OK...it's been a week and not so much as a one sentence reply to my heartfelt, succint and carefully worded letter expressing my concerns and questions.

Nothing.

Fandom aside, is this how you would run a business and interact with your customers? Would you tolerate this level of disdain and lack of communication from your landlord...your telephone company...your ISP?

Prince apologists: can you REALLY take a step back and see with objectivity how insulting this is? Basically, my message is being ignored and they're telling me that they don't care whether I renew or not, which is all well and good I guess. Enjoy your price increase next year and your greatest hits remix album. I'll get anything I want sooner or later for much less money - whcih by the way, I would gladly give to Prince/NPGMC if they had anything I wanted.

What a joke, they havent replied yet??? totally expected..

'See what Freedom looks like! Visit www.prince.org! Oh wait, you're already there...'

Apparently Freedom looks quite similar to Slavery under Warner Bros. Kind of a bluish colour.

Can I get a reee-wind? A fan got sued by Prince? For what?

Maybe, when renewal time comes, people will have a clearer understanding of how you can't just give money to Prince in good faith. I got shouted down on the Org, when I said the same, before Year Two began.

Threadbare - check this dude,people said that I was being unreasonable in Year 1 when I complained because the NPGMC didnt send out my copy of Rave in2...ther used to be some real freaks who could see no wrong by Prince. There dont seem to be very many nowadays but there certainly are some naive people still.

awesome letter, herb...npgmc betta say somethin about this...and not the usual "high" blurb, either.

npgmc

oooH It frustrates me sooo much that all these people on here have the same problems and views but the NPGMC dont want to know!!!

All the times I wrote in year one they made me feel totally unreasonable and even said at one point that they hadnt had anyother complaints (they made me so paranoid that I thought that the comment at the end of one of the Ahdio shows was refering to me keep complaining...the one with the English dude moaning about the service).All I wanted was the promised videos EVERY month,NEW trax evrymonth and my copy of Rave in2 which still hadnt turned up by January 02.

Thats their sneaky trick tho..."let your voice be heard" but only if it fits our mindset. I wrote an excellent review of the London Apollo gigs and said that it was teh best ever but that Prince needs to know not all NPGMC members were down the front so maybe layoff the "join teh club" chants to thse at the back...they left that bit out and printed the rest. The frustrating thing is that,even if its not a harsh report,they wont print ANYTHING,that is less than kiss-ass standards.

Everyone must think that Prince is being stubborn and selfish (which i suppose he is) but how will he ever know what we all think if the messages dont get passed on.

Normally if you have a complaint with a company you demand to speak to the boss or company director...which is Prince.

There must be some business law that says customers cannot be refused the right to contact the heads of companies

Excellent letter and I really cannot believe they haven't given you a response. Well, I guess maybe I can believe that.

A letter like that with no response.

It was a waste to send it to them in the first place.
You should have sent it to the Minneapolis Star Tribune and let his publicist or team of con-artists respond to the press.

its pretty obvious that they deleted the letter half way through, eye'm sure they do that to a majority of the longer letters.. pretty sad

Did you ever get a response to this herb? ... or even an acknowledgement?

As Agent 86 would say "Missed IT byyy That Much!"

These kind of letters do not grab the attention of even the most over-caffeinated Customer Service droid having to do anything more than send a pre-prepared reply unless you..

1. Set some conditions. Give them 10 business days to reply or you tell them in bold caps that you are forwarding the matter to the related press, pr, or consumer agency. I love it when people say they know the Attorney General.

2. Be specific in what exact, short and to the point question you want answered so that when you publicize any non-answer, its clear that they are avoiding making a statement.

3. Is the complaint non delivery of goods, delayed delivery, false or misleading advertising, poor customer service or ALL 4 ? Your letters have to be clear and onsistent.

fantastic letter, well written, well said...if i had a hat it would be doffed in your direction!

Savannah said:

But Sav ... don't you find it appalling that any organisation would ignore a complaint like this for so long? ... surely they should at least send an acknowledgement saying they've received the email, even if they can't be bothered to answer it right away?

x

herbthe4, they have had long enough to answer.

I suggest that you send another email, attaching your letter, and chase up their response. I would politely mention your dissapointment that a response has not yet been received or even an acknowledgment.

SERIOUSLY - THEY WILL NOT REPLY UNLESS THEY WANT TO OR NEED SOMETHING.

Heres my story...again. In Year 1 I joined up straight away and eagerly awaited my copy of Rave in2 but,when everyone started getting theres,mine hadnt arrived so I wrote and asked about it - I got a reply saying not all of them were shipped yet. So I gave it another month and still nothing so I wrote again,no reply..I kept writing and writing but didnt hear anything back until I wrote an over-the-top letter about court action if they didnt deliver the goods and tehy finally wrote back aknowledging the fact that they had received my multiple emails over the months and said something along the lines of "we find it very hard to beleive that you havent received the CD as they have been shipped to all members some time ago" - thats not the exact wording but I got the point. Stangeley enough it turned up a few weeks later.

The moral of the story id keep pushing,it'll probably get you no reply or any action taken ...but you never know.

Raspberry said:

Nope...maybe I didn't use enough "4"s, "u"s and "2"s...perhaps i should've framed my inquiries around a cryptic religous questionairre...

whatever.

Unless I see a 7 cd set in my mailbox before March (or delivery of "Xenophobia", "The Best of O+>, or "The Last December",) they can count me out next year. At this point ANY response would at least indicate that give a shit.

Well. I sent them this today:

By now, I suspect you've had time to read my letter of 10/8/2002. I've been patiently awaiting a response, knowing full well how long it was and how many issues it touched on, but I'd be remiss if I didn't express some level of disappointment at the lack of any response whatsoever from your company almost 3 weekes later.

When I e-mailed you a few weeks ago about the outstanding balance on my membership, I recieved a response that very same evening, which suggests to me on a certain level that you do indeed read the mail that I send.

I'm curious, did you find my inquiries unworthy of your attention, invalid, too lengthy to absorb or simply beneath contempt? Right now I can only assume things based on my lack of any "official" information.

When you find the time, I'd appreciate something. Anything.

Thanks.

User name: ***
Password: ***



And thanks everyone for not flaming me or being rude. At this point, the only "action" I'm planning is to unsubscribe after this year, but I'd be happy to sign any petition or offer my letters up for sharing to anyone who chooses to take this matter further than I am.

What a shame.

bkw said:

were u sober when you posted this? how many times have i...

your letter was excellent, Herb. i hope they do respond

That one made me come out of retirement. Great letter. Just wanted to give a little suport.

herbthe4 said:

I agree herb, well said.

Raspberry said:

Well then a new friend of mine would love to hear about it at the Minneapolis Star Tribune opinion@startribune.com