To cancel a Southwestern Advantage purchase, mail a written cancellation notice to the company before midnight of the third business day after the sale. The federal Cooling-Off Rule covers any door-to-door sale of $25 or more, which includes essentially every Southwestern Advantage book or software package sold at your home.1eCFR. 16 CFR 429.1 – The Rule Once the company receives your notice, it has ten business days to refund your money. Speed is everything here, so if you’re inside the window, stop reading long enough to get the envelope in the mail.
Count the Three Business Days Carefully
Your cancellation notice must be sent before midnight of the third business day after the date of the transaction.1eCFR. 16 CFR 429.1 – The Rule The regulation defines a business day as every calendar day except Sundays and federal holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Independence Day.2eCFR. 16 CFR 429.0 – Definitions Saturdays count. That is the detail that trips people up.
Say you signed on a Friday. Saturday is business day one. Sunday is skipped. Monday is day two, Tuesday is day three, and your notice needs to be postmarked by midnight Tuesday. A federal holiday inside the window is skipped the same way Sunday is, pushing the deadline out by one calendar day. Pull up a calendar and mark the deadline the moment you decide to cancel. Missing it by a single day costs you the automatic right to a refund.
What to Send
At the time of sale, the salesperson was legally required to hand you a completed contract or receipt along with two copies of a “Notice of Cancellation” form attached to it.1eCFR. 16 CFR 429.1 – The Rule If you have the form, sign and date one copy. That’s your notice.
If the salesperson never gave you the form, that is itself a violation of federal law, and it does not stop you from cancelling. Write a short letter instead. Include your name, your address, the date of the sale, and a plain statement that you are cancelling the transaction. The FTC treats a handwritten letter as a valid substitute when the seller failed to provide the proper form.3Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help Add the salesperson’s name and any order number from your receipt if you can find them, but do not delay mailing over missing details. A timely postmark matters more than a perfect form.
Send it to Southwestern Advantage at 2451 Atrium Way, Nashville, TN 37214. The company also lists a customer contact line at 1-888-551-5901 and an email address at customercontact@southwestern.com.4Southwestern Family of Companies. Terms of Use If your cancellation form lists a different mailing address for the seller, use that one; otherwise the Nashville headquarters works.
How to Send It
Use USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested. That gives you two pieces of proof: the postmark showing when you mailed the notice, and the signed green card showing when the company received it. Certified mail with a return receipt runs about $10, which is nothing next to the value of the paper trail if the company later disputes your timing.
Before you mail, photocopy the signed cancellation form or letter. Keep the copy together with your certified mail receipt and, later, the returned green card. If Southwestern Advantage claims the notice never arrived or arrived late, those documents end the argument.
Hand-delivering the notice directly to the salesperson is also allowed and can be faster. If you go that route, get a signed and dated acknowledgment of receipt. Without written proof, you have no evidence that delivery happened inside the window.
What the Company Owes You Back
After Southwestern Advantage receives a valid cancellation notice, it has ten business days to refund every payment you made, return any property you traded in, and cancel any check or promissory note you signed at the sale.1eCFR. 16 CFR 429.1 – The Rule The ten-day clock starts on the day they receive your notice.
If books or software were already delivered, keep them in reasonable condition at your home and make them available for pickup. You are not required to ship them back at your expense. If the seller does not arrange to collect the items within twenty days of your cancellation notice, they become yours to keep or discard.5eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations
Protect the Payment Itself
If you paid with a credit card, call the issuer and request a chargeback. Explain that you cancelled a door-to-door sale inside the federally required window and the seller has not refunded you. Your certified mail receipt strengthens the dispute.
If you paid by debit card or authorized an automatic withdrawal, call your bank and place a stop-payment order. Federal rules require you to notify the bank at least three business days before the next scheduled charge. A verbal stop-payment order expires unless you follow up with written confirmation within fourteen days.6HelpWithMyBank.gov. I Canceled a Service After the Free Trial Period, but the Merchant Continues to Charge My Checking Account Every Month. How Can I Stop This? The bank may charge a small fee, and it blocks further withdrawals while you wait on the refund.
If You Missed the Three-Day Window
Once more than three business days have passed, the Cooling-Off Rule no longer guarantees a refund. You still have options, but they depend on cooperation or on state law.
Start with a call to 1-888-551-5901 or an email to customercontact@southwestern.com.4Southwestern Family of Companies. Terms of Use Some companies process voluntary returns after the legal window closes, particularly for unopened products. Document the request in writing even if you begin by phone.
Next, check whether your state provides a longer cooling-off period than the federal three-day minimum. Some states extend the window for certain sales or certain buyers.3Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help Your state attorney general’s consumer protection division can tell you whether one applies.
One factor works strongly in your favor: if the salesperson never gave you the required cancellation form, the seller violated federal law. That violation supports a complaint and can strengthen a refund demand, because you were denied the information needed to exercise your cancellation right on time.
Filing a Complaint
If Southwestern Advantage ignores your notice, fails to refund you within ten business days, or never provided the required cancellation form, file complaints in two places. The Federal Trade Commission accepts reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and your state attorney general’s consumer protection office handles local complaints. Neither agency represents you personally, but FTC complaints feed enforcement databases, and state attorneys general can investigate patterns of deceptive door-to-door sales.
Hold onto every document: the signed cancellation form or letter, the certified mail receipt and tracking number, the returned green card, the original sales contract, and any messages exchanged with the company. The Cooling-Off Rule places almost every obligation on the seller, so a buyer who followed the process and kept the paperwork stands on firm ground.