As Seen On TV!

As Seen On TV! was Originally Posted on July 11, 2013 by lavarock

Many of those items seen on TV may be scams.

AN hour ago I saw an ad for a “sound amplifier” which is somewhat similar to a hearing aid. Some clues to alert you to a pending scam…

It is only available online, ie, not available in stores. Stores would see a large return rate and reduce the price to rid them of a problem. Stores HATE to have people lined up returning crappy items.

Notice that these items are very cheap in price AND if you just pay “separate shipping and handling” the second item is included. That separate shipping and handling charge may exceed what you have in your account.

You will get upsold AND even if you say NO, you may find that you receive two items even thought you strictly said you only wanted one. Trying to fix that error will cost you lots of time and effort and may leave you trying to “sue the b***ards”.

If you enter the name of the product in Google, you may find *tons* of reviews for the product, all with glowing reports. One guy said he searched and could find no reports of complaints. In seconds I found one site with 45 complaints, all for extra charges and improper shipments of unwanted items.

Many of those “fake” review sites also have a link to allow you to BUY the product, thus they are making money by referring you.

So, if you wait long enough, you will see these items in a “As Seen On TV” store where you won’t have the shipping errors and excessive costs (One person paid $24 shipping for something that should have cost a few dollars). “Handling” is just a nebulous charge that nobody will explain, because you can investigate shipping costs very easily. Just assume “handling” is “profit fro the sake of profit”. This is similar to the charges I saw on a car rental of $135 a week. After taxes, facilities charge, license fee, concession fee and other lumped on charges, the final cost was $220.

So, just because you saw it on TV, doesn’t meant it is a good deal