Thankyou for finally responding to my attempts at communication with you. Now let's get the facts straight.
I have not been 'desperate' for you to send me a letter as you imply. All I have ever wanted is an answer from you to any one of the many letters I've sent you, over a period of months, querying the terms of my 'membership' and your total lack of commitment to a customer. I think that it's disgusting that in order just to get the courtesy of a reply I have to
(a) send you a stamped addressed envelope
(b) contact my MP (he has written to you; he will show me your response, if any, and I shall reply to it if you've tried to mislead him - your letter to me is misleading!)
(c) contact Acorn User and Archimedes World magazines - one of which so far has replied asking me to let them know how I get on
(d) contact the Office of Fair Trading
(e) contact Acorn Computers Ltd
No doubt you think that I'm some sort of a 'nut'. I'm not. I am however concerned that, along with me many other people, quite a few of whom will be children, are being misled by you. I am especially concerned with regard to the children - I am a teacher, an Information Technology Co-Ordinator. You can bet your bottom dollar that I do not recommend 'SkyFall PD' to my colleagues - oddly enough, quite the opposite in fact.
Now let's get down to 'cases'. In your letter you have the gall to state that I am complaining that I have not received advertising material. I am not. I am complaining that I have not received the seasonal (I shall come back to that word) catalogues, demo disks and "the EXTRA magazine disk, which features loads of great software every issue." The comment in " " is taken from the 'blurb' in your magazine, issue 15, advertising the benefits of joining the 'PD CLUB.'
As a matter of fact, I was told on the 'phone that no new catalogues had been sent out because one was being prepared at that time (this is now over three months ago) and that I would receive an updated catalogue 'soon'. How soon is 'soon'?
The English language has a unique beauty. Unfortunately some people, like you, try to take liberties with it. Take the word 'seasonal'. The definition given in the Collins English Dictionary is as follows - 'of, relating to, or occurring at a certain season or certain seasons of the year'. The definition of 'season' (same source) is - 'one of the four equal periods into which the year is divided by the equinoxes and solstices, resulting from the apparent movement of the sun north and south of the equator during the course of the earth's orbit around it. These periods (spring, summer, autumn and winter) have their characteristic weather conditions....etc'. Of course, your use of 'seasonal' may have its root in 'season' as in - ' to add zest to' (ie food, by the addition of spices), or 'season' as in - 'to mitigate or temper'.
I think that any literate person would consider 'seasonal', in the context of your advertising, to mean one of four equal periods during any given year. I have been a 'member' for nearly a year. Before the end of the year's membership I expect to receive a total of three demo disks and three magazine disks, which I know, as you yourself state in your own advertising, will feature loads of great software.
In the meantime I shall continue writing programs. I shall continue putting them in the PD 'pool' via other PD libraries and I shall alter the 'warning' file which each carries to include your letter and my response.
I might add that I'm reporting you to the Advertising Standards Authority. Your most recent advertisement in an Acorn magazine states - 'No PD Library offers a choice of PD as wide as SkyFall does' - who are you kidding? Your catalogue (of course I am referring to the most recent one that you have sent me, issue 15, September 1994) carries very little compared to other PD libraries.
As you have written refusing me a refund on the grounds that I have made use of my membership 'rights' to claim discounts it seems that we are stuck with one another. I shall not 'go away'. By the way, are you aware that some other PD libraries not only offer 'discounts', but they also offer further tremendous value for money because
(a) they honour their commitments and send out updated catalogues and disks full of software as promised
(b) they charge so much less for disks in the first place
In my view you are 'con artists' and I shall proclaim this loud and clear wherever I go. I do my level best to promote Acorn and the benefits to the user of the Archimedes range of computers. You seem to want to put people off!
