Specific to the "traveling door-to-door sales crews" other forms of documented abuse and exploitation include:
1) Not allowing the sales agent to call home (isolation from family and friends).
2) Girls being sexually assaulted or raped by the managers or other members of the crew.
3) Working 14 hour days, 6 days a week.
4) Forcing the boys to box each other when their sales are low.
5) Forcing the kids with low sales to sleep on the motel room floor.
6) Physically beating the sales agent, sometimes so severely that they must be taken to the hospital.
7) Introducing kids to dangerous drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine.
8) Using the drug dependancy of the sales agent to keep them employed selling door to door.
9) Harassment and belittling of the sales agent in front of their peers.
10) Teaching the sales agents to lie to the consumer to make a sale.
11) Not applying for solicitation permits which ends up getting the agent arrested and thrown in jail.
12) Not paying the solicitation fine which leaves the agent with an outstanding warrant/criminal record.
13) Giving the sales agent a minimum draw to live on: ($10 - $15) when their sales are low.
14) False advertising "truth in hiring" violations.
15) Promising the newly recruited agent they will make $500.00 - $1000.00 per week.
16) Telling the sales agent that they own the company money if they are fired.
17) Not filing 1099 which gets the sales agent in trouble with the IRS.
18) Labor violations: hiring underage children.
19) Abandoning the sales agent when they are sick or cannot sell for whatever reason.
20) Leaving the agent hundreds or thousands of miles from home, without money and food.
21) Maiming or killing the sales agent in a vehicular accident.
In many cases after a van rollover that injures or kills an agent the sales agents personal belonging are distributed among the surviving crew members. The surviving agents and manager then leave immediately. The owner/manager of the crew never contacts the parents of the kids what were maimed or killed in the accident. No phone calls are made and no letters are written. The remaining crew makes it's "jump' to the next town or state to continue selling door to door.
If a sales agent is picked up and arrested by the local police for solicitation without a permit he may be held over in jail for a court appearance. If the agent is not a "good selling machine" the manager of the crew will just leave the agent in jail and go on to the next town. If the sales agent is a "good selling machine" and making the manager a lot of money then usually the manager will pay the fine for the solicitation violation.
How Sales Crews Can Be Operating Illegally
In most cases when door-to-door sales crews come into town they do not register with the police department, the clerk of courts, or the town hall for a solicitation permit. If the town requires door-to-door solicitors to register, the sales crew has just broken the law. This presents an immediate problem for law enforcement because no one is aware of their presence. This condition now leaves the entire community vulnerable and homeowners at great risk.
The following list based on police reports and court records obtained by the Dedicated Memorial Parents Group will demonstrate the many ways in which sales crews operate illegally:
1)
Recruiters and managers supply false information to the kids during the hiring process. Claims of making $500 to $1000 dollars a week are simply not true.
Note:
Several courts across the country, both state and federal, have imposed liability on employers who fail to deliver the kind of employment experience that was promised during the hiring or promotion process. Known generally as "Truth-in-Hiring" lawsuits. The door-to-door recruitement process includes fraud, fraudulent inducement, misrepresentation, negligent hiring, and failure to disclose.
2)
Under age children have been hired by the sales crew recruiter/manager.
3)
The driver of the van (car handler) does not have a valid drivers license or his license has been revoked.
4)
The driver of the van is under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. The Dedicated Memorial Parents Group has documented many cases where this action resulted in the death of one or more sales agent/s.
5)
The recruiter, car handler, enforcer, or manager are actively involved in procuring illegal drugs for the sales agents or they will tell the sales agents to procure drugs: "joints for points." In many cases these drugs are discovered in the van used to transport the sales agents as well as at the motel room where the agents are staying. Sales agents have also been arrested and convicted of distribution of a controlled
6)
There will be sales agents in the crew that have outstanding warrants for their arrest. The warrant/s may be for a misdemeanor or a felony. In some cases when you open your door to a sales agent you will be looking at a convicted felon, a sex offender, or a sales agent that is currently in flight from justice.
7)
IRS tax fraud and conspiracy to fraud the IRS.
8)
Mail fraud.
9)
Fradulant selling practice, false representation, sales fraud, identity theft.
10)
For a more detailed list of crimes committed by door-to-door sales agents please visit:
http://www.travelingsalescrews.info/door to door sales profiles.html
