S/O: MLMs: Door to Door Magazine Sales

[heyjude]

Big expose in the Atlantic on how scammy this industry is. Too long for me to C&P

www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/04/trapped-into-selling-magazines-door-to-door/388601/?utm_source=SFFB

[mcfelix]

That's terrible. I knew it was scammy but didn't realize how awful.

[heyjude]

Apr 21, 2015 12:31:50 GMT -5 mcfelix said:

That's terrible. I knew it was scammy but didn't realize how awful.

THANK YOU FOR READING!!!!

[pixy0stix]

Oh yeah.

One time I came downstairs in the morning to find my roommate signing up for magazines (because the boy was cute). She had let the guy in and was just chatting with him at the kitchen table. I just told him to get out of my house when he tried to sign me up too. Roommate was appalled at my behavior. Then a couple of months later she was wondering where her magazines were. She was a special little snowflake.

ETA: I think I actually called the police that time, too, since door to door sales were illegal at the time in the city (they're permitted now with licenses).

I tried to explain to roommate how scammy and bad it was for the people involved, too, and she just wouldn't listen.

[mrsbro]

These types of groups come to my neighborhood every summer. I knew they were scammy but goodness. This is horrifying.

[ESF]

When I was in college, I was with a friend at a motel one night, and there were all these kids. We asked them if they were on a school trip, and they said they were selling magazines. We had no idea what they were talking about.

That was when the internet had barely been born. Since that time, we've both sent each other articles whenever we stumble across them about this scummy, scammy industry. It's definitely an under the radar issue, and it's really sad.

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

Oh, and of course:

[meshaliuknits]

They just leave you? Fucked up, man, that's fucked up.

[Deleted]

Are you shitting me? I'm not even halfway through and I'm blown away. They always felt shady to me but I never knew ANY of this stuff.

That's insane.

[heyjude]

I'm glad, 24 hours later, this is getting some traction.

I have never read anything about these groups but everytime they come to my door I feel very unsettled. It's so obviously a scam. Why would anyone pay $75-$100 for a subscription that should be $10-$15?! It makes no sense. I can't believe this hasn't been addressed legislatively.

[dawnzersong]

Naturally, there was a L&O episode about this.

[Deleted]

DH actually let a couple of these kids into our house once. The quoted him all kinds of insanely low magazine prices and he knows I love magazines. So I come home from work and they've pretty much sold him on the super low prices and then they asked for a $160 check. DH was like "uh, that's not at all the prices you quoted me" and I was all "HAHAHHAHA, no, get out my house!" Then they went out and crouched behind our cars like they were hiding from someone until DH went out and told them to leave the area before we contacted the police.

I would put magazine sales right up there with companies like Innovage, which I was stupid enough to sign up with when I was a teenager.

[pescalita]

I did once buy a sub, when I was young and dumb. I was smart enough to be wary, so I made note of it and I did call when I didn't get my sub. They only answered their phones from like 2-4 on Wednesdays, so it was tough to get ahold of them, but once I did they refunded me with no fight. It was odd, but probably the % of people who a) remembered and b) were persistent enough to contact them is so small it wasn't worth the fight.

[Deleted]

Apr 21, 2015 13:48:49 GMT -5 heyjude said:

I'm glad, 24 hours later, this is getting some traction.

I have never read anything about these groups but everytime they come to my door I feel very unsettled. It's so obviously a scam. Why would anyone pay $75-$100 for a subscription that should be $10-$15?! It makes no sense. I can't believe this hasn't been addressed legislatively.

That's what I've always thought. And the people who showed up always looked so, idk, desperate I guess.

[dawnzersong]

Every single person who has come to my house trying to sell magazines follows the same script: "Our company is sponsoring a contest- the person in our sales region who sells the most subscriptions gets a free trip to Paris. Guess who's in the lead right now? That's right- it's ME!" And of COURSE I want to help this fresh-faced young go-getter win a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Or not.

[Deleted]

God, I sold books door to door in college for about 4-5 weeks. I thought I had interviewed for a summer internship and was floored when I showed up in Nashville for the intro session. I went against my gut and ending up peacing out after a few weeks.

It's truly awful on multiple levels.

[rupertpenny]

My mom actually used to do this. She was a manager though, I don't think she did any door to door selling. I'm going to email her this article and see what she says about it.

She did this for a few years in the early 80s directly after graduating college and she has some crazy stories. I don't think what she was doing was quite as shady as this, but of course I also don't want to think badly of my mom. A lot of her stories involve bailing people out of jail and combing a city trying to find missing salespeople so I don't think she was involved in just dumping them. She says the whole experience made her want to go back to school to be a social worker, although unfortunately she never got around to doing that. I wonder if things were at all different 30 years ago or if my mom was just too young and naive to understand what was going on. Anyway, she always buys several subscriptions when people come to the door now.

[JayhawkGirl]

We had a lady sit all day on our neighborhood playground last month. She was one of these victims - told she would have sales experience to get a job as a single mom, not allowed to call home, no cell phone, separated from her baby. Our neighborhood is posted no soliciting and she was afraid someone would call the police. She was waiting for her boss to get her several hours later. And hadn't sold enough to earn her return travel expenses.

Since then the neighbor who talked with her filed a report with the county sheriff in hopes their human trafficking task force will take note.

It's a very sad situation. And such a scam.

[msmerymac]

This honestly reminds me of sharecropping. They can't get home and end up thinking they owe money to their supervisors in the end.