Subscription seller has been in business since 1990

Wisconsin State Journal, March 26, 1999
By George Hesselberg

Subscriptions Plus, the order processing company for the Oklahoma-based magazine subscription sales crew involved in Thursday's fatal accident, has been in business since 1990.

The Better Business Bureau of Central Oklahoma lists the company as a member, registered locally since February 1994.

No one answered telephones Thursday at the company, whose address has been listed variously as Warr Acres and Bethany, Okla., adjacent suburbs of Oklahoma City.

According to the company's World Wide Web site, Subscriptions Plus ''processes and provides customer service for magazine subscription orders.''

The Web site includes information for schools, churches, charities or other groups interested in raising money by selling magazine subscriptions.

Also, the site recruits door-to-door sales people, offering ''Traveling job opportunities,'' which is often a euphemism for door-to-door sales.

''Do you like to travel? Do you want to earn money while you travel? Join one of our great teams that travel around the country today. Follow the sun.''

Subscriptions Plus is a member of the National Field Selling Association, a trade group based in Philadelphia, said its executive director, Jack McGreevey.

''It basically processes the orders and sends them on to the publishers,'' he said.

The young people in the van were working for an organization called YES. Jason Bennett, a customer service representative with Subscriptions Plus, told the Associated Press that YES runs the sales operation while Subscriptions Plus processes the orders.

The association was founded 11 years ago to bring some order and ethics to door-to-door sales, McGreevey said.

''We have a code of ethics,'' he said, and a ''stranding policy,'' which provides transportation for salespeople who don't work out.

''We tell people if you do things right the first time, it is good business,'' he said.

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