TBO Advisor "Walking Tall"
David Kirsten
I talked with Rita Thomas, wife of Kas Thomas @ TBO Advisor and after
enduring her blunt rejection of my proposal I canceled my subscription
to TBO
Advisor. As a second-year subscriber, I really felt that they put out a
quality product. With the exception of the last issue, which spent
approx. 90% of its effort discussing alternate fuels, I was generally
pleased with the product. I misplaced a few issues and I wanted to
replace them. I had the idea that I would purchase all of the issues
going back to the beginning (January 1993) about 22 Issues, but at
$7.00
per issue that would have cost $154.00 plus shipping. I explained to
Rita that I had already paid full price for the subscription for the
last two years. I wanted a new fresh copy of each issue (at a
discount). This would have given me the issues that preceded my
subscription (at full price) and fill in the gaps in my personal TBO
library.
O.K. maybe I was being a little cheap but I paid dearly for my mistake.
Lovely Rita
explained the TBO business philosophy to me in no uncertain terms.
"We are in this business to make money" and "I don't know what kind of
business you are in but we don't allow our customers to dictate price
to us." or “do you let your customers tell you how to run your
business?”
Rita was very abrupt and rude and she vented on me.
She snapped like a communion wafer. Later I decided to send an e-mail
Kas. I thought
I could appeal to his good nature and business sense to get the problem
resolved.
I guess I misjudged Kas. I have copied his response below and I think
you’ll agree
that it has some real entertainment value… especially the classy
ending. It says
so much about the Thomas family.
I'll miss the information but I there is no way that I am going to do
business with these people.
__________________________
Message: 28
To: dkir...@ix.netcom.com
From: ECur...@aol.com
Subject: Re: Back Issues
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 09:11:04 -0500 (EST)
Dave,
The answer is, at the present time, we don't have any special pricing
on back issues. Neither does Light Plane Maintenance (which is also $7
ea. by the way, for a thinner issue). I'm not sure I can name any
magazine that has a special on back issues. But the point is, this is
not a Turkish bazaar where you haggle over prices. You may buy
Christmas trees that way, you may buy a new car that way, you may buy a
new house that way, but I can assure you that you won't buy TV Guide,
Playboy, or People magazine that way, and you won't buy TBO back issues
that way. I'm trying hard (as I hope you are) not to lose my sense of
humor about all this, but just in case you are "losing it," we'd always
be happy to refund you on the remainder of your subscription. In your
case that comes to one issue's worth. (You're set to expire after the
March issue.) In closing let me just add that I find it amazing that
you think I am going to disagree with my wife on any of this, number
one, and No. 2 it seems incredible to me that you think it appropriate
to set our prices for us. I don't know what business you're in. Do
people set your prices for you? Do you try to get a lower price on milk
when you go to the store? Do you stand there and argue with the
manager: "Hey, listen, I've bought HUNDREDS of dollars worth of milk
from this store, and now I think it's time you gave me a little price
break on this milk!" I'm sure you would get the same reception from the
store manager as you are getting from me.
Thanks for listening to my side. Now get lost.
Kas Thomas
____________________________
Your magazine is good, but I'll live without it... Please cancel my
subscription. You can keep the money if you promise to buy Rita a set
of Dale Carnegie tapes. As far as getting lost... I'm on my way sir.
PosterBoy
dkir...@ix.netcom.com(David Kirsten) writes: > I talked with Rita Thomas, wife of Kas Thomas @ TBO Advisor and after
> enduring her blunt rejection of my proposal I canceled my subscription
> to TBO Advisor.
\/\/\/\/lots of snipping\/\/\//\
Letter from publisher in response to DK's note to Thomas:
David, cupla thoughts:
1. You did the correct thing by cancelling. Such attitudes as
Thomas displays are unwarranted and inexcusable in ANY business.
2. Thomas obviously has NO idea of what a market economy really
means. Buyer and seller agree on a price..or no transaction occurs.
However, maybe we should all go easy on the poor guy. He obviously
is walking on eggs...frightened his wife will come down hard on him. I
don't like the term "henpecked" because of its sexist connotation...but
I think it might be appropriate in this case.
I would hope you might crosspost this in any NG, whose readers may
be interested in this type of subject matter. The Thomas letter is a
classic in the "How not to do business" category, IMHO.
Cheers.