Residents show ire with door-to-door salespeople
Staff writer
Door-to-door salespeople were a constant in police reports last week, with several complaints made in Marion and Hillsboro about a number of potential issues.
Incidents ranged from warnings for not having permits to complaints of rudeness by salespeople.
One difficulty with salespeople is trying to determine their level of credibility, even though required permits may have been obtained, Hillsboro police chief Dan Kinning said.
“That doesn’t make it a whole lot better,” he said. “We don’t know if they’re scammers or not. There’s no way of knowing. Maybe we could check them out, but that’s the best we could do.”
Cooperation is difficult because many residents have less time available than they used to, said Rick Branson, a former county resident who still visits his son and grandchildren in Marion.
“A lot of people are just busy nowadays,” he said. “You have a million things going on. There was a day where somebody would knock on your door and you’d have time for them, but we’re all busy.”
Even when children are home, parents often are still working, Branson said.
“A lot of times there are two income households with kids looking after themselves,” he said. “They don’t want people dropping by the house when their kids are home alone.”
David Clark knows he doesn’t want to buy anything from a salesperson.
Still, the Marion resident said it could be an opportunity to share his faith.
“I’m not interested in what they have to sell,” he said. “That’s my main thing. Maybe that would be a good way to witness to them. I never thought about that.”
Increased friction with residents also can be tied to the frequency of spam sales calls, making door-to-door salespeople guilty by association, Branson said.
“I’ve often wondered if the prevalence of telemarketers has shut us down on all kinds of salespeople,” he said. “They can be endless. You can’t block them, or it seems like you can’t. You get on a no-call list and it doesn’t matter.”