Paying for Unsolicited Commercial Offers

I’m tired of having to deal with unsolicited commercial communication. I don’t like being rung up by phone companies advertising their schemes. I can’t stand being offered credit cards by arbit banks. And if I get one more call about an insurance policy, I’m liable to scream the caller to death.

However, being obliged to pay for an unsolicited promotional offer is where I absolutely draw the line…

I stopped being a member of ITBC last year when my membership expired; I didn’t renew it because I wasn’t thrilled with their service. Nonetheless, they’ve just sent me a package of three books — Emma, a book by Robin Sharma and Eleven Minutes — apparently under some promotional offer (through order no. OGO8092125 of March 15; invoice no. OR0800091171 of March 18) which I certainly didn’t order and for which I had to pay 525 INR. I am absolutely furious about having had these books which I do not want delivered to me.

ITBC has offered to take back the books and reimburse me and while I’m grateful for that, it’d entail a lot of extra, unnecessary hassle for me and I’m not amused at all. I sent them a mail and this is the response I received:

---

Friday, April 11, 2008
Dear Member,

Hi Sir/Ma’am,

Stick to one salutation and figure out if you’re mailing a man or a woman. Also, figure out whether or not the person is a member of your book club.

We thank you for your mail to us. We deeply regret for the inconvenience caused to you in this regards, thou unintentional.

thou? If you’re going to leave me angry, at least don’t send me mail that looks like an SMS.And how exactly was this unintentional?

In This regards I would like to bring this to your kind notice that the, 3 books were dispatched to you under a promotional offer, from our marketing team BOOKS BUDDY, which worth 1000/- Rs. in the out market, and were sent to you at 500/-Rs. flat 50% discount, along with that we have also given you a gift voucher worth Rs. 500/- which you can redeem anytime, if you are placing order for 1500/- or more before 30th of October.

In This regards? Once again, proof read the letter, please.
And am I supposed to feel good that you’re sending me books I don’t want and that you’re not charging me the market price? No wait, I can actually buy a Wordsworth edition of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ from almost any bookshop for 90 INR, and you’ve charged me 147 INR for an edition from an Indian publisher I’ve never before heard of.

We have also sent an confirmatory e-mail and mailer to your address to confirm, that your packet of 3 books from BOOKS BUDDY were been dispatched and will be delivered to you soon.

were been dispatched? If you’re going to claim to have sent me an eMail, decide when you did so. In any case, I never received any such letter.

Now, even after these schemes, if you are not interested in the books anymore, we would request you to send the packet back to us through courier along with your original courier slip. As we receive your parcel we will arrange for refund your money along with your courier charges.
We deeply regret for the inconvenience caused to you in this regards.
Thanking and assuring for the best of the services at all times.
For further assistance/queries feel free to get back to us.India Today Book Club team.response@indiatodaybookclub.com

Not interested in the books anymore? I never was interested in them.
The reimbursement offer: finally, there’s something that doesn’t leave me hopping mad. However, I’m so angry that I don’t think I’m going to send the books back and hope that ITBC will actually reimburse me as promised. I just don’t want to have to deal with them.
I didn't get a gift voucher for 500 INR from them but they did send me an offer of a free bag they say is worth 499 INR. I just might take them up on it. If I'm going to pay, I might as well get as much as possible out of the deal.

---

Incidentally, if you’re wondering — as I did — if the publication of this mail involves infringing ITBC’s copyright, this is what their disclaimer says:

This e-mail communication and any attachments may be privileged and confidential to Living Media India Limited and are intended only for the use of the recipients named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not review, disclose, disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail and attachments. If you have received this email in error, please delete the same along with all attachments there to and notify us immediately at ithelpdesk@intoday.com.

Considering that the mail is intended for the use of its recipients and I am a recipient, as I understand it, I’ve been granted a licence allowing me to use the mail. Only those who are not intended recipients have been requested to (and not prohibited from) reviewing, disclosing, disseminating, distributing or copying the mail.

And then, there’s also the matter of this post being true and of it’s being a good idea for people to stop accepting unsolicited calls etc. and to talk about them. Perhaps then they’ll stop.

(Check out this blog : stop-calling.blogspot.com which now seems to be defunct by Nikhil Pahwa and AmitKen. Personally though, I've found that the easiest way to get banks to stop calling is to say, in response to 'आप क्या करते है?' : 'Law' ...watch the caller run for cover! )

Addendum: (April 13, 2008)
I did follow the link and claim the bag and got this message:

"Your claim for the bag has been recorded. Kindly give us 15 days to process your request.You may call at 011-40502424 or email at response@indiatodaybookclub.com in case of any queries."

I hope that the bag does in fact reach me!
...who cares that I don't even use adidas?