Instead of a thought-provoking, heavy post, why not a post that will make you smile or at least think, "Danielle, I'm glad you learned a lesson". Last Friday, my afternoon was suddenly interrupted by a few knocks on our door. I was settling in watching "Fried Green Tomatoes" on Netflix. I opened the door to a young girl, a stranger, freezing in the cold, and as sweet as can be, asked me if I had heard of this vacuum cleaner (gives me pamphlet) and that if I let her vacuum one part of our home, she would get paid by her boss. So two helpful things: I would get part of the apartment vacuumed, she would get paid and her name would also get put into a drawing for an all-paid cruise if she made a certain number of sales. Great deal. She said, "Great, I'll be right back with the equipment!" I waited for a few minutes and answered the second- the girl, and she was back with two men (one who looked 40ish, one about 17ish, let's call the 17 year old "John"). I let all of them in, as the 40ish year old guy started telling me about the vacuum, how it does such an awesome job vacuuming, and how if I wasn't satisfied with how John was going to vacuum with it, then to let him know. I said, "Ok, great..." The girl and 40ish year old man left. It was just John and me and Patty the dog.
Observation: The girl, who I thought was vacuuming our apartment, left...
Observation: John, starts unpacking what seems like bag after bag of equipment that is part of this vacuum cleaner.
I'm thinking- "this won't take very long, he's young, and he's only vacuuming this one room". 45 minutes to 1 hour into John being in the apartment, he has me dragging out our vacuum, showing me how his vacuum is so much better and more efficient than ours, and asking me question after question about dirt, dust, vacuums, etc. He gets filters out of his vacuum, and shows me how much dirt is STILL left over and in our carpet after he has vacuumed with our old vacuum several times. He probably at this point has used 50 of his filters. He asks me for baking soda and uses half of the box so that he can show how efficient his vacuum is at cleaning a mess. During his presentation, he also tells me that he's recently engaged, he's paying for his fiance's medical bills and school, he's got several jobs to try to provide, he's worked his whole life for everything he has ever had, etc. We did get to make some good, friendly conversation after about 2 hours of his vacuuming sales pitch. At this time, he also tells me that if he sells 30 vacuums, he gets his name put in a drawing for this cruise that the young girl told me about previously. He said that it would be really great if I could help him out and buy one. He asked how much I thought the vacuum cost...I said, "$200?" His eyes got kindof wide as he replied, "No, $3,500". I told him that I knew my husband was going to say no and that we could not pay for one at this time- the budget is tight (I didn't go into much more detail). He said, "Ok, but it would really help me to get this cruise that my fiance said I HAVE to win". He also started getting irritated for how long he had been there and that I said NO. I said, "I'm sorry, we can't afford this". He proceeds to call his "boss" and get me a better deal if I could commit to buying one today (I had just said no for the third or fourth time). After calling the man in charge, he came back with a price that he thought would really help us out and we could do the family payment plan... $2,600. I said no...again. He then said (irritatedly) he wanted to show me several other features of this vacuum...and I told him I needed to start dinner and did not have time to watch. He said that was fine, he could do the demonstration while I was cooking and he was in the living room. At this point, I had already texted Kennedy that I had let a stranger salesman in who was trying to sell me a vacuum and he would not leave. Kennedy was trying to leave work to come home and get this guy out of the house. He asked me why I even let them in. Three hours into John vacuuming the one area of our apartment he was supposed to vacuum, to vacuuming our sheets (Yes, he went to our bedroom without permission to take our comforter off and vacuum our bed), to vacuuming the vents....Kennedy finally gets home to find John vacuuming our ceiling fan in our living room while I am cooking dinner (not paying attention to him). Very firmly, he greets John and says, "Hey man, can you turn that off please?" Vacuum...off. "I think it's time to pack your stuff and leave, ok?" John replies, "Oh, I've gotta show one or two more things- please let me just show you, I'm trying to do my job..." Kennedy says, "Nope, sorry, you need to leave". Kennedy walks over to me in the kitchen, kisses my cheek, I'm trying not to laugh at the entire situation, and John starts packing up. He calls his boss to tell him he's getting "kicked". The apartment is SILENT. As he's leaving, I felt bad, and wished him good luck on winning the cruise. He shook Kennedy's hand and said, "Sorry if you've had a bad day or something, I was just doing my job". Kennedy nods his head and opens the door for him to leave. Lesson learned: Don't let salesman in the apartment without the hubby home.
But I was trying to help the girl out?
What would you have done in this situation?
