AOPA Rant

JB1842 said:
Exactly. How can I know if they won't respond to my inquiry? There are many ways to find out about it, and I chose to contact them by email. In case I wasn't clear, I cancelled my membership due to their customer service, not lack of advocacy.
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Ok. I'm with you then. No email back is crap but complaining they don't do some advocacy I may disagree with. It may be worth emailing again?

I do think there is a lot to be learned from reading the magazine for what it's worth.
 
If I ever have a question....I usually just call in on the 800 line....and talk with Rodney for hours. :rofl:
 
MichiPilot said:
I'm not sure about you....well actually I am. But anyway, I'd love to know how you can say they don't lift a finger. The last time you whined and whined and I provided you with several examples you just ignored them. But it's far easier to just whine from behind your keyboard.

further, you are the type of person that is killing this industry. Standoffish, rude, and unwelcoming.
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I'm here all weekend, don't forget to tip your waitress.

Might as well blame me for global warming, strife in the ME, and genital warts while you're on a roll.

Bad pilot - no donut. :nono:
 
There's no crying in baseball!

There's NO crying -- in baseball!

:wink2:
 
Vance Breese said:
I don’t mean to diminish you rant Josh; I have just had a very different experience with AOPA that I wanted to share.
They have always returned my calls promptly and every one I have talked to seemed eager to help with whatever challenge prompted my call.
I have enjoyed all the AOPA events I have attended.
I like AOPA airports on my Garmin 696.
I use their flight planning software and it seems to work well.
I find some of their flight instructing materials valuable.
I am grateful for their political advocacy even when I do not feel aligned with their position.
I find value in the Air Safety Institute and learn a lot there.
A few times my expectations exceeded what they were able to deliver.
I suspect the misunderstanding was on my part.
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Yep...just renewed mine yesterday, for the 38th time. Got a new hat coming. :D
I've never understood all the grousing about them.
 
JB1842 said:
I don't want sympathy, I wanted to rant.
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Whatever, you might consider getting a life. Or actually flying more instead of posting on a dumb forum....
 
JB1842 said:
So last month I contacted AOPA (by email) to voice concerns I had with them, and to cancel my membership. I didn't hear a peep from them, even though the auto-reply email I received from them told me I would be contacted within 2-3 business days. So 2 weeks later I emailed them again. Nothing from them again. Yesterday I got a check in the mail from them for $35. I'm going to assume this is a refund on membership fees/legal proetction plan. I tried to use my log-in on their webpage, and my member number didn't exist. Thank you AOPA for cancelling my membership and sending me a check. Also thank you for your ****-poor customer relations that only affirms that I made the right choice by dumping you. I might have been willing to keep my membership if I was contacted about my concerns, but alas, you have proved to me that little GA, single engine piston, C-150 pilots don't mean squat to you.
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Wait, so you're upset that AOPA canceled your membership as you requested, but didn't want to listen to you complain about why you canceled it?

If a woman left you for another guy, would you really want to hear that it's because you don't satisfy her? :no:

I'm not sure what you said in your original correspondence with them, but if you mentioned cancellation, nothing else you said in that email mattered.
My guess is that somewhere deep in AOPA's "customer retention" algorithm you were declared as not worth the trouble.
 
JB1842 said:
Really? Take you same advice.
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I always liked that one. A guy posting on an internet forum to go do something and not post on an internet forum. Classic! :rofl:
 
I just thought of something that may put a little pressure on AOPA to continue to improve.

Many of us have our memberships on auto renewal. I know I did until recently. This means AOPA can consider that money almost guaranteed money.

If we all discontinued auto renewal and had to renew manually, this means AOPA would have to work harder to keep us renewing.

I know this makes things a little harder on the members, but when an organization has "guaranteed money" they tend to get lazy.
 
If you turn off auto renew and wait for them to call you'll get more free swag.
 
RalphInCA said:
I just thought of something that may put a little pressure on AOPA to continue to improve.

Many of us have our memberships on auto renewal. I know I did until recently. This means AOPA can consider that money almost guaranteed money.

If we all discontinued auto renewal and had to renew manually, this means AOPA would have to work harder to keep us renewing.

I know this makes things a little harder on the members, but when an organization has "guaranteed money" they tend to get lazy.
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Because you want them spending money on collecting your renewal instead of advocating on your behalf?

Mixed up world some people live in.
 
RalphInCA said:
... when an organization has "guaranteed money" they tend to get lazy.
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With roughly $70M/4+ years of dues income in the bank, a majority of members who pay unquestioningly even when dues are unnecessarily raised, and a proxy system that puts the employees in charger of the organization, you don't think they are already lazy?
 
RalphInCA said:
Well, that's true. Perhaps it was not such a good idea.:dunno:
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That is the mixed up part. People wanting an adversarial relationship with someone who is advocating on their behalf.

The OP's attitude toward AOPA (and some other posters) makes it clear that there are 20% (I just made that number up) of the people who can never be pleased and will complain if hung with a new rope.

When I hire an advocate on my behalf (usually an attorney, sometimes a Lobbyist) I work my butt off to make their life easier and their job easier, so they are a more effective advocate on my behalf. They are on MY TEAM and MY SIDE.

The OP somehow thinks his $35 gets him some sort of audience with the Pope. I will laugh when he tries to write letters to his Congressmen (and I bet he hasn't, and doesn't) and realizes that $35 was a cheap investment compared to other methods of getting his Congressman to pay attention to his needs.

Like he said earlier, he isn't going to spend the $35 on advocating, as he seems to be be happy with EAA, and there is no reason for him to send the $35 on to EAA.

Something - something - something about cutting off your nose to spite your face....
 
JoseCuervo said:
That is the mixed up part. People wanting an adversarial relationship with someone who is advocating on their behalf.

The OP's attitude toward AOPA (and some other posters) makes it clear that there are 20% (I just made that number up) of the people who can never be pleased and will complain if hung with a new rope.

When I hire an advocate on my behalf (usually an attorney, sometimes a Lobbyist) I work my butt off to make their life easier and their job easier, so they are a more effective advocate on my behalf. They are on MY TEAM and MY SIDE.

The OP somehow thinks his $35 gets him some sort of audience with the Pope. I will laugh when he tries to write letters to his Congressmen (and I bet he hasn't, and doesn't) and realizes that $35 was a cheap investment compared to other methods of getting his Congressman to pay attention to his needs.

Like he said earlier, he isn't going to spend the $35 on advocating, as he seems to be be happy with EAA, and there is no reason for him to send the $35 on to EAA.

Something - something - something about cutting off your nose to spite your face....
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I actually have written to my congressmen. And I have always received a reply. Why wouldn't I send money to EAA if I am happy with them?
 
LandSickness said:
Wait, so you're upset that AOPA canceled your membership as you requested, but didn't want to listen to you complain about why you canceled it?

If a woman left you for another guy, would you really want to hear that it's because you don't satisfy her? :no:
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:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
JB1842 said:
I actually have written to my congressmen. And I have always received a reply. Why wouldn't I send money to EAA if I am happy with them?
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That is awesome. If you are happy with EAA, then send them more money. Increase their effectiveness. Hopefully you care enough that you will someday support these causes that are so concerning to you at more than $35 per year.

Do you know EAA's stance on ADS-B and their plans to lobby Congress on the Small Plane Revitalization Act?

Or, have you told them you didn't believe that they were advocating for pilots like yourself, asked them to please answer you on the issues you brought up, or go ahead and cancel your membership.
 
Made sure my auto-renew with AOPA won't... in December. They're not the organization I joined in 1991.
 
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