Bloody con artists.
My mum in law fell over on Tuesday evening, then Wednesday morning, and in the middle of the night last night. (The old dear is 91 after all, and suffering arthritic hips and hands).
Anyway that’s just the background.
Anyway Mrs FE and myself brought her home from the hospital at midday, and I picked her mail off the mat in the process. A quick look through it was enough to ascertain that 85% of it was begging letters from just about every charity in the known world.
Once we had got her settled in her chair she started opening up her mail and asked me to open the big envelope she was struggling with.
Inside was a glitzy (Word most favoured by the Tobacco control industry when referring to cigarette packs) magazine extolling holidays with “ You will have access to a personal travel concierge” and a card that will enable her to dine out “as a full member in partnership with the Gourmet Society”.
Enclosed was a letter. In it, they have charged her the postage and have given her 14 days to decline their Bi-monthly yearly subscription of £79.99. (WTF)
It infers that she has willingly signed up to this deal. Knowing MIL better than them, I doubt it.
A bit of digging around on the net gave me some idea of how they achieve this:
1. Engage their target with “they are carrying out a survey”. “Do you like to eat horse meat or beef? (Topical), do you prefer row boats or luxury liners, do you prefer to travel by bus or limousine, etc,etc”.
2. We support a charity, and would you like to donate a £1. (It looks like the £1 was for their postage).
3. We’ll need your bank details.
4. We’ll send you a magazine every two months.
Easy isn’t it.
The trouble with people of mum in laws age is that the moment they hear the word charity they roll over and believe the person on the other end of the line is some sort of saint. MIL lives in an age when a man’s word was his bond.
I’m not against these organisations per se. But when they screw the vulnerable, oh yes I am.
I shall phone and E-mail them tomorrow.
*I might be a bit rude*
