Subject: Re: Upgrading across platforms
From: [email-masked] (Syndesis Corporation)
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 15:39:05 +0600

>In-Reply-To: <[email-masked]>
>> I haven't heard a dicky-bird from them.  I have
>> heard from members of the club I'm in (based in Glasgow, Scotland), that 
>> this is quite common.  I don't know if this is because we are outside
>> the US.
>>   
>> Steve Criddle, Folkestone, Kent, England
>
>This is VERY common from US companies in general, and I deal with a LOT of 
>them. The UK might as well be on the moon. I suspect it's because they 
>think it's too expensive to send a letter or make a 5 minute phone call to 
>keep in touch. I think I have heard a few mutterings from NewTek recently 
>which may signal a change to this attitude. Once they get straightened out 
>with email, they may be easier to contact. They didn't used to answer their 
>Compuserve account for MONTHS sometimes, though.

Postal expenses are not inconsiderable.  Sending one or two pages to
most of the world from the USA costs a minimum of 50 cents.  More likely
95 cents, if it's more than a few pages.  Compare to 32 cents for domestic
mail.  

On the other hand, here at Syndesis, I've always wanted to make a point
of always sending every mail piece out to everyone around the world.
So far, this gambit has worked wonders: we have even received "fan mail"
from non-US customers who've never heard from any US software company.
And our return-on-investment on these international prospects has been
good, too.

With our mailing list up over 10,000 names, it's getting tougher to justify
the routine expense of sending to every non-US address.  We've been picking
up a lot of names from Computer Graphics World that I suspect are people
just fishing for information, any info, hoping for free demo tapes, disks
to reformat, etc.  

For example, we've received more than a dozen written 
requests from suspiciously similar names and addresses in the tiny town
of Mosul, Iraq.  We have sent them literature, but they keep sending more
letters, begging for free product.

By the way, when you fill out those "reader reply" cards in magazines,
the companies get your name, address, etc. as well as a count of the number
of items you've circled on the card.  Far too many of the cards we 
receive say "20+ items circled."