Complaint Review: N.M.E. - NATIONAL MAGAZINE EXCHANGE

If this company is not engaged in misleading, if not outright fraudulent, practices, then why do they use this type of mail advertising?

I received a postcard colored very much like the confirmation cards used by the United State Post Office for registered mail. It has "Official Business" printed in drop-out type on a black box on the top.

The letter includes a return address for "N.M.E." but no other identifying information. It tells me to call an 800 number.

On the back, the message states: "We are trying to reach you. Please call us at the number shown on the reverse of this card. This is a free call." It is signed, "Sincerely, Pat Haines Sales Representative." The back also has "PostGram" printed in drop-out type on a black box; a "tracking number" with a bar code at the bottom; and -- get this -- a box and spaces so you can record the date and time you returned the telephone call to "retain for your records."

I'm generally suspicious of this stuff, so I Googled the information and found that this card has nothing to do with any Official Business, but is just a come-on for a boiler-room operation to sell magazines. I ran across this site and had to laugh at the pathetic attempts by some to defend N.M.E.'s tactics.

I wonder what the postal inspectors will think about N.M.E.'s advertising method.

So, I end with the question I posed at the beginning: If this is an up-and-up operation, why do they use misleading mail to dupe people into calling them?

Ken
Bainbridge Island, Washington
U.S.A.