Last week, I received a letter in the mail from a Child Development Center in Plymouth. The letter said that I would receive "a valuable selection of gift items in a courtesy marketing campaign". The letter lists that gifts as a digital camera, adiscount coupon book, a free 10 x 13 portait, and a certificate for 100 rolls of Kodak print film with discounts on processing. The letter states that the gifts are given to families "to generate favorable reactions and opinions for our unique child guidance and baby development materials and services of an educational nature". They also state the the offer is invitation only. They included a card that I needed to fill out about # of children & ages, what educational material I own, address, phone number, and our occupations before the gifts could be sent. Has anyone else receieved this kind of letter? Does anyone know if it is a scam or a way to put me on a mailing list? Thanks for any advice.
Thank you to everyone who responded to my question. Your collective information really helped my husband and I decide to just throw the letter away because we too, like many of you, can't afford the products that would be offered. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hello H., its not a scam.. but its not as good as it seems either. It is a company that sells educational products.. more so books that costs thousand and thousand of dollars. Just for meeting with them you do receive some coupons for the items which you mentioned. The digital camera... lets just say that its really not worth much of nothing.. I dont know how digital it is. With the other materials there are various catches as well...
not that this may be particularly helpful, but i find a good rule of thumb is this:
if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. also - you just don't get something for nothing.
i wouldn't give my personal info to anyone unless i was 100% sure i wanted to do business with them.
Like my husband always says, "You never get something for nothing." That's probably the case here, especially when the something starts to get expensive like a digital camera. Remember that your information (name, phone number, email, address, etc.) is valuable information. At the very least, I'd worry that you'd be bombarded with junkmail and email for a long time. Make sure the free stuff is worth it.
I got the same letter after my daughter was born. I filled out the green card with info on my child and sent it in. They then kept calling me and wanted to set up a time to come to my house to meet about whatever they wanted to talk about. I finally got them to quit calling because I didn't want to meet with anyone. I never got the "free gifts" because you have to meet with them first.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I received it around this time last year. I sent in the card, received a call and was told someone would stop by my house to give me the free gifts. A lady stopped by, stayed for around 2 hours and tried to sell a bunch of over priced expensive books. I believe the total cost of what they were trying to sell was between $2000 - $3000. It was hard getting the lady to leave. I would not advise filling in the card.
H.
My name is M. and I just did it. They do give you cupons to redeem those products but you will have to pay shipping and handeling. I'ts a great product that their trying to sell kinda like encylpodia's that grow with you kids....however I couldn't as a SAHM afford the $3000cost. It will take up about an hour or two of your time. To me it was worth the listen they have some valuble information....but it's up to you. We did send away for our free stuff upon payingshipping....and recieved it all
Good Luck
I filled out that card and they hounded me for 2 years! They called and wanted to set up an appointment--the catch was both my husband and I had to be there. He wasn't interested so I just quit answering the phone when they called (Thank God for caller ID). Finally, after a year and a half of dodging calls we got another one of those cards for my other son. I finally answered and told them that my husband would never be here for a meeting and to please take my name off their list. I haven't heard from them since. I'm glad I didn't waste my time.
We got one of those letters when my daughter was born and had them come to our house. It was a presentation on an educational system that they have. The materials looked absolutely wonderful, we just couldn't afford them at the time.
We did, however, receive the digital camera (nothing too special) and the discounts. You do have to pay shipping to get these things, but it's not much.
I would say go ahead if you are interested but the gifts aren't as great as they say they are.
I wish I could have afforded to buy their collection as it included educational materials, science books, classics, encyclopedias, the whole works.
Good luck to you!
I also received this letter and I live in MPLS. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it is intended to put you on a mailing list.
scam.
i signed up with them and they called me wanting to come over and ask me a bunch of questions or something.
I received that card too. Once you send in the card, someone will contact you to schedule an appointment to meet with you. They are trying to sell you an educational program that will cost anywhere between $1500 and $3500. You get the free things regardless of if you decide to buy or not. You do have to mial in for the camera, coupon books and the film is a mail in thing too. You get the coupon for the 10 x 13 portrait on the spot (We're getting our picture taken for our free portrait this weekend...that's at JCPenny). Hope that helps!
I received the same mail twice and threw it away both times. I'm not sure how I got on their list or if it's a scam. It just looked suspicious, so I dumped it. Good luck!
Hi, this isn't a scam, it's a real company. Their catch is that they are selling some products, like sets of books, learning to read (similar to hooked on phonics i spose) encyclopedias (their big ticket item) etc. When we got it, the digital camera was definitely nothing to get excited about-- in fact i think i gave it to my kids as a toy and etc. Like i said, their big gimmic is to sell you the other items. They are really into "early education" and send a salesman to your home, but yeah, it is real... http://www.theunitededucatorsinc.com/p1con02.html
It's all a scam. If someone really wanted to give you something you wouldn't have to pay for it. Companies like this sell you things that they claim you "need" or your kids won't be as smart or wonderful. They will come to your house and give you the hard sell and make a ton of money off of you. You can probably get them same educational info off educational websites for free. I'm sure the reason they want to know what educational materials you already own is because they want to know how big of a sucker you are. If you already have bought from other companies like theirs then they know you'll cave and buy theirs too. I'm sure all of the free stuff has a catch. I'm sure the free film is the "send your roll in and pay a fortune for us to develop it and we'll send you another roll so we can screw you again :o)" The free portrait coupon is probably the same one you get from Sears or JCPenney out of the paper and magazines. They think that if they give you something free that you'll feel obligated to buy something from them and it actually works.
It's just like that stupid modeling agency that used to do the same thing. They would send out a letter saying that your child was "chosen". Then you go in and they tell you how wonderful and beautiful your child is and they want to offer a modeling contract. BUT first you have to pay their photographer hundreds of dollars for headshots. So you go home with your pics and your contract and an empty checkbook and nobody ever calls with a modeling job. My sister in law did it years ago with my niece. They recently were busted and have closed now I think but I'm sure they'll open up under a different name and start all over again.
Hope this helps,
J.
