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Currituck County community worried over pushy door-to-door salespeople

Posted at 6:52 PM, Sep 24, 2013
and last updated 2013-09-25 16:57:16-04

Currituck County, NC - A woman in Currituck County says she encountered pushy sales people who tried to force their way into her home while trying to sell a cleaning solution.

Brittney Brinn says a man and woman came to her home selling a cleaning spray.

"She was like, 'I'm here to sell cleaning stuff and she had a spray bottle that looked like you can get it from the Dollar Tree with clear liquid in it," Brinn said.

She told them she wasn't interested, and that's when things got scary.

"She said, 'Let me just come in. It will be real quick. And she pushed on the door and I said 'I'm not interested' and slammed the door."

We asked her how forceful the woman was, and Brinn responded, "She was like on one arm on the door, and I had my foot on the door and if I wouldn't have had my foot on the door, she would have gotten in."

And she says they didn't look to be professionals.

"Just a T-shirt, jeans, nothing labeled," Brinn added.

And the pair visited her friend, Ashley Drexler too. But this time,  it was at night.

"That in itself should throw up red flags. We don't conduct business on the weekends at night, especially door-to-door salesmen," Drexler said.

That's when the two called NewsChannel 3 to Take Action and find out if the man and woman were actual salespeople.

And it turns out, they are.

The Currituck County Sheriff's office told us they received several calls about them, and an investigation showed their names match up with T & B Sales Inc. They're selling Advantage Cleaner Products.

But still, it's enough to make the small town worried.

"Currituck is very big, but our mind set is very small. We have a small town mentality," Drexler added.

NewsChannel 3 has since looked into the company T&B Sales Incorporated.

Steven Wynder, a salesman from the company was arrested for refusing to leave a Moyock woman's home while trying to sell a cleaning spray, according to the Currituck County Sheriff's office.

His photo matches fits Brittany Brinn's description.

When we looked into the company, we found dozens of websites with stories from all over the country similar to Brinn's.

In fact, we also found a letter from the Attorney General of Oregon, warning the state about salespeople from this particular company, saying the AG had gotten complaints of "aggressive sales practices, fraud, theft, and illegal drugs."

Then, we tried calling the company for ourselves.

We were told to call another number -- a number for the man the company says is in charge of their salespeople in the area. Late Wednesday afternoon, the representative called us back, but he denied that the people who work for him use the pushy tactics Brinn told us about. He also told us he only had men working in the area.

He got off the phone with NewsChannel 3 less than a minute after returning our call.

The Sheriff's Office told NewsChannel 3 they received several calls about Wynder and the woman he was with, but Wynder wasn't charged with anything other than the one count of trespassing.

Officers add the two have since left the county to continue their sales somewhere else.