wjm@lcuxc.UUCP (B. Mitchell) (12/05/84)
Most of these offers I've seen have the boat as the "gag" gift that almost
everyone gets (I've seen them the most for Pocono Mountain real estate).
The version of the article that made it to this corner of the Usenet
(Bell Communications Research in Livingston, NJ) had the prize listed as an
"18 FooD boat" (emphasis mine). I'd suspect that this was NOT a typo on
the original prize offer but a toy boat containing 18 pieces of cheese,
salami, etc similar to the food packages sold in department stores around
this time of the year (early December).
Just remember, if it sounds to good to be true it usually is.
You can check it out by seeing what the number of prizes to be awarded (and
the odds of receiving a given prize) are.
Caveat Emptor,
Bill Mitchell ({ihnp4!}lcuxc!wjm)kurt@fluke.UUCP (Kurt Guntheroth) (12/07/84)
A colleague here actually bought vitamins from the company you are
discussing. The 'gift' he got was a 'TV satellite dish'. What he received
was a 12 inch diameter aluminum dish with a primitive amplifier built into a
rod protruding into the focus of the dish. This device is actually used to
receive pay tv broadcasts from towers located in line-of-sight to viewers in
flat rural areas where it does not pay to install actual cables. The device
has a retail cost (we found it in a catalogue) of about $35 dollars. This
device may operate on frequencies similar to satellite bands (I don't know.)
It is clearly incapable of picking up satellite broadcasts. Our catalogue
lists its range as 'about 35 miles'.
Now the scan: The salesman on the phone assured him that the value of the
least expensive price was around $1700 dollars. (Obviously untrue). He
paid by VISA card, because there is a way to recover your money from VISA
within 90 days in case of a rip-off. Unfortunately, the ripper-off was
aware of this and did not send the merchandise until more than 90 days after
billing. Naturally, since all the conversations occurred on the telephone
there is no messy evidence. The company simply denied my colleague's
version of the conversation.
The vitamins are no bargain by themselves either, although they did arrive,
and appeared to be of acceptable quality.
--
Kurt Guntheroth
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
{uw-beaver,decvax!microsof,ucbvax!lbl-csam,allegra,ssc-vax}!fluke!kurt