Warm weather and mosquitos arrived last night, and right on cue came the solicitors. This one walked past two "No Solicitors" signs, rang the bell at 7:00pm, and despite my best intentions, I opened the door to be greeted by "Look out, black man at your door. Hi, my name is Marcus ****** and I am with something Distributors. Heard of us? We are........"
I had to stop his rambling canned speech and ask what he was selling. Magazine subscriptions.
FACT: 88% of door-to-door magazine subscriptions are fraud, set up to sweep a neighborhood, then disappear with your check, or, for a promise of a discount or speedier delivery, cash.
He tried to tell me how many of the neighbors had bought subscriptions by flipping open a binder filled with papers, then closing it quickly and asking me what magazines I had and which ones I wanted, all while asking about kids at home, what my wife did, etc.
I did not answer one question, but had to tell him twice I was not buying anything.
He finally left when I told him to.
This is a perfect example why we should be allowed to regulate door-to-door activity in The Woodlands. I love when the neighborhood kids come by for school or scouts, but people like last night are a pain, and probably the only thing negative about living in The Woodlands.
FYI, if you have a solicitor who is persistant or will not leave, you can call 911 and report a suspicious person on your property. Police will arrive to investigate.
No solicitors here last night but the mosquitos are out in full force. Walked the dog early this morning and came home with 3 nice bites and it's only March 1st.
We have way too many solicitors. And, as it was mentioned, they come at dusk. They are dropped off and picked up later. It seems they time it just as I am sitting down to dinner. This is one thing I didn't have in SW Houston. It is chaotic......the 3 dogs start to bark, the food gets cold. And, they won't take no for an answer unless I get rude. I hate to do that, even to a solicitor, but, am left with no choice.
I would be afraid to appear too menacing as we never know what their background is and if they would try to retaliate. I got upset with two of them that were teaming together. They were snarly and, obviously, were not fearful of police or anything.
I would like to see a registration process. If you represent a for-profit business, you must register at the Association office, receive a dated tag with photograph to wear on your person, and pay a fee. Going house to house and leaving flyers would be exempt, however if you are knocking on doors and soliciting, the above applies. Plus you must cease by a certain hour of the evening, with no after dark visits. This would take care of the summer/winter dusk differences.
And ignoring "No Solicitors" signs is subject to revocation of future permits.
Some type of registration/verification/fee structure to weed out the bad types, cover the costs to administer, and make solicitors aware of common courtesy needed.
Solicitors and Mosquitos dislike them both (except GS cookies) those are ok. Course, I know who my Girl Scout is in the neighborhood. Bottom line, if I don't know you, there is no need to open my door to you.
swl012659 writes:
I would like to see a registration process. If you represent a for-profit business, you must register at the Association office, receive a dated tag with photograph to wear on your person, and pay a fee. Going house to house and leaving flyers would be exempt, however if you are knocking on doors and soliciting, the above applies. Plus you must cease by a certain hour of the evening, with no after dark visits. This would take care of the summer/winter dusk differences.
And ignoring "No Solicitors" signs is subject to revocation of future permits.
Some type of registration/verification/fee structure to weed out the bad types, cover the costs to administer, and make solicitors aware of common courtesy needed.
I don't know about your neighborhood, but our HOA strictly forbids any solicitation (profit or non-profit) and all distribution of flyers and yet this goes on all the time since there is no way to legally stop such activity.
Although it would be nice to restrict such activity, since I don’t like it either, I am not sure that is possible. First of all how would the HOA make the determination of who could /could not be allowed to solicit its residents? What if the HOA issued a permit and later it was discovered that the solicitor was a fraud or worse a criminal, then could I hold my HOA responsible if I become a victim of a crime and they were registered?
Second, since the HOA has no police authority I bet most solicitors would not pay any attention to this regulation, and any who are from outside the neighborhood would know of such requirement. Additionally solicitation is not illegal so police have no authority to enforce such regulation.
My personal solution is to post a ‘no solicitation’ sign and if anybody comes to my house I do not know I do not answer the door.
Hookem, all good points. Seems like the rules are made to protect the outsider, not the residents.
Just for once I would like the Association to post rules for handling solicitors, and have the local press publish it. Might get the word out to slow the annual spring tide of people going door-to-door.
swl012659 writes:
Hookem, all good points. Seems like the rules are made to protect the outsider, not the residents.
Just for once I would like the Association to post rules for handling solicitors, and have the local press publish it. Might get the word out to slow the annual spring tide of people going door-to-door.
If you could eliminate ONLY one, mosquito or solicitor, which would you choose?
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Course, I know who my Girl Scout is in the neighborhood. Bottom line, if I don't know you, there is no need to open my door to you. 
