Re: HIT: Unsolicited Videos

[Mary Ellen Scribner <scribner@TENET.EDU>]

When this same group sent me the unsolicited book several years ago, I
wrote them a very polite thank you note for their donation to my
library.  Then I wrote to the attorney general of Texas about this
company's practice of sending unsolicited merchandise.  I did not
consider either task a waste of my time.  In return I received from the
company a very nasty billing letter which I immediately threw away
without a second thought.  From the AG I received a letter detailing the
action his office had taken against this group and thanking me for my
input.  That letter went into my "keeper" file where I saw it just last week.

Mary Ellen Scribner, Librarian                  512 464-4033
Westwood High School, Round Rock ISD            512 464-4020 (FAX)
12400 Mellow Meadow Dr.                         scribner@tenet.edu
Austin, TX 78750-1824

On Sat, 7 Sep 1996, Julie Walker wrote:

>   Another thoughtful reply suggested that it might be a
> > wiser use of time and energy to mail the package back, as challenging the
> > company by keeping the package without payment might lead to a long and
> > painful "argument."
> >
> ...and how many times is one to do this.  Perhaps an even wiser use of
> time and enery would be NOT to argue.  Throw the video in the trash, put
> it in a garage sale, circulate it --- put the "duns" in a file with a
> note that it was unsolicited.  Whose going to arrest YOU?  If one mails
> it back, one has played into an unethical system --- at a cost to the
> taxpayer --- unless, of course, one wants to do this at their own expense.
>