Dear Proactiv, You are So Eighties...

A word of advice I remember receiving from my mother in the late eighties was to avoid singing up for Columbia Records’ CD Club, where they would send you 10 CDs for 1 cent (and then scam you into buying many many more). I recall hearing a lot about this business practice called Negative Option Billing in the late eighties. I recall hearing about many a customers feeling harassed, deceived, and intimidated, when they found themselves trapped in a membership they didn’t even know they had entered into.

A few months ago, curiously and late at night, I placed an order for the “3 Step System Kit” of Proactiv (you know, the acne infomercial that runs late at night on MTV). I am not sure if it was the way my skin felt after using it, the fact that I don’t even have acne, or just the “plain” look of the packaging, but after a few uses I forgot about the “Kit”.

Until I opened our mailbox this morning and stuffed into it I found a lovely package from my friends at Proactiv with a Bright Orange Sticker letting me know of the “Free Gift Enclosed”.

Of course because of my mother’s wise words I knew this much: not to open the box. But I did open the attached envelope that stated “Important Member Information”.

Inside the envelop I found an invoice, clearly marked as “NOT A BILL”, addressed to me, letting me know that they have shipped $74 of additional products to me, and have kindly charged my credit card for $34 of it already.

Thirty minutes of my precious time later, I find out from customer service that opening the envelope constitutes “Tampering with the Product”. But since she can see that I was clearly “CONFUSED”, she will let me return the product and cancel my membership, but I will have to pay for shipping and handling both ways…

Word to the wise: corporate philosophies are tending towards “Doing No Evil”.

Negative Option Billing = Evil.

Especially if your customers are acne faced teenagers, begging for mom's, dad's, or that sympathetic aunt’s credit card to buy your magic potion….

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