I have discovered what Discover Magazine is thinking and I don't like it

Last month I received an unsolicited DVD from Discover Magazine. The offer worked like this, I could keep the DVD and pay for it and then start receiving more DVDs or I could return it and owe nothing.

There did not seem be an option to do nothing, which should have been the default option.

While recognizing that legally I could probably just do nothing with the DVD, I tried to do the right thing (at least for Discover) and returned the DVD to Discover and asked them to not send me anymore unsolicited mailings.

Well, here we are a month later and I just got another mailing from them, still asking me to respond. While they don't acknowledge that I have returned the DVD, they at least provided a new paragraph, at the end of the letter, that states I am under no obligation to do anything because I didn't order the DVD.

I am all for companies taking advantage of their database (I do subscribe to their magazine, which is quite good) to generate new business, that is one of the benefits of all of the technology behind data mining. But when you cross the line and put the onus on the potential customer to do something to prevent becoming a customer, then put yourself in position to be called out in blogs like this.

Companies need to use technology to build a better mousetrap, but please don't use the mousetrap to trap your customers into buying something they don't want to buy.