Anyone had this happen to you? I just got home from passing out flyers in a neighborhood (not a gated community & I didn’t leave them on homes where a no soliciting sign was visable) a woman called me irate that there was a rolled up rubber banded flyer on her door. She went off saying its a target for thieves if the homeowner is on vacation, I should do mailing or call instead and then she went off saying I need a permit. After apologizing my butt off she asked/told me to not flyer in that neighborhood again and she was gonna call the city and report me.
Here’s what is says in the FAQ section from my cities license division:
I want to leave handbills at homes to advertise my business. Is that covered by the business license?
Yes, but you must observe any posted sign restricting access to the property or any verbal request of the homeowner or occupant. Please keep in mind that posting signs, handbills, or flyers on any utility pole, traffic pole, fence, tree, bridge, mailbox or other public structure is prohibited. In addition, placement of handbills or flyers on car windshields is prohibited.
Just wanted to get others opinions on what I should say to these people when they call, I am sure she isn’t going to be the last especially since I am going to be trying using street bidder very soon. Feeling kinda down about it since I just hate getting yelled at and talked down to.
Brush it off. I run into that kinda stuff all the time. It is allowed by the city. In my state I can even pass out flyers where there is a no soliciting sign. Why? Because I’m not actually knocking on doors trying to sell them anything. I’ve even had a police officer stop me ( in a neighborhood with a no soliciting sign at the front of the hood) and it was all good. If there is no law against it. Ignore iterate people and move on.
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Don’t let one nut ruin your businesses marketing. Keep pushing and keep growing. There are always going to be these people trying to scare you away. Don’t let them win!
Thanks guys I appreciate the kind words. It’s nice to know that others have been in your shoes with problems like these. Makes me feel like I am not alone.
This happened to me, lady said she was going to call the police. I told her that I was within the guidelines of the law and if she wanted to call the police, I wasn’t going anywhere for a while. I kept on passing out flyers even to the homes of members of law enforcement ( which were quite a few) that lived in the neighborhood, and never had a complaint from anyone else. The police never showed up either. These type of people just love to complain, most likely have no friends, and nothing better to do with their time. Just be professional, polite, and move on.
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My favorite thing to do with these calls is to try and sell them after the apology. It can actually be a very nice segway into a sales pitch for your company.
They can actually be surprisingly easy to close.
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Just got off the phone with my business license for my city and now they have a soliciting and hand bill license $25 for 6 months. Guess I will go get it tomorrow just to cover my butt.
People are just so lonely that your flyer is a way to defocus and escape from the feeling for a few seconds. Yelling gets them out of themselves, like road rage.Think of it as dollar therapy
See Louis CK ,s riff on car texting. “Oh no, I m all alone out here”. Text, text. Text… Crash
Sorry about that post folks. I feel like I m in the 15 th round with Mohammed Ali. And he s standing over me gloating. Never stopped for 1second. The whole summer and I m exausted. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired HALT. I m to tired and starting mess stuff up. I need a break. But I feel like it’s to late now, these high holidays. Are very busy. And have kicked in. I should be grateful(dead). But. Here I go again
I wonder if she calls and yells at Ups/fedex for delivering packages too…i had this happen in the past and loved cleaning the windows of the neighbors houses. Waved to to the lady when I pulled up to the home next door.
I’m, really sorry you haven’t taken well to my method of advertising, but I am working within the limit of my business licence/permit and the local laws.
Anyway… while I have you on the phone, would you like a quotation, it wont take a few minutes, better still, I can pop around for a quick one on one chat and a cuppa… I’d be happy to go over any issues you may have for your window cleaning requirements…
PMSL!
This is the best way to end a call… be so polite and always be positive… It will make you smile - even if they rage at you…lol
We get this ALL the time… I had a lady who threatened to call the cops on us when we put flyers in her neighborhood. Of course she called and flipped out on us, she couldn’t do it to our faces. We have tons of customers in her sub so later in the season we were in the neighborhood doing a job and she called the cops on us saying we were being suspicious. So we got pulled over right when we pulled out of the sub. The cop said someone called them saying we were being suspicious. Before he even finished I said " was it some crazy lady who lives on Laura Lane? " He laughed and was surprised I knew. He ended up giving me her address. Now she gets a lot of street bidders :]
Keep post carding that neighborhood. Do not let her dictate whether or not your business grows.
