Research
and development are a part of my daily mail order business
life. It is extremely beneficial to you and your business to
be well informed of
what is going on around you. If you are a mail order business
and you don't have at least 7 or more mail order tabloids in
your mail box each week _ you
need to get on more Big Mail lists. You could even have a 1-inch
ad typeset that simply said: "Big Mails Wanted. All Offers Considered. Mail to: (your
name and address)" Advertise this ad in mail order publications
and be flooded with mail from other dealers. Read, study, read,
study and study
some more. Build your mail order education free.
As you begin reading and studying these publications, you will read about
people that rip-off others. Rip-off schemes will be exposed through many of
our fine, mail order writers. You will be shown just how these rip-offs make
their money and how you can be on the lookout for others who come along
offering the same rip-off service.
You also
will learn valuable lessons and hear advice from other people
who have been ripped-off. You will learn that something that
sounds too good to
be true, usually is. Now don't get me wrong. One time a well-known,
honest mail order dealer ran an ad where he offered people
FREE advertising to 1,000
if they simply returned the ad they were reading. If I didn't
know this dealer personally, I would normally shy away from
the ad. I would probably
think this was "too good to be true" and there was
likely a catch to it. Since I didn't want to waste my time, I
might pass up this ad. However, the
ad was TRUE to it's word and worth the effort to respond. However,
this is only one isolated incident.
A good rule of thumb for protecting yourself, your business and your money
is to write a personal letter of inquiry before ordering the product or
service. If you get a chain letter that claims to bring you $50,000 in 30
days, write to some of the people on the chain letter. Ask them if they've
made their $50,000 yet! See how many people respond!
How about that full-page ad in Small Business Opportunities that promises
you the secret to making $100 with 2 sheets of paper? It has to be legitimate,
right? I mean, it's in a national publication and it shows their
picture and the actual bank deposits! Can it be true? NO! The person in the
picture may not be that person at all. How will you ever know? Are you going
to drive to their house to check them out? How do you know these are really
true bank deposits? Anyone can alter forms to make figures appear to be more
than they are. The only reason this person advertised in this national publication
was because they had the money to place the ad. Somewhere in Small
Business Opportunities it will state they are not responsible for any claims
made by the advertisers. Just because the ad appears in this publication
does not mean the publisher endorses this business!
Spend the time to analyze the mail order products and services you are
considering purchasing. Want to locate a good mail order printer? Send them
a small order OR write them a letter. Enclose a self-addressed-stamped-
envelope (SASE) for their reply and simply ask them to send you one (1) page
they have printed so you can determine their quality. If they don't respond
when you have taken the time to enclose an SASE, they won't provide good
customer service.
I've read horror stories of people who tell about their rip-off experiences.
Some people even admit to having been ripped-off several times. One lady
claimed to be ripped-off by the same company 5 different times! Sorry, but
that was HER fault! While there are many legitimate reasons why someone gets
ripped-off, the majority of them can be avoided by using common business
sense.
During the last several months, a lot of dealers have complained about the
new kind of rip-off artist. This person runs an advertisement in a
publication offering a certain item. They ask the customer to send $1 or
stamps for more information. When the customer responds, what they receive
has absolutely nothing to do with the product depicted in the original ad.
If you get angry and write a letter back to them of your complaint, normally
the advertiser will not respond. This costs you time and postage! It's a
lose-lose situation for both parties. Rather than the advertiser taking the
time to build a business relationship with an interested customer, he or she
turns them away. If the advertiser had taken the time to respond to the mail
they would reap a lot more financially! It's insane, but some people actually
operate this way.
The best
way of combating these types of rip-off artists is to expose
them through mail order. Write a letter to a publisher and
tell them to warn
others of this company. Keep a list of people who rip you off
(in one form or another) with a detailed record of the date
and reason for your complaint.
After you have accumulated a few of them, type them up neatly
on a sheet of paper and sell copies for $1 or include free
in your mailings as a "free
gift." It's always best to try and re-coup some of your
money while still warning others of these rip-off artists.
It's up to you to combat these shady businesses. If everyone does their part,
mail order will become better and better. Although mail order is still
dominated by honest, sound and reliable dealers; there are still people
getting ripped-off financially on a daily basis. Please join us in stomping
out these bad eggs so we all can enjoy much better profits and increased
sales.
ConnectionsPlanet.com