Irritating ads:
”
I live in the unincorporated part of Gilroy and I’m being
besieged by these ads for Oakwood Country School. It isn’t just
once or twice, it’s practically everyday. I called the school and
asked them to stop and they said it was the post office’s fault –
which I knew was a lot of baloney.
Irritating ads: “I live in the unincorporated part of Gilroy and I’m being besieged by these ads for Oakwood Country School. It isn’t just once or twice, it’s practically everyday. I called the school and asked them to stop and they said it was the post office’s fault – which I knew was a lot of baloney. I talked to the post office and the post office said that they pay for it, which is what I thought. I would like to say that I would never have anything to do with this school that’s opening. No. 1, they did not tell the truth over the phone; No. 2, it is not the postal carriers fault; and No. 3, I don’t need four or five of these advertisements every week. I think this is unreasonable. Thank you.”
The Red Phone feels your pain, as it too has had this problem, and contacted Ted at Oakwood Country School, who insisted that it’s impossible for anyone to receive the mailings several times a week.
“The reports of two and three cards a week on average is not possible,” he said. “We send out what’s called a non-profit saturation mailing … we provide the cards to the post office and they deliver them to every postal customer … from San Jose to Hollister.”
Ted added that the school usually gets two or three calls to be taken off the list and they have to explain that it’s a special service of the post office for non-profits, not a mailing list. He said they use the saturation mailing because it’s so much cheaper than first-class mail, 6 1/2 cents vs. 37 cents, and has proven to be highly effective.
“Almost all of our new students come as a result of the postcard … We actually only send one or two per event that we have here,” Ted said. “Last Saturday we had a high school open house for which we sent one postcard and then we had a lower school open house for which we sent two postcards. That is a total of three postcards over a period of a two to three week period.”
Ted suggests that people who don’t want the ads, including the Red Phone, throw them away.
“I know when I go to the mailbox, at least a third sometimes 2/3 are things that I don’t want and I just drop them in the garbage can,” he said. “I don’t call every Realtor, every Internet provider asking them to take me off their mailing list. And since we send out about 50,000 postcards and only receive a couple of phone calls, it’s clear that the other 49,998 people that received them that may not have wanted them just dropped them in the garbage.
“It’s economical and it seems to be … the most successful and we hope it’s not too big of an inconvenience to people who receive it along with AOL disks and other things they may not need in the mail.”
Old City Hall clock tower
“I’m calling because I’m poor and I don’t have a clock so I go off the clock tower downtown and it’s always wrong, so I’m always late to work and my boss gets mad.”
Back on Sept. 27, the Red Phone looked into this for another caller and was told by Mike Dorn, with the City of Gilroy, that the clock was awaiting work by a clock guru in Watsonville. This time, the Red Phone got in touch with Joe Klein, public information officer for Gilroy, who said the same thing.
“The clock is not operational right now,” he said. “There are two fellows over in Watsonville who have been working on the clock over the years. They are scheduled by our facilities supervisor and they have missed recent appointments to work on the clock. The next nearest person who knows how to work on that type of clock, which is 100 years old, is down in Los Angeles, and obviously we would rather work with someone local.”
He added that the chimes were turned off because of noise disturbance complaints from some surrounding neighbors.
” In any case, the next thing that will happen is the fellows from Watsonville will come over and do maintenance on the clock,” Klein said.
So at this point, callers, your Old City Hall clock concern is on hold. Your dutiful Red Phone will stay on this issue and keep its readers posted.
Readers: Know of a situation with a streetlight? Problems with potholes? The Red Phone is here to listen to your troubles and woes (but encourages happy thoughts) and do its best to find answers to your burning questions, so call at 842-9070 or e-mail
re******@gi************.com
.
