WAFF-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Huntsville, ALOrdinance underway for door to door salesmen

Several complaints from Huntsville city residents about door to door salesmen have city officials working to regulate who can come to your door and when. 

City officials said they want citizens to feel safe while also giving them options about who can come to their door to sell things. That topic was discussed during Thursday night's work session meeting.

If you walk on Christy Bishop's front steps you will see a figurine that says welcome, but this invite isn't open to all. She wants to keep door to door salesmen off the steps of her Hampton Valley home.

 "Maybe once or twice a month we'll get a door to door salesman to come through and sell magazines or lawn care of some kind," Bishop said.   

Officials with the city said they have had heard reports of aggressive, pushy and persistent sales people, so they're considering whether or not to make door to door salesmen wear identification badges, go through background checks, and whether or not it will apply to groups like girl and boy scouts. They want to make the rules to address the issues as simple as possible.  

Bishop said that she and her neighbors keep their eyes peeled for salesmen.  They even text or call each other if they spot one on their streets.  She said she wasn't always this way, but one bad experience has ruined it for other potential sales people.  

"I was pressured by some kids who said they were in high school selling magazines," Bishop said.  "I felt guilty and I brought their magazines and I bought one for a fundraiser and one for my daughter and six weeks later, I still hadn't gotten any magazines.  So I contacted the Better Business Bureau only to find out that they were out of business and the magazine company did not exist and they'd had multiple complaints against them. And it was a year and a half before it was resolved."

Cases like this and others are what city officials hope to mediate. 

Mayor Battle has asked the police chief and the city attorney to review Madison's no solicitation ordinance to determine what Huntsville's ordinance could be like.

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