Complaint Review: Palmetto Marketing

Just tonight, "Jeff" came to my door rather enthusiastically claiming he was senior and that I need to vote for him so he would win a trip to (guess where? Cancun). He even asked me if I would like to join him. I was completely confused, I didn't know what he meant by "vote" for him. He shoved a laminated list into my hand and said, "Pick out your favorite one." That's when I realized he was soliciting mags.

He tells me that for every magazine he sells, he earns a certain amount a points, which I see on the list. (I noticed the list didn't have the prices for the magazines on it, though.) He tells me that he's only a couple hundred points away from however much he needs to get the trip, and if I buy one from him, that's all he needs.

He says to me: "I know what you like. Cosmo, right?" Bullseye. I was actually about to subscribe to Cosmo and thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea to buy it from him since I would be helping him out too. I ask how much this will cost me and he told me I would get Cosmo for two years for only twenty bucks. Then he convinces my boyfriend into getting Maxim for twenty dollars, a deal because it was the "subscription of the day".

We let him in for a little bit and he's talking about how excited he is because he was all done, he can go home now, he's been doing this for NINE weeks. That was the first thing that made me wonder. I asked him what school he went to and he said that he wasn't even from this state, he was from Ohio! How could he be a senior in high school or college if he was travelling all over for nine weeks?!?!?

While he was inside he was asking for weed and talked about how he had been to so many different places including my hometown, Kansas City. I thought that was the most outrageous thing ever. Why would someone travel out of state just to sell magazines for a school trip?

So we pay him in cash 40 bucks (I'm a dumbass, I know, but that was all I had) and he quickly leaves. Thank god, I thought he was a bit obnoxious. I looked at the reciept he gave me. That's when I started to think I got ripped off. First, he told me that Cosmo was going to be 20 bucks, but on my reciept he wrote $18. And there's some kind of processing fee for 10 bucks that he didn't charge me for. He was going to, first he wrote 48 for the total cost, then he scribbled it out and changed it to only 40.

So I run outside hoping I would see him walking about, but he was gone.

I forget about it for a few hours, and decide to look up this company, Palmetto, to see if it even exists. And sure enough I find this website.

I read the reports from ex-employees and how these kids are treated, and now I don't hold it against "Jeff" at all. Before I read this website, I thought this was something he was doing on his own, but now I know this is bigger than that. I know some people did get their magazines after several months, but considering I paid cash, I doubt I will ever get mine.

Lisa
Melbourne, Florida
U.S.A.