Buyer Beware

I believe it was in the movie Network where one the characters opened a window and screamed "I'm mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore." This is how I felt last week when I received the latest mailing from the PGA TOUR PARTNERS CLUB, but I am getting ahead of my self and should give you a little background on how I became involved with this organization.

Now it gets a little sticky because I really don't know how they got my name; my wife says she may have entered my name for some giveaway online which then sold my name to the PGA TOUR PARTNERS CLUB (hereafter, to avoid writers cramp, I will refer to them as the PGATPC). The upshot is that they did get my name and sent me an invitation to join offering all sorts of benefits from a subscription to the PGATPC magazine, reduced greens fees, product testing (where I got to keep the product after testing), a bag tag and I.D. card each proving my membership, and I got all of this for only $24.00. In retrospect I should have circular filed this as I do most other unsolicited offers I receive, but I wrote my check and sent it off thinking "Cool, if I get a new putter or driver to test as shown in the brochure, then I will have recovered the cost of my membership." The next thing I received was a bill for membership even though I had sent my payment along with the initial application. I could give them the benefit of the doubt because the bill did say "If you have already sent in your payment you should disregard this bill," however, I argue they should read their incoming mail and have a second form letter saying "Thank you for your payment." Needless to say I ignored their bill.

Within a few days of the bill I received a "Welcome" letter from Tom Lehman, the club President. I may have received one copy of their magazine but it was pretty unmemorable and I am not sure when it came in the mail. Two weeks ago I received a package from them indicating my test product was enclosed. It was immediately apparent this package did not house a putter or driver because of its diminutive size. Imagine my surprise when I found it contained a DVD and a VCR tape both of which contained the same game improvement information, but the instructions said I should send then $7.00 for the videos and let them know in which format I wanted the rest of the game improvement series. I know the law regarding unsolicited mailings and I was not about to pay for anything I didn't order. They however, playing on the uninformed, did not point this fact out, they just kept repeating "send us the money, send us the money, send us the money." They also stated "If you choose not to keep DRIVING FOR DISTANCE AND ACCURACY, just return both copies in the same box using the enclosed postage-paid label." I was to put this label on a box which was pretty much destroyed in the opening process. Even if the box had not been bent and mutilated ( I would have spindled but I don't have one) I was not about to send the video back to these people.

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