Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Gem_Seb]

Had a knock on the door at half 8 this evening, a guy stood there in a red bib thing (the ones the sales people wear) he said hi, im only licenced to speak to people over 26 are you of that age. i said not quite.. (i am 26) he then asked if there was anyone else in over that age so i just said OH was asleep and couldnt come to the door. with that he just said ok and went,,,, he went in our next door neighbours but not the house after,.. i couldnt read where he was from on his bib as it was dark... anyone else had experience of this? the age thing seems a bit weird to me....

[Valkyrie]

How odd. We get calls late sometimes - I either ignore them or OH will answer the door and say no thanks we don't deal with cold callers. It's dark though - hope you remembered your chain.

[chick wiggle]

I just wish i could get away with telling them i wasnt quite 26!

I used to say my mum and dad were out, (i was married and it was our house) couldnt get away with that now either!

Maybe I could say 'sorry my nurse has just popped out'

[Gem_Seb]

haha he did look at me a bit oddly but he couldnt really say anything else!!

 

Seems a bit of a silly opening line really, loads of people probably just turn around and say no they arent then its a dead end!!

[Chucky Mama]

26 sounds a bit random. I haven't heard of that one before.

[Gem_Seb]

No stupidly i never used the chain as we have a porch the porch sliding door has no chain.... really i should have just ignored it but we never get cold callers here, we live on a green so they usually just tend to go straight across the road at the top and not come down here, i just assumed it was our neighbours as they are always knocking our door!

 

if it was 18 or 21 i wouldnt have thought anything of it, but 26 seems a very random age! guess it may have been a marketing questionnaire or something for a certain age group...

[Cinnamon]

I would have contacted my neighbourhood watch chap,myself

[Gem_Seb]

Dont think we have one around here...

[Geoid]

Sorry, the butler is away for the weekend. He deals with all this.

[Seagazer]

We've just had a Mori poll person come around who was after a specific age range so perhaps it might have been something like that?

[PurpleTree]

That does seem a bit odd, you'd think he'd introduce himself and have ID somewhere prominent, and then ask if you were over 26. I've had someone ask if my parents were home on the phone before now.

[keyhole kate]

I just wish i could get away with telling them i wasnt quite 26!

I used to say my mum and dad were out, (i was married and it was our house) couldnt get away with that now either!

Maybe I could say 'sorry my nurse has just popped out'

 

Ha ha ha I got married just before I was 17 and used to get this all the time I am now with Chick Wiggle

[Busybird]

I tend to dress a bit scruffy / comfy as I am generally home a lot of the day and don't see many people. I have had cold callers ask if the lady of the house is home I generally just say no but when I have admitted that I am that person they have looked embarrased and told me they assumed I was the cleaner or the nanny Actually, as I am both I guess they were right

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

The timing on a dark night sounds a bit iffy, as well as the over 26 thing. Cold callers will often be trained to ask a left-field question to gain control of the conversation. It may have been that or he may have been trying to fill the demographic type needed for a particular survey. Either way it was a bit late!

 

Do you know your neighbours? Could you ask the ones whose house he went into? Might be worth it, even if you don't know them - that way you could get to know them a tiny bit!

 

In a past life doing cold calling, we'd only ever call up to 8pm because after that it was seen as anti-social. There may even have been some direct marketing best practice rules about it. Actually, I think they went up to 9pm. But on the phone, the caller feels safe, on a doorstep, less so.

 

If you can find out where he was from, you could either notify the police, or the organisation he was from so the company could revise their cold-calling times policy which would help them not annoy people or cause anxiety in future.

 

And how about setting up a neighbourhood watch?

[Patricia W]

I've had 2 door step callers from power companies in the last 2 weeks - but neither asked my age- mind you, I got rid of them in about 10 secs so that may have been the next question they never got a chance to ask!

 

Tricia

[Lesley]

I just wish i could get away with telling them i wasnt quite 26!

I used to say my mum and dad were out, (i was married and it was our house) couldnt get away with that now either!

Maybe I could say 'sorry my nurse has just popped out'

 

Ha ha ha I got married just before I was 17 and used to get this all the time I am now with Chick Wiggle

 

Same here - luckily, we don't get cold callers here......can't think why they don't want to walk up a long, unlit, drive, past old outbuildings to a house with no lights showing

[chickenanne]

I'd guess he was looking for people in a certain age range/demographic: like 26 to 40 or whatever, hence the strange opening question. I8.30pm for the age range is not so very late, but it always seems more likely to be dodgey at this time of year when is dark outside.

Personally I hate being "sold to" wether over the phone or in shops.