A few months ago, our family went to a Living Green fair here in our city. It was quite interesting and I got a lot of good information about living green and working toward saving our environment. At least my little corner of the environment anyway. At the fair I filled out lots of cards for free stuff, and one of those was for Tri-state Water. They told me that someone would come out to our house and test our water to let us know what was in it and the impact it has on our family and on the environment. That sounded nice, so I signed up! Shortly after, Tri-state called and we scheduled an appointment. The night of the appointment the man called and said he had to cancel. They said they would call me to reschedule. They tried to call a few times and I just kept missing the call. Then they started to call at bad times, then over and over in one night as late as 9pm. And they didn't leave a message. Not once. It turned into a laughing game to me because if they didn't leave a message I shouldn't give them the time of day. Call that a pet peeve of mine. If I don't know your phone number and you don't leave a message, I will dodge your call. Even if it goes on for weeks, or months! And this certainly did. Finally, after nearly a year, they called last week and I didn't recognize the number so I answered it. We scheduled an appointment for this past Friday.
So the man showed up and asked what kind of trouble we were having with our water. I explained that we weren't having trouble and we were just interested in seeing what is in our water. He seemed surprised and said he thought we called 1-800 Home Depot, which I explained we didn't. The beginning of the presentation was actually interesting. He did a few tests, which reminded me of my high school days on the Stream Team. Don't laugh, it was actually pretty cool! We even found a sewage leak and even got in the local paper! Ok, I think I just solidified myself as a big dork.
So the tests were cool, but then it happened. There was definitely a significant moment when I realized the conversation turned from a friendly exchange of information about our water to a complete and total sales pitch. I suddenly realized that our water was terribly tainted with chlorine and other toxins that required the probably expensive water cleaning system that he was about to tell me all about. At that moment I kind of threw up in my mouth.
See, I HATE sales people. I understand they have to work too, but I have literally had to ask at least 2 sales people to leave my house because they started to try and "sell" me. Did I mention that I HATE sales people? I apparently always say the key phrases that they have a comeback to, so I know they aren't listening to me and it becomes a battle. They push harder, and I push right back. There is nothing the person is going to do to get me to buy their product, but even when I tell them this fact to try and save everyone some time, they insist on trying to convince me that they know better than me what I should spend my money on. I have no love for the salesman. At least not the ones who don't listen to me.
After he told us that this water cleaning system would be at the low price of $6,700 (or $156 for 60 months...that's 5 years!!!) he went on to say that if we bought it right then and there, we will also get $4,000 worth or 400 pounds of cleaning products for free! This did sound kind of cool, until he said that they deliver all of the products at the same time! He opened a suitcase with about 25 little bottles and he started to explain them one at a time. I interrupted him and said that there was no way that 1) I'm going to spend $6,000 on a random Friday night and 2) tht I have room for 400 pounds of cleaning products. Apparently he has never had anyone say they couldn't find room for $4,000 worth of free cleaning products. Well, that night he did, because I have no room for that crap AND I have no idea if it even works! In my experience if a deal is too good to be true it usually is.
It got me all hot and bothered, and eventually he left my house. As soon as he did N and I both said to each other that he looked exactly like Rod Blagojevich! His hair did anyway. I'll tell you what, if I had that great hair, I certainly wouldn't be wasting it selling water cleaners, I'd go the shampoo/conditioner route for sure!
