The Pests ---

My husband and I don't do pressure sales tactics, whether it is door to door or over the phone.  We just find them to be .. well .. pests.  They use tactics that we don't agree with to try to pressure us into a product or service that we may or may not need.  Honestly the moment I see the phone has a number I don't recognize or there is someone at the door I don't recognize, I shut down.  I get annoyed and the more they talk the more annoyed I get.  I've used many tactics to get them to stop talking before I get really annoyed, but sometimes the pests just won't go away!

Example A:  A man knocked on the door.  Strike one against him was that I had been asleep and he knocked on the door that it startled me awake.  I ignore it and he knocked again and again and again until finally I went to the door.  He asks me if I'm the "Mom" of the house.  I tell him I'm not the Mom and before I could finish my sentence (IE he wasn't listening!) he tells me he's going around to speak to all the mother's of my neighborhood to tell them about this ---- and I interrupt him.  I tell him that I am not a mother and I'm not interested in whatever it is he's trying to sell me.  He interrupts me again.  Well, can I speak to YOUR mother?  He got an eye roll at that point and I told him that my mother didn't live with me.  He interrupts me again.  Can I speak to your father?  Sigh --- it was all I could do to contain myself.  First he woke me up, then he wouldn't let me complete my sentences to let him know that I was the adult female of the household and that we did not have any children ---- I finally told him we were not interested and to please leave.  

Example B:  Another man knocked on the door. This was the same day as the first pest. In fact, this was the FOURTH person of the day to knock on my door.  I answer and surprise surprise -- it was a pest control company.  The pest control company that works with our builder on the homes in our subdivision.  To bring you up to speed, the builders of our home have this particular company come in and do the termite inspections and put these tubes inside the walls so that if we choose to use them as our pest control company --- they will put their chemicals into the tubes to eliminate the pests from our home.  On our WALK THROUGH --- not our final walk through, but our first walk through, there was a note on the door to my husband saying for us to contact them.  Well we didn't because we lost our paperwork between the walk through and the move in date.  We got another note from them, but it was addressed to another family.

So the guy shows up at our home.  I answer the door and I'm already irritated because of all the other solicitors that have called and shown up at our door. Plus, he called me by another name than my own.  When I corrected him, he told me that wasn't right ... I think I know my name!  So then he welcomes me to the neighborhood and tells me that he's the rep for our pest control company. He wants to tell me about the services they offer.  He tells me a little bit about the termite and then he starts in on the pest control.  So I am up front and tell him that we already have a pest control company and in fact, we had just had a treatment earlier in the week.  Well, he continues on and on about how wonderful his company is and how terrible it is that we didn't contact them when they sent out the letter.  He makes several ridiculous statements basically insinuating that I'm an idiot about pests, insects and TICKS.  Oh, no he didn't!

Then, I asked him what was their special tick treatment to apply to the yard, trees, pipes, baseboards, etc that they could offer and if it took care of and I listed off the top of my head 4 ticks.  Then I listed off the diseases that ticks could give and that I know all about ticks, tick borne diseases and that unless he was willing to pay off my contact for our other pest control company and pay me money for my time to listen to him ramble --- that he could leave.  His response was that they didn't have a special treatment just for fleas and ticks.  They would put stuff in the pipes in the house and that would take care of everything -- because it wouldn't get in my house. 

It was all I could do to say .. so t hen I'm not allowed to go outside since you won't be spraying special tick treatments on the grass, trees, around the house, etc.  He said, "Well not every tick carries diseases and Lyme is rare around here."  I told him .. well I must be REALLY rare because I have Lyme, Bartonella and Babesia.  I was so annoyed that we've pretty much decided we're going with another termite company even if we have to pay to have another initial spray to be done because that man was a pest!  Oh get this -- when I told him I needed to put up a no solicitation sign .. he said, "but you're my customer, I'm not soliciting."  Oh how I wish I had had a witty come back for him! 


Example C (what to do to get my business) I will say that two weeks ago (about 4 days before the annoying pest man) a couple of ladies were walking around the subdivision.  I went out to meet one of them because I was wanting to find out what their deal was.  They had been in our neighborhood all day.  She was really sweet and I sat down with her to talk.  She was from the Pest Control company we wound up going with. I actually talked with her for over an hour on the porch.  We talked about ticks, tick-borne illnesses and she left with a slew of information about Lyme Disease.  She told me that someone would come out and brush off all the spider webs from the house every visit.  She said that they would spread out this stuff on the grass on the first visit and also spray stuff around the house on the same visit. Then for free, they would come out a week or two later and spray a special flea and tick formula.  Normally the initial visit was rather expensive, but she felt so bad for me that she reduced the cost significantly.

The first guy came and did exactly what she said, but then made note that they wouldn't be back for at least a month.  I was upset about that since we had found 6 ticks in the previous week including 3 ticks the day the guy sprayed.  So I called the company and told them what I was told initially and that if they couldn't keep up their end of my contact then I'd have no choice but to cancel and get a full refund!  Money talks. The lady got me a second appointment and the other guy came today. He was extremely nice and was extremely liberal with the tick and flea spray.    He said it was formulated to kill them both on contact.  If I saw anything between now and my next treatment to call and they'd do another treatment for free. 

So now, we should be bug free -- and flea and tick free.  and -- PEST FREE.  ;)