I have bought as seen on TV products numerous times. The spokesperson always manages to catch me in his/her lasoo of salesperson deceit. If I had to estimate, I'd say that, on average, 5% of the products are worth buying from As Seen On TV. The other 95% either break, or don't do what they promise to do. For example, I bought the Magic Mesh to protect bugs from entering my house in the Summer when I was constantly moving from inside The House to the backyard, back-and-forth. Within a week, it became detached from the door, and there was a HUGE gap where bugs could get in. It took me an hour to scrape off all the residual glue and thumbtacks that affixed it in place. What a piece of garbage. On TV these products always look so good. In reality, a very stark difference. Maybe thats why its called "As Seen on TV" and not "As seen in REAL LIFE". Anyone else experience such a low success rate with these products?
I agree with you a 100%. I learned it the hard way too. The spokesperson always manages to catch my attention and make it look like the product actually works. Unfortunately when I spend a whole bunch of money on the product all I get is a poorly designed piece of garbage! Now when ever I see one of those commercials coming up I quickly change the channel and I have learned not to listen to all those enthusiastic spokes men who always some how manage to seem so enthusiastic about such a poorly designed product!
I usually just wait until they show up on the end caps at Target. That way I can at least see them in person to see how durable they are. Although I did make the mistake of purchasing the InstaHang in the store. It's a great idea in concept. The problems were that the unit is so flimsy it gets jammed up half the time, and the hangers themselves are so small you really cannot hang much with them. I bought them to hang some clocks, and the hooks were too small to reach the hole on the clocks.
I haven't purchased anything yet because I have heard some stories about products that they have ordered online. And they only end up disappointed. I saw an ad the other day about a ceramic pan. It's price was about a hundred dollars. The way the man and his lady assistant was showing off that ceramic pan, it's almost convincing. But I'll just wait if the Ace Hardware store will have it displayed. At least, I get to see and touch the product before I decide on buying it.
I'd definitely say much more than 5% but then again, I only buy one unless it has a bunch of great solid/reviews. Overall, they're hit or miss, that's for sure but I don't know, there really is a lot of great ones on the market.
I have only bought a handful of as seen on tv products. The way they are pitched makes me highly suspicious of their quality and they are way over priced. It's a shame because some of them really are good products. The bad ones, though, put all of them in a bad light. Until they start changing the quality and selling tactics, buyer beware.
That's why before I would even consider buying one of these products I will first go online to read reviews from previous customers to find out what their experience was first. These reviews will tell me whether the product is worth buying. I can deal with some small complaints but if the complaints are major and constantly coming up, I will know that the product isn't worth investing in. I find that this website is a good place to get some honest reviews on these products, and I have found other places as well. One way to find these is to go to a search engine and type in the name of the product and the word reviews then see what comes up.
As Seen On TV products are very tempting to buy, as you mentioned, because the spokesperson does an amazing job of convincing viewers how they can't live without the product. I admit, it works on me. However, I've only tried a couple As Seen On TV products, and the products have been just okay (nothing special). My bf order the Iron Gym and the Shake Weight, and both are great products.
Well from my experience, my dad bought several items already from tv, and they turned out to be quite durable. One of them was a Coleman flashlight, a mop and kitchen utensils. My dad wouldn't be a recurring customer if the products that he bought are of weak quality. So I think that it really depends, if you happen to buy those products that are of not so good quality, then that's just a waste of money. Because not all "as seen on tv" products" are of inferior quality.
When it comes to "as seen on tv" items, it's always best to use caution. Most of the items you see on those are usually tested with certain scenarios in mind. Thus, always making the product look good to the customer. What kills me is how so many people still fall for it.
