Helpful Hints

I have a confession to make: I do not enjoy door-to-door sales pitches. I should make clear: it's not the people I don't like so much as what they are doing. I can sympathize that it may not be the best job and that really, they are trying their hardest to earn a decent living.
We had a salesman come by recently, trying to sell us an alarm system. In my book, he broke some pretty important rules that really just made me want to say good-bye sooner.
-Please don't open our front door and *then* knock. As any mother should have taught you, the polite thing to do is to knock and wait until the homeowner opens the door.
-Please don't refer to me by name *before* I have told you what it is. The same goes for my husband.
-Please don't invite yourself in.
-Please don't play on our sense of fear by bringing the children into this.
-Please don't refer to our front "yard" as a "flower bed" - as much as it may look like it.
I'm sure there are more. Until then, how about we just say, "If I'm interested, I can contact you....you don't need to contact me." Call me old-fashioned.