cities, door-to-door salespeople are required to register, pay a fee, pose for an ID card and authorize a criminal background check.
In my town, the no soliciting sign by my door must be a certain size with letters at least two-thirds of an inch tall.
I realize it can be difficult to remember the rules when a stranger is at your front door. The Watchdog suggests you not open the door, but if you must, do so with a skeptical eye.
Say, “Just a minute.” Turn on the video in your smart phone and lay the phone nearby. Audio is enough.
In May, the city of Fort Worth warned that crooks posing as city contractors are gaining entry into homes by saying they hit a main water line and contaminated the water. Once inside, they rob them.
A true citizen of Watchdog Nation would call the water company to check. But how many of us would do that?
Last year, I told you about S.W.A.T. Roofing and Contracting of Haslet. They wore jackets that had big SWAT letters on the back. But their SWAT doesn’t stand for Special Weapons and Tactics. For this roofing company, it’s Severe Weather Assessment Team.
When I didn’t open the door, one of the roofers pounded harshly on it the way police would before a raid.
Unlike Infinity Solar USA, S.W.A.T. failed to apply at the police department for solicitors’ permits.
My best advice is don’t open the door. You get a lot of hooey, false promises and bad information. And if you challenge them too harshly, you might get the one-fingered salute.
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