You Can Take Your Stinkin' Mats and Shove 'Em!

Major HT to Webkitten for this one. Please copy it and pass it along,...

Absolutely Disgusting.

I saw this posted over at Rose's blog and I'm copying what Betty did and posting it. This is sickening and I can imagine how demoralising this was to a troop over there giving his all. Shit like this really makes me angry and people should know when it goes on.

I'm going to email this company and tell them what to do with their mats.

I don't care what you think of the war, the fact remains that the men and women serving in the military did not start this war and they deserve nothing but respect and gratitude for risking their asses to be in the military.

Why don't you join me?

Read on.


http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/apo.asp

APO'd

Claim: A U.S. Army soldier received a rude response from an on-line retailer after inquiring about shipments to APO addresses.

Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2007]

Below is an email exchange between a friend of mine's husband and a company that sells different types of mats. He is stationed in Iraq and was inquiring as to whether or not the company ships overseas. He wanted to get the troops better gear to sleep on. This is the companies response. I am floored. I am floored as a military wife and as an American. Please repost this so that this company will hear us loud and clear that we do not stand for this. Whatever your view is on this war - these troops are just following orders. Most are passionate about what they are doing. You can disagree with the war without disrespecting our troops.


From: SGT Jason Hess
Sent: Tue Jan 16 3:25

Do you ship to APO addresses? I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: contact@discount-mats.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: Feedback: from discount-mats.com

SGT Hess,
We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com



Origins: APO (Army Post Office or Air [Force] Post Office) and FPO (Fleet Post Office) addresses are part of a military mail system used for exchanging mail with U.S. personnel stationed outside the United States, generally at the same domestic rates charged for sending mail within the U.S. Military personnel, their families, and others who have had occasion to order merchandise for shipment to troops stationed overseas have generally learned to first check with the vendors to ensure that they will indeed send product to APO/FPO addresses. Because shipments sent to APO/FPO addresses require extra processing (e.g., they must be sent via USPS, mailed from a post office, and accompanied by customs forms) and involve additional mailing restrictions, not all businesses are willing to accept orders intended for APO/FPO destinations.

The e-mail exchange reproduced above took place in January 2007 between a U.S. Army soldier serving with the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq and online retailer Bargain Suppliers Discount Floor Mats of West Allis, Wisconsin, with the former inquiring about whether the latter would ship floor mats to APO addresses. Not only did the retailer reportedly respond in the negative, but they couched their turn-down as the rude statement that "We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq."

Discount Mats didn't respond to our inquiry, but Sgt. Hess wrote back to us and confirmed that the correspondence was real:


This is all fact and true what happened. I'm with the 1st BCT 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq just trying to find someone to send supplies that we needed.



Last updated: 18 January 2007

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/apo.asp


Addendum for 1/23/2007:

FOX News has picked up the story here!