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IMPORTANT  NOTICE

Because we deliver all our products electronically (we consider both e-mail transmission and Web site access to our publications to be forms of electronic publication) they are especially vulnerable to piracy and electronic re-transmission.  We believe most piracy is committed unintentionally.  To clarify issues for people who might otherwise commit unintentional piracy, we require ALL customers to send us a "Promise & Affirmation" note when they place their order (we provide the required wording).  An order will not be processed without it.  When ordering by credit card, for example, the system will not forward the order to us unless the person placing the order agrees to the conditions and terms of the "Promise and Affirmation."  If you bypass the system and place your order without an acceptable "Promise and Affirmation," we will be forced to return your money less a processing fee (5% if you paid by credit card).  See Q&A number 6 for an explanation of how an extra charge might arise and how to avoid it.  We expect the name affixed to this promise to be the same as the person who is the only authorized user/subscriber.  Our products are also protected by copyright.   ^.

Q&A 4, 5, and 6 give a more complete explanation.  Rather than refer you to that location, we have reproduced those items below.

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4.  What's the "Promise and Affirmation" all about? 

We have cut prices well below our normal rates, and we are therefore operating on thin margins.  Each order is extremely important to us.  The real problem we face is cheating or stealing.  We base our whole operation on trust.  We can’t afford to get beat up in the marketplace because our customers send free copies of our products to friends.  If people are not honest with us, we will either have to go out of business or significantly increase our prices.  Some people think that because they send a copy of our product to only one friend, it cannot make much difference, but it does.  Every paying customer counts for us.  Our company is not a big conglomerate.  We are a very small but dedicated operation.  We have been producing The Valuator in hard copy for over 20 years.  Even though we are small, we are not fly-by-night.  You might call the electronic provision of our products an experiment.  It enables us to be more efficient and to pass significant savings on to our customers.  We are trying to do just that, but we need your help to succeed at it.  We must adapt to survive.  We do not want to limit the availability of our publications to printed versions only, but we will if we cannot trust our customers to honor our copyrights.  That would mean customers would no longer be able to use a spreadsheet to sort stocks by various criteria.  If we have to print on paper, our delivery will be slower, and our prices might be more than double what they are now.  Instead of sending free copies to a friend, why not tell the friend how useful the product is and recommend it?  That’s the way the system is supposed to work.  (Please read #s 5 & 6)

 

 

5.  Why do you require customers to promise they will not forward or otherwise send your products to another person?  Won’t they do it anyway?

We believe that people are essentially honest and that most cheating occurs when people do not really think about what they are doing.  They do not think of the fact that they are stealing something that is ours in order to give it to a friend.  Only the customer has a right to use our product.  The customer does not own the copyright.  The copy they send to a friend is a stolen copy.  Sending a copy to a friend is similar to going to a magazine rack, paying for a copy of Money magazine, and then stealing an extra copy to give to a neighbor.  Our requirement that a customer agree to the "Promise and Affirmation" is intended to focus attention on the issue and to cause our customers to commit to being honest with us.  Making such a promise and affirmation will mean something to honest people.

 

6.  So why do you ask people to e-mail you their promise before they order or with their order? 

There are people who prefer to pay in some way other than with a credit card.  We provide directions on how to do this (see the "Product List" page), but if a person orders a product without the "Promise and Affirmation," the product will not be delivered until the "Promise and Affirmation" is received by us.  If the customer refuses to send the promise after paying for the order, we will have to give a refund.  All refunds are now paid by check.  The refund will usually be for the amount of the fee minus a 5% charge to cover our expenses.  However, if an order is paid for by wire transmission, we charge the customer a $10 fee to process the refund (this is our cost to receive payment by wire, and it is the largest amount we charge to process a refund).  Fees paid by check are usually refunded in full.  Therefore, to avoid unnecessary aggravation and expense for the customer, we ask that the promise be sent at the same time or before the order is placed.  If an individual is not going to send us the promise, we might as well find out beforehand so we can avoid having to pass the expense along to the customer.   

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