Surfin’ USA

M and I had a funny thing happen over the weekend – as we were driving back from the store, he mentioned all the houses near us that had solar panels on the roof. We have talked, in the past, about getting solar panels, but haven’t done much beyond talking about it.

We got home and it wasn’t an hour later before our doorbell rang . . . and lo and behold, there was a solar panel sales woman on our doorstep! Talk about serendipity! Well, of course, we invited her right in and got all the info about her company blah, blah, blah. I think they HAVE to give you the whole sales spiel. Turns out she wasn’t the ACTUAL sales person – she was gathering intel and ANOTHER person would be by Monday to close the deal.

Whatever.

Last night, we were waiting on the actual sales person to come by, because we were genuinely interested in solar panels for electricity. We watch enough of those “living off the grid” shows that we know you can get rid of your electric bill and even sell electricity back to the power company with solar panels. We just don’t know where/how to buy them. It ended up the person called, rather than coming by and WOW . . . here came the BIG SALES JOB.

In another life, I worked for a sales training company, so I know a little bit about what makes a good sales person and what makes effective sales techniques. Let me just say – no. This guy did NOT use effective sales techniques AT ALL.

He started off by telling me that the company has an “A” rating with the Better Business Bureau. Well, so what? I happen to know that the BBB is a “pay to play” organization, so that doesn’t mean a thing to me.

Then he started in with all the high pressure techniques. The deal he was giving me had a time limit on it. His crew was going to be in my neighborhood during this particular time, so we needed to get this done as soon as possible. He had all sorts of horrible things to say about the electric company and warned me about the rate increases they were applying for and how much my bill would be going up next year. It was CLASSIC!

When I said I wanted to talk it over with M and I would let him know – he gave us an hour to think about it. And here is where I am so proud of M. I told him everything this guy had been telling me over the phone. M. thought it all sounded pretty good, but he could see that I was hesitant. When I told him I felt like I was being “sold,” M said “if you’re not comfortable, then don’t do it.”

That was all I needed to hear.

When the guy called me back, I told him no. He wasn’t happy, but I think we made the right decision.

I was a bit worried when I came home yesterday and saw how M had been watching TV. Evidently, he had been trying to channel surf – actually, I’m not exactly sure what he was doing, but he got himself into a mess with whatever buttons on the remote he had been pushing. He had the local news on, which we haven’t watched in 15 years (because I find it sensationalized and depressing, but if he wants to watch it . . . ) but there were so many other screens layered on top of it, all he could see was just a shadow of what he was trying to watch under pictures of advertisements for other channels and other shows and he could hear the sound from the news. That was it.

It took me a good five minutes to clear out all that mess.

The problem is, we use the Amazon Fire Stick for our TV, so I’m going to have to write out specific directions on how to find what he wants to watch. I can’t just tape off buttons and say “don’t press this.”

More than anything, I appreciate him having my back with the sales pitch last night. I felt as though I was making the right decision, but it was good to have him agree. No one likes to be “sold.”