Posted By Basshoe on 07 Jul 2010 09:30 AM
Hey LIFisherman,
Sorry to hear about your situation. I am going to assume that the fillet knife was one of the Rapala wooden handled knives, the best made in my mind? If it would make you feel better about our club I would be happy to purchase and send one to you and I will accept all costs. I don’t normally reach out like this but you sound pretty disheartened and I would like to show you that our club is a GREAT club. We all have something to offer each other in this GREAT club in an effort to make us all a little more appreciative of the sport. I would be happy to offer you a knife if it would make you a little more appreciative of the club. Drop me a line and let’s see if we can help change your opinion of our club. Good luck to you and I wish you well in all you do.

Posted By moose on 08 Jul 2010 06:21 AM
HOW DO YOU CONTACT SOMEON WHEN THE P.M. DON'T WORK ???
SEND SMOKE SIGNALS ???

Take a look at your first sentence, if you are a life member why would you receive a promotion to RENEW your membership for 3 yrs?

Posted By LIFisherman on 01 Jul 2010 03:51 PM
BACK IN MARCH, I RECEIVED A CLUB PROMOTION TO RENEW MY MEMBERSHIP FOR 3 YEARS AND I WAS TO RECEIVE A FILET KNIFE IN 2 TO 6 WEEKS, I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE KNIFE, I CALLED 3 TIMES SO FAR AND ALL I HEAR IS "IT WAS SENT OUT", AND YOU SHOULD BE RECEIVING IT IN 4 TO 6 WEEKS.  THEY SURE AS HELL TAKE YOUR MONEY FAST ENOUGH, IF I DO NOT GET MY KNIFE SOON I WILL BE CANCELING MY MEMBERSHIP, THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED AND I AM GETTING REALLY SICK OF THE CRAP I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH.  I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER FOR 5 YEARS, I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED A TEST PRODUCT, EVEN THOUGH I HAVE FILLED OUT THE  REQUEST SEVERAL TIMES, (TWICE A YEAR). HEY STEVE PENNAZ I HAVE A FEW SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR STUPID CLUB.

LOL LEAVE THEN! LOL

Posted By scottcrumpler on 15 Aug 2010 03:45 PM
I just saw this, and I don't exactly want to stir it up again, but I would be interested to know if LIFisherman ever received the knife. I think some of you may have latched onto the fact that he said "this club" instead of "the club's management" when that was obviously what he really meant. It's unfortunate, too, because those cold responses probably pushed him further away from the organization. And, although this is a great club to belong to for anglers, it is definitely a for-profit business and the price of membership is a commercial transaction. In that respect, it's quite fair for a person to expect NAFC to live up to whatever offer they make in order to make the sale. And, to my mind, 4 - 6 weeks is more than enough time to fulfill the order. That standard delivery range evolved to account for all the possibilities suggested by some of you for why his product hadn't yet arrived. So for him to wait twice that long before he lost his patience seems not at all unreasonable. As for the many comments that he shouldn't have joined at all if he was just joining for a knife-- that's not the point. He could have continued to renew his membership yearly and may very well have. But NAFC offered him an enticement to make a larger payment and he took it. All he wanted was for NAFC to hold up their end. What's wrong with that?

If this club really is going to be a worthy and rewarding organization, we need to be more considerate of legitimate complaints-- even if they're delivered in an angry or disillusioned tone. And, we need to work together to ensure that the company we pay to operate this organization is held accountable for the commitments and responsibilities they have to us as members. For my money, I'd like to see more than one issue of the magazine during the summer months when many of us have the most time to actually fish. But that's a discussion for another post.

Anyway, I hope you eventually got the knife, LIFisherman. If it's the same one I got earlier this year, it's a pretty good knife. And, I hope you stick with us a little longer, despite the somewhat cold response you got to your complaint. I highly recommend asking for help or suggestions first on this forum if you should run into any other similar customer service issues in the future. By starting from a more positive position and asking for help, you may get a warmer response and may very well rally support from other members to help you get the issue resolved.


Best to all,

Scott Crumpler

Posted By Pegsguy on 17 Aug 2010 09:23 AM
Scott: I'd rather get the magazines in the winter when I can't fish, in the summer they have to wait for a rain day! Same with the TV show, what would you rather do on a Sat. morning-watch Steve P fish or get out and wet a line?
Tom

Tom -

I'd just as soon have at least 10 issues a year at a bare minimum. Not either Winter or Summer, but both. All other major fishing magazines do it. Magazines publish content that seasonally matches each issue. Publishing one issue that spans July, August, and September is skipping a LOT when it comes to fishing (especially when it was as thin as the one that we got). We're all fishermen here, so none of us should pretend we don't know that. It's ok to belong to a club, and love that you belong to it, and still have concerns about what you'd like to see done better. I'm fairly certain NAFC chose to do it that way because of a lack of magazine ad revenue, which is understandable, but I would cut the fat somewhere else before depriving the membership of content.

As for the TV show, a show airs at a specific time, and unless you have Tivo, you have to sit there and watch it at that time. Not so with a magazine. I can make time whenever I'm not fishing to read a magazine. I don't really care when they air the TV show, though. That's not something NAFC is doing for its members specifically, although we do enjoy it. The magazine, on the other hand, is just for us. I'd like to get more issues is all. Remember when BASS used to be about more than tournaments and all bass fishermen read the magazine religiously? Hopefully now that BASS is under new ownership, we'll start to see that happen again. But, I'd like to see NAFC publish a more regular magazine again that makes me feel the same way.

Constructive criticism is not a bad thing, and I mentioned before that this thread wasn't really the place to discuss the magazine issue. I don't think the club sucks-- I LOVE it! I just want the magazine to be published closer to monthly,

Cheers and God bless,

Scott

Posted By Pegsguy on 17 Aug 2010 12:43 PM
I can't speak about BASS, but In-Fisherman is one of the oldest fishing only magazines being published and it is only published 7 times per year, same as NAF magazine. I just wish that all of the fishing magazines I subscribe to would stop getting thinner and thinner! I'd rather have 7 issues with some content that 12 issues that are 20 pages thick! It will be interesting to see what happens to BASS after the sale is closed and the new owners take over. Tom

Yeah, I forgot about In-fisherman-- that's a good point, although I think they publish 8 issues a year. Bassmaster Magazine has traditionally published 10 a year. But I agree that how thin they've all gotten is just as frustrating. Some of that is just the fact that there are fewer ads so the magazine looks thinner, but when ad buys are way down, content often has to get cut too, since it's the ads that pay for the printing. I've noticed it in Bassmaster, NAFC, and several others. My free monthly subscription to Missouri Conservationist is practically as thick as our 3-month Summer issue of NAFC, and that magazine contains no ads at all.

One of the three guys who are buying BASS is the former CEO of Time, Inc. and was the editor of Southern Living before that, so he has a long career in print publishing. Hopefully that spells good news for BASS members.