I had just started a new topic also because I got the same letter and DVD. I did not notice the fine print at the bottom of the letter saying you aren't obligated to pay for it. I still think this is a dirty marketing trick and may even be illegal. I'm turning my letter over to the Consumer Fraud Division of the DA's Office.
Unhappy about Woodworkers Guild of America
About 3 weeks ago, I received a DVD entitled Essential Woodworking Techniques, in the mail from Woodworkers Guild of America. I didn't order this DVD, and I have no idea why I received it. I have never signed up for anything from their website, don't have any subscriptions to any woodworking publications and I don't know how they even got my name or address unless some online company where I bought a tool sold my name to them. I haven't even watched the DVD. I put it in my library of DVD's and forgot about it. Yesterday, I received correspondence from them requesting that I either pay $13.95 to keep the DVD or return it in the product return envelope that came with the DVD which was tossed in the garbage along with all of the other envelopes, advertisements etc. that came with it by my wife as she thought it was garbage. I'm inclined to just ignore their request because I didn't ask for it in the first place and to return it will now cost me shipping charges because I don't have the return envelope. What would you do?
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This is actually an old thread. If you read the fine print on the letter it clearly says you aren't obligated to send the DVD back or pay for it. This is called misleading advertising techniques. Even if Wood Working Guild of America had some product I wanted to buy, I would not buy it from them simply because of the advertising techniques they use. Hopefully everybody else does the same and they learn their lesson, but it must work for them because they keep doing it.
pmayer, the problem is the fine print and the way they word the letter. I'm a retired criminal investigator who worked in a prosecutors office and worked consumer fraud cases, and I didn't even catch the fine print at first. That is the problem with this technique. If you want to send out a free product for people to sample then I"m all for it. In my woodworking business I give out free stuff quite often. The difference is my stuff is free and I don't try and trick people into later paying for it with confusing letters and hidden fine print.
And the letter that ChuckV posted doesn't even appear to have the fine print! This is crooked business in my opinion.
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