A young man came to my door and said that he was a student at the Universityof Texas at Austin majoring in business communications. He said his dad is a plastic surgeon in my town and lives in my neighborhood. He says that he is trying to raise funds for a trip to Europe to study Business Communications in France. He is selling magazine subscriptions in order to make money. He gets "points" for every subscription sold. Several of my neighbors have purchased from him... He showed me a couple of checks from nighbors. Ultimate Power Sales, he says, is the leading sponsor of these types of fund raising programs for college students.
I ask him more about his Dad and he is able to give me general information but nothing specific since he "just moved here to live with his Dad". I must admit I am usually pretty skeptical, but this time a soft moment came through. I orderd a magazine and gave the young man cash (he would get double points for that and I figured he wouldn't have my checking account number). The cost of the magazine was inflated by $14.00 for "shipping and processing".
Long story short - I told him "this better be legit" and he smiled in his most innocent smile and assured me it was. He went on his merry way. I felt uneasy as soon as he left my door. So I got on the internet, looked up the company, found this site - looked up his "dad's" name and found out that was bogus, looked up his "counselors" name and found it was bogus and looked his name up in the UT student directory and found out it was bogus and he is not a student there. I put my great big dog on a leash and set out to find this putz in my neighborhood. I found him three doors down talking with a neighbor. I confronted him with his lies and told him I wanted my money back. I also told him I wanted all of the copies of the receipt. I told him all of the lies I busted him in and he tried to talk his way out of them. He did give me my money and all of the copies of the receipts and took off down the road.
As I am writing this, my doorbell rings again and it is the kids "boss". He askes for a copy of the recipt back. I declined telling him that it contained personal info and proceded to tell him that I discovered their little game and that I had called the police. He said the business is legit and that the kids are "independent contractors". He needed the receipt to show that the kid did not rip off the company. I said no and told him to hit the road.
That is the LAST time I do not listen to my gut - I have never purchased something from someone that I do not know selling door to door until now - and I never will again! Anonymous san antonio, Texas
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