No Solicitors!

Our household recently suffered an infestation of vacuum-cleaner salesmen. I had been meaning to buy a screen door for our front entryway, because on those warm summer nights when mosquitos and other pests are abundant, some pests get into the house, and once in, they can be extremely difficult to expel. But I digress… To be clear, the salesmen entered with my wife’s permission, and once in, began a marathon session aimed at demonstrating why she should buy their vacuum cleaner for $2400. While they were cleaning our carpets, though, she began investigating the vacuum online. She found that the salesmen from this company are known for their high-pressure sales tactics, and that if you demand a lower price for the vacuum, you're likely to get it.
In all, this troop of sales-apes put in at least three hours of carpet-cleaning and product demonstration, and my wife, who was desparate to get something that could deal with the carpet-dirtifying consequences of having a young boy and his friends running daily throughout the house, bought the vacuum for about a third of the original asking price, plus they took our old vacuum as a trade-in.
While these guys never lied outright to to my wife, and they were quite personable, they managed nonetheless to imply things that were not true, such as that our favorite vacuum-repair shop, Mohler Vacuum, was a licensed warranty-repair facility, and that they were in the area because they had sales "appointments," and were just stopping by to see if we wanted give them a lot of money too. They were nice, but shifty, and the "ick factor" was pretty high.
It turns out that my mother-in-law also bought a vaccum from this company some 40 years ago, and she still remembers the gross feeling she had about the salesmen, but nonetheless used the vaccum, and was quite happy with it, for many years. The upshot is that this company has been making top-notch products for decades. After the fellow at Mohler told my wife that his business was not a warranty-repair facility, he went on to tell her that she had gotten a great deal, and that he himself owned one of these machines for home use.
In contrast to the quality of the product, further research on my part turned up the fact that the Better Business Bureau had revoked the accreditation of this company's local sales office, and that nationwide, there was a pattern of complaints about heavy-handed sales techniques. There was even one case of a woman being raped by a salesman from this company.
You really have to wonder why a company with such an awesome product (and yes, my wife is still thrilled with it) would allow its reputation to be so seriously damaged by the people who sell its products. What the heck is up with that?
And now, I'm finally going to put up the No Solicitors sign that I've been thinking about: The vacuum-cleaner-salesmen infestation is not the only door-to-door danger in our neighborhood. We also get shifty guys selling magazine subscriptions, some short guy with a beard trying to get money for a vague child-protection cause (he shows up once a year), carpet cleaning outfits who just "happen" to be in the neighborhood that day, just like they were last week, and other assorted annoyances, most of which turn up at our doorstep when we're sitting down for dinner at the end of a long day. Nuts to them all!