I KNOW that if somebody sends me an usolicited item I can keep it.
However, about once or twice per year, the NRA sends me an item I did not order, usually a video tape. Then they ask me for $10 for it. I do not want it, I didn’t order it. Can I keep it?
There is a catch: First, they do include a postage paid package so that I can send it back with no expense to myself. Second, I am a member of this group. Does being a member of an organization trump the unsolicited merchandise law? Does anyone know of any stipulation in the membership charters of the NRA that I may have signed a zillion years ago that says they can do this?
Rather than call/write them, asking they stop this, I’d rather keep it and teach them a lesson. But i want the law on my side.
If you’re a member of the organization, presumably you support its aims and goals. If you want the tape, pay for it. If you don’t, send it back. If it bugs you that much, include a note asking them to please not send you any more. Of course, that’s ethics, not law.
:smack: D’oh! I forgot to mention that the last time they did this I sent it back with a note not to do it again. It obviously had no effect, but it does change the ethics of this time.
And, just because I belong to the NRA does not mean I have to tolerate this. In fact, as a member I oppose this type of marketing they are doing. I’ve noticed a few web sites where people are bitching about this.
So you don’t support their marketing. But you do support their overall goals? So you’d rather they spent their money on something else, right? Then do whatever is likely to cost the organization the least. Since they ask you to send back unwanted tapes, and even give you the means to do so easily and without cost to yourself, what’s the big deal about doing so? Continue to tell them you disapprove.
As far as the legal issue, unless you signed something that said you agreed to it, I don’t see a reason why you couldn’t just keep the thing, or throw it away.
Again, I’m not a legal expert.
Sending it back cost them (us) money also. I just don’t like this marketing tactic.
It bugs me that my letter last time was ignored.
I’d have difficulty continuing to belong to an organization that ignored my requests and kept bugging me.
They probably get about a gazillion returns and mails per day. Presumably the return postage costs them (you) less than the tape itself, or they wouldn’t provide the means of returning it. If it were me, and it was an organization I otherwise supports, I’d send it back. If I felt like taking the time, I’d write a separate letter and/or write a letter to the editor if they have a magazine or newsletter.
I’d venture that this is part of a program that has been designed and tweaked to achieve certain goals, and that it doesn’t provide a simple way to exclude you. In other words, they aren’t going to stop, and they aren’t going to “learn a lesson.”
Keep the stuff in a box, and return it if and when they ask for it. Or throw it away – I don’t see how they could prove you ever received it.
One more thing; Don’t send your letter of complaint back with the tape. That’ll go to their marketing department, or the firm they hired to handle this stuff. Write to the NRA officers themselves, as they are the ones who made the boneheaded decision to send unsolicited products to members.
The roomful of low-level folks who open returned tapes won’t care about your letter, and they can’t stop it, anyway. The tapes are mailed by a different roomful of people, who also cannot change policy.
If it “bugs” someone enough, they may wind up going postal…
The NRA should know better than to bug folks who own guns.
FYI, the NRA sent me one of those unsolicited tapes a few years back. I opened the package, saw it was a tape I didn’t want, and threw it out. About a month later, I started getting letters asking either for the $10 or the tape back, reminding me that the original package included a prepaid return envelope. I ignored the letters, until one included another prepaid return envelope, in which I enclosed a note saying, “Sorry, I already threw the tape in the trash.” I never received another one.
Same thing happened to me, except that I didn’t bother to enclose a note saying that I threw the tape out, I just learned to ignore mail from the NRA.
Even the dues renewal notices.
Now they don’t send me anything, and I don’t send them anything. Problem solved.
No, no, no… Weren’t you paying attention? They want him to go postal, but the OP is wondering if it’s OK to just throw out the tape instead.
But what if he already threw it out? Surely they wouldn’t ask him to rifle through his trash.
Out of curiosity, what’s on these videotapes?
Yeah, I don’t see howitzerves their purpose.