Date:         Mon, 8 Aug 94 13:25:18 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         sas@opus.xyplex.com (Scott Sminkey - Sustaining Eng Group)
Subject:      Writing form letters about A/C to VW

While I also encourage everyone to write to VW US (or VWoA or whatever
they are really called) to ask them to make a R-134 conversion kit, I
strongly discourage using any kind of form letter like the one that was
suggested here on the list.  Many years ago, I joined the fight to stop
the authority running the airport in Boston from kicking out small planes.
I remember very well the head of Massport saying that he'd received hundreds
of letters from local pilots that were all the same. He said he ignored all
of those letters since it seemed to him like it was not individual opinions
being expressed, but rather the work of a single organization.  While the
situation with VWoA is not the same here, I've got to believe that form
letters will, at best, be quite boring to the person opening them and
reading them, and at worst, be tossed in the trash. Instead of a form
letter, take a couple extra minutes and mention why *you* want a conversion
kit. Maybe this is because your A/C is currently leaky (like mine!) and
you can't afford to keep pumping expensive R12 into it, maybe it's because
you're concerned about the environment, maybe it's because you truly love
your Vanagon and you're sold on VWs for the rest of your driving days! If
you *will* spend the money for the conversion, tell VWoA that. Perhaps you
could say that you expect Vanagons to have the legendary long life of the
microbuses and buses, and you want A/C for that long haul... I think you
get the point.

- Scott
  '91 Vanagon camper
===========
Scott Sminkey				email: sasminkey@eng.xyplex.com
Software Sustaining Engineering		voice: 508 952-4792
Xyplex, Inc.				fax: 508 952-4887
295 Foster St.				(Opinions, comments, etc. are mine,
Littleton, MA 01460					not Xyplex's...)