NOTE: See Fairfax County regulations regarding people knocking on your door trying to sell you things. They MUST have a license:
Peddlers and Solicitors
- Soliciting is the sale of goods or services door-to-door or from a temporary stand and is regulated by Fairfax County Code. Fairfax County requires peddlers and solicitors be licensed before they solicit door to door.
- They may solicit only between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m., and may not solicit at a residence which posts a "No Peddlers or Solicitors" sign.
- A peddler or solicitor must show the license upon request and must leave the premises immediately if asked to leave.
- Often solicitors will show customers an ID badge or some other document, claiming that they are licensed by Fairfax County when they are not.
- When a solicitor knocks...
- Ask for his or her license.
- If they do not have a valid license, ask them to leave.
- Close and lock your door.
- Immediately call Fairfax County Police (non-emergency) at 703-691-2131 to report the violation.
- Solicitors offer a wide variety of goods and services for sale. Solicitors may be selling goods or services such as magazine subscriptions, tree work, firewood, driveway sealing, coupon books, or meat; or "setting appointments" for high-speed internet/cable service, home improvements, or home security alarms. No matter what good or service they are offering, the solicitor is required to have a license.
- Peddler and Solicitor Licenses are issued by the Regulation and Licensing Branch of the Department of Cable and Consumer Services, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 127, Fairfax, Virginia 22035.
- The Fairfax County Solicitor's License is a laminated card that displays the solicitor's photograph, name, and personal information on the front side. The back side of the license displays the solicitor's business information and thumbprints. It is valid for one year from date of issue.
FROM A PIMMIT HILLS RESIDENT, July 4, 2012:
Just got a knock on the door and a sales pitch from a lovely young woman named Robyn selling educational material from a company called SW Advantage. Her sales pitch was polite but not truthful (She introduces herself as a representative of our school district but if you ask questions about that she quickly changes her tactic). She asks a lot of personal information.
I googled the company after she left and was not happy with what I read so I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. She said that she would be in our neighborhood for a week.
The Southwestern Company – Door to Door Deception
How do you feel about a company that relies on prying information about your children from your neighbors without your consent?
A college-aged woman came to our door and said she was visiting all the homes of the children in our school district to provide resources for our kids to use for homework completion. I invited her in. It was also hot outside, and she had made the clear impression that she was employed by our school district. She showed me her list of names, and told me she had to visit with each family in her assigned section of the district.
The charade that she was associated with the school district continued, even as I asked direct questions about it. She would not say “No, I am not from your school district or employed by your school district.” until I asked her directly “Were you sent by our school district and are you employed by them?” Instead she said she was interning for “them” (deliberately vague pronoun meaning her company, rather than the school system), and that she was brought in from Colorado while interns from our area of the state were sent there as part of the program. She said it was for college credits.
She asked personal questions about my wife, myself, our home, our kids, and details about our kids’ education. She did all this under the (technically unstated) guise of being an official with the local school district. We’d been duped into conversational information sharing with someone misrepresenting herself. (read the rest)
Southwest Advantage door-to-door book sales
Complaint Review: The Southwestern Company
Southwestern Company (Wikipedia)
The company recruits between 2,500 and 3,000 college and university students each year to sell educational books, software, and subscription websites during the summer months. At website southwesterncompanytruth.com, some of these share stories about losing money, facing upset homeowners and unfriendly dogs. They call the company everything from a cult to a scam.
