# Do You Feel Like Everybody is Trying to Sell You Something?



## SeaBreeze (Jun 15, 2015)

I do, and frankly, I'm sick of it.  I constantly get ads in the mail from life insurance, AARP, cremation services, funeral plans, financial advisers, etc.  The phone is always ringing with spammers and scammers.  People knock on my front door trying to sell me this or that.  Magazines these days are nothing but pages of advertisements, same as newspapers.

Do your feel like everyone's out to sell you something?  Does it bother you, or don't you care?


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## Shalimar (Jun 15, 2015)

SB. My experience is similar, mail, telephone, even the condo bulletin board here at the Tombs. I avoid it where I can, and try to ignore the rest. Sometimes it bothers me, but I try to let it go. Periodically, I rant. Lol. That helps.


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## AZ Jim (Jun 15, 2015)

SeaBreeze said:


> I do, and frankly, I'm sick of it.  I constantly get ads in the mail from life insurance, AARP, cremation services, funeral plans, financial advisers, etc.  The phone is always ringing with spammers and scammers.  People knock on my front door trying to sell me this or that.  Magazines these days are nothing but pages of advertisements, same as newspapers.
> 
> Do your feel like everyone's out to sell you something?  Does it bother you, or don't you care?



What?  No hearing clinics?  You are being  cheated, they belong on the list too.  You are being shorted.


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## SeaBreeze (Jun 15, 2015)

Lol Shalimar, this was my periodic rant!   No hearing clinics yet Jim, but I will get guys trying to sell me their "gourmet" steaks out of the back of their pickups.


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## NancyNGA (Jun 15, 2015)

Oh wow, don't get me started on that stuff.  After the phone calls, the TV ones are most annoying to me.  I have a recycling bin right next to the mailbox on the porch.  Most of it gets instantly sent there without opening.


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## Mrs. Robinson (Jun 15, 2015)

Don`t get any door to door people cuz they won`t drive down this road. I`m pretty sure they think nobody would ever live out here lol. But we never had door to door salesmen even when we didn`t live quite so remote. BUT,everybody on Facebook seems to want to sell me something! Oils, Shakeology,Herbalife,Hula Hoop classes, Jamberry nails-the list goes on and on. If I haven`t jumped on it the first or second time you sent it to me,I`m probably not interested.


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## SeaBreeze (Jun 15, 2015)

That's the kind of road I'd like to live on Mrs. R, one that people won't even bother to take.  I'd like to be more secluded for sure.  Do you know the people who try to sell you stuff on FB, or are they just strangers?


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## jujube (Jun 15, 2015)

My favorite:  you get a call from a friend..."Oh, we're having a little get-together Saturday night and we'd love you to come!"

You get there and it turns out to be a sales pitch.  Once it was for "investment strategies" and the other time for some scheme to be a home-based travel agent.

There's two friends whose invitations won't be accepted the next time.  

And the Facebook sales pitches.......I've unfriended more than one person (and one relative) for that.


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## Shalimar (Jun 15, 2015)

SB gourmet Steaks, who knew? Here it is fresh caught First Nation salmon, legal to catch, illegal to sell. Or, First Nation smoked or BBQ salmon, to die for. Nothing like the stores.


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## Geezerette (Jun 15, 2015)

It is kind of like a constant swarm of gnats, isn't it. Most of the time I just ignore it, but right now I'm mad at my university alum assn! Chipper pert young things calling at 9 at night to solicit donations (resounding NO!), & just got an ad in the mail with pres of alum assn's endorsement of some sort of financial planning junk. Have it in mind to write to him personally & try to get off the lists.


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## Skyking (Jun 15, 2015)

In order to make a living, and with nobody working in factories anymore we have become a service oriented society. So to make money people sell things like themselves (services) or things made elsewhere (China and Mexico). Nowadays sales and selling are a huge part of who we are. So while I agree with your rant, there really isn't much you can do about it. If you've got a pulse they will find you and try to sell you something.


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## tnthomas (Jun 15, 2015)

SeaBreeze said:


> Do your feel like everyone's out to sell you something?  Does it bother you, or don't you care?



It's_ more than a feeling_, everyone IS trying to sell something.  It's annoying, I'm trying to work up the gumption to cancel DirecTV, which crams both commercials and more and more mindless programming down customer's throats, all-the while charging yet more for lessening quality of entertainment.

The "do not call...." website is not very effective.

"more than a feeling "


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## Don M. (Jun 15, 2015)

With more and more of our manufacturing being sent to Asia, and Mexico, we are increasingly becoming a "service economy".  If this continues much longer, everyone will be trying to sell each other Insurance.  Advertising is becoming a massive nuisance...and TV viewing is becoming almost a joke.  At the rate that media is declining, it won't be long before the commercials occupy more of a 1/2 hour than the actual show.  We get over 250 channels on our DishNetwork service, and dozens of those channels are nothing but advertising and infomercials.  

I save the advertising we get in the mail, if it has postage paid return envelopes.  On a rainy day, I go through the pile, and after removing anything with my name on it, I stuff their envelopes with other companies junk mail, and mail it back to them.  That way, they have to pay the return postage, and the USPS gets a little more business.  

We live in the boondocks, so salesmen are Not a problem....but for awhile the Jehovah's Witnesses were coming through regularly.  I would stop what I was doing, and we would engage in long drawn out discussions about religion.  After I occupied them for quite a bit of time, indicating my disdain for how the various religions have warped the Bible for their own personal gains, they haven't been back in quite some time.


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## Butterfly (Jun 16, 2015)

I agree, SB.  Especially the phone calls.  I don't even pick up the phone nowdays if I don't recognize the telephone number.  I"m sick and tired of those people wanting to sell me a senior alert thing, and siding (which is particularly stupid because we don't even HAVE siding out here -- we have stucco houses) and new windows which I could never afford, and and free cruises to wherever, and so on.  And those ROBOCALLS!!!  It will probably only get worse during election season, since I've been told that political parties don't have to respect the do not call lists.

And that junk mail! I shred it unopened.


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## Warrigal (Jun 16, 2015)

I think it's called capitalism


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## Ameriscot (Jun 16, 2015)

I ignore the ads on FB and when I can I click on the option of 'I don't want to see this'.  We never get anyone coming to our door.  We get calls from companies who claim to be doing 'a survey' of people in our area - they are actually trying to sell us new doors, a conservatory, etc.  They don't give you a chance to say anything so I've had to start hanging up on them. 

I got a text ad the other day on my android phone!


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## AprilSun (Jun 16, 2015)

I get some junk mail but not much. As for the phone calls, I have a land line and have managed to get those calls down to about 1 or 2 a month and sometimes none a month. About 3 years ago, we were getting 30 something a day while my husband was sick in bed with cancer. I got online and found a telemarketing blocking device that connects to my phone and if I have their number or area code blocked, I have it set up so my phone doesn't ring. They have about given up on me. It's just the occasional new number they're trying that gets through. I check the number online to make sure they're scammers and then I block it. It made his last year peaceful. As for the mail, I don't know why I don't get much but I'm not complaining.


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## Mrs. Robinson (Jun 16, 2015)

SeaBreeze said:


> Do you know the people who try to sell you stuff on FB, or are they just strangers?



Oh,I know them-they are all "Friends".  And yes,I just use the Hide feature and that helps.


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## Ameriscot (Jun 16, 2015)

Mrs. Robinson said:


> Oh,I know them-they are all "Friends".  And yes,I just use the Hide feature and that helps.



I've never had a FB friend try to sell me anything.  Are you referring to the ads that appear between posts?


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## Mrs. Robinson (Jun 16, 2015)

It`s kind of funny though,my own daughter is "into" Shakeology. But she doesn`t EVER push it at all-to anybody. But she does post pics of herself-mostly pics of her and her hubby or her and her kiddos,occasionally a before and after pic,and I can`t believe the number of people who respond "Shea,message me info" or "Shea,call me about what you`re doing." I attribute that a little to how happy and healthy she`s looking and A LOT to the fact that she never,ever pushes anybody to buy what she sells. Best salesperson ever,I guess lol. Of course,she has a great job anyway that she loves and is not looking to leave, so it doesn`t really matter to her if she sells any Shakeology or not.


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## Victor (Jun 17, 2015)

Yes I hate commercials and ads but obviously they are effective because they sell to some people. Only about
2% of the mail ads are supposed to make money. They know that 98% of the people will refuse/reject it.
I listen to satellite radio (Siriuus) that has NO ads at all and I love it. It's like cable radio.


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## jujube (Jun 17, 2015)

Butterfly said:


> I agree, SB.  Especially the phone calls.  I don't even pick up the phone nowdays if I don't recognize the telephone number.  I"m sick and tired of those people wanting to sell me a senior alert thing, and siding (which is particularly stupid because we don't even HAVE siding out here -- we have stucco houses) and new windows which I could never afford, and and free cruises to wherever, and so on. * And those ROBOCALLS*!!!  It will probably only get worse during election season, since I've been told that political parties don't have to respect the do not call lists.
> 
> And that junk mail! I shred it unopened.



Oh....the robo calls.  "_Please hold for an _important _call_".  Yeah, like _that's_ going to happen.


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## Underock1 (Jun 18, 2015)

If I don't recognize the phone number, I just pick up the phone and hang it up again without talking. Sometimes, I just let it ring.
All mail that says "IMPORTANT", "PERSONAL", "TIME SENSITIVE" or "OPEN IMMEDIATELY!" is immediately disposed of. The door to door people are the most annoying, but also the one's I have the most sympathy for. No one would do that if they didn't really need the money. I agree. The worst are friends or relatives who get into these pyramid type schemes, and throw a "party" every two weeks. How to become unpopular really quick.


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## Ameriscot (Jun 18, 2015)

jujube said:


> Oh....the robo calls.  "_Please hold for an _important _call_".  Yeah, like _that's_ going to happen.



Haven't gotten any of those lately, but I can't hang up fast enough with those!


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## jujube (Jun 18, 2015)

Have you ever received the envelope that says something to the effect of: "Mail Carrier, please deliver this extremely important mail in accordance with Postal Regulations 321.17b?  I looked the postal regulation up once and it said, essentially, "mail carrier, if you can't deliver this, it's OK to throw it away."   Sounds really official and important, though, doesn't it?


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## Cookie (Jun 18, 2015)

I get this kind of junk too, once I made the mistake of getting a subscription to Reader's Digest.  I cancelled after a while.  But after several years, I still get their stinking junk mail, with the same 'this is so important' plastered all over it, as well as my name in big bold print all over it.  Into the shredding bin it goes.


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