Tarter Sauce On My Notes

The life of an Avon Lady is NEVER boring.  Well mine isn’t, but then I’m hardly ordinary so of course  it would be extraordinary for me.  Now pair me with my sister, and fellow Avon rep, and well  things will always be interesting.

Monday we cruised out with a car loaded down with Avon brochures, each inside a plastic bag, then rolled and rubber banded.  We toss them in driveways, just like the newspaper and the weekly store ads.  It has proven quite effective as we always gain a few new customers.  Generally we toss the same neighborhood 3 times then move to a new one.  Anyone who calls in an order is  considered a customer and we will then place the books on their doors.  This time I had a few boxes of left over brochures so we hit the neighborhood I grew up in.  We tossed them all and headed home.

We use this method to distribute the brochures because we toss roughly 700-1000 per campaign between the two of us, all within 2 hours or less.  To walk door to door and hang that  many would take a week.

Later that day I received a phone call from a gentleman that asked if this was the Marti that is the Avon lady.  While he would not give me his name, I know who he is because he provided his address.   He asked me to stop throwing my garbage  in his  driveway.  I calmly apologized for any  inconvenience and promised not to ever do this again, and would add him to our  “do throw  list”.  He  seemed to want to push the complaint end with me a bit so I listened politely and again apologized.

Today as we were headed out to work this Wild and Wacky Wednesday recruit-a-thon, my district manager lets me know she heard from the  man too.  This  man first texts her and then calls her to inform her that the head of the neighborhood block watch there has me on video tape throwing my brochures in drive ways and that they have called the Better Business Bureau,  the City, the Police, and he might call the paper.  Oh and of course he called to complain to Avon and that is how he was able to get my district managers  number.  REALLY?????? ARE WE SERIOUS?   Oh. My. Gawd.  Pick up the damn thing and throw it  in the trash if you don’t want it! You asked me on the phone, I very politely and professionally agreed to never bother you again.  Next thing you know Crime Stoppers will be featuring the video tape of me throwing Avon brochures in the driveways of potential customers.  BAAAA HAAAA HAAAAAA! Well, we believe in “go for the no” and I would imagine that is about as “NO” as it gets.  In a world so full of pain and serious issues…war, cancer, child abuse, poverty…you seriously complain about one lousy brochure?  Amazingly small minded individual.  Maybe he would prefer I go on welfare and he  can support me?

This rattled my brain so much today that over lunch with my sister, while  waiting for our afternoon recruit appointments, I ended up laying my notes in my cole slaw, and then my tarter sauce from my  Big Boy sandwich. Unbelievable.

OH, on a positive note, that same area  where Mr. Self Appointed Crime Prevention lives…well I gained 2 new customers, and a new recruit to my team.  I did warn her NOT to leave her brochures at his home. He gets his boxers all knotted up over it.