Loadstar 184/184.d81/t.forum 184

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     L O A D S T A R   F O R U M

      Compiled by Fender Tucker


 Email from Anonymous,

     Perhaps the best reason for
answering that man's question is that
everyone was a non-subscriber once.
As far back as you can go in your
records, you will find that there is
a date on which each of our
subscriptions BEGIN, and before which
each of us was a non-subscriber. If
you had responded to an inquiry from
us as you did to that poor man, how
many of us do you think would
actually have subscribed?

    Blowing people off is not the way
to win subscribers and influence
people.


 Letter from:

 Glenn C. Parks,
 September 05, 1999 11:22pm EDT

 RE:Mercenary Rudeness.

 In "Diskovery", LS #183, on or about
the 1st of September 1999, Fender
Tucker wrote:

    I received a... letter last month
that gave me fits trying to answer...
from a nonsubscriber who asked about
some old Compute! software...

    His letter was nicely written and
worded and my instinct was to help
the guy. But I kept finding myself
writing, "...Now if you were a
LOADSTAR subscriber, I'd..." Maybe if
he had said something that implied
that he might subscribe, I would have
had an easier time. Or if he had been
rude, I could have really had a ball
dashing off cutting remarks. But he
was simply a nice guy who heard we
were a Commodore company and needed
some information about something
totally unrelated to LOADSTAR.

    I'm not going to apologize for
this, but this is the way it is:

 I will bend way over backwards to
help anyone who subscribes to
LOADSTAR.

 I will not do much at all for those
who don't.


    I have not had much occasion to
write to you for a very long time.
But this time, I had to. After
reading the ahove passage, I had to.

    Your attitude is, "Subscribe if
you want anything." Your attitude is,
"Sure, I can help you --just cross my
palm with silver." Your attitude is,
"Not a subscriber? Go to hell." Your
attitude is, "Fork over $70. Then
talk." Your attitude is, "I am NOT
going to dispense help just because I
have the means to help someone out
there who needs it; I want MONEY!"

    Well now.

    Maybe he can't AFFORD $70 a year
<1>. ("Nope -- can't give out answers
to people who can't pay my bribe --
er, my FEE.") Maybe he can't afford
$7.95 a month, either (hey, I've been
there!)... or maybe he just doesn't
have a credit card. ("Nope -- can't
give out answers to poor people. Scum
of the Earth, that's what THEY
are!")

    Maybe he had never heard of
Loadstar before <2> until he learned
of you while searching for the answer
to his question. ("Nope -- no answers
for the ignorant. Whaddya think I am,
a walking Encyclopedia?")

    MAYBE he has simply decided that
Loadstar isn't worth $70 or more per
year of his hard-earned money <3>.
Not that you'll ever know, since you
never bothered to ask, but simply
made an assumption. ("'The goodness
of my heart?' Uh, what's a heart?")

    And maybe, just MAYBE, if you had
answered his question, he might have
been impressed enough with your
expertise in things Commodore to
consider buying Loadstar. ("Whaddya
mean, 'you catch more flies with
honey than with vinegar?' Who'd wanna
catch a FLY like HIM for? He won't
even PAY me!")

    Never mind that we Commodore
users are in the minority and need to
lend one another a hand if we are to
survive.

    Never mind that this person was
(by your own admission) courteous and
polite, and in need of something you
could furnish without too much
difficulty.

    And never mind that your flat
refusal to assist him was, in my
opinion, unspeakably rude, or that
your demand for a subscription before
you would deign to help him was both
tactless, and smacked of extortion.
(I cannot conceive that he would have
any other response to your answer
than one of profoundest indignation;
I know that I certainly would if I
were in his place. If there is any
circumstance in which he would be
LESS likely to purchase a
subscription, I should like very much
to know what it is!)

    You state that, if only he had
suggested that he "might" subscribe,
you would have been more amenable to
his request. My answer to this is
that for all you know he might have
been perfectly wiling to consider the
matter -- if only you had suggested
it to him. For it very well may never
have entered his mind. (Believe me
when I tell you that this is very
plausible; it has happened to me, and
I have been very surprised and, after
having it brought to my attention,
very PLEASANTLY surprised at that --
to learn that an excellent product
had been under my nose the whole
time, and I hadn't known about it!)

    And THEN you complain that this
person has asked you about something
"totally unrelated to Loadstar". Of
course it is unrelated; but just in
case you missed the boat, "Compute!"
is no longer publishing, or even
around, anymore. Who do you suggest
he contact? Oh not YOU, surely -- not
unless he PAYS you first!

    Frankly, I do not see your stance
as even being reasonable. If you want
information about used cars, you
might browse for the information on
the Internet, put there by companies
which want you to have the
information and hope that, in return,
you'll consider buying from them.
This does not however OBLIGATE you to
buy from any of them, and I hope you
would be incensed (and go off to
another site!) if they tried to pull
such a thing. If you want to know how
much it will cost to send a package
to Anchorage, Alaska from Shreveport,
you call the Post Office. Do they say
"Buy a book of stamps from us first
and then MAYBE we'll give you the
information you want"? And would you
accept it if they did? People send
inquiries to companies they have no
intention of buying from all the
time, simply because such-and-such
company is the best source of
information. If you are shopping for
a credit card, you may inquire of six
or seven different banks; not because
you intend to get an account at all
of them, but simply because they can
furnish you the information you need.
And how many people have browsed
Amazon.COM for information on a
particular book... and then gone and
bought it at their local Waldenbooks
to save the shipping cost?

    Fender, this is just the sort of
outrageous, mercenary conduct that I
would expect Microsoft to engage in!
I will REPEAT that: this is something
I'd expect MICROSOFT to do!!! Is THIS
what you've come to???

    This was an opportunity for you
to take the high road -- and you BLEW
it. You could have given him the
information he sought, and enclosed
some promotional literature, maybe
even a complimentary issue (or at
least referred him to your website),
along with a quick note --".. oh, and
by the way, the answer to this and
many other questions can often be
found in our monthly disk magazine,
Loadstar. Try us out; I think you'il
like us..." I think that if you had
taken this approach, the chances of
his becoming a subscriber would have
been quite good. I know that I would
have been impressed by such an
approach. Whether he would have been
slmilarly impressed will never be
known, because you DIDN'T take the
high road: you let yourself be
overcome by plain, flat-out GREED
instead.

    Maybe you were just having a bad
day. I sure hope to God so! Because,
frankly, if this is the way you treat
people who come to you for help, then
you can go to bloody hell; I want
nothing more whatever to do with
you.

    You say you "won't apologize for
this"; but I hope you will
reconsider. DO, please! We
Commodorites need to stick together;
we can't let a small thing like
stupid TOKENS OF EXCHANGE come
between us! We mustn't!

 Very Sincerely Yours,

 Glenn C. Parks
 Washington NJ

 Footnotes:

 <l> A good deal more, if he pays by
the month. And kindly don't bullshit
me about "$69.00"; we both know that
that buck makes no big difference and
that the only reason it's 69 and not
70 is because psychologists say it
LOOKS nicer -- a tiny bit of
"deceptive advertising" that everyone
swallows everyday.

 <2> I first heard of you -- more
ages ago than I care to remember --
when, strolling through a
Waldenbooks, I happened upon an issue
in your plastic-packed pouch. I
forget the issue number, but it had a
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