While outside roasting coffee, I was approached by a tall kid with black, curly hair. Introduced himself as Kyle. It was the same story as last time (and almost the exact same time of day):

*Selling magazines in competition with other college-bound youth

*Point based system, in which it seemed like every action that they got me to continue with gave them an arbitrary amount of points (Introducing myself, telling them my profession, etc)

*The main thing – a small selection of common magazines (PC Shopper, Nickelodeon, Field and Stream, etc) for a HIGH price ($49 for 12 months)

I thought about leading them on and keeping them around to shoot the bull with… too shady to have around for more than a couple of minutes. So I told them I would come inside and research their company (btw it was a company suspiciously named “Top Sales” from Huntsville, AL). He suggested I not use Google, but Consumer Reports. I told him I would use anything I wanted. I came inside, with my coffee roasting supplies and my book, Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead by Phil Lesh. I thought about leaving them out there while I called the cops. If I were young and hard up for cash and was doing desperate things like selling magazine subscriptions at 8:00 PM, I doubt jail would be where I would want to end up… Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, I guess. So, I politely told them I was not interested and to be on their way. I went back on the cops thing, though. I didn’t think it was fair to leave them outside as sitting pigeons, however all’s fair if they have a head start. :) I told them the area that we are in and what they were up to. The officer suggested I might also want to call the Knox County Licensing Enforcement (which I haven’t heard of before).

So, if you live in Knoxville, or anywhere for that matter, I would be cautious of these individuals.

That was this time, last time was quite another story…

Last February, this happened to me but it was with a younger female, and it seemed legit enough. I was a sucker… she had a good act, a good story, and she seemed like an honest, good gal. Well, I started searching on the net about this kind of thing after she baited me and ran across this thread about this type of thing. It is an interesting read, with stories from home-owners and the sales-people alike.

So, I sent a certified letter of intent to cancel this purchase, which should have been good enough, but I was worried that it wasn’t. So I cancelled the card I used as well. If you didn’t know,the Federal Trade Commission has enacted a cooling-off period law, which basically states that if you purchase anything from door to door salesmen or through a phone solicitation that was more than $25, you have 3 business days to cancel the purchase.

My card was soon to expire anyway, but I thought I may as well make it expire quicker with a phone call. Visa, my bank’s card of choice, handled it nicely, and I had a new card in 3 days.

This brings me to another point: if you live in Knox County or Knoxville proper, there is a number you can call for any kind of information about city or county services – 311. It is a catch all, county-wide information number for anything from flu shots to police information (non-emergency) to trash pickup. Use it next time instead of looking through the phone book for Knox government listings.

Have a nice weekend, and only buy magazine subscriptions from the publisher, which should only run $1 - $3 per issue.

…Till next time…

.w