For your safety, please read. Please be aware of the new scheme door to door sales man do to sell their wares! It is quite long please be patient and it will be worth your time.
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Remember back in the day when a group of people go to a certain barrio (village) shouting "offer!" short for special offer of products like detergent, bath soap, floor wax and milk? There is a new breed of them but this time they do it budol-budol style.
We had such one encounter just a week ago. He comes and calls the attention of the people at the house, from the gate. When answered, he introduced himself as an employee of the municipal office and says that he is there for census. And seeing that old people are at the house, added it is census for senior citizen.
Naturally, my mother let him in to the yard stopping at the front door by way of the house help as my mother is barely able to walk. After entering he started bombarding them with questions not even related to census like what type of electrical protection do we have (is it fuse or breaker) then opened the door and before my mother and the help realizes what was going on, he is already inside the house looking at our electrical panel. Seeing that we have breakers, he changed his question (obviously he is selling electrical breakers) and asked the condition of our liquified petroleum gas (LPG) hose.
I should try to describe that our LPG hose was changed a year ago and it was the triple layer kind reinforced with threads which is expected to last for at least five years (just underrating it).
Immediately after asking and without waiting for a reply, he was already at the kitchen opening the kitchen cabinets looking for the gas line. When he found it, made a quick inspection then said there are already cracks on the hose and needs to be replaced.
Before my mother or the help could react, he has already removed it and replacing it with a new one. When he was done (mind you in just a minute, as described to me later) he was charging them with P740.00. When I come home later in the week, I found the hose in-place is a very cheap hose similar to the soft, plastic garden hose that a rat could easily bite thru. It is priced by a dealer at town for only P250.00!
Doing all that chore, he probably got starved and asked if there are some food he could eat to which he was offered some fish. My mother then told him to remove it since she has only P500.00 in her purse not enough to cover the P740.00. Imagine my shock when I was told that the salesman told my mother to go out to the neighbors and borrow some money!
I could just imagine my reaction if I was there the time that it happened. Most of which would never see print. What kind of a person would send an old woman who could barely able to walk from her room to the dining table outside in the scorching midday sun to go to the neighbors and borrow money? I would not even tell my mother to go in the kitchen to get her own glass of water now here is an animal of a person telling her to do worse!
They finally settled it by him agreeing to come back again to collect the balance plus additional P100.00 for his fare cost! To cut the story short, he did not come back the agreed day but a week later. Luckily I was around but when he was told that he talk to "the son" he suddenly backed out intially insisting that he only talks to the "old woman" he had a deal the previous weeks. But when our house help insisted he talks to the son, he went away telling to come back later instead. My take on this was that, he did not come as scheduled exactly to avoid meeting me as he is probably aware that I will be told of what happened and I will be there waiting for him. He was right! Unlucky for him, I was still at the house when he came. After the last time he was here, he did not come back again.
At this point, I would like to remind everyone about my barangay advisory not to let anybody in. If it is a census and it is the real thing, they can ask their questions through our gates. It may not sound nor look nice but for our own safety, we have to do it. The rule is, if you don't know the person, do not ever let him/her in.
Good thing that what happened to us is just a case of an overpriced purchase. There could be worse that may happen. By letting a stranger in, you are giving not just a glimpse but full view of what to steal. And if it is worth it, they will visit again. This time at night.
Please share if you care for the welfare of your family and friends.
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