You know, there has been no indication whatsoever that valumags/Goldpoints, will not credit us with all the points we have coming to us. Yet, many FTs, including myself, have posted all these negative "what if" scenarios. Before I signed the fax regarding the cancellation policy, I sent Valumag an email addressing some concerns. I just received this reply from Shari:


Dear Neal,
I've talked to my boss regarding some of the questions you have. Basically, goldpoints has decided to change their promotion as of 12/26/01 from 450 points per dollar to 150 points per dollar. If you already placed your orders before that date, your goldpoints will be honored. Goldpoints is allowed to take up to 30 days to actually give you your points, even though it only takes them about a week. There is no way that you will NOT be receiving your points, we will make sure you get them, and no one is going belly up with this offer, it has been very successful for us.

Shari


I think since most of us FTs are sophisticated realists, we're worried about the "too good to be true" syndrome. But Shari says it's been a great promotion for them and I have no reason to doubt her. Without knowing how much of the subscription costs they give up, (if any,) and how much the goldpoints cost them, we can't possibly come to a logical conclusion.

For over 20 years, I ran an extremely successful upscale amusement center (or arcade) in the Chicago area. We sold tokens for the games, usually at 4 or 5 for $1.00. On Tuesdays, every single week, we sold 10 for a dollar, which was unheard of at the time. All the amusement industry "experts" said we were nuts. But once every 4 or 5 years on special occasions, we ran a 20 token for a dollar special. As with the valumag promotion, people went nuts, some hording several thousand of them. This offer also seemed too good to be true. But the promotion definitely helped us in ways I won't get into here. Also, I never felt that in buying thousands of tokens, that anyone was "abusing" the offer.

So personally, I'm just going to sit tight and remain cautiously optimistic. I think that as a group, we have plenty of recourse if something were to happen. But in the meantime, worrying will accomplish nothing but to give us ulcers.

Once again, just my two cents worth.