Question

Dear Mitch,

I don't think this is one of those letters you're going to put up on your website, but I would appreciate it if you emailed me back with a response.

I have ordered a couple of things from your company in the past, and I've been very satisfied with your shipping department. The orders were filled and sent faster than your ad said they would take. But even more importantly, when the orders came, I was pleased to find that the products were better than they looked in the pictures, and so far they've all been great fun. Recently, however, this has changed. I am sorry to say it, but I think something weird is going on with the person in charge of shipping out your products.

First, I got some notice saying that things were being "delayed" and it didn't even give a reason. Then, like a week later, I received another copy of the exact same letter, almost as though no one knew if they'd even bothered to send me the first letter.

THEN, a few days after THAT, I received another note, this one saying that there was some kind of "hold" being put on all shipments to everywhere, and it said something about it being due to some type of "pending change in policy", which was in the process of being finalized.

And THEN, this week, ANOTHER note came, apologizing for the delays and confusion and then going on to say that from now on ALL Adler-n-Subtract.com products will be available for FREE. FREE? Seriously, is it true, or did I misread the thing? Because it seems a little suspicious -- completely free?!?

I don't get it...

How can that be??

Sincerely,

Natalie G.

Johannesburg, South Africa

Answer

Dear Natalie,

Believe it or not, it IS TRUE. So, relying upon the reasoning of the 'formal logic' included in most high school math curriculums, we can say this: since it is true, we can then conclude that it must be possible!

I will not fill up precious digital space detailing the process we engaged in to arrive at this decision, but I'll tell you that the moment I got the idea I liked it, and then loved it. There were a few 'business' ramifications I had to factor into the equation and sort out, but in the end the decision was a personal one.

I am proud of our products and I derive enough pleasure from them to have samples spread throughout my home so that they're never beyond reach, and I really do play with them (or at least touch them) whenever the desire strikes me. I was never completely comfortable with the idea of actually selling them, particularly on a website that is basically educational. Each and every time my eye catches the word "PRODUCTS" sharing a screen with the words 'Adler-n-subtract.com', I find myself feeling somehow cheapened, almost embarrassed. NOTE: though several of the products (more than 40%) are sold at a unit price which either barely breaks even or actually incurs a loss (in particular, one of our products is so hefty that it costs us more to ship than I would feel comfortable charging for it. Yet, it should be noted that though I was aware of this glitch from that product's inception; we sold and shipped 260% more than we had envisioned and had to return to production to fill orders. The shipping cost to us was sizable. And think of this: the ones that were ordered and sent to overseas students, parents, and teachers cost us, well... cost us a lot.

So then what formula could we have possibly come up with to charge nothing AND ship the product?

In the fifteen months that zipped by since we launched this site (on a lark, actually, without any consideration or fantasy that any word-of-mouth or word-of-keypad force would cause things to 'take off' the way they did providing rewards I still do not fully understand, I now find myself in the clichéd position of wanting to 'give something back'. Using a combination of soon-to-be-explained methods, visitors to the website will be able to obtain each and every essential part of each and every product, if not the entire product – absolutely free of charge. There is no catch, no tricks, no small print at the bottom of a hundred page contract. Free. Totally free, and our stuff will always be free for anyone and everyone, without limits. No membership fees, and no requests for credit card numbers, (like those frequently encountered in so many "free" websites). No, this is for real: free.  Within one week we will reveal the details, which are simple, in getting for free the fun stuff that until now  people were required to purchase.

NOTE: There is one and only one ironic exception: the t-shirts and tank tops); the irony? Those garments -- both the shirts and the tank tops—were the only form of advertising we ever did. We did not expect, predict, hope, or suspect that they would gain the popularity they have. Fascinated, I have asked people what it is that they like as often about them; and the answers vary, but many include the intriguing line of text that's printed on the back of the tee and tank-top, others comment on the colors and the quality. Though I hate shopping, I did personally spend a day last year going from store to store selecting each and every tee shirt that seemed worthy of being printed and worth adding to the collection have had some appeal. Next, off to a local tee shirt printer who, fortunately, cared about his work as much as I care about mine, So, since they were not intended as educational products (and are not), I can think of no societal benefit to deserve their free distribution. Inexplicably, our tee-shirts and tank-tops remain as popular as ever and so I am in the process of trying to devise some kind of a plan to provide them to any visitors to our website who express an interest in receiving one, so I am trying to devise a plan as close my little dream here would be to avoid any monetary exchange.

Realistically, we may not be able to do this right now, and they may end up being the only item we 'sell' to visitors of our website. Alternatively, I am currently investigating a few things and if one of them works out then neither our collectible tee shirts nor the tank-tops will cost a thing; they will join the club of treasures that cost the recipients nothing!

Stay tuned!!

Hope this clears up the issues surrounding our recent batch of 'delayed shipments', etc., and I apologize

Mitch