A Pushy Security Salesman Tried to Use Her Neighbors to Pressure Her, So She Convinced the Entire Block to Cancel Their Orders
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I learned something in today’s story about home security systems, and it makes me think twice about them. A lot of home security systems include video, but have you ever wondered what the companies you buy them from do with that video?
In this story, one woman actually feels less safe with a home security system than without one, so when a man who claims not to be a salesman tries to sell her a security system, she asks questions he doesn’t like and makes it clear that she’s not interested.
Instead of walking away, the salesman lies and tries to use peer pressure to persuade her by telling her which neighbors have already decided to buy this security system.
His tactics backfire because she decides to use this information against him.
Keep reading for the whole story.
Want me to talk to your other customers? Will do!
A tiny bit of background: My family recently moved into a new neighborhood that we chose because we loved the neighbors.
When we were touring the house, C came over and told us he’d mow our lawn for us, J told us all about the kids who our kid would make friends with, and X invited us over for a cookout.
We try to be good neighbors too.
It sounds like they really are very good neighbors.
Our front yard is where the neighbor kids know they can come play in the shade with our dog and our kid.
We installed a small but growing garden as an excuse to be outside and chat with our neighbors.
I’m about halfway through baking brownies for everyone on our little cul-de-sac as a thank you for the warm welcome we’ve received.
This neighborhood is a place where folks look out for each other, in part because most of us know we are the people who keep us safe.
Kids love excuses to tell you what they know!
Storytime: The other day I was sitting outside watching my kid play with his best friend on our block and friend’s older brother.
Older brother was asking me about our garden as an excuse to tell me all about what he was learning about pollinators.
My kid makes a break for the street, so I run after him and pick him up. (No cars ever go by, but we’re trying to teach him road safety early.)
As I’m carrying him back into the house, older brother is still talking to me when he’s interrupted by someone with a branded shirt and a clipboard.
It’s a salesman who claims not to be a salesman.
I immediately tell the shirt that I’m not interested in buying anything, to which he replies that he’s not trying to sell me anything.
He launches into his apparently non-sales pitch for the home security system he sells and tells me all the details for the video doorbell that several of my neighbors have been installing.
Now, in case you didn’t know, big security systems like Amazon Ring and ADT regularly hand over all the video footage to the police without requiring any sort of warrant from them. That’s not to mention that several groups have been discovered listening in to your conversations in the name of “transcribing” them.
She asked a question he didn’t like.
I ask him how his company avoids compromising my data, a question he dodges by scrunching up his face and moving on with his pitch.
When I press him on it, he lies to me based on what I already know about his company that uses orange signs.
He then tells me that C, J, and X sent him over here because they said I was nice, implying that because I won’t accept his lie, somehow I’m the jerk here.
After interrupting my conversation with the neighbor kid as I’m holding a baby I’m obviously trying to take inside, lying to me, and now trying to guilt me into a system I don’t want and believe is bad for my community, we reach an impasse. He falls back to say, “Well, C, J, and X have had it installed! Talk to them.”
She talked to the neighbors.
Cue malicious compliance.
I proceed to go over to C, J, X, and one other neighbor, also-C, he sells the product to by the end of the day and have a normal friendly chat with them. I slide into the conversation that I don’t care for that company because of the way that they hand over data to the cops and can listen in at any time.
Fast forward to today, when every neighbor except also-C has taken down their orange sign and had the system uninstalled. I think also-C never had it installed, but is keeping the sign up just as a potential deterrent.
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So if you’re reading, shirt, if you had just been honest with me, I wouldn’t have felt the need to quite so aggressively share my concerns. You would have just lost out on one sale rather than the whole neighborhood.
I think my favorite part of this story is that also-C kept the sign up just to prevent salesmen from bothering him. That’s actually a really smart idea!
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Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
Yeah, he wasn’t a very good guy.
This person loved what she called the salesman.
This person shares what they did in a similar situation.
This person shares their experience with a salesman from the same company.
Lying is not a good way to gain a potential customer’s trust. When a salesman starts a conversation by claiming not to be a salesman, he’s already digging himself into a hole. Who cares what he has to say at that point? You already know you can’t believe anything he says, so he might as well just leave.
She handled that really well. Instead of just deciding not to be a customer, she warned the whole neighborhood. Well done!
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