It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. We just got our toddler down for a nap and we finally had some peace and quiet after a morning of tears and meltdowns. I’m holding our newborn and he is just getting to sleep. My lovely wife just sat down. We were getting settled in for a much needed rest.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK — quick, successive, loud knocks at the door. My partner jumps, startled. I’m wondering who we know who would do that…
I opened the door to find a guy with a badge. He wants to know if fiber has been laid down in our neighborhood recently and claims to be from AT&T.
It’s very strange to me that AT&T wouldn’t know where fiber is, and even if they didn’t know, weirder that a mega-corporation would think canvassing residences with this question is the way to find out.
I pointed out that on my doorbell is a “no solicitors” sign. It’s small and fair if people miss it. As annoying as it is to have this family rest time interrupted for something so unimportant, I expected this conversation be over soon.
After being made aware of the sign, you would think the conversation would go like this:
I didn’t see that, so sorry. I’ll be on my way now
but NOPE! This guy apparently thought our “no solicitors” sign was a great challenge to test his sales skills or something. He continued engaging.
I asked him in no uncertain terms to leave my neighborhood and made a complaint to our local PD. That’s about all you can do. Once you have a case number, if they come back and harass you, you can call the police again for trespassing.
Was this guy from AT&T? If anything, maybe a contractor hired by AT&T… at worst a scam.
I’ve seen him in my neighborhood three times and once outside of my immediate neighborhood. I’ve been bothered by another one of their reps before and just politely asked him leave. The other guy didn’t give me any trouble about it/argue with me about his knock.
Given AT&T’s support record, I doubt we would be able to determine if this guy really works for them or not.
If you’re not familiar with the ISP situation in the United States, and how these companies benefit from public subsidies (they have taken billions in public funds) while actively working to suppress competition: Listen to this episode of Planet Money “Small America vs. Big Internet”
Taking public funds, hiring door to door contractors… Maybe they are not related to AT&T - AT&T wont help us confirm anyway. Whatever the case, all we can do is share knowledge, and work together to keep our neighborhoods corporate ad free.