CompuServe Messages

Yes, it really didn't cost us any more than the time to a) prove the deal was legit and b) get some assurance from the publisher on down to the person doing the mailing that our list wasn't going to be sold. Yes, I don't have much to say about disappearing MM guides. I don't think the presence of the guide makes much difference to whether a dealership is going to survive or not. Do you sell issues of Cadence and Computer Graphics World? Same thing. It almost sounds like you believe that customers should not be fully informed before they make purchases, that they shouldn't know about competition, that they should simply shut up, hand over their credit cards to you and sign the reciept for whatever you've just sold them. What, you think that people don't know that MicroStation and mail order exists? And that removing the MM Guide will prevent them from learning about it? That guide is something that Autodesk put in each and every box. I'd bet that your dealer agreement has some fine print somewhere that says you can't break up product into its constituent parts in order to pick and choose what to sell. Of course, I doubt anyone will ever enforce that… but I think it's a raw deal when dealers are removing my paid advertisement from 3DS boxes, when agents of Autodesk promised me they'd be there.