Southwestern advantage books (door to door sales)

Has anyone had a college kids knock on your door trying to sell study books to help your kids?

I did today.

I did today - very nosy about neighbor names and who is home or not. Had local vendor permit.

I did last Friday, which surprisingly was also very nosy.This was the second day she came by. First time she came was during nap time but ended with her loud banging knocks. Scared my kids and myself so I refused to answer.The second day she caught me outside watering the yard at 7AM so I had no choice but to speak to her. She was very pushy I tried getting her to leave as I had to make my husbands lunch and didnt have time to speak to her it was only 7AM! She knew I was pressed for time and took advantage promising itd only take seven minutes as she had thirty homes to go to and couldnt stay too long. She fronted as a fundraising deal to help her into becoming a teacher. As I was pressed for time I just gave in so she could leave. Im not satisfied with these books. They dont meet my expectations and now unable to get a refund. They only give you three days to cancel and include saturday a business day. Not enough time in my opinion as we went out of town and returned late Sunday night. Dont recommend these books not worth the price.

They told me they were exchange students and were working with the school to help the kids get the study books they need to help with homework and to help get a higher score on the ACT! Come to find out they are not working with the schools! Luckily I read an article in the news paper about a scam kids selling books door to door. After that I did some research on the company and read horrible reviews!

Has anyone bought these books and been satisfied with them?

Check out this website http://southwesterncompanytruth.com/

From what I can tell no one is happy with the product!!!

So if I ordered the books but did not put down any sort of payment, can I still cancel? The more I hear the more I distrust these people.

I think you have 3 days to cancel the order. I just canceled my credit card!

You do not have to leave $ with them. Also, it is not a binding contract if you do not leave payments with them. After reading the blogs I was too skeptical and also though they were over priced. I cancelled over the phone the next day no problem and got a cancelation confirmation #.

The girl that has been coming around our area is telling people she is from different states, she gives everyone the same name for herself though. Also very pushy, unprofessional, and somewhat rude. Books are way overpriced. I paid for half of my order, but I would love the cancel my order now, but I don't know how to go about this. Also, she is selling different products to different people. I have found out all of this after I she came to our house and I placed a stupid order! Very aggrivating to feel people are taking advantage of my family.

I just had a guy here. He was very nice and did tell me that it didn't matter to him if I said yes or no...that he had to see 30 families each day. He had a long list of people that were buying. I am an educator and I thought the early childhood books were great! I did not buy because I did not want to spend $117 on 6 books. But I don't think it was all bad....but I'm also not good at reading people!

Had a rep come to our home today! Researched company, and I am not naive and am generally get a good feel for people. Have our own business. Have one Son that is an athlete / honor roll student that will be taking A.P. courses the remainder of High School. He also reviewed the books, and given the fact that students learn in their own various pace and style, he felt it was the aide / tool that would help him best. He saw some material that he wished he had previously had for former AL courses. With GPA and scores on ACT being critical for Colleges today, we had considered private tutors even. But, this will allow him to study at his own pace and schedule. There will always be nay sayers and cynics everywhere! It's what you want to see about things and try to get out of them!

I just ordered the books and have been checking out the website that comes with it. How do you have 3 days to cancel? Is it after you receive the books, cuz mine won't be here until til September he said! The website doesn't have a lot on it right now anyway, most icons clicked on say "coming soon", which the sales guy did say a lot of it comes online in September. Has anybody used them? I have four children from ages 4-14 and two are in a Spanish emersion school, so I was impressed with the fact that they offered language "tutoring" but won't know more until I get the cds. Would like to hear from anyone who has used the product.

can you guys tell me how much you paid for your books? I had a girl at the door today and she asked CAD 589 for 5 books.

I had a guy come to my door saying he was with the school system and asked to come in. I asked a few additional questions before I let him in. I have doing retail sales for 20 years and this person I could tell was not comfortable with what he had. Most of the time the product can see its self. He also kept asking to meet my kids. I told him no not until I hear the sales pitch and cost. He asked me about 3 additional times to meet them. I took the material to my kids room (just me) and let them look at it. They were kinda interested. I took that time to do a quick internet search and found this forum. I told the guy I'm not interested and he started with all this other stuff. He also tried to get me to give him my address (which I didn't). But I'm sure he wrote it down and I will get something in the mail. Bottom line poor sales person, horrible interaction and bottom line keep asking about my kids. Their education is for me to decide not him or them. Don't use my kids to sell your product. Sent him out the door quickly but politely. Thanks for the post everyone.

Kid- showed up at my door talking FAST. Then his approach was off to find out about other kids in the neighborhood. I had no idea what he wanted because he eluded to "helping kids learn to read" while asking about middle school or high school students in my home or my neighbors. He asked when my wife and child would be home and I stated 6pm. I noticed he had a picture ID in his backpack showing when he turned to leave but offered none upon arriving or a clean reason to his inquiry.

Today, he shows up asking for my wife by first name. I never told him her name or any other name.

METHOD: Collecting data about other students/families to use in a sales tactic to make you feel at ease and to show you that "see - these kids are using our books" is ancient door-to-door selling--- UNPROFESSIONAL.

TACTIC: Sell only the top end not the low end.$695 for the books. After stating we'd have to think about it he quickly changed course and offered each book for $150 (Subject Matter) but the Math (2-Books) would be $250

TACTIC: These kids are trained make no mistake. But they are trained by shoddy and shady people. He had notes on comments made by teachers, families and kids and who said what-- "My Johnny is a great Tight End on the football team, etc..." This is a form of using social engineering to make a sale.

TACTIC: Name throwing--- South West University, Southwestern University, SW University through University of Maryland and he mentioned two more names that I've already forgotten, Where does he attend college? I don't know nor do I now care.

PAYMENT: We can extend payments to make it easier for you. How? Write three checks and post date them. UCC gives bank what a fine for cashing post dated checks? No one should write post dated checks with the expectancy of safety---they will be cashed when presented to the bank and if you have insufficient funds, SHAME ON YOU. YOU PAY PENALTIES. He did offer two payments via credit card or CASH.

RESULTS: My wife, daughter were on the spot. I said to my daughter, are you willing to sign a contract to pay this price $695 and that you will use ALL the books in your study? DUH! Of course she would and I replied yeah, right-- we've had talks about contracts with minors. NOT!!!!

I asked the kid if there were any complaints against the company and he said, "none that I am aware of." I asked if the study guides tools (CD's) were either Mac or PC compatible and he said "both" and "I have a Mac."

Thank goodness for checking the web while my family remained on the front porch talking to him. Thank ALL of your for your comments. I went back and told him we'd have to think about this because we don't make large dollar purchases on the spot. My wife told him while I was researching this that "we just returned from vacation --- EXPENSES!" His response was cold, he said okay, thank you. Did not offer me a business card, phone number or to take our phone number or to do a follow up call or visit. While I was gone he told my wife he had 30 more houses to visit. He also initially told us that this was helping to pay for his college.

AFTER he abruptly left, my daughter said, "Dad-- some of those kids were not getting good grades." So now I even wonder more. My daughter is - was a freshman in High School -- all A's & B's and good scores on the MSA's. The money saving emphasis was on if she uses these books and passes the "Honors" or "Advanced Placement" tests after taking the high school course and pays an $89 fee and scores 4 or higher she will not need to take the college course for that subject.

This company as far as I'm concerned is teaching predatory business practices that take advantage of people and makes selling SCUM when it should not be. My reason is simple, "I'm the Dad." Thanks again to this thread and for those that added comments.

funny funny wrote:

I don't know if it's the same people or not but a black guy came to my house the other day and before I could get to the door my dog chased him off. I've never heard my dog bark at anyone, but I guess he'd never seen a black guy before. That guy was running to his car like he stole something. I'm still laughing about it.

Funny you should say this I really far away from you and think I may have had the same guy!!! He was scared to death of my dogs, he's driving a little gray car!!
funny!!!

Sam wrote:

I did today - very nosy about neighbor names and who is home or not. Had local vendor permit.

He came to our house today, had a lot of info about who had purchased books in our area. I am curious to see what rating information is available about the books

I just bought another set of books from them. They are quality books with great information. My 5 kids WILL be using them. That is the key. If they use them and take advantage of them as a resource, they are priceless. I figure 3 text books for 5 children for $350... less than $24/book/child. Our salesgal was sweet, professional and knowledgable. Only complaint, she came a bit late at night.