No Soliciting...Unless You're Really Nice

Saturday afternoon my daughter and I were returning from our rehearsals. As we drove up to the house I saw my wife talking to a young man at the front door. Based on the way he was dressed and because I didn't recognize him, I assumed he was a door-to-door salesman.

I assumed correctly.

That's when I met Jake. "I'm Jake...you know, like Jake from State Farm." We laughed. I could tell right away I liked him; he was very personable. We started talking--I'm not sure if he started over with the sale's pitch he had already given to my wife. He told us he represented Edge Pest Control and he began to expound on the benefits of their pest control system, including the fact that their pesticides were all natural. That's something my wife and I both liked.

We told him that we usually take care of the various pests that invade our property. We mostly let them live, unless they find their way inside. If they do we try as often as we can to trap the bugs and release them outside. So far the Taylor Pest Control system's worked pretty well.

We told Jake this and he seemed surprised. He told us some of our neighbors were taking advantage of the many benefits offered by Edge Pest Control. I don't doubt this--we have kind neighbors who would like to help out a young salesman.

We too would have liked to help him out too, but since our pest control systems seems to be working fine and...well, let's face it--it was bound to be expensive. We told Jake this and also told him we would check out their product online and get back with them if we were interested. He countered by saying if we acted right then, we would get a sizable discount on their services. I didn't doubt this either.

Jake did everything he could think of to parry all of our evading thrusts, but in the end our frugality won out. He wrote his name on a card and gave it to us. We said goodbye and wished him well. If I were bold and wanted to embarrass Jake, I would have asked him if he saw the "No Soliciting" sign located just below our doorbell. But, he was such a nice guy, I just couldn't do that.