Don't believe them: Door to door water scams

(My Original Blog Post: http://truthofwater.com/answers/2008/12/15/dont-believe-them-door-to-door-water-scams/)
In today's world, everybody wants to sell you everything.  You, as a consumer, must be a smart and savvy shopper to see through propoganda. You need to understand what you need and what you don't, and see through salespeople who sometimes lie or bend the truth to make that sale.

Unfortunately, this is sometimes hard to do. Not everyone is an expert on everything, and that is certainly true of water.  Water is one of those things that some unscrupulous sales people like to manipulate to their advantage, since it is crucial to your health and diet.

To bolster sales numbers, there are a number of people going door to door.   Some people are simply trying to sell legitimate products to improve the aesthetics of your municipally treated water, like softeners.

To help you identify what is what, I've come up with this simple checklist for you to follow.

1. Municipally treated water is safe.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you and trying to sell you something you don't need. Don't let them in the door.  If there was a problem with the munipally treated water supply, you'd recieve either a "boil water order" or a "seek alternate supply order" from your local municipality or health unit via the local media.

2. Don't let them take a water sample or "do a test"

The only people who will ask you to take a water sample or do a water test is your local municipal water department or local health unit.  Anyone else will use the opportunity to try to "trick" you into thinking your water is bad by various scams. They might add water to a vial, have it turn black due to a small amount of reagent in the vial, and claim this proves there is "E.Coli" or "lead" or some other harmful substance or microbe.  This is complete falsehood.

3. Ask for their I.D.

If they claim to be from the local municipality or health department, ask for their official identification.  Any member of the local government will have this and will have no problem showing it to you.

4. Call your Municipality and Ask!

If after seeing the identification of the people you aren't convinced it's for real, call your municipality! Ask them to wait outside while you make the call to verify who it is.

5. You have the right to say no.

Unless someone has a warrant or martial law is called, no one has the right to enter your home without your approval. If you have any doubts in your mind, tell them no and close the door. This is your right.

6. Interested? By Invite Only.

If you are interested in investing in home water treatment, call the sales company and invite them to your home for an assesment.  If someone drops by and they are reputable, they will have no problem giving you a card, leaving and coming back when it's convinient for you.  If they try to get overly pushy and try to sell you something now, ask them to leave.  They may claim one time deals or last years model for real cheap right now, but it's not worth it.  When dealing with home water treatment, you want a reputable company with reputable products.  Make sure you get that.

Remember, unless your municipality tells you directly, your water is safe. No private company needs to test your water, and any reputable company will do so only at your request. Don't let a door to door salesman into your home to pressure you into buying something.  Good salespeople make appointments.  Above all, ask for I.D. if they claim their with the municipality. It's your right to the truth.