X-Message-Number: 14805 From: Subject: Shocking!!! Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 12:35:05 +1000 This whole business has been dealt with in a shocking and shoddy manner. What happened to etiquette and just generally being polite. I guess every American is perfect and does everything exactly to formula. When I see things like this, it is no surprise to me that the idea of Cryonics has not taken off. Writing letters that treat a person (and member) like a child or imbecile is not diplomatic! and I am not just referring to David Pizar here. A lot of people want to sign up, pay their dues and then have as little involvement in the matter as possible. They want to be properly informed if circumstances change and they want the company to make EVERY effort to maintain contact. Alcor has NOT done this in this case. They failed in their duty of care to a member - he was a member when the issues first started. Alcor did not say anything about picking up the phone and trying to call him in any of their correspondence - it is not difficult you know. A call to your International directory enquiries would have confirmed his telephone number. What about a post on Cryonet asking him to contact you? What about asking some other German or European members to see if they can contact him by mail, phone, email etc? Did Alcor double check the details they have on file for this man and then check that their correspondence was properly addressed when this enquiry was made (people do make mistakes when addressing things - especially when the address in a foreign language)? Did Alcor try sending a recorded delivery (or even DHL) letter to this man so that fault in the post office could be eliminated? There was no mention of this in any of their replies. I don't expect this for just anybody but he was a signed up (5 YEARS) paying member at this time. Why was no mention made when he made contact to enquire about "buy back policy" a year ago (you now had his e-mail address that you know worked and I bet it had his name as part of it)? Be honest, if this man owed Alcor U$50 000 just how long do you think it would take to track him down? Alcor knew that contact had been broken, he did not, the onus is therefore on Alcor to make the effort to try to re-establish contact NOT on him. If this man had died during this time, Alcor would not have even known about it because they did not persevere in their enquiries into his disappearance. Why (at the time of signing up - and taking his money!!!) was nothing said to this man about Alcors concerns about his insurance policy? He provided a notarised translation to Alcor, this means that the translation is legally certified as a correct translation - a notary in his country is a legal entity. American immigration officials at the INS use notarised documents as evidence all the time so foreign notaries are recognised by important American institutions. The impression given is of a tatty piece of paper with no legal validity. With regard to funding through insurance, ALCOR changed its policies, not him so a bit more diplomacy would seem in order here. How long has Alcor taken to make arrangements with any other non American insurance company? As for David Pizar, I do not think a person who "retired from the Alcor Board and retired as Alcor's Vice President after many years" and who is "a suspension member, and so is my wife" is exactly what I would call "an impartial observer". It is my impartial observation that you owe this man a public apology - you must have made one great vice president with such diplomacy. Thomas, I recommend that you wait a while and see what happens with all this and if Alcor do not resolve the matter to your satisfaction give serious consideration to the other suspension providers that is what a free market is all about. It is only a matter of time before a non US based suspension provider starts up, providing a more internationally focused service. In the mean time, we have to make do with whats available. Chris Benatar Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14805