When you buy tech products online, you do run the risk of having ads physically mailed to you in a very sneaky way. It is unfortunately the case that the moment you buy something from certain vendors (like Dell), a few weeks later the ads start coming in the mail. Did you ask for these ads? Of course you didn’t, but they’ll be sent to you anyway because part of the purchase agreement was that you agreed to have “timely communications about upcoming products” physically mailed to you.

Sneaky? Oh yes, very sneaky. And unethical as far as I’m concerned. It should be law that a checkbox is present in online checkout to opt out of that crap before the purchase is even made. Sure, you can opt out of email advertisements on checkout, but postal? Nope. The option to opt out of that doesn’t exist, so you’re essentially forced into it.

Which vendors are “safe” from this nonsense?

If you want to buy something online and be relatively sure an ad will never be mailed to you from that vendor afterward, Amazon is always a good place. They take customer satisfaction very seriously, and to the best of my knowledge they never put you on any mailing lists for the purchase of anything through the site.

In my own personal experience, NewEgg doesn’t appear to send out ads in the mail either as I’ve never received an ad from them. And I hope I never do, because if I did, it would seriously shake my faith in them as a vendor.

How do you check whether a vendor is going to send advertising crap to you?

This is divided into two parts.

For every vendor you buy from online, there is a purchase agreement. Anything in that document is what you agree to the moment you hit the “Buy Now” link for whatever site you’re buying from. It’s all fine print, and yes you should read the whole thing. The purchase agreement should be in very plain sight as a link or small scrollbox on the checkout screen for any site you buy tangible products from.

Then there’s the privacy policy. This is what you agree to after the purchase is made. In basic terms, the purchase agreement states what you agree to, and the privacy policy states how the vendor is going to handle the information you give them.

Note that purchase agreements are usually only seen from vendors selling tangible products, as in things that are physical you can touch. Intangible products like online memberships usually don’t have a purchase agreement, and everything listed with how the web site handles information you give them is covered in the privacy policy.

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