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The Touch, The Feel of Cotton — NOT

One of those daily deal sites recently sent out an email offering a “Queen-sized Egyptian sheet set” from Pulse TV for 75% off — only $20. MrConsumer has never seen an Egyptian cotton sheet set for such a low price.

When clicking through to the seller’s site, this is what you see in part:

The name of the product is “Egyptian Comfort 1200”. Wow, 1200 thread count sheets. What luxury! A little further down, however, the true nature of the offer was disclosed.

*MOUSE PRINT:

So these are really NOT Egyptian cotton at all, but rather microfiber. We asked the customer service department what the actual fiber composition of these sheets was — cotton, cotton-blend, polyester, nylon, etc., and what the thread count was.

Their response was “The Sheets compare to a 1200 thread count” and to view this video on their website:

The spokesperson in the video says, in an uncharacteristically candid way, wincing:

“I wanted to address a couple of issues. First of all, it says it compares to a 1200-sheet count, I am sorry, cotton thread count. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think so. I’d say it is more along the lines of between a 400 and 600.”

In a newer video, the spokesperson says:

“They say on this that it compares to a 1200 thread count cotton. Simply not true. I’d say it is more like a 300 to 400 count.”

Did I hear right? The spokesperson is saying don’t believe what our company just said about 1200-thread count!

When we asked customer service to once again tell us what fiber these sheets were made of, and what the actual thread count was, since neither question was answered in the video, we never got a subsequent response.

Microfiber sheets are cheap, but very soft feeling. At Kmart last year, a queen set was only $9.99, and made of 100% polyester.

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$500 Off Watches and Sunglasses?

Red Star US Airways’ inflight magazine had an unusual advertisement offering a free $500 prepaid giftcard good toward the purchase of watches and sunglasses. MrConsumer thought that they must sell really expensive products to be offering $500 off for nothing.

It turns out that some fine print on the back of the card explains their little trick:

*MOUSE PRINT:

With your PREPAID gift card code, you’ll receive $500 of suggested retail and sale price products! You pay only a 9% Service Fee for your selections. Service Fee includes: First Class delivery, customer service, order processing, labor, materials, goods, profit, marketing, free exchange & full refund programs. Fee is based on suggested retail price of the product and is separate from your Gift Card. Some products carry a minimum Service Fee.

In other words, it says they will charge you a fee to cover the cost of the watch or sunglasses.

On their website, there were a number of watches like this:

watch

The fine print next to the watch explains some unusual terms like “proposed price”, indicating that they plan in the future to sell this watch for $90. Sure. And the sale price is now $54.00. Sure. (You don’t even pay the sale price because you have a giftcard, remember, but the giftcard does not apply to the service fee.) You only pay a $12.90 “service fee.”

Poking around online, MrConsumer found some similar watches of the same (not so) famous brand, “Passion Time”, selling for not $90, not $54, not even $12.90.

watch

So basically, all this stuff about giftcards, and $90 prices, and $54 prices seems like nothing more than smoke and mirrors for a company selling cheap watches.

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Here We Downsize Again – Part 2 (2012)

As prices for raw ingredients go up, package sizes go down. Here are a few of the latest examples of products which have been downsized.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Maxwell House

The really big container went from 34.5 ounces (270 cups) down to 30.6 ounces (240 cups) — a loss of 30 cups-worth per container. Thanks to Mouse Print* reader Karl K. for the tip.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker has downsized many of their cake mixes from the familiar 18.25 ounces to only 15.25 ounces. Funny thing, however, the package still says it makes two eight-inch rounds, but the nutrition label says there are only 10 servings in the new package rather than the old 12. Thanks to Terry for the lead on Betty Crocker.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Nathan's

Old reliable Nathan’s, the best-tasting frankfurter you can buy (says MrConsumer), still gives you eight “bigger than a bun” hot dogs in a package, but each one has gotten skinnier. The pound package is now just 14 ounces.

As with most cases of downsized products, you are paying the same price, but getting less. That is a sneaky way to essentially raise prices.

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