Posted on 03/13/2002 2:38:21 PM PST by ProtestHRBlock
Petition Online was down for about an hour, but it's back up now. If you tried to sign the petition, try again. It is here: **LINK**. See KABA article for other actions to take -- fax number provided.
Time to Put H&R Block on Notice
Tax Service Company Caves-in to Anti-Gun-Rights Extremists
KeepAndBearArms.com
March 13, 2002
Wide distribution permitted and encouraged.
This is not about the NRA. Even if you are one of those gun-rights activists who dislike the NRA, believing them to be too compromising, you need to take action on this.
This about businesses caving in to the political agenda of the anti-gun zealots at the Brady Campaign, Gun Industry Watch and others.
If we let this stand unpunished, more businesses will bow to the extremists.
The facts: H&R Block had an agreement with an organization called Memberdrive. Memberdrive made an agreement with the NRA by which the NRA got a royalty for each member who used H&R Block. The anti-gun-rights extremists threatened protests this Saturday in numerous cities. H&R Block caved, severing the deal.
See the joint Brady Campaign, Gun Industry Watch press release about the cave-in here. See the H&R Block letter announcing the cave-in to Brady here.
Action step 1: Sign the online petition I have created at http://www.petitiononline.com/hrblock/petition.html.
Action step 2: Write a letter to Linda McDougall, H&R Block V.P. of Communications (who wrote to Brady about the cave-in), telling her that H&R Block has lost your business. Fax or snail mail this to her – email gets ignored, but paper doesn’t, so if you email her, send paper too. A phone call wouldn’t hurt either. (My letter to Ms. McDougall is below.)
Whatever you do: keep it polite but firm, clean but frank.
Linda McDougall
V.P. Communications
H&R Block
4400 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64111
Phone: 816-932-7542
Fax: 816-753-8628
Email: lmcdougall@hrblock.com
Action step 3: Go to your yellow pages. Call your local H&R Block branch and explain that you will not give it business because of this decision by headquarters.
Action step 4: A) If H&R Block already is doing your taxes – especially if you gave it business because of this deal – stop the process. Explain to your representative that you have decided to take your business elsewhere because of H&R Block’s decision. B) If you already have paid for these services, demand a refund – after all, now that H&R Block has changed the situation, you turned over your money under false pretenses.
[snipped]
I'm not convinced of that at all.
As of 5:57 P.M. today, H&R Block's Web site had no mention of any cutoff of its deal with NRA at all; no press release, nothing. That leads me to believe that the antigun lobby's spin that this was a cutoff of the NRA deal only - rather than a cutoff of all deals with all advocacy groups - was bullcrap.
At the very least, H&R Block sure didn't feel "intimidated" enough by the antigun lobby - let alone its claim of any large "grassroots" following it had - to make sure everyone knew it no longer was in any deal with NRA in order to mollify that (alleged) antigun "grassroots."
The reality, of course - as Algore knows - is that there is no antigun "grassroots" for HCI to mobilize!
Scandals of antigun activists and politicians - with how-to guide for "outing"!
The petition is now up to 800 signatures!!
Is YOUR name on it?
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