We have all seen infomercials like this: pay just $10 and we will send you a bottle of this wonderful stuff.
But wait, there’s more. If you order in the next X minutes, we’ll double your order absolutely free. Pay just $10 (and then the announcer mumbles… “plus separate processing and handling”).
But wait, there’s more. If you order right now we’ll send you a luxurious satin bathrobe and hair wrap absolutely free (just pay processing and handling).
“You get it all for only $10.”
Oh, really?
Even looking at the company’s website where you place orders, it was unclear how much the total order would be, since all the shipping and handling charges were not spelled out.
Even the company’s telephone order taker had to take out his calculator to figure it out.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Advertised price: $10
P&H first bottle: $6.99
P&H free bottle: $6.99
P&H robe/turban: $9.99
TOTAL PRICE: $33.97
That’s a far cry from “just $10”.
Even worse is that the robe isn’t worth more than $10, and the lotion or whatever isn’t worth the price either.
Junk that the postage costs more. This has been laughable for decades and the only surprise is they are selling this crap for prices besides the usual $19.95.
Many of the infomercials are now calling it processing and handling versus shipping and handling. Wouldnt “procsessing” an order include handling. It’s such a scam because that is how these companys make money. The products themselves they buy from china dirt cheap and then pile on the processing charges. It must work since they are advertising all the time. And the kid stuff is the worse. I had to listen to my granddaughter whine about wanting the butterfly farm, the moon sand, and countless other stuff that. At least for the butterfly farm she was content with a jar and a net and told to go collect her own butterflies for FREE!
What gripes me is when the ad says that “you can double your order for free, just pay extra s/h”, but then you go to order and you don’t have the option to decline the 2nd “free” unit. I bought some uGlu and only needed a small amount for a job I wanted to do. I wanted just to buy the 1 box, but there was no option to NOT take the 2nd “free” box and pay the extra processing fee. That’s false advertising. (I’m shocked. Shocked!)
I’ve taken it on good authority that P&H fees include all costs of doing business: commercial costs (factored into expected sales), operator costs, warehousing, fulfillment, shipping, and actual cost of the good is generally the lowest on that list. Some profit is taken here, but the actual price is all profit. This is why a lot of infomercials can claim to offer a money-back guarantee, less P&H. They covered their costs and made a profit; returning what you think is the price after jumping through a bunch of hoops and paying out the nose for registered shipping isn’t too much of a concession.
For years, I’ve been trying to get my politicians to pass a law that when something is offered for free, that the consumer can get it for zero cost out of pocket. If they want to charge to ship it to you, that’s fine, but there must be a way to get it for free (such as walk up to the warehouse and get it, and sure, only one per person so they will need to collect verification info, but still free.)
I’d like to see the same thing for all mail-order products. You should be able to get the product at the listed price as long as you go to their store/warehouse/etc to get it.
I’ve often wondered what their reaction is if you decline the “free” items, thus saving the extra handling fees and thereby depriving them of all that extra profit.
Do they require you to take the “free” offers?
Anyone ever try that?
As someone who spent a year working for one of the pioneers of infomercials, I can tell you that their biggest cost is the television air time. And for every successful informercial, there’s twenty failures where a ton of money was lost on the tv air time. So in as much as many of these commercials are deceptive, I can also tell you that it is a very high risk investment where many people lose their as–es. And those money-back guarantees? Ha! Those attempting to get a refund are intentionally put through a maze of recordings designed to make then eventually give up. This is a fact.