Complaint / Review
Second To None
Door-to-door seller charmed me into $119 magazine subscriptions

First of all, let me say that I never answer the door. I hate talking to strangers and just do not like to be bothered, even by someone I know, unless I have invited them. That said, I was expecting someone at 5 pm, so when the doorbell rang, I did not hesitate to answer it. As soon as I opened the door, I had a strong instinct to say "thanks, not interested" and shut it, but of course I didn't.

Instead, I allowed myself to be charmed by the guy at the door. He was very, very personable, honestly someone who should have been an actor or a comedian, and sharp as a tack. I was so impressed with him that I felt like throwing money at him. He was just likeable.

He introduced himself and the young woman he was with, saying that they were not political campaigners and knew I was busy and did not want to take up much time. Then he started with "Let me ask you, what do you do for a living?" and was generally very engaging: what do you do, how did you get into that, sounds so interesting, I've never met a writer, this is such a beautiful neighborhood, and so on. Somehow in there he worked in that he and this girl were selling magazine subscriptions for some program. By that point I was so snowed that I was not even paying attention to what he was selling. All I knew was that he was hilarious, and I felt sorry for him having to walk around selling magazines door to door.

The whole time I was half riveted by his personality and half terrified that he was going to pull out a gun or something, because he chatted on and on for at least five full minutes without telling me why he was at my door. Half of me wanted to say no thanks and shut the door, but half of me thought I should give the guy a chance and help him out. Finally he stopped the small talk and got to the point: they were selling magazines. He handed me a dog-eared packet of papers, all creased and written on and, not to be gross, reeking of tuna or something. He tried to explain some random thing about how if I buy this many subscriptions he gets this many points, and so on. There were no prices, just handwriting scrawled all over the place and thumbnail pictures of the different magazines. I had to ask him a few times "How much does it cost?" and even then he was very vague. All I can say is that I was totally brainwashed. It was like I did not care what he was selling or how much it cost. I just wanted to help him out.

There I was in my big fancy house, and there he was pounding the pavement trying to make an honest buck. This was not how he presented it, but somehow it is how he came across, and it absolutely worked. I just wanted to hand the guy some money, and it did not even matter to me how much the magazines cost. Or maybe it was because I had a bad feeling and just wanted them to leave, so I wanted to pay him and be able to shut the door. So I quickly selected two magazines, Working Mother and Fast Company. Every time I asked "How much is this one?" he gave a fast-talking answer like "the cover price" or something vague. Then of course it turned out that the minimum subscription is two years at the cover price per issue. Everyone knows subscriptions cost less than the cover price, but for whatever crazy reason, even knowing this, I agreed to purchase two subscriptions.

He then handed me a bill for $119, and I scribbled out a check and basically threw it at him so he would leave. Everything in me was screaming that it was not right and I should not be talking to him at all, let alone writing him a check, but I went right ahead and did it.

Long story short: luckily this just happened yesterday, and the minute I closed the door I turned the sales slip over and realized I have three days to cancel, so I will be mailing the cancellation tomorrow. I just hope I do not have the same problems getting my money back that other people have written about. I have half a mind to stop payment on the check, but to be honest, I do not want my husband to know how stupid I was to write these strangers a check for $119 for two-year subscriptions to two magazines I did not even want.

As someone else reporting about this company's scam said, these kids selling magazines are either the most talented liars in the world or the company has totally snowed them and they are actually sincere. Either way, the whole thing makes me sick, from having my privacy violated by strangers walking up to my door to now having to worry about getting my money back. I hate that this happened to me in the safety of my own home. Sure, I could have said no and slammed the door, but honestly, it was almost like I was scared and just wanted to get them to leave in the easiest, quickest way possible, and if that meant buying into their obvious scam, I apparently was fine with that.

Keep your fingers crossed that I get my money back, and please spread the word: if someone comes to your door, charming, telling you a sob story about how he is working to make money to go to school to become a computer technician or something along those lines, tell him sorry, I do not have time for this, and shut the door in his face.

Oh, and by the way, the thing that tipped me off that this was a scam was when I looked at the receipt to Google the company, and it was not even clear what the company is. It says, in bold, "SECOND to NONE, Inc" and then, on the next line, "Participating in the American Cash Award." So I do not know if you would classify this as Second to None or American Cash Award.