‘Phantom’ Orders for Goods Stir Debate : * Marketing: More firms are relying on the “negative-option” sales method that requires consumers to decline an offer to not receive goods.

Why does your mailbox contain a cookbook you don’t remember ordering--and a bill for $19.95?

The answer is a legal and increasingly popular sales method in which companies automatically bill consumers for products or services--with the onus on consumers to decline the offer.

Sellers like the practice because even if people lose interest in a product, sheer inertia may keep them from actually canceling an order.

However, recent violations are raising concern that the fast-growing “negative-option” method is forcing consumers to buy things they don’t want, have no need for or can ill afford.

Criticism intensified recently when at least five states sued the nation’s largest cable-television operator, Tele-Communications Inc., for automatically billing customers for a new pay channel unless they called to cancel it.

The cable company incident reflects the growing skepticism over a procedure that makes it tough for buyers to beware--because they’re often unaware they’re buyers.

“While there is consumer choice, it exists largely in theory, not in reality, because consumers do not have the time or interest in carefully reading all communications or in taking the time to inform a company they do not wish a service,” said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, a Washington-based consumer group.

The method isn’t new. But after decades of use by book-of-the-month and music album clubs, more and more companies are relying on it to sell everything from magazine subscriptions to cable channels to small-ticket items charged through credit cards.

Companies generally say their plans are legal because they adhere to Federal Trade Commission negative-option requirements that, for instance, consumers give prior written permission to be billed for unordered merchandise.

In addition, sellers say consumers are generally astute enough to know what they are getting into when they sign up for automatic renewal or negative-option plans.

The idea of inertia “underestimates our consumers. They are well aware of how to reach us,” said Diane G. Potter, vice president in charge of circulation at Times Mirror Magazines Inc.

Potter says Times Mirror is considering a test of a new Auto Renew system from Robert A. Bader Associates Inc. in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. Twenty magazines began testing the service in April.

The automatic renewal system could save large magazines, which often send out as many as a dozen renewal notices a year per subscriber, up to millions of dollars a year, says Dan Capell, editor of Capell Circulation Report, a newsletter based in Rye, N.Y.

However, critics argue that even within the letter of the law there is room for confusion. “The key thing is whether the disclosure is adequate--whether it is comprehended by nearly everyone who fills out the form and sends it in,” said consumer advocate Brobeck.