Being Sold To

I really hate being sold to when I'm not looking to buy anything. If I'm in a store, that's one thing. I totally understand that you suspect I'm there to spend money and want to help me spend that money - to a point.

But there are times and places where I do not want to be sold to. At home, for example. And the worst home salespeople aren't the telemarketers. They aren't the door-knockers.  They're the people who tape things to my door. It annoys me so much that I will not give money to anyone who tapes things to my door. Period. I particularly love it when I'm at home and they tape things to my door.

Even setting aside the potential damage the tape can do to the paint job of the door (or doorframe), it gives me a piece of paper that I have to deal with. And, if I'm out of town when they stick it up, it provides a convenient "NOT HOME" flag for the world to see.  Seriously: Does this sort of marketing actually work?

Similarly, I hate coming out to the car and finding something stuck under my windshield wipers.

An even more annoying place to be sold to?  The bank.

I personally bank with a credit union. They're easy to deal with, and, as a non-profit, they don't have exorbitant fees for everything. If I screw up, yes, there are fees, but there are no automatic fees on my account, the interest rates are good, and the people I deal with are really neat.

But I am responsible for my office's daily deposit. Every morning - without fail - the teller at my office's bank asks me if I have my personal account there.

I explain that I don't. That I'm happy with my credit union. And then - every morning - I get the exact same response.  "Well we offer several services which are different from your credit union's." They then proceed to list services which are, indeed, different from those offered by the credit union. Different in that they are inferior. They offer savings at a lower interest rate, loans at higher rates, and higher fees on everything.

It's really annoying.

And that annoyance is made worse by the realization that their corporate office probably requires them to ask us that. Someone in a boardroom somewhere thought it would be a good idea to annoy potential customers who have every day stated that they were happy with their current situation.

It's not that they don't recognize me, either - several of them call me by name when I reach the front of the line. They know I'm not interested. They know I'm going to turn them down. And they still ask, because not asking  could theoretically cost them their job.

I'm actually afraid of what sort of questions they'd ask if I actually banked there. Would they try to sell me a different account? Try to push additional credit cards on me?

It all adds up to an unpleasant and awkward experience that I very much dislike.