#172 Express Contract

There’s a law in our state, maybe even put in by our governor when she was attorney general, that forbids companies from doing negative marketing. I’m sure that’s not the legal word for it but basically what it means is, that companies can’t send you a product out of the blue and then ask you to send it back or pay for it. This includes electronic product as well. The origin of the law was when TV cable companies increased your channel offerings and required you to opt out by sending them a card in order to avoid the latest upgrade and subsequent upcharge. So there you are minding your own business, and some big company sneaks in while you’re asleep and puts a horse in your living room and you have to get up, overcome inertia, corral the horse and lead it back to the company or you get charged for it. As our AG said: No way.
So now, in order to be charged, at some point you have to consent to the process before you receive the product. Which is what makes this American Express offer I got the other day that much more insidious. They are offering to send me, free, a day planner and a diary (and by free they mean plus five dollars for shipping costs, more about that later). In exchange for that they will also send me both items next year, unless I tell them not to when they send me a warning card, and I will then owe the full price of $20 and $18 respectively for the new planner and diary, and every year thereafter. That last part—what they will send me and how—is of course in really fine print. So next year I’m likely to throw away the warning card with all my other junk mail and suddenly find myself with an expensive planner charged to my American Express bill that I don’t remember asking for. But by sending in the reply to the free offer this year, I did. Cripes. I can’t even remember my wife’s birthday. You think I’m going to remember whether I ordered a freaking day planner a year ago? Like I say, tricky. They navigated around the prohibition, got me to “request” the day planner by agreeing to receive the free one, and as proof—well, that’s where the five dollars in shipping comes in. It doesn’t cost five dollars to ship a day planner. Hell, they can use book rate. And you have to ask yourself, if it really is a free offer why isn’t the shipping free too? Because they need a paper trail, that’s why. That shipping charge is proof of the contract between you and American express sleazoid marketing. Bet you didn’t plan on that. Welcome to caveat emptor, 21st century style.
America ya gotta love it.