How not to do it
A couple of weeks ago, the Mrs. is going through the mail. And she says Did you order a DVD from NRA? I said no and she stated that we had received a bill for it. I thought it was odd, threw the bill away, and thought no more about it. Until now, when we learn it was some sort of shady fundraiser deal. Seems NRA hired a marketing firm who thought this was a good idea. Now, NRA does not seem to concerned about it. I’m guessing that’s about to change.
Via SIH who says:
This is not in any way an acceptable method of fund raising, and now that they’ve been called out by Consumerist, a very well regarded blog with far more reach than any of the gun blogs, I sincerely hope they will resolve this to the satisfaction of its members in a timely manner.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:44 am
They did this several years ago with a video tape. Kept getting bills for something I didn’t order. That was one of the reasons I quit the NRA after 25 years as a member. Screw ’em.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Guns and Ammo tried the same thing with a DVD series on self defense firearm use. I now have one free DVD.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Received it. Kept it. Ignored them. It’s actually not bad and I might have bought more of the series to use with newbie shooters but, out of sheer principal, they will not get a penny from me.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Same thing happened when I received two DVDs, supposedly from SAF, that I never ordered. I never could find out who sent them. Someone at SAF claimed no affiliation, and I threw the bills away.
Very stupid “marketing” practice.
Now if you want somehting really good, order the DVD, “In Search of the Second Amendment”.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
The NRA has sent me a couple of items, the DVD mentioned plus some goofy “collectors’ coin” garbage. Each had a series of follow up bills trying to get me to buy the items. When I wrote to complain I never received a reply.
Instead I get multiple mailers each month requesting I renew my membership or get a new membership. How can an organization not keep up a current list with who is a member? The amount they spend on junk mail is crazy.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I’ve gotten this kind of thing a few times from a few different organizations (not the NRA, yet). Every time, I throw away the DVD and all the bills. Then they disappear.
I get LifeLock, life insurance, and other marketing crap from the NRA sometimes. All goes into the shredder. Doesn’t bother me, doesn’t hurt me, but I sure wish they wouldn’t do it.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I got one too. I put it into the sleeve to mail it back, put the sleeve in the Stack Of Stuff To Be Taken Care Of, and as God is my witness, I have no idea what happened to it or anything else associated with the Stack.
Check at the estate sale. Maybe it’ll be on one of the tables for a quarter.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:44 am
That’s nothing: last week they sent my kid a Master card, unsolicited.
It’s effective the week before Nationals, and he sure was looking forward to one more year in Expert.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Bear in mind that you have no obligation to pay for anything sent to you unsolicited.You can keep it,send it back or throw it in the trash.Unless you signed an agreement (as with a book club),unless you ordered it,you don’t owe anything.