Conference hydra::amiga_v1

860.0. "new "offer" from the makers of Scribble!" by CIMNET::KYZIVAT (Paul Kyzivat) Thu Oct 29 1987 08:48

I received an offer in the mail from Micro-Systems Software (makers of
Scribble!) for a new word processor called "Excellence!".  Here is most of
the letter:

    Dear Scribble! owner:

    As a valuable registered user of ours we would like you to be the first
    to know about Excellence!, our new electronic wordprocessor.

    Excellence! is due for release December 18, 1987 and will be second to
    none.  With features such as:

    *Mac-like WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get)
    *an 80,000 word, customizable spelling checker
    *a lifesaving grammatical checker
    *footnote capabilities
    *multiline headers and footers
    *IFF support of graphics and text
    *interlace and non-interlace modes
    *on-screen mathematics capability
    *multiple newspaper type column support
    *an extensive thesaurus
    *an index and table of contents generator
    *multiple on-screen document support
    *proportional and multiple font support
    *superscript and subscript menu items
    *mailmerge facilities
    *clipboard support

    and much much more, we are proud to announce our news to you first.

    Excellence!, with a suggested retail of $199.95 is a separate product
    from Scribble! with a suggested retail price of $99.95.

    At this time, as our valuable user who make Scribble! the most popular,
    basic wordprocesor today, we are offering Excellence! as an upgrade to
    you.  This upgrade offer is for a limited time only and will not be
    offered again.

    Scribble! will remain popular with many users who find a basic
    wordprocessor with full featured capabilities all they really need.
    Excellence! was developed for those who need the extra advanced WYSIWIG
    (What You See Is What You Get) features that became popular this year.

    For a limited time you may send in your completed form on the back of
    this sheet and be the first to get your new program.  The Excellence!
    upgrade is $99.95 plus shipping and handling.  You will receive an
    entire new package complete with manual and diskette.  After this offer
    ends you will not be able to upgrade for this unbelievable price; your
    cost will be $139.95.

    We encourage you to send in the form on the reverse side of this page
    quickly.  A return envelope is provided for your convenience.  Simply
    follow the explicit directions on the order form and be the first to
    receive Excellence! from the experienced developers of Scribble! and 6
    other popular programs for your Amiga.

    We guarantee you will never be satisfied with anyone else's standard of
    excellence after you get a taste of real Excellence!

They then go on to caution that "When ordering by charge card you may have
to wait up to 4 weeks to receive Excellence!.  Due to credit card fraud we
are forced to abide by the strict banking rules applicable today.  Help us
process your order quickly by sending us a band check or money order."  And
shipping/handling charges are: UPS ground - $5.50, UPS 2 day air - $12.50,
UPS overnight - $17.50.  

So the makers of a marginal word processor which has only been popular for
lack of competition want me to send them $100 now for a new product which
is guaranteed not to ship for almost two months, and which has never been
seen or reviewed by anyone.  They offer no money back guarantee, they want
me to pay cash and much inflated shipping charges.  They do this with a
threat that the price will go up at some unspecified time in the future.

The caution about delays for credit cards is particularly funny considering
no one else imposes such delays and the product isn't going to ship for
much longer than that.  UPS overnight is also funny under the
circumstances.  Perhaps that is in case I have an urgent editing task which
I MUST start on December 19. 

I can't help but think that they are trying to raise funds to support
development of a product to compete with WordPerfect.  They may have now
convinced me never to buy anything from them.

	Paul

    Direct Marketing at it's best...
    
    Having used Scribble! I share your attitude.  I actually prefer
    to use TextCraft 1.1 to Scribble!  
    
    I'd wait for a full review of the product before I consider it.
    Why should you be pushed into buying a first release product that
    WILL be full of bugs?
    
    This reminds me of the Aegis Gold Card program.  Since they sent
    out the mailing for that, they have only released two products,
    and haven't updated any old ones.
    
    Special Offers...I'll wait until the STORES start marking them down.
    
    	Randy
    

    
    If this does what it says it will, Im selling my Wp as soon as it's
    released.