Okay, so a few months ago I started receiving junk mail from the Woodworkers Guild of America. It all began with a “free gift” DVD that I promptly threw out. The fine print said to keep it without obligation, return it, or discard it. Since then, I’ve been receiving “return the DVD or pay for it” type of notices.
If I recall correctly, none of the mailings have included a postage-paid return envelope. Even if I hadn’t already thrown it away, I wouldn’t waste 44 cents on a stamp to send their “free no-obligation” DVD back. Doing so might confirm that I’m a real person whose information can potentially be sold to other lists and marketers.
I really want to know which company it was that sold my info to these guys in the first place. Grrr. A quick google for “Woodworkers Guild of America junk mail” reveals that I’m not the only one getting these junk mailings. Hopefully they’ll give up soon.
Advertisement
JeffD
When these type of companies keep sending me erroneous bills or junk I have a sure fire way to stop them. Cold. Dead in their tracks.
Usually in their mailings there is a pre-paid postage reply envelope or card inside. I wrap a brick in kraft paper and tape the postage paid reply thing to the brick. They are now paying for a brick to be mailed back to them. Sneaky, yes…Unethical, maybe…but it works!
Stuart
Unfortunately, the included envelopes require a stamp.
Also, I recently read that postage pre-paid envelopes attached to other objects are discarded by the post office. I don’t know if this is true or not. It’s something I’ve considered doing but never done before.
Chris R.
So stuff the envelopes with as much junk mail as possible then send it, try to fill it up as much as possible. 44 cents wasted is 44 cents wasted by that company. not to mention the extra for increased waste disposal. maybe I’ll send yard clippings next…
Mrs. ToolGuyd
If you really want to stop junk mail, you can fill out a form at the post office. It’s only supposed to be used for explicit mail, but that’s ok.
http://www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps1500.pdf
eldy151
send them some “illicit” photos of you “working your wood”… lol jk
Don Miller
@ChrisR – I do that every day with all of my junk mail. Many times I have to tape the pre-paid envelope closed because it is so full. A secondary benefit is that the junk mail ends up in their landfill – not mine!
Phil G
I had the same ordeal a couple years back courtesy of Hot Rod magazine. I was sent, unsolicited, a DVD that is part of a set on auto restoration. I opened the mailer, read the various print, and contained therein was text stating that I can keep the DVD as a gift. Since I did not request it anyway, postal regulations say in no uncertain terms that the sender can not demand payment or any other conditions on such mailings. Good enough, I watched the DVD, it was informative, then I packed it up and it promptly got lost around here. A couple months later I was getting mailings with an enclosed envelope to return the DVD (not the large DVD box it came in, just the disk). I ignored it. I must have gotten ten of those letters demanding return of the disk. I held my ground, and waited to get some sort of collections-style letter or call which never came. What will happen shortly is once my subscription ends, I will not renew it. I had problems several years ago with constant calls and letters offering a boatload of other subscriptions to things of no interest to me, and it was all tied into my sub with Hot Rod. I gave them another chance after many years, they blew it with that crap.
I would not be surprised if your ordeal with Woodworkers Guild is caused not by them, but a third-party distributor of the disks, probably the same one I had to deal with.
Stuart
Yours does sound like a similar situation.
I’ve been reading more about this company, and a few online discussions mention other past organizations such as a “Handyman Club of America” and a similar “Fisherman Club.” It’s possible that they’re all being run by the same marketing company.
I think you’re right about the DVDs being sent by a 3rd party marketer in some cases, which is is a shame because, as you described, it can ruin a company’s relationship with customers. In this case, however, the company seems to have been launched 2 years ago, and from others’ comments online, it looks like they started filling up mailboxes with pressuring DVD pitch from the start. So it’s not as if they offered a legitimate product or service and then made the mistake of joining such a program; this might have been their intention from the start.
The envelopes they include require postage, so it’ll be rejected by the post office if I mail it back without a proper stamp.
fritz gorbach
Got the Handyman club membership and kept it for a few years, because despite the constant junk mail, the magazine was decent they sent every month.
I did recieve from them a few(3 or 4) how to books, all marked “free review copy” or something. each time they would send bills and demands I return the book some weeks later for several months. The funny thing was, “they kept sending books, and i neither returned or paid for them.
Mark
I just had to reply and update this string for 2011. WWGoA haven’t stopped sending out letters. They sent me a letter some months ago saying they had sent a DVD on woodworking… I haven’t seen it. They also said to pay for it or send it back. I didn’t request it (I would have paid when I bought…)and I can’t send it back since I didn’t get it. Also their last letter mentions a postage free envelope but does not include a stamp (says place postage here). ANY company who admits having sent out unsolitited material and expects the recepient to pay for it should be automatically charged for harassment. Their material should certainly be considered as inferior and untrustworthy as they have set themselves up to be. The sharks will continue to swim and attack those who can’t see them or can’t get away from them. BEWARE!!!
Robert Shephard
You sent the wrong envelope for me to send back the ‘introduction to woodworking’. I’m retired from my cabinet business & never asked for this, nor do I need it.
[redacted]@yahoo.com
Dan
I didn’t get the DVD but got the bill. The address listed (4600 Lyndale Ave N, Minneapolis) belongs to Impact Proven Solutions — a direct mail company. Their web page shows a Wayzata, MN address that is the location of TN Marketing LLC (which is on their web page). This is a company that creates and markets stuff like this for several organizations. Thus, WGOA must not actually exist except as a marketing ploy. I’ve turned them into the BBB and Postal Inspectors.
Stuart
Actually, I came across one of their YouTube videos the other day, proving that they do exist in at least some capacity outside their aggressive spam marketing tactics.
Thomas
I’d would like it if you guys would stop sending me this bill for the DVD that
I ether sent back or threw away don’t like the way you think I’ll give up
and pay, your very wrong on that idea.
Dave Gilles
I too am sick of the threatening sounding letters from Woodworkers Guild of America — if I even got their stupid DVD (like you can’t get information from the web) I would have surely thrown it away, or used for target practice. I have been packing any non charity pre-paid postage envelopes as full as I can and sending back — last year I asked our letter carrier if that earned revenue for the USPS and he said they actually charge substantially more than the first class letter for those, seemed like it was over $1.00 per envelope, plus extra charges for big fluffy ones that can’t be sorted automatically.
Rusty Nails
Somewhere in this twisted society, it became O.K. to make money illegally. If these people had a legitimate product, they would offer it and it would sell, just like the thousands of other products on the market. These guys hope to intimidate you into sending them money for nothing. I returned the DVD along with the heaviest thing I could get into the envelope. I also included a letter letting them know how I feel about scumbags stealing money from citizens. I also notified the attorney generals office in my state by sending them copies of ALL the B.S. these guys sent. Next, the B.B.B. and chamber of commerce and everybody else I could think of. Why does this country allow these thugs to continue to operate ??
P.S. When you return the envelope, ask for a “return reciept”. This prevents them from saying they never got it. It costs a little more but assures you they won’t pull their B.S. again.
David Vopal
A few days ago, I received an unsolicited DVD. My first thought was; who sold my name to this unscrupulous marketing firm? Since I neither ordered, requested, nor wanted this DVD, nor plan to use it, I plan to file it in file thirteen. When I was twelve years old, my brother-in-law asked me if I would like to sweep the floor in his wood pattern shop: “Yes,” I said, and that began a road to an honest, hard working and creative woodworking trade.
Oh, by the way, that was in nineteen-forty-six. In all of my working years – and I still work part time- I have never encountered the level of unethical business practice as this marketing company employs. What they need is a collective class action suit by an orchestrated reputable organization like the BBB or your local Attorney General: or its equivalent.
djv
Stuart
I received another mailer at my new address the other day as well. I’m thinking that Rockler, Woodcraft, Lee Valley, or another woodworking supplier sold my contact information.
lona king
Please stop sending me DVD`s I do not want any more of them. Please do not send me ant more mail either.
thank you
Max Gardner
Please stop mailing me !!!!!