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Have you seen the weird Palmolive guy?
I live on Chimborazo Blvd and today I had a young male come to my door, dressed in black pants, a blue collar shirt and black tie, with a bottle of Palmolive. No business card on him, no name tag, no brief case, no car, nothing. He said “We are celebrating our 50th anniversary” and he wanted to test clean my carpets- “for free!”- with Palmolive. I said we did not have carpets, in which his reply was “Well I can do the hardwoods, too!” He then gave me a line of how it wont cost me any money, but he would like for me to then fill out a commentary form on the process (I guess?) in which his company would pay him $50, if I just allowed him to do this. I said no, handed the Palmolive back, and he got a bit more assertive. I said no again firmly and shut the door.
Anyone else have this man come to their door? I did not see him go to any of my neighbors, but maybe I missed it. It smelled of a scam from the very beginning. I should have called the police then, but will do so tomorrow to report him.
TAGGED: Chimborazo Boulevard
Ok so I just moved here from Roanoke, VA this summer and this same thing was going on there. This was the FB post about it:
“The Roanoke Police Department warns citizens about recent suspicious activity. Officers responded to a call recently…regarding two males who were driving slowly and stopping at various houses. Citizens who answered their doors stated that the men showed a bottle of dishwashing liquid and stated that they worked at a vacuum cleaner store in Roanoke and operated a carpet cleaning service. Officers responded, but were unable to locate these individuals. Citizens stated that two black males and a black female are traveling in a green van. Don’t feel pressured to conduct business with anyone who comes to your door unsolicited.”
A few weeks later they posted this:
“We recently posted info warning you about suspicious activity in neighborhoods within our city. The activity consisted of people knocking on doors and offering to sell various products and/or services when someone answered the door. Police have since received information that would be burglars have knocked on doors and broken into homes or attempted to break in when no one came to the door. We ask that if you are home please make it known that your house is occupied. If someone knocks on your door, and you do not know them and feel the situation is potentially an emergency please call 911 immediately.”
Sorry for the long post…
interesting. i’ve recently had someone come to my door trying to sell me Vivant security. He had no name tag, offered to show me on brochure but not keep it and asked to come in. I said no and he pressured a bit. Kept saying no and he left, but didn’t go to either neighbors house. Bizarre. I called Vivant and while they said they had people in the neighborhood that do work this area, the timing was bizarre as well as the fact that he didn’t have ID, didn’t show ID and didn’t offer to let me keep the brochure.
I had a similar situation in May of this year, a young black male came to my door selling magazines. He first told me he was not selling anything, but asked if he could have a few minutes of my time. Once I agreed he started to tell me how he was from New Orleans, and had been a victim of Hurricane Katrina. Therefore, he had to quit school and start working to help support his family because of the loss of their home, and his drug habit. However, he was off drugs now thanks to people like me, and if I would just buy one subscription to a magazine, he could help five young people stay off the street from my one purchase. Although, it seemed a bit shady, I still bought two subscriptions. In addition, I told him I would be happy for them to bill me…he said, “Oh No, we have to have cash today”. Therefore, I checked to see if I had enough cash to pay him $33 for two subscriptions, and there was enough money in my wallet. Therefore, I paid him in cash, and asked for a receipt he said, “I don’t give receipts, but you’ll be getting one in the mail”. Yes, some are saying I probably deserved what I got how dumb are you. However, I seriously thought he was being helped at first, but by the time we got to the no receipt I realized it was probably all a lie. In the event any are wondering it was a complete lie, the magazines never did arrive, and he was $33 richer. I was lucky; he could have forced his way in my house, or asked for more money. Lessons learned are never forgotten or are they? I always try to believe someone does really need help when he/she ask (realizing there are many swindlers out there). We do have some people who might be selling these magazines for a real cause..:-(
Swindled – I lost $33 in the exact same scam.
Bret & Swindled: Ummm….I do believe that this could be a candidate for: “A New Standard For Human Stupidity.” Seriously folks, it’s a rat race out there…you just gotta be smarter than the rats!
P.T. Barnum once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” You two must be (cosmic) twins!
But thank you for sharing/confessing your lessons with us….if you have helped another neighbor avoid this scam, then the lambasting will have been worth it : )~
I think Swindled and Bret need to get dogs. I never get the chance to be swindled or doorbell panhandled (my fav 🙂 or instructed on what my religious beliefs should be or whatever. When my 70# bulldog mix hits the front door, people who want to take advantage of me just magically disappear. It’s like they are vaporized. It’s fabulous. For their own safety, these folks need a dog.
the formula and name “Palmolive” is actually 124 years old!
Don’t give up on the magazine orders yet. I heard a similar story from a door-to-door magazine salesman when I lived in Charlottesville. While I thought it might be a scam, the young man was so nice and polite that I decided if he needed money that badly, he could have it. It took over six months, but my magazines did arrive.
@Lucky Canine, for those that can’t do the dog option, perhaps positioning a loud speaker near the door and playing a recording of an angry dog would do the trick.
Best practice is to never let someone into your house. Often, thieves take that opportunity to scope out what you have, what your security system looks like (or if you have one,) entry/exit points, etc, so they can come back later without issue. It happened to some friends of mine in the Oakwood neighborhood when they let someone in for a glass of water. Therein lies the shame of it all, because not everyone is a crook, some people really are just trying to get some assistance.
It is tricky finding the balance of being cautious and not being rude, especially if you moved here with the intent of being a part of the community.
Typically I would either not answer the door or just say no thanks quickly before I get wrangled into talking to them because I know myself well enough to know if they get five words in then I will not be able to say no. In this instance it was raining buckets so I invited them onto the porch to wait it out, during which time they gave me a sob story and I bought something knowing there was a 50/50 chance I’d actually get the magazines. I paid by check thinking that would offer me some protection but by the time it became clear the magazines weren’t coming the bank couldn’t do anything about it at that point, or at least it would take more effort on my part to get refunded than I’m willing to dedicate to a $33 loss. My feeling was that this wasn’t necessarily a full on scam, but a really shady company who uses desperate people to walk around and sell subscriptions, so I’m sure the person who came to my door was being used as well. Lucky – we have dogs and I make sure anyone who comes by knows it. I try to play up their attempts to get out the door to lick whoever is at the door as aggression and your right it gets plenty of people off the porch.
Dogs are no guarantee. Don’t confuse them with safety and security. I have two 60lb Pit Bulls and crooks broke in my house despite these two dogs staring at them and barking.
My alarm is always on now. The dogs are not enough. Even the cops thought it was crazy that these guys still broke in. He said dogs in Church Hill are normally enough. Some crooks are just stupid enough to take their chances.
Or the crooks knew your dogs, Neighbor. That would be my guess. Pits are notoriously bad watch dogs, as those of us who love the breed already know. But they do have a bad rep, especially here in CH, and I would be surprised that someone would take the risk without having met your dogs first. There is absolutely nothing that offers a complete guarantee – not a gun, not an alarm, not dogs. I will stick with my dogs as my best option. I have them because I love them but a side benefit is the security provided by the bulldog.