It got so bad I had to disconnect my doorbell.

I had an apartment where I was Apt. #1. All day long while I was trying to sleep people would ring the doorbell asking "Hi. Are you the building manager?? Is there an apartment for rent???" Answer: "No. The manager's apartment has the word MANAGER after his name."

There was also the usual missionaries and door-to-door sales people.

I finally realized I did not need an operating doorbell and disconnected it. If someone was coming by, whom I was expecting, I waited in the locked lobby for them.

I have a friend who likes to scare off missionaries and door-to-door salespeople by answering the door to his home naked. They don't linger and they don't ever come back. This trick only works to scare people off if you are a man - otherwise it backfires.

it never gets used anywhere but on those signs.

And even if they do know, they probably figure, nothing ventured,nothing gained.

People still send spam, even though it's pretty clear no one wants it.

You need a real-life equivalent of "delete, delete, delete."

I wonder if a "do not disturb" sign would be more effective?

And if they're getting past some beginning level of security, you could complain about that.

it doesn't happen for us very much, even w/ the "no soliciting" signs not being very clearly posted. Every now and then we get a political candidate's volunteers. My DH tells them "we don't allow this," and the volunteer gets all huffy and talks about "rights," and DH says, "you will make ENEMIES for your candidate if you ring all the bells in the buildings on this block."

We also only carry cell phones and this was one of the reasons why. When we have to give a phone number I give my office number. Its GREAT!

Thankfully the management office is very attentive to tenant complaints. Nobody's been knocking on doors for now. I've also told on people going into th area pan handling from residents.

Now, onto the cell phone thing. Cell phones are not exempt from solicitation as long as the call is dialed by hand. They are exempt from solicitations using automated dialing machines. The reason you don't get any solicitations via your cell phone is that all of the large places use automated dialers and the small places can't afford to buy your number because the number of successful sales to cell phones is too small. There is a registry you can sign up for that relates to cell phones much like your land line.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/06/dnccellphones.htm

The only call's we get on our cells are from the dang cable company. They want us to expand our package, etc. What really bothers me is they call after 9pm. Two weeks ago it was 9:30 and 8 weeks ago it was 10:40pm! Last time they made a note in their file that if we were contacted again we were going dish.

Get a doormat that says 'Go Away.'

I usually just say I'm not interested. If the people honor that, I'm nice. If not, hang up or close the door.

I decided to make a new sign, in larger letters, that would encompass what I wanted. It seems to be working, as I have not had a single knock on my door for over a month now. It reads "ABSOLUTELY NO canvassing, soliciting, or any other door-to-door presentations. Thank you."

Perhaps if I put up a picture of a scene from the movie Hostel then they will not knock on my door.

I'm not sure,but I think soliciting means to sell something.Mormon missionaries,while maybe annoying,arent selling anything.They can actually be quite nice too.We had two young missionary boys offer to help us shovel our cars out of the snow. They gave a us a free bible and were not trying to sell anything.If you arent intrested,just tell them so,they will leave you alone.

We don't often get sales-people, though we did get college kids trying to sell magazines on their spring break a few weeks ago - told them I was saving up for a house and had no extra money. I guess if I was bothered constantly, I probably would also put up a sign. Normally I peak out of the eyehole and then wait for them to go away.

No missionaries or knocking since =D