Last night Amanda and I were solicited by a young man representing a company selling Study Guides for children of all ages.  He was personable, charismatic, and knew his product inside and out.  I have checked the company out on the web and they seem legitimate.  However, two things about this interaction concerned me:

1) He came to the door and asked if it was the Turner Residence.  Now, that’s particularly odd because Brady, my step-son, is named Turner, but the residence is in MY name.  I’m not freakish about privacy, but I wonder where someone like THIS is getting demographic information about local students!

2) He had a list (hand-written) of people whom he had already visited.  I recognized a few names on the list.  I specifically asked him if the people on that list had purchased or committed to purchase the product he was selling.  He assured me that they had.  I checked with one of those people today and he informed me that he had NOT purchased the product.

In short, be wary of this outfit!  I’m a trusting soul, and the hairs on the back of my neck went up partway through this guy’s presentation.

Here’s the url for the company:  http://www.southwestern.com/