Door to Door Sales – Pest Control Sales

Door to Door Sales – Pest Control Sales 3 of the most common door to door pest control sales scams
As the very hot summer continues, more and more people are having unexpected knocks on their doors from the many door-to-door salespeople selling pest control services. Homeowners are being bombarded with offers, discounts, specials, services, directly at their doors.
In Orange County and Riverside County the majority of door-to-door salespeople are recruited from universities in Utah such as Brigham Young University, University of Utah, and Utah Valley University. These eager students are promised they can make up to $100,000 in a summer. To earn this money, these students are taught persuasion tactics to get past resistance and secure sales. These tactics are using people’s emotions to get them to make a quick purchasing decision and using discounts, limited time offers and potential loss as tools to earn the big money.
Here’s feedback from two people that were surveyed about their door-to door pest control sales experiences.
The young man was so nice he reminded me of my grandson. I never thought for an instance that he was trying to trick me. Centerville resident Amy Maclean said she signed a one-year contract when she thought she was buying a one-time service.
–Judy McCann
“I didn’t realize until after I had signed the contract that I didn’t really need the service,” said Temecula resident Gail Myers.
Luckily, there are a bunch of online resources to help people avoid being wrongfully persuaded by artful salespeople. Here are some helpful tips that will help you from getting scammed.
Don’t feel obligated to buying something unsolicited. It isn’t always clear when someone is trying to manipulate you into sign a binding contract at your door. You can be politely assertive saying you will thinks about their offer and get back to their company on the phone. This will allow you time to think about their offer and do some research to determine if their service is a necessity for you. You will be surprised how much they learn from a half-hour of research on Google about the company’s reputation. Local listings on Yelp, Yahoo, and local review websites may do a better job at offering both negative and positive reviews to see what happy customers have said.
But here is a word of caution: Don’t trust everything you read online. A stellar review from a happy customer may not actually be from a customer. Companies pay people leave positive reviews about their services in attempts to gain more customers and hide negative feedback in search engines 2. If a door to door salesperson manages to get past my No Soliciting sign, I ask to see their permit to sell. I haven’t found one city in Orange County or Riverside County that doesn’t require these door-to-door salespeople to get a permit from their target city. If they don't have one, I advise them to leave the neighborhood or I will call the police. Any legit door-to-door business that is NOT a scam will know the requirements of their "target" communities.
Beware of the paperwork you sign. The legitimate pest control companies will have a service agreement, not a contract. Because they are providing a service they can’t force you to pay for a service you didn’t get. For example if you sign up for a bi-monthly service you would be getting 6 services per year. If you only have 3 services done and want to cancel you only have to pay for the three services that were completed. The companies you want to avoid are the ones that have a big money cancellation clause. Most companies will have a cancellation clause but these scam companies will charge $150 or more to cancel their service. Make sure you ask about their cancelation policy and what the cost would be. Have them circle that clause and write their name next to it. If they won’t, tell them to take a hike.
David Wheeler
Wheeler’s Pest Control