I wonder if you tell them that you have a phobia of talking to strangers and that you are feeling triggered would get them to check a box and leave you alone? Or answer the door with a gun on your hip (if in TX)

Texasclipper said:

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On a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, a man showed up claiming to be a census worker for the government. He said my address was selected to be a part of a survey for needed government economic info and that he wanted to interview me. He also mentioned that I supposedly was sent a letter informing me and asking if i received it. I politely told him we would not be participating and he basically told me they would try again later. Yesterday i received a Fed Ex letter from the Census saying the guy would be back, so i guess i will again have to tell him we will not be participating.

Anyone else experience this? Its annoying that they won't take "no" for an answer. And mailing correspondence Fed-Ex is sure an expensive way of doing things.

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Check his credentials. Take a photo of them with your phone. If they object then you have your answer.

When the "government" calls me and wants me to take a survey, I ask them why they are calling from podunk texas (or whatever my caller id tells me). They hang up immediately.

Tell them to gtfo!

LeonardSkinner said:

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But what about the fava beans and a nice Chianti?

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This is how it's done...

Texasclipper said:

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On a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, a man showed up claiming to be a census worker for the government. He said my address was selected to be a part of a survey for needed government economic info and that he wanted to interview me. He also mentioned that I supposedly was sent a letter informing me and asking if i received it. I politely told him we would not be participating and he basically told me they would try again later. Yesterday i received a Fed Ex letter from the Census saying the guy would be back, so i guess i will again have to tell him we will not be participating.

Anyone else experience this? Its annoying that they won't take "no" for an answer. And mailing correspondence Fed-Ex is sure an expensive way of doing things.

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We had a similar thing happen to us but it was for our young teenage daughter. They said they weer doing a study on teens, alcohol, smoking, vaping, and drugs, it would be completely confidential, and our daughter was selected to be part of it. Hard no. Get off my property and do not come back. Got a certified letter and a couple more visits. Now I'm sure we're on some watch list.

Wipe your ass with their papers, put them in the envelope, and tape it to your No Solicitation sign.

And write "you've been selected by me to gtfo my lawn"

My employer gets these economic surveys every few years from the census bureau.

I don't know about the personal economic surveys, but by law companies have to do them. It sucks because it is a ton of worthless paperwork and I always get tasked with it.

"A census taker one time tried to test me…"

I dealt with this last go around, after getting tired of the phone calls and letters I filled out the paper form for the generic questions and crossed out the questions I didn't care to answer. Probably about 2/3rds of them.

I never heard from them since.

My late father, a disabled WWII US Army Veteran, was a US Post Office Rural Mail Carrier for over 26 years.
His Rural Route was pretty long but he got done about 2:30 to 4 PM daily.
In the rest of the day he crop farmed and kept a small herd of beef cattle, bull & cows. He fattened the male beef calves selling them in the stockyards in South St. Paul, MN.
One day, someone from the Government (US Postal Service) came into the Minnesota, small town, Post Office and asked for him by name. The USPS was trying to "retire" the mail carriers with longevity in the US Post Office. He was offered a 30 year retirement, if he was willing to retire.
He was given 30 days to decide.
After the end of his route that day, he came home and told my mother he was ready to retire and go back to farming full time. .
Postage stamp prices keep going up, and we do not have a fully operational Post Office in either Bryan or College Station.

LOYAL AG said:

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They do this **** to business all the time. They insist you are legally required to participate in whatever nonsense economic survey they're bullying you into doing and they threaten fines if you don't. At one point 25% of my client base was doing surveys of some kind through the Census Bureau which is an incredible hit rate and/or an indication that they're harassing entirely too many small businesses.

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Some years ago someone in my area got tired of the questions from the agriculture department so he quit answering them. Someone showed up to ask questions and ended up talking to a neighboring farmer who answered the questions for him. I don't think the guy ever knew about that.

Rapier108 said:

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My employer gets these economic surveys every few years from the census bureau.

I don't know about the personal economic surveys, but by law companies have to do them. It sucks because it is a ton of worthless paperwork and I always get tasked with it.

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I have gotten several economic ones through the years and always chunk them.
It would take hours to complete (it actually says that on the form).
What small biz has time for all that?

Return any letters from the census bureau claiming they got your pronouns wrong.

If from the fed govt draw a line through each page and write N/A or "not sure". Then mail back to comply.

I've only done this one time.

CDUB98 said:

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AggieT said:

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Anybody that knocks on my door unsolicited meets this guy. He's a big baby that is genuinely excited to meet new people, but it usually stops the sales pitch/ donation request/ etc before it begins. And it makes me so happy.

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Our dog is around 9 lbs. When the doorbell rings, she goes ballistic. Sitting in my office at the front, I see people quickly back away from the door just from her barking.

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I knew a man who was a gang leader in the 50's in Boston. He told me he and his buddies would knock on doors during the day looking for houses to rob. He said when they knocked if they heard a yippy dog they'd leave as they were nothing but trouble. But - he said if they heard quiet sniffing or toe nails tapping behind the door they'd pick the lock and quickly open the door. The dog would almost always run out of the house - they would then run in and close the door leaving the dog on the outside. Not sure if true - but that's what he told me!

Interesting strategy, and probably works sometimes.

I don't even lock the doors. If somebody wants to come past him, a lock wouldn't stop them either.

Bullmastiffs don't usually bark, and tend to tackle and hold whatever they are chasing.

My business partner liked to play rough with him… until he got taken out at the knees and needed my help to get the dog off. I took a few pictures first

BaileyAg said:

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Rapier108 said:

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My employer gets these economic surveys every few years from the census bureau.

I don't know about the personal economic surveys, but by law companies have to do them. It sucks because it is a ton of worthless paperwork and I always get tasked with it.

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I have gotten several economic ones through the years and always chunk them.
It would take hours to complete (it actually says that on the form).
What small biz has time for all that?

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Small businesses w tds employees willing to do a ton of worthless paperwork apparently

Ogre09 said:

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There's a good boy.

('cept I thought it was, "Nicked me a census man last week.")