I just ignore them
I don’t think the men who want to left alone and fighting back quote is really a great fit for solicitors knocking at the door
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Put up crime scene tape, works in SLC. 
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We don’t get many solicitors out here in the boonies. If we were having a regular issue with them I like the suggestion above from our long lost moderators of posting no trespassing signs.
If the very clear no trespassing signs didn’t send a strong enough message I would have a follow up sign next to the door bell saying something along the lines of - since you ignored all the no trespassing signs and are now trespassing on my property you should be aware that the penalty for trespassing is (insert your local laws code # and penalty with the maximum amount of fines and jail time here) if you ring the bell, knock on the door or do anything else other than leave this property immediately I will be calling 911. Your face and license plate number have already been recorded.
Though also be aware that not all people on your property without invitation are necessarily trespassing. I had a job where I had to do pre con surveys for power pole replacements. The utility companies often have right of ways and verbiage built into their customer contracts that allow their workers to access the property. I have had to ignore an awful lot of no trespassing signs. It can be a little nerve racking because I know I was not trespassing but until I knocked on the door to tell them what I was up to the owners didn’t.
Fortunately most people are friendly as soon as they figure out you are there for necessary repairs and maintenance and not just a random solicitor or thief.
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I believe in Butch as well! 
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I also get the impression that you’re wearing some type of uniform? With I.D.
Backpacks, school notebooks, cellphones are all bullsh/t!
These people are not here at my request for services nor do they work for my city services.
These are not your typical sales people, these are all trying to gain entry!
Furthermore, sales people don’t usually come with a accomplices 
Behind each and every one is an accomplice, not always in camera view.
And what’s with the cellphones?
I’ve seen every tactic used over the past four years!
So I only have one last question for USCCA, how does one AVOID this type of home invasion!
Thank God, my laws, are NEVER, EVER open the door. So, who’s the prisoner?
If they were on fire and bleeding, that cellphone in their hand seems like their best option! NOT MY HOUSE
I’ll be introducing a bill to legalize claymores and residential electrified fences!
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I don’t have a uniform. I do wear an orange safety vest that usually puts people at ease but is also a tactic used by some criminals so it can put people on guard as well. I have some folded papers from the utility in my vest pocket explaining that I am a contractor for them, what I am doing and a number to call at the utility for confirmation. But all of that could be easily faked.
I am also almost always walking around with a cell phone in my hand because I use mapping software to locate the exact work area and then record all my data into an app on the phone. I’m usually alone but do occasionally work with a partner who probably would hang back a little when I approach the door so we don’t present a double threat right outside the door.
Fortunately I work almost exclusively in very rural areas where solicitors are very rare and home invasions almost none existent. The people there are cautious but usually not on edge. Given your location and the number of random solicitors I can totally understand your concern and annoyance. Some of your solicitors could be students doing some fund raising thing. But that would also be a good cover for someone trying to gain entry.
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Interesting, just about everything you describe doing would put me on high alert. They guy hanging back would scare me the most. “WTF is he up to” I’d be thinking… “lure me out and ambush, then go inside and rape my wife and/or rob the place?” The orange vest is also a red flag for me, for exactly the reason you said, criminals use them. The cell phone? I’d assume you were photographing my house and property to possibly plan your entry later on.
Basically, unless you had parked a big bucket truck in front if my house with my electric company logo on the side, no way I’d have opened the door for you, and if you were walking around my property without my permission I’d probably call 911 on you and report a suspicious pair.
Not attacking you at all brother, just saying they way they sent you out in the field seems unsafe in these modern times.
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When i lived on the northside of Richmond we used to get solicitors all the time. The only thing that i ever found that actually worked? I opened the front door with blood up to my elbows from processing deer meet. Never seen a guy in a polo run so fast in my life 
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That made me literally laugh out loud!!! 
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There are usually notices mailed out a month or so before the work happens so some people know we are coming at some point though most just throw the envelops in the trash with the rest of their junk mail.
I make sure that I approach directly in a none threatening manner with my hands visible even. I knock on the door or ring the bell and then step back far enough so it would not be easy for me to get to the door when the owner comes to it. I’m pretty good at giving off non threatening vibes. On several occasions the owners were surprised their dogs didn’t bark because they always bark at strangers. I have had several threatening encounters with dogs but I am more often greeted with a wagging tail.
People tend to let their guard down after they size me up. I often have to turn down invitations to came in for a snack or a drink:)
There are also times when I get a bad vibe and refuse to enter the property until the utility contacts the owner and schedules a specific time.
Many of my coworkers have had issues but aside from some tense beginnings I almost always end the interaction on good terms even when the home owner starts out looking for a fight. Most realized I was there as part of the process to keep power going to their homes. With the ones that hate the utility company I have the advantage of being an independent contractor so can empathize with their displeasure and let them know I don’t work directly for the company and am just their trying to make a living.
For better or worse most people are either trusting of others or trusting of their gut feelings. I know trusting my gut has kept me out of a lot of trouble over the course of my life.
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I wish that it were the movies…we could answer doors with barrels aimed at them and suggest that they obey the polite signs…or come up behind them from the bottom of the step the same way. We really are breeding an army of idiots.
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I am getting ready to have to pursue legal avenues to deal with the dumbass right-of-way cutting contractors for our power company. They destroyed a 30 yard section of my mile long driveway, cut 4 trees that were not even part of the right of way and posed no danger to the lines, left said trees just in a pile in my right of way that had seeded grass growing in it, and destroyed a 30’ section of drainage ditch, along with putting ruts all in my yard because these idiots decided to drive all over my yard after it had been raining for 3 weeks straight. The power company has already been notified that the company they currently have contracted is no longer welcome on my property due to the property damage and I will have them arrested for trespassing if they ever set foot on the property again. there is a reason property owners dislike the jackleg contractors these power companies higher…
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The tree clearing and various construction contractors can be really variable. Some of them have been doing it a very long time and know how to do a good job and others are new and clueless and/or just out to make the fastest buck possible. Though when clearing trees for lines you either have to take a lot of trees out or limb the trees you leave in ways that usually don’t look all that pretty.
In CA the utilities are under a ton of pressure to get all the ROWs cleared as fast as possible to avoid getting sued when wind down trees cause fires. It will take decades for them to catch up on all the maintenance including replacing all the sometimes century old wood power poles with ones that are more fire resistant.
The contractors that cause significant problems usually don’t get their contracts renewed but there is so much work to do and so few qualified contractors to go around that they rarely get fired mid contract. Sometimes the utilities have no other choice but to hire the same bad companies again later down the road because of the limited options or those companies dissolve and come back with the same crappy workers under a new company name:(
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Don’t open the door
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Let me clarify, how do I keep them from getting to the door❓
You can only stop cockroaches for a while with bug spray,
eventually traps must be set!
Crime PREVENTION not cleanup!
FYI claymore faces easement, not my mess!
I have very few pet peeves, I don’t like sand in the cracks and I don’t like unwanted persons approaching my castle without permission!
There was a damn good reason for moats and drawbridges!
If I had the strength I would dig it myself!
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Yeah, kids these days probably don’t understand what “soliciting” even is.
Rent a backhoe for a couple of days!
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NNNOOOO Not The Twelve Lessons!!!
We send them to out “Friends”…
Don’t think I haven’t given it some consideration and not just for excavation of the moat!
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