Alliance Service Company Inc. - description of magazine purchase experience at local mall

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on January 5, 2003:

From: Laura Campbell [Email User]

RE: Alliance Service Company Inc. - description of magazine purchase experience at local mall My friend and I were asked at a local mall to take a survey, which the young (he told us he was 23) salesman then said it was a magazine sale contest. I had been asked by a salesman for the same company to subscribe to a magazine that would be given to a charity he previous year and I had done so, writing a check and never receiving anything after that. My friend had already ordered some magazines the previous

day through another salesman (they were out in force!), so I finally decided to order one. I wrote a check, but later on realized that I did not have the receipt I filled out.

When I was filling out the receipt, I was not told to list my magazine and I in fact assumed that he had

put the correct code in. The salesman continued to chat it up with the two of us since we are 19 and especially since my friend had run into another salesman for the same service the day before. The guy I bought magazines through told us he went to a local junior college and even invited us to a party, giving us a phone number that did not work.

THe salesman then continued to talk to my friend about how he was so close to finishing up the points he needed and he had a trick so that she could order magazines and give him points, but later cancel and get her money back. She was convinced to draw out $260 from the atm to give to him so that he would have all the points he needed. Later that day she too realized she didn't have a receipt with his sales code. Upon examination of her receipt from the day before, she read that if a customer does cancel his or her order, the salesman does not receive points after all. So what was he telling us? If that's not a scam, I don't know what is. Laura, San Diego CA