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Sewer_Ice wrote:I worked for a marketing company that did door-to-door for Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse, for SEVERAL YEARS!

1.) Worst sales pitch I have ever heard of.
2.) ALL of the time (as was in my case) the people on any call center have NO IDEA what the heck is going on, one person even said that, "we don't do door-to-door." Most of the time these people are third party contractors so OF COURSE they wouldn't know.
3.) RARELY EVER did we have ANY customer information, so he probably wouldn't have known if you had the phone service or not. Keep in mind they give you A LONG LIST of customers (about 100) on a piece of paper (called your "turf") and were lucky to get more than a customer name (if that) on it, and fitting in what services/package/features you have would take an obscene amount of paper for one person to carry around all day. Also, having that information would require CPNI permission (for phone companies per the fcc).
4.) We drive our on cars, no company cars. AT&T gave out some magnets a few times to put on your car, but no one really used them, didn't want to scratch up/fade our cars.
5.) If you want to know if they are legit, look at their badge, if they are third party they will have their company logo on it, mine was 20/20 companies. Look i up on the internet http://www.2020companies.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Their based out of fort worth but I have PERSONALLY worked in Chicago, Chatanooga, NYC, Long Island, Boston, New Hampshire, Connecticut, St. Louis, Fort Lauderdale, and I can go on.

I worked with 2 other companies while I was selling door-to-door, they gave us crappy badges that were printed off on a home printer and laminated, I was surprised anyone thought we were for real, versus 2020 gave us some legit looking badges, with a Verizon VP's phone number on it.

EVERY CABLE COMPANY uses third party door-to-door sales people. Including Sudden-link.

Thanks for the info. He had a badge on it that clearly displayed the Suddenlink logo, but looked printed off and laminated.

Bottom line, I'm still done answering the door for strangers. Don't want their salespitch or give them an opportunity to case the place, no matter what their intent is.

gigag04 wrote:If someone knocks and then kicks in my door it will not be pretty.

I was carrying my pistol, so if things had been gotten ugly I was ready.

C-dub wrote:Well, I haven't done it yet, but I'd bet there's at least one of you that would answer the door with your weapon on your hip unconcealed for all to see.

Wouldn't do this just because I don't want anyone breaking in to steal my guns, either when I'm there or gone.

Though I have answered the door naked for a Mormon one time. They never came by again after that.

roberts wrote:

74novaman wrote: If I don't recognize someone, I'm just going to stop answering the door altogether.

Using an intercom is better than not answering at all. At least they won't think the house is empty and easy target.

Add it to the list of things I'll do when I'm not renting.....

There was a full driveway of cars, so they knew people were home at least.

Would anyone have done anything differently?

Heard a knock on the door yesterday afternoon. Looked through the peephole, saw a 20 somethings man standing there with a clipboard and a little plastic badge on a lanyard. So I open the door and stand in the crack where he can't see into the house. He goes into a spiel about how he's from Suddenlink, and shows me his little badge. I ask what he's here for, and he asks if we're satisfied with our cable. I say we are. Asks if we'd like to add any movie channels. I say no, thanks, we're fine and close the door.

2 hours later leaving for dinner with the missus and see the same young man and an older gentleman driving around the neighborhood in a beat up mid 90s minivan, with no signs identifying they are from suddenlink. hmm. So we call Suddenlink, ask if they have salesmen checking up on customers in our neighborhood, and they say no. Great. Now I'm wondering if the guy was just trying to solicit credit card information (good luck because I don't use them) or if he was casing places to rob later. Give the PD a call and explain the situation to them, describe the guys and the car, etc. They said they'd send a car out, and I didn't hear any more of it. When we got back to the house, everything was fine.

Lessons learned:

If I don't recognize someone, I'm just going to stop answering the door altogether.

Just because someone has an official looking badge with a picture id and the company logo does NOT mean they're legit.

I'm glad I didn't let him see inside, we have a fairly nice new tv that might have looked appealing to come back for.

I SHOULD have mentioned to him we were thinking about dropping our phone line (which we don't have). If he had been legitimately from Suddenlink, he should have known we don't have phone service. That could have tipped me off the guy wasn't legit. Of course, I only thought about that after we saw them again later.

I had thought about going back and getting a License plate number when they weren't in a Suddenlink car. I should have.



Just a heads up to everyone else, whether they were just trying to steal credit card info or were looking for soft targets to rob, be very careful giving out any information to anyone who comes to your door.