Disgusted With This Type of Advertising

[Juan Lauchu]

It made me disgusted too! I took action by contacting the BBB and then letting the WW Journal know that it was a disrespectful tactic to get me to buy their product. The reply I got from WWJ was that it really is free and that if I don't want to throw it away. But like you said,... they would still send reminders to pay for a "free DVD?" Definitely a scam there. Thanks for sharing... I can relate.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Glen, that is really funny!

[Rick Potter]

Just curious............has anyone actually watched this free DVD?? I haven't looked at mine yet.

Who knows? Maybe it is a good one. It is probably worth at least giving it to a beginner woodworker.


Rick Potter

[Bob Genovesi]

Good for you! You are under absolutely no obligation to pay for anything you did not request, no matter what you do with it. Use it, trash it, whatever. It is wrong to do this, and I thought it was illegal.

My wife feels guilty using the address labels that some charities send out in their solicitations. I don't. I didn't ask them to send me anything, and I know that as the economics of mass mailings go, they'd stop if they didn't get money from it.

I could not have said it better!

[John F. Snyder]

I was also ticked off on Thursday when the DVD arrived. I will keep it, not pay anything and not renew my subscription.

[Brian Kent]

Maybe we should all send invoices for storage fees?

[Navin Rao]

This subject has me fuming as well. What a waste of resources. Anyone who wastes my free time by having me return something I did not request deserves to pay me for my time.

I'd like to share something a coworker does when unsolicited mailing appear that become persistent in nature (those once a week credit card applications, for example). He takes the postage paid envelop and returns all the paper, including the envelope to the business. His logic seems sound - if they have to keep paying for 30% of their mailing's to be returned, it becomes a profitless game. As someone mentioned in an earlier thread, some folks like to switch the contents of the mailing ... send Discover a capital one application, etc.

[george wilson]

I think rockler is a bunch of idiots anyway. They put in a catalog they sent several years ago that their veneer was 1/28" thick ( in the 50's that was standard thickness). I got excited by that,and ordered a bunch of sheets. It was 1/36" thick. I cvalled them,asking who said the veneer was 1/28. Their shop foreman. I talked to the head of rockler,who acted like I didn't know what I was talking about. I urged him to STACK the veneers up 1" high,AND COUNT THEM Any fool could do that,even if he can't read a dial caliper.

I did at least notice that they stopped advertising 1/28" veneer eventually. I won't deal with them. Good thing too,if they are sending out those DVD's.

[Larry James]

...I received another unrequested CD in the mail this morning, this one from Woodworker's Journal

I received a CD in the mail today...one that I did not ask for. Thank you for the gift. ...

Joe,

Sounds familiar, or at least similar to this thread.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=93737

I received this DVD and still have it, but never watched the entire DVD.

I fell for the "Free Issue" ploy from Wood magazine last year and still receive invoices asking me to "renew" my subscription - what subscription?

So, no surprise WWJ uses the same tactics. Not worth getting upset about. Now if I receive any mailing from a magazine I don't subscribe to I don't bother opening It - I trash it.

Larry

[Art Bianconi]

Hello Joe,
Why not send them a small piece of wood that you have handcrafted,
something that will fit in an envelope like a veneer with a finish on it . . .

bob

Junk mail has virtually ceased at my home. Not sure if my manner of dealing with it was an influence or not.

What I would do is open the junk mail and simply stuff the contents, all of it, into the free-postage paid return envelope and mail it back to them!

They have to pay the post office for those returns. I'd have loved to have seen the expressions on their faces.

Art

[David Hostetler]

Joe,

I hope you've inspired them to rethink their strategy, but really, I doubt it. I suspect that the old "free gift followed by a bill" trick works more often than not.

4 Wheel and Off Road Magazine did something similar with a DVD Series covering the Top Truck Challenge a few years ago. I canceled a 15 year running subscription with them over that.

But to be blunt, clueless media companies is part and parcel of the time we live in now. Unfortunately we have to live with the impact these boneheads have on our lives.

[ken gibbs]

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, if you receive anything of value sent to you "blind", you do not have any obligation to return it to he sender. But be sure you did not "check the box" while using your computer when you visited a website. I know that the woodworking magazines sell your e-mail address to other commercial concerns and now I get solicitation from many different magazines and catalog firms. If you retain this "thing of value" and you did nothing to ask for this item or product, it is yours to keep.

About a year ago a local kid decided to make my lilfe miserable by using a "drop out" card to order about forty (40) magazine subscriptions for me in my name. The aggregate costs were around $3,000. This is a clear case of identity theft and is a Federal offense. You do not need a SS number to order magazines. The magazines that were sent first class through my local post office were returned to the sender at no cost to me. The major problem is magazine subscriptions are mostly handled through solicitation firms (magazine.com etc) and these firms WILL NOT help you resolve a situation like this one.

After a year of aggrivation, I started getting dunning notices from collection agencies demanding money. I had to threaten these folks by letter that if I had ANY negatives show up in the credit reporting forms, would take them to court. I had returned all magazines to the sender, but the senders just shread up the returned magazines and do NOT talk to the people who issue the subscriptions.

The United States Postal Inspection Service is a USELESS ORGANIZATION AND WILL NOT HELP YOU. THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION was the only group who helped me.

[Pat Germain]

I got a stupid book from WWJ shortly after I subscribed. Mrs. Pat keeps telling me I should pay for it. I keep telling her nothing doing.

Here's the reality:

- What they're doing isn't illegal because, as they say in the letter, we can indeed keep the product for free; which is exactly what I did. If some people feel guilty and pay, that's their problem.

- Mailing back solicitations, or anything else, from another company won't do anything. Low level mail room processors will just throw it away without even noticing who sent it.

- You can't attach a postage paid evelope to a brick, or anything esle, and expect it to get anywhere. The post office just throws it away. And, if you attach it to something which is a controlled disposable, like a tire, you can set yourself up for a nice fine.

- If you want to make WWJ aware of what you think about their sleazy marketing, write a letter to the corporate headquarters. Find out who is actually in charge of this magazine. Address it to that person by name. It does take some time and effort.

But all other efforts are in futility. Talking to sales people on the phone will do nothing. The word won't get up to management. Mailing back junk will do nothing. The word won't get up to management. Therefore, send a letter directly to management. If they get thousands of letters saying, "You and your marketing tacticts suck!", they will eventually get the word. Whether they do anything about is another story, but at least they will get the word.

[Greg Magone]

For what it is worth, the US government has a law that says anything you receive in the mail unsolicited is a free gift. By US law, you're under no obligation to pay.

So enjoy your free gift.