After reading everyone’s posts, I feel like such an idiot. Just the other day, on 1/4/08, a young black guy named David Howard came to my door around 8:00 p.m. re: magazine subscriptions for points for a college scholarship. (I’m white, but live in a predominately black neighborhood, so a black guy knocking on my door is nothing unusual.) This guy said he had come to Miami, FL all the way from Buffalo, NY. That in itself seemed odd to me - why not sell the mags in Buffalo? I told him, “Sorry, but I’m not interested.”
He proceeded to show me the receipt of my neighbor across the hall (who is black) who had just bought books from him for his kids. That made me feel a little better that “maybe this isn’t a scam,” but I still said, “I’ve got more than enough magazines that I don’t have time to read that are just cluttering the house.” That’s when he chimed in that I could DONATE a subscription to a charity such as St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Of course that tugged on my heartstrings, so I said OK.
I looked at his stapled/folded list of things to order. I asked the price of some things, looking for something cheap (I wanted to help him, but didn’t want to buy everything and kitchen sink). I cut to the point - “What’s the cheapest thing on the list that gives you the most points - the most bang for your buck.” He said he didn’t know. I joked with him, “See, THAT’s what you should be pitching - get people to spend a little money on something that gets you the most amount of points.” He didn’t have anything to say to that.
As I was looking at the list, he kept interrupting me with questions and comments. “Are you Hispanic?” I told him, “No, my Mom is Asian and my Dad is American.” He apologized profusely and said “he hoped he didn’t offend me.” I told him, “Don’t worry about it - people always think I’m Spanish.” He proceeded to tell me that his background is Black, Puerto Rican, and Cherokee Indian and lifted up his pant leg and showed me that “he got a tan” from being in Miami, by comparing his hand color to his leg color. He proceeded to say his step father in Canada was black and something else - he couldn’t remember. He remained pleasant, polite, and friendly and full of compliments. I should have smelled a scam by now, but no.
I asked him the price of a book - Christian Bedtime Poems & Prayers. He said he’d check - he said the points don’t determine the price. He said he’d have to look up each one to correlate the price. I asked him the price of two more (looking for something cheaper). I wanted to help him, but I didn’t want to get had. The forms looked legit and, although I thought the $12.00 process/handling fee was a bit high, I figured it was for a good cause. He said he had been going door to door all day and was glad to find our condominium complex. It was an unusually chilly night for Miami. He said his feet were tired and asked if I minded if he squatted down while I looked at the list. Again, he made me feel bad for him.
After I inquired about the prices of three books, he pointed out that since I inquired about three magazines/books (even though I didn’t have to buy all three), that he got extra points for that. I told him I only wanted to order “Jesus Loves Me” to be sent to St. Jude’s. So he said he’d just cross out the ones I didn’t want, because if he wasted an order form, he’d lose points. He said the book I ordered is “gilded” and some other stuff about how special the book is. He started with small talk again and when I mentioned that my husband is Italian, he said, “That’s right! That’s what my stepfather is - Italian. I knew it was something European like that.” I guess he is trained to relate to people and make them feel comfortable. Well, it worked, because I ended up giving him $30 cash ($18 down and $12 process/handling fee). I didn’t want to write a check in case it was a scam, because I didn’t want him to have my account number. However, I owe another $23.95 to be mailed in.
I filled out my mailing address on the form, because he said that the charity will send me a postcard to thank me for the donation (I figured it didn’t hurt to give him my address. After all, he’s on my door step - he knows where I live). He said to make sure I press hard, because if I didn’t, the company won’t be able to read it and he’ll lose points. He gave me all the instructions for what to do with the remaining balance and the carbon copies. He also asked me to write down 3 comments about him on the back of the card I was to send in with my payment, because he would get an additional 150 points. He even gave me a postage-paid envelope to send the payment in with. He explained that I could cancel the order within three days, but pleaded with me to not cancel, because he didn’t want to lose his points. I kept feeling bad for this guy.
Today, before mailing in my check for $23.95, I searched the Better Business Bureau (http://bbb.org) to do some research on them. Chapel Sales, Inc. is apparently a legitimate company and somehow has good ratings with the BBB. Even so, I also did a search on Google for Chapel Sales, Inc. That’s how I found this site. Even though this company sounds like a scam, I’m going to send in the remaining $23.95 - just to avoid potential billing/collections issues. The last thing I need or want is to get on Chapel Sales’ collections list and start getting harassing letters in the mail saying I owe them $23.95. From what I read on everyone’s posts, Chapel Sales, Inc. apparently doesn’t answer the phone or respond to mail that people send them.
Another thing - since he had told me the names of various charities I could donate to, I asked him, “How do I make sure that St. Jude’s gets the book - you didn’t designate anywhere on the form that it was St. Jude’s that I picked.” I told him to write “St. Jude’s” on the form so that they know where to send my donation. He said that he’d write it later on the top portion (the part that keeps the carbon copies together that you tear the receipt off of.) It just didn’t make sense. Why didn’t he want to write St. Jude’s on the form?
I’m going to consider this a $53.95 lesson learned the hard way - through my wallet. After reading the post by “M” (the one who said she worked for Chapel Sales), I feel sorry for this guy David, and I’m just glad and blessed that losing $53.95 won’t break the bank for me. I just hope that St. Jude’s actually receives the book I bought for them. I’m also hoping (since this company is sending its representatives across state lines in order to do the “scamming”) that they can be charged federally, if an action ever ensues. |
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