My letter to the NRA - Engraving Forum.com - The Internet's Largest and Fastest Growing Engraving Community

Ray Cover · #1 10-01-2009, 06:41 PM

The NRA burned my butt again. Here is a letter in response to an unsolicited shooting DVD they sent me along with a "if you don't want to pay for it return it envelope. I wish these folks would get their act together and start acting like they have a little bit of integrity and respect for their membership.

If any of you got the same thing in the mail feel free to use my letter as a template to return it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dear Sir,

One thing I will guarantee you is that I did not ask to be sent this DVD. I also did not ask to be on the hook for $12.95 if I don’t return it.

When I was a much younger man I was a faithful member of the NRA and thought it was an honorable organization with good motives. It was scams like this that caused me to drop my membership years ago. I got tired of the constant junk mail and the renewal notices every two months to trick people into renewing their annual memberships two or three times a year. Yes I fell for that one until I finally caught on.

It has been years since I was an NRA member. This year I joined again because the club where my daughter’s shooting team practices requires it. I was guaranteed that the unethical scam tactics and the floods of junk mail had stopped. I joined back up and I get this crap pulled on me.

I don’t put up with this nonsense. When a credit card company pulls this I pay off the card, close the account, and stop all future dealings with that company. This type of activity is unethical, underhanded, and downright crooked. If I sent my product to my customers who had not ordered it with an amount due bill, leaving to them the responsibility of returning the product to avoid being charged, My company would go under.

These are the kind of tactics you expect from an ACORN fund drive, some credit card company with no moral or ethical underpinnings, a Nigerian prince who needs to use your account to hide his country’s fortune, or some kind of pyramid scam. You don’t expect it from an organization that is supposed to have integrity or from an organization that is supposed to be fighting to protect your rights. It’s a crying shame that you can’t trust your government or the organization that is supposed to be protecting your rights from the government to treat you with respect.

I am returning your whole package to you at my cost, plastic CD case and all. Ya that was a good one too. That line about there being federal regulations preventing the return of the plastic case was an exercise in pure bovine scatology. Those regulations didn’t seem to prevent you sending it to me. You just wanted to save the cost of having the whole package returned to you. Just how stupid do you think your members are?

Please take me off your junk mail list and please refrain from sending me any more ‘OFFERS” like this. If you need your membership to donate a little extra here and there just ask for it. Don’t try and con us out of it.

Ray Cover

WVEngraver · #2 10-01-2009, 08:23 PM

So Ray .... ummm ... I take it you didn't watch the DVD first?

Gun Owner's of America don't pull that stuff.

airamp · #3 10-01-2009, 08:41 PM

Ray,

Big problem with NRA's outsourced soliciting company..

I told them that would rejoined But (and was very specific that) I wanted NO SOLICITING AT ALL from them or I would never join again.. they said OK.

I just wanted to be a member and get the benefits without all the garbage.

That was about 5 months ago and not a phone call, no junk mail nothing but the American Rifleman.

Seemed to work..

AirAmp
.

Sam · #4 10-01-2009, 09:42 PM

Ray, you should do what i do. When anyone sends me stuff like that I call and let them know that i'll be waiting for them to send me money for shipping to send it back. They never do..haha..so eventually you end up with a nice video collection.

Peter · #5 10-03-2009, 06:20 AM

Ray,
I fully support the "basic" NRA platform of supporting gun owners rights, but I too quit MANY years ago after the relentless barrage of alarmist literature calling for $$$.

When I quit I received a phone call to inquire about WHY I ended my membership.

That was before the renewal scam as I never was victimized by that.

Off Topic but another scam to watch out for - CLASSMATES.com. It is free to join and they have a huge database of High Schools nationwide. Originally it was a useful service for Reunion Planning. Then they came up with a scam where they send you a fabricated email stating "someone is trying to FIND you from your past". Then they offer you a year special at $9.95 for the regularly priced $39.95 yearly membership. Buried in the fine print is an "automatic" renewal at FULL PRICE with NO additional correspondence. Precisely one year later, you get a charge on your credit card for $39.95!

Buyer beware is an UNDERSTATEMENT these days!

Peter

FlatBrokeForge · #6 10-03-2009, 12:39 PM

Reminds me of the NRA Firearms library scheme of a few years back. Over-priced reprints of long out of print books on many aspects of firearms, bound "Beautifully in fine grade leather" or something like that.....I still owe the bastards money, cause I forgot to send one I didn't want back. But, they still kept sending them, the "collection agency" letters kept coming, screw them!!! I told them repeatedly to quit sending that crap!!

Still get a "debt recovery service" letter every year or so for the two books I didn't pay for. I called once and told them to come get the books themselves, and that they had my address. Even told em to send the President of the NRA so he could kiss my nether parts.

Needless to say, I'm not a member anymore. Propagandist Bastards!!!!!

steeltat2ist · #7 10-03-2009, 01:22 PM

this is the EXACT reason I'm no longer a member. If they would just accept yearly dues from members, and forget about all the mailings, and phone calls, the organization would be stronger in numbers.

dave V

SVD · #8 10-05-2009, 09:52 AM

The ever-indulgent wife and I are members and we must have checked the right box somewhere. We got our magazines and that's it.

Well, we also get the NRA Store catalogs a few times a year, but none of the aggressive 'gimme money' stuff.

riversedgehobbyengraver · #9 10-07-2009, 08:54 PM

Hi Ray:
My name is John Cantrell, I am an Endowment Member of the NRA, I remember when I was a new member of the NRA I recieved a lot of "junk Mail" from the NRA. I think they must teach "strike while the iron is hot" at business schools these days.

I noticed that when I upgraded my membership to a life member and then again to an endowment member in 2000. I don't recieve much "junk mail" anymore. Everytime I do, I send $1.00 to cover the postage and a note explaining that I money is tight since adopting 4 children and reliving the parenting experience again.

Please continue your membership in the NRA. They are the most powerful voice we gun owners have for the liberty we continue to enjoy in this country.

BTW I think I have an engraving DVD you put a lot of effort into. thanks...

Roger Bleile · #10 10-07-2009, 11:01 PM

Friends,

As a Patron Life Member my experience and sentiments are similar to John Cantrell above. I also belong to the catholic church which is also always asking for money and volunteers but I don't quit the church because of it. I believe in what it stands for and the good that it does.

Roger