Two young men came to my front door, claimed they were neighbors, and that they were college students trying to raise money for a summer abroad trip to study in England. They stated they were selling magazine subscriptions that would be donated to veterans in veterans hospitals of my choice. They even had a list of subscriptions with the magazine titles that veterans "preferred" listed in bold. I pointed out that the prices for subscriptions were more than 3 times the amount that the magazine publishers typically charge. The response was that 1/3 went to the magazine, 1/3 to the student, and 1/3 to the company who handled the transaction — Absolute Marketing. Seemed like a good thing to donate good reading materials to a vet, so I signed up for one of the more expensive magazines.
Wondering about the whole thing this evening, I did a web search and discovered all these complaints by others, in which the same story was given, but by different groups (American Legion, high school kids, etc.), some of whom apparently did not indicate the subscriptions were to be sent to veterans. Given the inconsistency among stories by kids selling for Absolute Marketing, my intuition is that it is a scam. I am happy to help out a college kid who needs it; even more happy to send a magazine subscription to veterans' hospitals; but not happy to think that the college kids might have been telling a lie or stretching the truth. I'd hate to think they were taking the money and never sending magazines to anyone. So... I ordered a stop payment on the check. We'll see what happens!
0 comments