23.09.2004

Beware of free fair offers!

We have received calls and emails concerning a free offer for an on line directory called "The Fair Guide", the current mailer concerns the APEX exhibition next year, but similar mailings have been received for other well known fairs such as SAIE and the first Conexpo ones have also been seen.

The mailing from an Austrian registered firm includes a form that says “you are registered under the following event” …….
It then lists the exhibition such as APEX and asks you to check and update the entry and return it with a brochure.

To be fair the main body of the text does tell you that if even if you do not send the form back with a binding signature your entry will be published. It also does say that the Fair guide is not affiliated with any other organisation.

In small print below the signature box it also says that when you sign or stamp in this spot you are binding your company to three years at €971 per year and if you do not cancel three months prior to the end of the three years by registered post you are automatically in for an additional year!

So while the form clearly says that you will pay if you sign, it is not difficult to see how a busy marketing person could easily check the free entry for accuracy and then sign it thinking they are confirming the changes. Thanks largely to the clever layout and style.

We contacted Construct Data Verlag AG the Austrian based publishers of the "Fair guide" and confronted them with our readers concerns. After a certain delay and then demanding to know who exactly they were dealing with, they sent us a full page statement.

Essentially they claim that they do make it clear on the form that:

-They are not affiliated to the trade show,
-They do publish information on trade shows and
-The company receiving the mailing is registered under the mention fair in that they must have participated at the fair in the past.

Company spokesman I.A Geoffrey McKay said:

“Since we are definitely not interested in having difficulties with potential customers and given that we seek to promote a good working business relationship with our partners we try and be as clear as possible on the form. Indeed the order terms were established after lengthy consultation with specialists from the fields of international contract Law, On-Line business and Trade Fair Organisation/ Following the advice form these experts we have decided upon, in the interest of our potential customers, the structure of our product and the current format of the form, with the individual elements that are obligatory by direct order placement. We now have had ten years experience in this field and the form is also the fruit of practical considerations related to our offer”

While technically speaking everything McKay says is true, it is also clear that the mailer trades on the fact that many recipients will not read the main text and will just check the entry, sign and return in the envelope provided.

The fact that the form makes no mention of what precisely you get for the €971 per year or who is likely to use the web directory or why on earth an exhibitor at a trade fair would wish to advertise in a trade fair industry directory or why anyone would wish to do this for four years, all highlight the intention of this mailer.

We recommend that you alert your staff to this mailing and warn about checking the small print prior to signing anything.