No I will not donate to your college fund

[DaParkers]

Awhile back two African American boys rang my doorbell selling magazines for college as well. This is pretty much an all-white neighborhood, and when I answered the door the first thing they said to me is "Don't be scared, we aren't here to harm you". That infuriated me! I couldn't believe that they assumed I would be scared because they are black! Despite their ignorance, I listened to their pitch, and then told them that I wasn't interested. The one kid then said to me "Oh, come on, you can afford it. Your garage is as big as my whole house". That REALLY ticked me off. I finally told them I wasn't interested and wished them good luck before I shut the door.

The whole incident really bothered me. I would have turned them down no matter what color they were. I have one kid in college and another one heading there next year. I am more concerned with paying for my own kids to go to college. It's as simple as that.

You may have not felt that way, but many do. It is an unfortunate reality than many black men face. Even though I question the sincerity of their visit, they did the right thing by letting you know that they meant no harm.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

So I just had two girls stop by my house. They introduced themselves and said they were selling magazines subscriptions as part of a scholarship program for college. At this point I didn't make any judgement. At least they were selling something to make money. I politely told them no, that we did not require any magazines at this time, and in fact had just chosen not to renew several of our old subscriptions because we didn't find the time to read them.

They then said, "That is ok, you can also just make a direct donation of money to our scholarship fund." I think I stared at them blankly for a moment in disbelief. Two total strangers, asking me for money to pay for their college? I just politely told them that at this time that was not in our budget but good luck in school. The one looked my jewelry and said, "If you can afford such nice jewelry I'm sure you can afford to give someone like me some money for my education." I told her that we were able to afford that jewelery through hard work, saving, and careful budgeting, but not by asking others to buy it for me.

Really? Asking strangers to give you money for school? Search for legit scholarships, get a job, and if you have to, apply for loans.

IT is a scam and it happend to me a few years ago.

 

[DVC-Don]

My step daughter's boyfriend used to "work" for one of those magazine subscription companies. They basically lure kids who are runaways or want to be runaways. He told me they teach them to make up their scholarship or contest story, flatter the person or their home and tell them they are raising the $ so they can be just like them or have nice things just like them. They sell the magazines, sometimes you get them, sometimes not. They do drugs/drink and trash the cheapo motel rooms and move on the next day to the next town. He did it for a year and saw almost every state. That's how much they move around. The companies tell the kids that they can go home/quit whenever they want, but yet make it very hard or bully them into staying. He said it is hard to leave. He basically learned to be a scam artist and got addicted to some pretty hard core drugs. Some of the kids that have come to my door have said these programs are to get kids off the street. Excuse me, you are on the street now. My dog is harmless but barks hysterically. I act like she is ferocious and may bite them, just in case they are casing my house.

Yep. They found the body of one of these young women near here. Apparently she was not at her pick up point so the van just left and never reported her missing. I think they finally ID'd her via genetics a year or so later. Her killer is still unknown.

 

[shortbun]

They(the scam organizers) bring van loads of teens into neighborhoods and wait a the end of the route for all of them. It's a huge money maker for the organizers and the kids get paid a pittance. Summer job. Don't buy into it. some of the teens get pretty rude. Now that I KNOW the scam, I open my door and say, 'go away now!' They get the picture. Too bad these teens are being taught this kind of agressive behavior. I heard one of the handlers berating a couple of boys one day as I was walking by their van; the boys had not produced enough.

eta: and this is why my child will never be allowed to do one of those door to door sales fundraisers from school.

 

[mtemm]

I made a huge mistake once and let 2 of these kids into my house. I was home with a new baby (what was I thinking?) and felt sorry for these nice boys who were trying to make money for college. I sat down and filled out some paperwork for magazines, then realized just how much they were charging for them...far more than if I just renewed my subscriptions. we were just starting out and what I had figured would be $30 turned out to be $100 and I told them I was sorry I just couldn't do it. they pleaded for a bit, but eventually left.

not long after I read a thread here on the DIS about it all being a scam and I realized how lucky I was. foolish, foolish, foolish. I am grateful I didn't get some of the people others here have encountered, but I have no doubt it was a huge scam.

 

[KPeterso]

Had some arrive at my gated condo community last year or the year before. Ummm, how did you get in here. Gated for a reason... Anyway, they were selling the magazines and really rude. Also asked for the direct donation after I said no. Apparently since I was a young woman living in a really nice place, I have money too. Only problem, it was my parents place, and I don't have a lot of money available for things like that. The one girl was try to block me from closing the door by getting her foot in there. I kept closing it, and both girls started swearing at me. I could still hear them in the hall after the door was closed swearing about me. Too bad, so sad. I am not funding your education.

 

[npmommie]

My "nice" jewelry by the way.....fake pearls. haha Less than $10 for the set at Walmart.

LOL

This happened to me a few months ago. I have since made a somewhat cute "No Solicitors" sign and posted it. It is illegal in our city for anyone to do door-to-door solicitation unless they have a permit and ID badge from the city. And even with the permit/badge, they are not allowed to solicit or leave handbills if you have one of those signs up.

If I had known the city regulations at the time that this young man came by trying to scam me, I would have called the police. From what I have found online, there are groups who take these young adults around by the van-load to neighborhoods and shopping areas just to try to get money from people in the name of "charity" or "education". They always have a story ready for any of your questions, just like those people who come up to you in parking lots because they ran out of gas and their mother is in the hospital and their credit cards are messed up and they are from out of town and their kids are home crying and blah blah blah blah blah .

Good idea,I think I will make a sign!
we don't get a ton of solicitors, if we do I call the local police and ask them to ride thru the neighborhood because the solicitors are a nuisance.

if you are a neighborhood kid, I will know you and I will open, but otherwise I don't open the door to strangers either.
once a girl came by selling books, it was summer and we were outside in the back yard, she saw us and came to the yard, so I looked at what she was selling, the stuff was nice, and we are homeschoolers so always interested in any good educational books,
but when she got to the price, it was way too expensive for my pocketbook at that time, so I politely told her the books were nice, but too pricey and not interested, well she got in a huff and her nice demeanor turned snotty real quick, as she told me all my neighbors who did pony up the money and bought books. So since they did why wouldn't I buy too?
haha she was talking to the wrong person, cuz I could care less what my neighbors spend their money on LOL
I asked for a business card just in case I changed my mind later, but she said she didn't have one, had to buy the books right then or never.
so I said ok never, see you later!

 

[almburr]

I only but from the kids I know, And that is everyone in town. Its a small town. I buy magazines from the Jr. class, pizza kits from Sr. class. Cajun boil tickets from cheer and dance squad, lemonade from summer swim team. cookie dough from music dept. popcorn boy scouts and cookies from girl scouts.

 

[eliza61]

That includes:

• women who have home decorating parties. Sorry if you want to stay at home that's cool, but I don't have to fund it.
• Girl scout cookies
• boy scout popcorn
• llittle league candy
• wrapping paper or holiday knickknacks from church youth organization.
• discount coupon booklets that I used to buy and always forget to bring with me to the store.

 

[cm8]

I would have had to dig deep within myself not to smack the girl who commented on your jewelry!

, So would I and then I would have remembered that Jail is not for me and that SHE would so not be worth it!

 

[Rora]

OH my goes along with the entitlement attitude! WOW just WOW.

MTE.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Oh wow. That is just. . .


Our local upper elementary school does magazine subscriptions every year, and for about the same price as renewing/subscribing normally, so we usually get a magazine from one of the neighborhood kids. But they're like 10 year old kids, and they go door-to-door in our little subdivision and live just down the street!

And I'd rather buy from an enterprising 10 year old who is going around on his bike and learning the power of being polite even when an adult is rude to him, than from someone's parents in the breakroom at work.

 

[LunaLovegood]

I'm *ahem* thirty-some years old and still paying for my own education. These little girls should try it.

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

Wow some of these comments are kind of freaking me out!

 

[MinnieFlute]

Yes, we've had people come to our door and try to sell us magazines for an exorbitantly high price before! And they are usually very pushy. I did some research and found a lot of the same info that some of you have mentioned - they're usually troubled young adults who have basically been tricked into thinking they are working a real job when really they don't get paid much at all. They would tell us they were fundraising for some sort of trip, group or whatnot and didn't provide many details.

The first time one of them came to our door, my husband felt sorry for the guy and wrote the check. I had a really bad feeling about it, but when I did my research, RAN through the apartment complex and found the guy and asked for my check back. I gave him $25 that I told him not to report to his company, because after reading some of the stuff these folks go through, I thought he might need some moneyBut maybe I was being too soft.

A lot of times they give you a card when they leave and they'll have a legit phone number set up where some very nice person answers and perhaps even throws in some religious talk but when you look up the company... it doesn't exist. It's a scam. And I have flat out turned them down every time since I found this out. Next time one comes to my door I may step out outside and tell them they are working for a fake company. Or at least I'll be tempted to.

 

[DawnM]

This was a known scam in our area too. We have been told to REPORT this immediately if they come to the door again.

They were saying things like, "Oh, I grew up right down the street." Well, our neighborhood is only 24 houses, we know everyone....and we KNEW they didn't have a college age child.....so thankfully my neighbors called the police.

I no longer trust ANYONE selling door to door or on the phone......

Dawn

 

[richmond282]

Awhile back two African American boys rang my doorbell selling magazines for college as well. This is pretty much an all-white neighborhood, and when I answered the door the first thing they said to me is "Don't be scared, we aren't here to harm you". That infuriated me! I couldn't believe that they assumed I would be scared because they are black! Despite their ignorance, I listened to their pitch, and then told them that I wasn't interested. The one kid then said to me "Oh, come on, you can afford it. Your garage is as big as my whole house". That REALLY ticked me off. I finally told them I wasn't interested and wished them good luck before I shut the door.

The whole incident really bothered me. I would have turned them down no matter what color they were. I have one kid in college and another one heading there next year. I am more concerned with paying for my own kids to go to college. It's as simple as that.

This happened in our neighborhood too. Only several cars were broken into at the same time. One of my neighbors is a US Marshall (Whoops for those guys!) He told them to leave our neighborhood. They tried to play the "race card" too like " You're just picking on us cause we're black" My neighbor told them "Well ,we've had some theft in the neighborhood and anybody that doesn't belong here will probably get blamed for it. Would you like for me to go ahead and call the police? I'm a US Marshall. I'm sure they'll be here real soon." We have never seen them again and surprisingly (NOT) the break-ins stopped.

 

[ZachnElli]

This happened to us a few years ago, but he wasn't even selling magazines, just asking for cash! My DH fell for it! I arrived home from work just a few minutes after he did, just long enough for this "kid" to talk DH into giving him money. Dh went inside to get some cash. I went inside and asked who that guy was and what DH was doing. When DH explained that this kid got some opportunity to travel abroad, but needed money to pay his way and dh was going to give him some, I was like uh, no you're not! LOL! Good lucking guy, said he was some neighbors kid, etc. Dh said I had to go out and tell him we weren't giving him any money after all. So I went out there and said I have 3 kids of my own to put through college. He got defensive and said he wasn't just begging for cash, he makes $20 an hour. I told him congratulations, you make more than I do, you can pay your own way and by the way, which neighbor's kid are you? LOL! He left in a huff.

 

[golfgal]

That includes:

• women who have home decorating parties. Sorry if you want to stay at home that's cool, but I don't have to fund it.
  [*]Girl scout cookies
• boy scout popcorn
• llittle league candy
• wrapping paper or holiday knickknacks from church youth organization.
• discount coupon booklets that I used to buy and always forget to bring with me to the store.

Oh wow. That is just. . .


Our local upper elementary school does magazine subscriptions every year, and for about the same price as renewing/subscribing normally, so we usually get a magazine from one of the neighborhood kids. But they're like 10 year old kids, and they go door-to-door in our little subdivision and live just down the street!

And I'd rather buy from an enterprising 10 year old who is going around on his bike and learning the power of being polite even when an adult is rude to him, than from someone's parents in the breakroom at work.

We get all of our magazines through a school fundraiser as well. They are at or below the cost of renewal on the cards stuffed in the various magazines so why not. The schools actually make pretty good money on the sales (40%). We know the kids selling them and since I chaired the fundraiser for many years I KNOW it wasn't a scam .

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

Now I'm worried about them casing the house. We are about to be away for 3 months while DH does some med school rotations. We have someone stopping by twice a week so I'll be eagerly awaiting their updates as to whether things are still here.

Have you ever thought of using someone you know who could use a place to stay for 3 months? I'm a current nomad between my mom's and fiance's house but someone I know was going on an Americorps trip for 6 weeks. I was just in the process of moving out of an apartment with a roommate at that time. She just let me live in her house rent free (good for me) and I, in turn, took care of the house and it still was lived in (good for her).

Or something like that...