Subject: Re: Anyone heard of this "club"?

From: William Pav <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 07:12:35 -0500

Hadji wrote:
> 
> Curt Larson ([email-masked]) wrote:
> : In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] wrote:
> 
> : > I recieved an invitation to join the "Handyman Club of America" in the
> : > mail.  As a charter member no less. This thing kinda stinks up my
> : > house in my opinion.  Anyone else have any knowledge of this??
> : >
> 
> : I've received no less than four "Charter Member" offers over the last
> : several years.  Put it where you put the rest of the junk mail.
> 
> : Curt
> 
> I've been getting "Charter Member" offers as well.  I read the letter that
> came with it and I think that something sounds really fishy about the deal.
> Nobody just gives tools away.
> 
> --

Three years ago, my wife joined Handyman Club of America as a charter
member - she received none of the benefits (free stuff), except the
one year subscription to the magazine. After a year - she quit.

Then two weeks ago, I got an invitation to join as a charter member.
Huh? How doesn;t charter membership imply that the club is new and that
one who joins early on is a charter member? Anyway, long story short,
the invitation joined the unsolicited $7,500 credit limit, 19.9% APR
credit card offers in the recycle bin...

On a somewhat related topic - any of those unsolicited offers -
like credit cards, clubs, etc. that I recieve that has a postage-paid
envelop enclosed - I take the entire contents (including the original
envelope), and put it in the postage-paid envelope and send it
back to the company. I usually write something nasty on the 
'acceptance' card - telling them where to put their trash.

-- 
Sorry about the kludged return address...
To reply to me, remove the "no_junk_mail" from:

          [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (pwcnva2)
Date: 27 Mar 1997 12:54:26 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
>'acceptance' card - telling them where to put their trash.

That's the perfect way to respond to junk mail.  The companies figure their 
expenses based on only a small percentage of those postage paid envelopes 
ever being used, and assuming that they are going to make some money off of 
the ones that are returned.  By returning them without buying anything, you 
cause them unplanned expense.  They have to pay the postage as well as pay the 
 company that processes their mail.  These processing companies charge by the 
piece, opening the mail and converting the written information into an 
electronic database which is sent to the company responsible for the mailings. 
 Every piece that they have to process which does not result in a 
subscription/membership/purchase/etc. is a loss to the bulk mailing company, 
albeit a small one.  Nevertheless, if enough people protested by doing what 
you did, maybe it would make bulk mailings expensive enough that bulk mailers 
would do more research to more closely define their advertising base and send 
out less misdirected advertising.  That's less of a nuisance to us and less 
wasted paper in the trash can every day.

Paper that, by the way, is made of wood, with which we work, which makes this 
post relevant to rec.woodworking.

Brad W.

---

From: [email-masked] (John Paquay)
Date: 27 Mar 1997 17:11:39 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] says...
>
>That's the perfect way to respond to junk mail.
>

Abbie Hoffman's recommendation was to attach the postage-paid
envelope or postcard to a brick and drop it in the mailbox.

Okay, this is rec.ww, not rec.masonry, so attach it to a foot-long
chunk of 4x4 instead...

-- 
John Paquay
[email-masked],  [email-masked]
http://www.physics.purdue.edu/~jep/cshop.html
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Without my wings you know I'd surely die...
            --Kansas, Icarus (Wings of Steel)
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