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

[Greg Black]

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