Consumers Abused by Default Options

Beware of "Free" Product Deals!

At some point the business sector realized the best way to take advantage of consumers was to use default options that make them spend money. A default option works because it creates an automatic decision by the consumer doing nothing. And doing nothing is the path of least resistance for time-poor consumers struggling to balance the many difficult responsibilities associated with work, family, maintaining financial security, and coping with stresses on their health.

Consider, for example, the endless advertisements that offer a free sample or trial for a product, such as some nonprescription medication or vitamin supplement. It may be a free week's or month's worth of product. But the find print is that you will automatically be enrolled in a program that mails you a monthly supply and bills your credit card. There probably will be some opportunity for you to cancel or opt out of this program, but doing so will require some significant effort by mail or phone that most consumers will not find the time or energy to execute. No, the easy way is to just let the default option control your cost, even if you were not especially impressed with the trial use of the product. The same thing often happens with free trials for a magazine or some email publication.

If consumers were given a truly free choice they would have the opportunity to explicitly decide to buy a product that they tried or do nothing and have no future cost. This is the way it used to be before companies discovered the tyranny of coercive default options. Even today, when you are in a store and take a sample of food or some other product you have the freedom to walk away with no future cost or to decide to buy the product. Not so, however, with almost all "free" offers coming by way of newspaper and magazine ads, or the mail or Internet.