Are they putting out new Dream Plan and build DVD’s?..Jerry
As far as I know, they are. Got an unsolicited DVD a few weeks ago. Have no intention of returning it or paying for it. If someone sends something to me that I didn’t agree to pay for, it’s mine.
Andre
Andre, I’m with you. I have the very first one, and that’s it.
I don’t understand why individual DVD’s aren’t for sale. I would have bought a few of them for sure. I don’t understand the all-or-nothing approach. I’m sure they’d easily have another 50 or 100 bucks of mine by now if they sold them individually.
sthey seem to be. IThere are 3 or 4 different series and I’ve been getting them regularly. I just wish they would do something involving car floats.
Irv
They need to be able to let us pay over the internet. Who still pays by sending in a check through our mail system? If they made it a little easier to pay for them they would get the money a little faster, or in my case, the check has been in the return envelope and sitting on my counter for a month.
I agree with paying over the net. I hardly ever pay by mail for anything (had a check stolen once). I usually let it go for a while, send back the prototype DVD’s and keep the ones that interest me. When I pay I usually call them and pay with a card over the phone
Joe
I do.
My father does.
My FIL does.
So do others.
How else can we keep the cost of a stamp down?
I as well wished they listed sold them separate. I would buy 15 or so.
Andre,
I was with you until they kept sending me letters over and over and then i took the pdfs off it and sent it back. I was very displeased how they said I could keep it and then kept sending me paperworkevery couple weeks about paying for ir or sending it back and how much the whole season was. Also, I think that soon checks won’t exist, I’m 16 and have never had to write a check and was only taught once. Just my [2c]
Happy Modeling,
Taylor
I’m the same way. You send me something and tell me to either send it back or pay for it and you can KMA. My mother signed me up for handyman magazine, which has shown up I think 4 times in the last 2 years (supposed to get one each month). They sent me a home repair type hard cover book. Told me to keep it and pay them for it, or send it back. Pfffft, it’s still sitting on the shelf under my table, I haven’t even cracked it open once, and they aren’t getting it back. They can send all the papers they want telling me over and over again. Eventually it will cost them more is postage and paper than it would for me to just pay the $10 for something I didn’t ask for.
I don’t know why they aren’t willing to set up a subscription for them and auto-draft my card every month. I’ve already told them I’d be more than happy to buy them if I didn’t have to deal with the hassle of interacting with them every month.
John
I completely agree with you, John. Anything to elminate the paperwork would be great.
;The laws on this kind of thing are pretty complicated, and I don’t pretend to be an expert. However, one thing is clear: if someone sends you something, completely unsolicited by you, then it is a gift and you are under no obligation to pay for it. Even if they send you a “keep it and pay one X, or return it to us with no obligation” letter with the item, you can still consider it a gift.
Whether or not something is completely unsolicited gets a little muddier. You can’t receive anything else of value which you DID order along with it (In addition to your subscription, we’ll also send you …) which may be the case with your handiman book, even though the subscription was a gift. Similarly, if you’re subscribing to ONE set of videos from a company, and they send you a trial from another set, you may be obligated to pay. Time-Life used to be very good at this.
I used to accept them and send in a check, but when I lost my job I had to stop paying for them. I watched a couple and sent them back, and then they stopped sending them. I’m working again, so I could re-up, but I haven’t really missed them. When I think about how they are marketed - I wish they’d let us buy individual segments over the internet.
I’d like it if they marketed the magazine that way, too. I’d love to buy just what interests me, and I’m OK with getting advertising that is targeted at my interests. It would be great to store it digitally - easier to access, and takes up much less space. I see it as a win-win.
I find it interesting to read the comments about not paying by check (old fashioned) and using credit cards, allowing everyone you do business with to have access to your account. I was on the ground floor of the automation boom when I worked for Santa Fe HQ in the 60’s and found myself in IBM school, then jumped to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1970 and spent 28 years in automation before taking early retirement to continue pursuing ministry. If you haven’t noticed, fraud, computer and everything else, is increasing dramatically, in part due to the giving of credit card numbers and accounts to people you don’t know or haven’t done business with. Personally I keep one low amount credit card active for those purchases that require me paying that way, and I monitor that account daily by computer to watch for anything irregular. I am also careful about using checks, and I monitor my checking account daily watching for anything wrong. I am nor paranoid, just cautious, and I still had one incident of financial fraud, which is not fun to deal with. Party in question used printed bank checks in Orlando FLA for a fun weekend that had my name, the name of a fictious bank and that was all it took. I started getting all sorts of letters and such, but it came to a quick end when I informed the credit people that I had been serving as a pastor in a church and was in the pulpit that weekend in Kansas City and there were several 100 people who could verify I was there. Case was closed.
Point is, there are no sure things in dealing with your money, cards, accounts. You have to be careful and I suspect that most don’t bother to check. All this said, I deal pretty much with the same vendors, and I monitor my accounts regularily.
Bob
I remember getting the very first Dream Plan Build DVD years ago, and being the good cub scout I am, I returned it because I didn’t want it. Of course I had destroyed the box it came in which was intended to be the return box as well – something you only were told once you opened the box. I have to say a good chunk of my previous high regard for Kalmbach Publishing Co. was lost.
So no more D-P-Bs came my way, which was just fine by me. Then a few weeks ago another one showed up. This time I decided I would indicate my disinterest by keeping and not paying. I never watched it either. But then the dunning letters started coming and I realized it was not Dream Plan Build at all, but a similar notion from Trains magazine. Evidently the Model Railroader guys don’t let the Trains magazine guys know that Dave Nelson is 100% not interested and is starting to get just a bit ticked off. Correction, just a bit more ticked off.
What next – an solicited DVD from Art Jewelry?
If these DVDs from Kalmbach keep showing up I have half a mind to yell profanities over the intercom, grab a beer from a snack cart, and deploy the emergency chute down to the tarmac …
Dave Nelson
When I started getting them, originally I’d be a good boy and pay for them. I nearly forgot how to write checks until those came in and even had a hard time finding my checkbook. I bought 8 of them. At about $25 a piece, Kalmbach has gotten their money out of me. They come with those little collector coins and I figured when the little display holder they come in was full that the videos would stop. Nope. They sent me another holder for another set and started sending videos again. This time I had to draw the line. It is too much money.
Their material isn’t always unique to them either. I have many train videos that I have bought on discount shelves for only a few dollars and have found that some of the DPB videos are just repackaged from other video series. Why should I buy something I already have just because it has a different name? They are also being too overbearing about sending them out. Fed up with it I’ve watched them, copied the material that I’ve wanted, then sent them back. I can copy any copy protected DVD but was still an honest citizen and paid for the first set. I’m done with that. If they are sent to me, I’m doing whatever I want with them. The little Federal warning says I can’t copy if for the purpose of redistribution. I can as a “backup” for my own personal collection though. I have gotten 3 DVD’s from them in the past 6 weeks. That’s too much. I’ve returned the originals. They tell you to keep the cases so now I have my versions in the original cases and with labels you really can’t tell.
Another thing about these videos is that many of the how-to’s I don’t agree with. There are several things that I can quite frankly do much nicer. I’m sure they are of help to beginners though and if that is their target audience that I see no issue with it. Then again if their target audience is expected to buy several hundred dollars of these videos a year, they probably won’t have much money left to spend on their layouts.
People get paranoid about using their plastic over the Internet and totally dismiss the mundane, everyday uses of the cards in brick-and-mortar situations. When you go to a restaurant, for instance, and you pay with a card, the waiter/waitress takes it away from the table and out of sight to make the transaction. At the time of the transaction he/she has your card, all of the pertinent information, and access to the security number on the back.
Also, as you pointed out Bob, doing business by check is no guarantee either-- especially nowdays when checks are only thinly-disguised debit cards anyway. I pay by check when I get my hair cut, for instance, because they don’t accept credit cards (or didn’t used to). But they run the check through some electronic scanner which removes the funds from my account right away. So what’s the difference?
As far as liabilities go-- you mentioned that you use a low-balance credit card to do various purchases. That’s a good idea, especially if your card vendor doesn’t give you good guarantees.
I use VISA and I’ve heard similar stories from people using MasterCard. They limit liability to the consumer (you and me) to $50 bucks in the event of fraud or illegal misuse. And that’s generally from the time you notice the fraud. And sometimes they’ll even waive that, depending on the circumstances. Another thing I can tell you, at least about my own situation, the back-end credit card security / fraud folks are extremely sharp at picking up “strange” or “unusual” purchases and calling them to my attention. Not that it happens a lot, but once or twice I’ve gotten calls about a purchase they didn’t think I made or else didn’t match up geographically, for instance, with other purchases committed in close ti
I said this badly, they’ll refund the money back to the point that you notice the fraud occurred, meaning if it was in the past several months, they’ll still help you out. At least mine does.
John