$199.99, No Wait, Only $4.99 For You!

Let me start off by saying that I'm a big fan of infomercials. I've been a big fan since I started watching RonCo commercials for the "Set-It-And-Forget-It" Rotisserie BBQ. I find them wildly entertaining with their repetitive sales pitches, "professional" opinions, "real life" customers, never ending price cuts, and free 30 day trials. The thing is...I would never buy something from an infomercial. EVER. I'm a pretty skeptical person by nature and the people selling these products seem like actors in a low budget version of a play at your local theater. I can only assume that the actors they claim to be doctors never even took Biology 101.

One of the most recent infomercials I've been watching is called "Dual Action Cleanse". The product is sold by some slimy looking guy explaining how your body is full of toxins that can be removed with his product. The product is described as an herbal remedy with a laundry list of natural herbal medicines to cleanse and purify the body. Out of pure curiosity, I googled the product to see what negative harmful effects the product had on regular people. I landed on a terrific website called InfomercialScams.com. The site is filled with angry customers who ordered the product and were dissatisfied with the results. I honestly feel bad for the people on the website who believed that they were going to get a product that returned great results. I also question whether they know how to do a google search. I really thought it was common knowledge by now.

Aside from receiving a product that failed to deliver the intended results, the customers received a few other shocks as well. I looked up a number of these late night products (Dual Action Cleanse, Extenze, Sauna Belt & Ab Energizer) and customers across the board had similar complaints. First off, many of the products had terrible adverse side effects. Many buyers experienced nausea, bloating, and rashes with the herbal products. With the toner belts, people complained of terrible burns and blistering caused by the product. In addition to physical pain, the infomercial companies charged the hell out of these people.

Most infomercials these days come with the too-good-to-be-true free 7 day trial. The first sample shipment is sent to the consumer at little or no charge with the option to cancel within 30 days. The problem is, most of these shady companies are practically impossible to contact. They have little to no customer support, seemingly no records of any kind of what has been paid for/charged, and honestly they don't care. They are essentially scam artists preying on people who probably aren't the brightest bunch of people to begin with. In many cases, the customers attempted to contact the company (after adverse side effects) to cancel their recurring subscriptions (which they had no choice to opt out of). The company usually responded that the next order had already been shipped and the customer would have to mail back the product to receive a refund. In other cases, the companies responded that they had no record of the order or some other nonsense. Some customers were told that they had to email the company to cancel their subscriptions (usually being charged $50-100/month!). Most of the customers ended up just canceling their credit cards and disputing the charge with the credit card company.

It is unfortunate that companies like this are allowed to operate in this way. The world is full of people looking to make a quick buck. Most of them ever toeing that line of legality, but usually well past the line when it comes to ethical behavior. So for everyone out there, caveat emptor (that is, let the buyer beware). If you really want to try a product, I suggest you pay with cash or check and purchase it from a retailer. Your wallet might be $60 fatter this month if you do.