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posted by Staff Report @ 12/01/2011 12:58:00 PM
17 Comments
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Thursday, December 1, 2011
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17 Comments:
Good article. Makes the point that Good Sam doesn't always use good business sense. Case in point: ERS renewal is $112.95 and Intro is $89.95. Why penalize renewals..they should be awarded, especially if they haven't used the service. Good business logic or am I "out to lunch"?
As far as the DVD from GS, I put it with the rest of the worthless junk from them.
I'm not renewing either, What a completely worthless company.
Looks like I won't be renewing my Bad Sam membership!
I stopped dealing with No good sam long ago.
All they want from you is your money.They send out enough SPAM mail to pay a few salaries.
Everyone should ignor that Co. and they will dissapear.
The DVD is sitting on my desk. I will probably watch it at some point, but I feel I have no obligation whatsoever -- either legal or moral -- to return it.
I have had to send them a letter saying quite sending me junk mail. I received so much of it. I also received the cd and it found it way into the pale, I never even though about sending them money or returning it!
I have been a member of Good Sam for several years. They used to be a good company with the camping community as it's main focus. They now have only money on their little minds. I for one will not be renewing my membership when it runs out
I enjoyed MY CD but NOT enough to pay almost $10 for it and also when I decided I would pay for the CD I found that the web site that was to accept the payment was NOT user friendly. The numbers that was to identify ME for payment did NOT give me access to anything. So I sent their CD back because it was NOT worth the aggravation of trying to follow their BAD web site.
I'm a Charter Life Time Good Sam member. I never received the CD. May have to do with that I signed up, on line to not receive any junk mail from them.
That has worked for a long time now for me.
Your experience may be different. And nothing is wrong with that.
This "marketing unit" had enough of the junk mail and useless, over priced services a long time ago. The end of Good Sam is near......
It isn't just Good Sam. It is the parent company Affinity Group (Camping World, Trailer Life, etc.) that is one of the biggest direct spammers in the country. After numerous attempts to stop the Affinity Group junk mail I went directly to the CEO. His assistant promised me the junk mail would stop. It did not. Smart marketers know better than to alienate customers and potential customers. Obviously the Affinity Group marketers are idiots. But, do as I did. Stop doing any business with Affinity Group and let them know.
a different side, my friends received the DVD and they were very happy about it and found it very informative. "One man's junk is another man's treasure".
I joined GS in 1983. Stayed with them until I realized that they no longer were a benefit to us. That was about 1999.
I also was under the impression that if you received something unsolicited via USPS, it was yours to keep.
My parents were Snowbirds and the first thing dad did was to join Good Sam’s Club and that’s what I did when I retired and purchased an RV.
At the same time, I signed-up for an extended warranty policy (the ads about covering everything were great – the fact they claimed not to cover a major expense incurred for a brake line rupture on spurious grounds was typical of so many of these ‘extended warranty companies – like buying something from an “informational”, I suppose I should have known better).
I also signed-up for their road service policy. Having a serious need outside San Antonio during my second RV travel season, they were very helpful. However, a year or so later; when one of my tires was woefully in-need of air at the start of a long stay in the Memphis area, their ‘affiliated’ garage wanted to charge me about $60 for something AAA RV Plus did because I was a member without a ‘surcharge’. I eliminated the warranty and road service ASAP.
I’ve responded to a couple of their “try it out offers and get _______ for a free gift regardless of keeping the product. The first time, a long time passed and I forgot about it. Subsequently, I found the offer card and called Good Sam’s (noting the operators have always been very good). They had no knowledge of this offer and here I was looking at the promo ad. The other time was for a free Road Atlas. There was a real struggle to get it and finally it arrived. The Atlas was about the size of a package of garden seeds – hardly what the promo offer suggested. I shouldn’t have responded to ads in the back of comic books, either.
One of the things ‘offered’ had been their auto and RV insurance. I signed for an on-line company and each time there was a problem, I’d have to review it all over again with another operator. However, even more aggravating was they wanted a photo of my auto. Alright; but their only outlet was about 320 miles away, thus with a round trip, it meant a lot of gasoline and an overnight stay. Suddenly the savings melted away and I couldn’t convince them to have their claims department find someone and … well … I canceled the insurance after the end of the policy period.
I responded to their offer to become a Lifetime Member and paid it out over a period of time. Thereafter, if memory serves, the price of annual membership dropped and it was clear I’d overpaid. Sweet!
A recent mailing indicated that the CampClub has merged with Passport America and now, Life Members would have the same benefits as belonging to the Presidents Club through Camping World. Makes sense to me, if they’re owned by the same group so that’s a savings to eliminate joining to a second 50%-off club and a separate card for discounts through Camping World.
Given the problems vs the pending benefits, why continue to be with Good Sam’s? Well, I have the Lifetime Membership and the Highways Magazine has been quite good. The 10% discount for camping is alright, I suppose; but campgrounds don’t give a 10% discount if staying a week or a month, telling me their price is already discounted from the daily rate. Well – so what? Anyhow…
But the past two issues of Highways have gone ‘glossy’ and seem more akin to the Camping World magazine – more promos for products than information. Maybe they’ll not need to send the Camping World magazine, but that’s their business decision.
On the whole; but for the 10% discount and decent magazine, I’ve not attended any of the Rally events; but I have to agree with the comments about the group’s business practices. Of course, we can say that about so many organizations – leaving us wonder – “don’t they ever have to be consumers and how do they feel running head-long into similar schemes?
So if trust is the fuel propelling any relationship to success or the ditch; I’d have to say they need to turn things around and do something building rather than damaging the most important commodity in the world.
I just made a copy and sent it back! Thank you!
I received their dvd and sent it back. I already had all this information from dvds I ordered from the RV bookstore and RV 101 sites. It also seemed to me that you were joining a RV dvd club if you paid for the initial one since others would be sent later that you would have to send back or pay for. I prefer knowing exactly what is available and ordering what I want to the "club" method of getting things blindly then having to send stuff you don't want back. Also, when I called about RV insurance I was told they didn't cover Class Bs so apparently they don't want MY business.
Sending an unsolicited DVD is a clever way to be sure there is actually a person at the other end of the line, if you know what I mean. Affinity now can tell the companies they are marketing for "Look, we got x amount of RV people sending these unsolicited DVDs back. Proof! Let us sell your widget to them!" If I got one, I'd toss it. Nobody's going to come after it, folks. You are NOT obligated to do a thing with something you did not order.
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