Deputy says customers let guard down in phony sales pitch

by Karen Keefe
Grand Island Dispatch, June 22, 2007

Erie County Sheriff’s deputies last week ended up stopping representatives of a magazine sales company from continuing their solicitation on Grand Island, following several complaints that it was a scam.

Officers questioned the sales representatives, examined the documents and sent the company packing.

One complaint filed June 12 with the Sheriff’s Department indicated that a tall young woman, about 23 years old with red hair in pigtails, was going house-to-house on River Oaks Drive saying she was “collecting for a softball team, but was giving a different story to every household.” Other reports indicated that the young woman was selling magazines subscriptions, but that a portion of the proceeds would help send a local softball team on a trip. Claims that there was a sponsorship or charitable component to the sales proved untrue, deputies said. It was part of a misleading sales pitch that upset a number of residents.

One woman on River Oaks Drive said she gave the saleswoman money, but then went down the street to ask for her money back. She told police she found a gray van with out-of-state plates and two men waiting for the saleswoman. The van took off.

Later that day, deputies on patrol tracked down and stopped the vehicle in question on East River Road and identified three subjects, two women, aged 19 and 20, and a 27-year-old man, all from Georgia. They were selling magazines from Tuscan Reader Services Inc. of Buford, Ga., reports said.

Deputies investigated the complaints received from Island residents, questioned the subjects and determined that the company was a legitimate one, albeit with deceptive sales practices. Deputy Terrance Guenot said officers learned the salespeople were independent contractors, not agents or employees of the company. He said the sales person “was deceiving people, saying they live in the local area and that their softball team was going to Hawaii or Atlanta.”

Guenot said there’s a saying that describes the incident: “Let the buyer beware.” He said if those who purchased subscriptions had read the documents, they could have determined the sales pitch was a misrepresentation and avoided the buyer’s remorse they later experienced.

On the receipt, in a prominent box with a black arrow and the words: “Customer please read,” Tuscan Readers explains that the company is “not in any way related to a non-profit or charitable organization, donation, sponsorship or ‘scholactical’ program of any kind. In fact, it is a for profit enterprise.”

Also, the receipt indicates the first issue of the purchased subscription “should be received within 120 days,” but that the buyer could cancel the transaction only if the action was taken within the first three days after the purchase.

Guenot said the terms of the purchase don’t make common sense. “It’s not up to the police to say to people ‘use common sense.’”

He said customers of the company who were upset with the Sheriff’s Department over the incident were angry with the wrong people. “We threw them off the Island,” he said of the sales force. “But we can’t get people’s money back. We’re not a collection agency.”