A young man from Palmetto marketing, Inc. came to my door today (08/31/02 2:30PM) and said that he was a neighbor of ours. I listened to what he had to say and he was trying to earn 'points' to win a trip to Mexico. He said that he needed to step in so I let him.

He came in and sat on my couch and asked for a drink of water. I got him a drink and he was telling me how expesive the magazines are. He talked me into 'helping out' and subscribing to a few magazines after the cost of both magazines had been discussed.

He asked me to get the checkbook and write him a seperate check for each magazine that I was ordering. I thought that I was doing the right thing by helping out a neighbor even though I knew that I could get it much cheaper by sending in an insert directly from each of the magazines. I ordered Cosmo and Stuff for my girlfriend and I. Then the prices began to change as I wrote out the check...

There was 'hidden charges' that he had not mentioned...taxes, as he put it, and 'processing fees'. He wanted ten dollars per subscription MORE to put the orders in and that was to 'protect' us from telemarketers and junk mail. The ten dollars (twenty total) was to keep our names from getting to 'scammers' and the processing of our orders. When I called him on that charge, he dropped it in half. After another minute, he said that he could take that off entirely since it had 'confused' me. That's when I stopped and began to question the guy about his company and what would happen if I wanted to cancel the orders.

'You get 15 days to change your mind and cancel the order before the check is even cashed', he told us. After that, you can still cancel and the money would be refunded. He practically begged me to order a few more magazines and just cancel them in 15 days so that he would already have his points and by then, hopefully he would have already won the trip. 'Just write the check now and cancel it to get your money back...' The receipt shows that I paid $10 more than I did. It also says that I paid cash. I did not pay cash.

He told me that the website was going to be on my receipt and also a phone number to call to cancel the orders in 15 days. Both things were a lie. No website... No Phone Number! He did write a phone number on the receipt but it just rings and rings with no answer and no recording of any kind. His name on the receipt cannot be read.

Was I scammed? Did I do the wrong thing?

Taken?
Springfield, Illinois

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