BellSouth Going Door-To-Door for Customers

[Khephra]

ATLANTA -- Your local telephone company is picking up where salesmen of vacuum cleaners, vinyl siding and insurance left off.

BellSouth Corp. plans to go door-to-door soliciting residential customers throughout its nine-state territory by early next year.

The effort, which the Atlanta-based company is already testing in select markets, comes amid growing competition from cable providers. The federal do-not-call list also has made it more difficult for telemarketers, like phone companies, to do business, said Tad Neeley, an industry analyst for research firm RHK in San Francisco.

"The telcos are just losing customers; they've got to be aggressive," Neeley said. "They've got to find ways to attract new customers. I think this is a real risk on the nuisance side, but they probably don't have a choice at this point."

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http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-bellsouth-door-to-door,0,7688870.story?coll=sns-ap-business-headlines

Elvis help us if this becomes the next big thing for business sales. If it works for S. Bell, then I can see other companies in other fields duplicating it.

Time to make sure there's a peephole in the front door, I guess....

[salvorhardin]

1. Let's see if I've got this right...

BellSouth is returning to the tried and true business practices of 1929?

Hey, we can't do the monopoly thing anymore and telemarketing doesn't work so well and spam doesn't work too good either... Hell! I know, we'll go personally harangue potential customers. Yeah, that'll work!

[Jawja]

4. Do you have evidence

of BellSouth spam? Just asking.

[Selatius]

2. Just put a sign up that says, "No religious solicitors or salesmen"

Two birds with one stone: Evangelicals and salesmen who care about you only as far as their paycheck.

[FlaGranny]

3. There's a good reason they're losing customers.

Perhaps they should offer what their customers want for good value. Why would someone want to pay the phone company $60 to $70 for what you can get through Vonage for $25 - unlimited calling with all the bells and whistles?