Suthers
DENVER (Legal Newsline) - Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced a lawsuit on Tuesday against Jennifer Proffitt-Payne, Cody Payne and multiple magazine businesses for allegedly engaging in deceptive trade practices.
Proffitt-Payne and Payne run multiple Jefferson County-based magazine businesses, including D2D Consulting and Great Lakes Circulation. The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, alleges that the companies run by Payne and Proffitt-Payne marketed magazine subscriptions using high-pressure sales tactics and door-to-door salesmen.
The alleged tactics include saying that purchases would benefit local schools, charities and the military overseas when, in fact, they would not. The defendants allegedly used youth to walk door-to-door who told consumers that their purchases entered them into a contest for a scholarship and trip. The awards, however, were rarely given if they were given at all.
The defendants' businesses allegedly consistently failed to honor requests from consumers to cancel their subscriptions, including telling consumers asking for refunds that the company that sold the subscriptions was out of business. In some cases, the defendants never gave consumers the magazines they had purchased.
The alleged conduct of Payne and Proffitt-Payne's businesses led to hundreds of consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau and Suthers' office.