Let me begin by saying that the Good Sam Club has many benefits, and for a low price of 19 bucks a year. Heck, you can make that money back in no time just in campsite discounts. So being a member saves you money, and if you pay attention and take advantage of all the discounts, it saves you big money. Not to forget those little red bumper stickers that I put in my stack of decals that the boss
(dw) will not let me put on the camper. After being a member for almost a year now, I have to ask myself a question. Is it really worth it?
Let me explain.
While preparing for vacation, in June of last year, I decided to sign up for the Good Sam Club. I figured that doing so would give me a broader range of avenues to follow in my search for places to stay. Of course, I got the $19 special internet rate . From that point on I have been in junk mail paradise. Not e-mail spam, but old fashioned stuff your mailbox to the brim junk mail. Every last bit of it with the familiar red logo. To this date I receive mailings from GSC at least once a week, sometimes twice a week. On occasion, when the weather is lousy and there is nothing on my 150 channels to watch, I ll open up one or two of these mailings, but mostly this stuff hits file 13 unopened.
Within a month of signing up, I got a nice little letter welcoming me to GSC. It also explained that if I chose to extend my membership that I could do so at the introductory rate of $19 a year. I declined to do so at the time, file 13. Each month, until November, I was offered the introductory rate , file 13.
November I receive a mailing that explains my 6 month trial membership was about to expire and that I should take advantage of this limited time offer to renew my membership at the special rate of $19 a year. Wrong time of year to be hitting me up for money, file 13. Looking back on this, if you recall, I purchased the one year membership at the special internet rate . I received 5 mailings between the first of November and the end of December explaining to me how my membership was about to expire and that I should take advantage of the special rate .
Now the tone of the mailings change, slightly. No longer is my 6 month trial membership about to expire (good, I was worried). Now it is simply that my membership is about to expire. So far, it has been about to expire for 4 months (January to present, not counting the mythical trial membership). With each mailing (I have lost count of how many), I have been offered this same special rate .
This latest one, I looked a little closer. Nowhere in this mailing does it come out and say when my membership actually expires. I look harder. Finally I locate it. Nothing to signify its meaning, just two numbers, 6 and 2003. These numbers just sitting there all alone with no obvious connection to anything. Had I not looked back on my credit card statements, I probably wouldn t have made the connection. Well, okay, maybe I could have looked at my card.
So why? Why am I receiving these mailings, almost weekly, leading me to believe that my treasured GSC membership could expire at any moment? When in reality, it doesn t expire until June of this year.
So far I have only come to two conclusions:
1. GSC is so disorganized that they don t really know when my membership expires and they are hoping I will be honest when the right month hits.
2. They are hoping to take advantage of someone who doesn t pay much attention to the mailing and just sends in the $19.
I tend to go with number 2. Why?
In fumbling through these mailings on rainy days, I find offers for all sorts of maps, travel insurance, rv insurance, towing insurance, life insurance, software, and my favorite one, Cancer Insurance. That s right, cancer insurance. If I purchase this insurance and get some sort of covered cancer, they will pay me some big bucks. Heck Martha, light me another cigarette!! Oh, wait, that one may not be covered.
Combine these offers with the ever expiring membership and I am led to only one conclusion. This is just one big scam. Who are they targeting? Take a look at the cover of one of their monthly magazines and you will see the target audience. I wonder if I had not been paying attention, or if this GSC membership was so important to me that I just could not allow it to expire. I wonder how many times I would be warned that my membership was about to expire, and how many times I would pay it, before these ?courtesy reminders? would stop coming in. I wonder how many people they have gotten to ?renew? more than once a year. How many people jumped on the cancer insurance, after reading that convincing, scare tactic filled, letter. For that matter, how many times did they pay for it?
They are correct about one thing. My membership is about to expire. I cannot get myself to support a company whose obvious objective is to get rich off of the inattentive, and those too busy enjoying life to sit down and question a simple bill.
As I said at the beginning, GSC offers many excellent benefits. The question still remains. Is it really worth it?
JR
CampGJR, Other than that Did you like it?[;)][;)][;)][;)]
I just had to do that, I got hooked once too. Notice I said ONCE. That was 3 years ago, and hate to tell you this, but I still get mailing from them! Mine ran out in April of 2001. So keep that trash can handy. Oh, by the way, I did use the campground discount, once. On our way thru South Dakota, rainstorm (8hrs.), campground, OK we ll take it!
CampGI ordered a year s subscription to Better Homes and Gardens and am STILL getting " last chance to renew" mailings in the mail. My subscription expired FIVE months ago!!! They still are sending the magazines as well.
Heck, if they want to send me free magazines, let em!!!! Not my fault. I tried to get them to quit sending me the stuff. Oh well.
J.
CampGWhatsamatta? You don t like the post office? I had a similar experience but you needed to stretch it a bit. When I signed up for GSC I inserted " SamC" inbetween my first name and last name. You would not believe the ton of junk mail I got with that name. Sam obviously sells their list. Excellent story you had.
CampGI have never joined, but I get mailings from them every month or two. I will keep a closer watch now. I sometimes think about joining, then throw it away. I am glad I did.[:D]
CampGI haven t been a member for just over 10 years now. That doesn t stop them from sending monthly reminder that I need to " renew" (their word not mine) my membership to " retain" all the valuable perks than come with a membership in the Good Sam Community.
Since we camp 95% in state parks and with a phone call can get insurance and everything else they offer at rates equal or less than offered membership for me is a waste.
PS: the $19 is high, they re offering me a $12 for a year or $22 for two years now.
Of course that s $13/$23 more than it s worth to me. They use about the same marketing plan as Reader s Digest. Haven t had a subscription for even longer than Sam s but I still get renewal notices from them also.
CampGI agree the repeated mailings are excessive, but I have had a membership with them for 3 years now. I just throw the extra away, it is less than the repeated credit card offers we get daily.
It is not for everyone, but for us it saves more than triple the membership fee so it s worth it. To each his own, and I m always the odd one out.[:D][;)][:)]
CampGGood Sam Club is best at never-ending mail. They still send us the magazine, two years after our membership ended.
We NEVER used the GSC discount. We would go in and hold up the Good Sam card and the AAA card, and either they didn t take GSC, or the AAA card got a better discount. Every time. In 32 campgrounds in 19 states.
They never go away. We don t even open them any more.
Austin
CampGDH & I are members and we get some junk mail from GS but not that much! And I don t recall mail saying over and over that your membership is going to expire.
We re just going to keep it through this year for the Branson Rally so we can get half off at the campground. We camp at SP for the most part so we really don t need it.
iwantapopup
QuoteI ordered a year s subscription to Better Homes and Gardens and am STILL getting " last chance to renew" mailings in the mail. My subscription expired FIVE months ago!!! They still are sending the magazines as well.
As you can see, this ploy isn t confined to the Good Sam s Club. I don t know why magazine and other subsciptions waste their own money with these multiple mailings. Must have something to do with it being effective marketing.
We have a trash can right next to our mail box. I am amazed that the effort someone went through to create these mailings, the expense of creating them and mailing them, the effort for the mail carrier to deliver them, and I walk six feet to throw them away.
Still--it must work for them--they keep coming.
gsm x2
gsm x2We are paying for all that stuff they print and mail out, this way or that way ........
Isn t Sam s club owned by Wallyworld ? they are all affiliated with a company we like and give our hard earned money. They throw it out like this ..... That s why I have no problems returning stuff I am not satisfied with ....... (Which I pay for again, sheeeesh)
CampGNope, you got it mixed up Birol, Sam s Club is owned by Wal-Mart.
Good Sam s is a camping group. I don t know when it stated but a few years ago. Decades ago actually. Good Sam s is the one we are talking about. Not Sam Club. Some private campgrounds give Good Sam members a discount. If they are also a member (the campground that is).
CampGOhhh, I was thinking GOod sam s was an extension of Sam s Club , I stand corrected ......
birolKinda confusing hey?
CampGAnd don t forget about Sam Goody! [:D]
And isn t their also a Fantastic Sam s?[&:]
JeffreyUsed to be a restaurant around here called Sam s Place.
Austin
CampGBut I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I am. [:)]
CampGWould you camp in a box? Would you camp with a fox?
Camping is camping, so yes I would. The PU has a box so I guess I do.[:D]
tlhdocWhat are you saying tlhdoc ? where/how did the box come into this ?
Ryhming ? start a limerick thread [8D][8D][8D][8D]
Birol the foxy dog !
CampGIs somebody trashin Uncle Sam here? Be careful, them s fighten words.
[:@]
CampGdid you ever think of saving all those mailings and putting them in a box, and take them camping! make great fire starters!
to bad they don t do C.O.D. s anymore ! fill up a box and send it back!
dee106The best thing to do with junk mail is mail it back to them in their own postage paid envelopes!
dee106Actually, it s not the amount of mail that really gets to him - it s the way they are trying to target rich elderly people and take advantage of them. Trying to sell them cancer insurance, telling them they have to renew 2 months after they pay for a one year subscription, etc.