I have never personally ordered anything off of the TV, but was wondering if anyone has ever experienced hidden costs? Does anyone have an example of when they bought something off of the TV and ended up paying more than they expected? (e.g. taxes, charges, shipping, cost of product, etc.)
I haven't either for many reasons and the hidden costs is one of them, I remember once I saw a cell phone advertising on television and pricing seemed reasonable. It was a good deal until I went to the agency to get more details and that's when I was presented with the real bill which was not the same as the ad on TV. Of course I ended up not buying the phone.
My parents bought several things from home tv shopping, but so far I don't think they complained of any hidden charges, all the expenses were accounted for.
I don't usually order from TV either, but my parents do. The only "extra" costs they've run into so far is that the salespeople definitely try to upsell you. They'll try to talk you into buying two of a product, for example, for a huge discount. Sometimes it's worth it if you have a friend you can gift the extra to, but otherwise, it's kind of annoying.
i had the opposite happen, i called to purchase a paper cutter and when they wanted to give me one for free i said no so many times they offered the free one with no shipping charges, so i took it, and gave it to a friend!
The only thing I have purchased on TV was on the Home Shopping Network and had no problems with the purchase. I don't generally purchase from commercials on TV. I like to feel my purchase, get a good look at the workmanship and materials used in the production of the product. Online shopping is hard for me also.
I have heard of there being hidden costs with subscription services. One I hear a lot about is ProActiv Skincare. It is a subscription service in the sense that they send you out a new package every three months but you can "cancel anytime!", but I've read about people online who have tried to cancel and just been unable to - either they can't contact the company at all, or they get through and cancel it but find they're still being charged! It makes me extremely nervous to ever order anything that requires an ongoing subscription.
I am always very very suspicious when buying stuff from non-traditional ways because I know there is almost always a catch, so I always read the small letters, the terms of the site or the TV channel so that I don't get myself in unplanned expenses. Never buy by impulse without considering all of this!
That is one thing I hate with freebies, if they are not having you pay for charges they are having your trial end and automaticly renew. I recently had a Gamefly trial and got charged without it telling me Auto-Renew was on, definitely not gonna want me to go back to their service!
Oh yes. They are required to tell you about every detail regarding the pricing, I know from personal experience that when you call in the person that answers the phone has to read directly from a script in which every hidden cost is there, however they trick you into by the way the word things. Though it's all there by legal standards, you have to listen close when you call in to the details. For example one script is a buy one get one free offer. The wording went something like, " Today when you buy one for $9.99 and only $5.99 for processing and handling, you get a a second one for free you just pay the processing fee". Most people don't listen to closely to these sometimes very long sales pitches and it's very easy to miss that second processing fee. Also, some states there will be taxes and others there will be no tax. Also, if you purchase on line from the website rather than the phone, the tax laws differ and you might not have to pay tax when you purchase online but have to pay tax if you order over the phone. Plus they will tell you about all the upsells that can possibly go with it. One item I am thinking about is for only $4.99 ( per said cup so if you choose to upgrade then that price will be added on to the "free" cup also) you can get this cup that lights up! I always order off the internet or just wait to find it at Walmart.
Generally, what you see on TV is reliable and if you aren`t satisfied, you can ask the help of the local authority for Consumer Protection, in the end a product advertised in this way is still a product, that arrives to you with a bill and a warranty certificate. I only bought a ceramic pan as seen on TV and I`m satisfied with it for the moment
I actually had this experience with the green coffee bean trial for weight loss. I didn't purchase it from the TV, I purchased it online, but I have see the infomercials on TV for it. I signed up for it online and it was supposed to be a free trial for so many days. I can't remember how long now, it's bee a while. However, I couldn't cancel until after a certain period and you could send back the product but only the unopened packages. You also had to pay for the shipping to send it back. Basically, it ended up that you had to pay for 2 bottles of the stuff before you could cancel and you couldn't send it back because in order to try it, you have to open the bottle but they don't take back opened bottles. So therefore, you couldn't get a refund. I cancelled it and didn't buy it again. I think I actually still have a bottle of it in my medecin cabinet.
There is a huge article about Proactiv on the site Jezebel, that goes into a lot of details about how they are ripping off their customers by continuing to bill them long after they've tried to cancel. There were some people quoted in the article who have been getting repeat shipments for years after they tried to stop them. Some of the people had to close their cards down and change their addresses. The article even interviews some former employees of their call centers that goes into more detail about some of the tactics they had to use to trick customers into not cancelling. Really shady company. They were even sued by several of the celebrities who formerly endorsed them in their infomercials, including P Diddy.
