[AUUG-Talk]: American Book Store -- false advertising

[Liz Carroll]

AUUG had an arrangement with the American Bookstore in place 
since the AUUG conference was run in Brisbane in 1997.  However, 
this has now changed, a situation of which we have just been made
aware.  As such, ads will no longer appear in AUUGN.

Part of the reason for this change is that the American Bookstore 
is now focusing more on educational IT books for TAFE and Uni.

AUUG apologises that the ad in AUUGN was misleading - it was not
AUUG's or the American Bookstore's intention.

Regards
Liz Carroll
AUUG Business Manager

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg Black [mailto:gjb at auug.org.au]
> Sent: Friday, 30 July 2004 9:41 PM
> To: Greg 'groggy' Lehey
> Cc: talk at auug.org.au; Elizabeth Carroll
> Subject: Re: [AUUG-Talk]: American Book Store -- false advertising
> 
> 
> On 2004-07-30, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
> > On Friday, 30 July 2004 at 17:32:30 +1000, Greg Black wrote:
> >> For many years now, every issue of AUUGN has carried a full-page
> >> advertisement for the American Book Store in Brisbane, clearly
> >> stating that they offer a 10% discount to AUUG members.
> > 
> > This is correct.
> > 
> >> Today, when trying to support local businesses, I attempted to buy
> >> several hundred dollars' worth of books from those people and was
> >> told categorically that the advertisement was incorrect and that
> >> they would under no circumstances offer any discount to AUUG
> >> members.
> > 
> > This is disappointing.
> > 
> >> Could we please have the offending advertisement either deleted or
> >> at least corrected in future issues of AUUGN?  In the mean time,
> >> I'll take my business to Amazon.
> > 
> > I'd suggest:
> > 
> > 1.  It's possible that whoever you spoke to was misinformed.
> 
> I spent a long time on the phone and the person I spoke to went
> away and checked with the management when I was insistent about
> it.  They came back and stated their position strongly and quite
> unambiguously.
> 
> > 2.  If you do find things like this, there are probably more
> >     constructive ways to address the problem then broadcasting it on
> >     the talk list.  The obvious one is to contact the board or
> >     executive director.
> 
> I'm sorry you think my approach was not constructive.  I felt
> that, given the highly visible advertising with its incorrect
> message, it was reasonable to publicise my concerns.  And, as an
> aside, I have to say that I have written to various members of
> the AUUG board over the years about a number of matters, and
> have had very little response -- so that avenue did not present
> itself to me as an obvious step.  However, if the board would
> like to pursue this in private email, I'm happy to oblige.
> 
> Cheers, Greg
>