Imported Beggars
 

It's summer. School is out. And that means kids are being bussed to Bloomington for the day from Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis to solicit for magazine subscriptions.

It's a cruel form of indentured servitude IMO. The kids are promised cash, prizes, and trips to Europe....IF they can sell enough subscriptions. They never do. Instead they are bussed from town to town for weeks and left alone for up to 10 hours a day to sell their quota...until they give up and stay home. They rarely get any kind of reward. I suspect that the drivers that recruit them keep most of the spoils. I notice that many (not all) of the vans that carry these kids are church vans, and they range in age from 13 to 17.

As cruel as it sounds, I always refuse to buy from them. I figure that long-term, the best thing is to get rid of the incentive to treat the kids this way, not reward it with my money and likely no compensation for the kid regardless.

at least it's not the moonies.

same or better then mandatory volunteer like some colleges or high schools requires. Simple BS.

"Hi, I'm your neighbor from down the street, and I'm selling magazine subscriptions to help fund my class's trip to Latvia this summer..."

"Yeah? What's the ZIP code here?"

"Uh..."

"Bye!"

I've had some of those kids get pissy with me when I cut them off and asked, "Are you selling magazines?"

Different generation, same old scams...

The sign above my doorbell says "No Soliciting" If I answer the doorbell and see a solicitor, I close the door without a word.

You need to be careful. Some of these scams are targeting seniors for credit cards and for checks. You give them a check and they use the numbers to create fake checks and drain bank accounts.

12 ga

Once, in a moment of weakness, I gave in to a very persuasive young man and took a 2-year subscription to Automobile magazine. It wound up costing me $70!

My doorbell is broken, no button on the switch and I have no plans to ever repair it. I've never viewed a ringing doorbell as a call to action. If it's worth my time, they know how to call or email.

I call the cops.
There are strict rules in our town regading door-to-door solicitations, to prevent fraud and theft. Gotta have a permit.

I also have a "No Solicitor's" sign on my door.
Seems as though no one knows what a 'Solicitor' is...

The Moonies are too busy making and selling guns

Isn't that a Brittish lawyer?

The Moonies are too busy making and selling guns (Kahr and Auto Ordinance)

Or a British lawyer.
:D

Damn typos! SmileWavy

2 funny things........

1.......had a guy totally interrupt me one night, goes on and on and on about putting new windows in our house.......i let him go on for 20 minutes......then told him i'm a renter (and the fact that we HAD BRAND SPANKING NEW WINDOWS with the stickers on them still).....he was steaming that "i wasted his time"....

2......ANY time a politician supporter comes to my door i just tell them i'm Canadian......

My 12 year old son loves popular science magazine. I can't stand it but he likes it so his aunt gets his a subscription every Christmas.

I had one of those "students" come to my door trying to sell subscriptions a while back. I asked how much a subscription would be for popular science.
He looked it up and said it was $24 for one year.
I walked over and grabbed a copy off the table and opened it up and showed the guy that popular science charges $14 for one year and asked why he was trying to charge me $10 more than full cover price. He mumbled something and walked away.