Complaint Review: Lands' End

Lands' End inserted a auto-opt in offer on their order form so when someone entered an order for more than $100, their name and address was automatically sold to Conde Nast Publications which then send a very raunchy GQ magazine out to the family. Without knowing (and unless you located the tiny pre-checked checkbox and unchecked it), tons of Lands' End customers were unwittingly subscribed to GQ magazine for a full year. GQ magazine is a raunchy magazine targeted to single men that is rife with sexy nearly fully nude female photo spreads and filled with articles about sex. There are so many things wrong about this, but here are a few:

1. Violation of good business practices - why on earth would Lands' End "trick" their customers into allowing Lands' End to "sell" their name and address to anyone?

2. Even if it was crystal clear to the customer that they needed to opt out of a pre-checked tiny check box on the shopping cart at checkout, why on eareth would Lands' End promote a raunchy men's magazine to a conservative famliy clothing customer demographic that is shopping for classic, conservative, modest clothing?

3. Now that Lands' End has sold our name and address to GQ, I'm positive that GQ, like any good magazine publisher has already sold our name and address over and over again. And a huge problem with that is that suddenly everyone they've sold our name and address to puts our name and address into a bucket that thinks we are interested in s**t. Now we need to be on the alert for every lingerie catalog, every pornographic magazine offer, every adult toy catalog, etc. to show up in our mailbox where anyone of our teens down to toddlers might innocently grab the mail.

I cannot believe how utterly stupid Lands' End was to pull this move!