"But Wait....There's More!"

You've all heard the saying "If a deal looks too good to be true, it's probably is."

I'd never say that this always applies, but I've seen it be true often enough that I make a habit of checking remarkably good deals before I write a check, sign on the dotted line or pull out my credit card. 

One deal I suggest you always double-check involves what I call the "But wait! There's more!" ploy. You see these most often during the daytime, usually on independent local TV channels. The pitch is fairly simple. It involves an infomercial for a useful product, at a good price, but wait—the sellers are going to sweeten the deal!  Not once, but again and again, to the point that I always find myself wondering, "How the heck do they make money off this?"

My suspicion has been that the real money-maker for the seller is contained in four little words, usually printed rather demurely on the screen somewhere: "Plus shipping and handling." 

I decided the other day to test this theory. I have a TV in my office and had it tuned to the kind of independent channel which features such pitches. Up came a typical infomercial for a certain kitchen product; I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started making notes.

This appliance promised to make cooking fast and easy. After a few demonstrations and a few "famous chef" endorsements, here came the pitch….I could buy this fabulous device for four payments of $33.33.

 Sounded like a good, but not great, deal.

 But wait....there's more!" The seller was going to drop an entire payment if  I called right now! (Not surprisingly, urgency always seems to be a big part of these presentations.) Yes, I could have this wonderful cooking appliance for less than $100!

 But wait...there's more! For this price, they were actually were going to give me two of these devices.

 Wow. Two for $99.99. Sounds really quite good. Still....

But wait....there's more! They would also throw in a cookware set. A stainless steel pot, with lid. A stainless steel steamer, with lid. What an incredible deal! Buy all this and I'd  be whipping up gourmet dinners that would make me the envy of my friends and neighbors! And all for only $99.99!

But wait....there's more!

They were going to throw in two non-stick gourmet frying pans.  And a fondue set!

Tempting. Very tempting.  But the real clincher? I got to use this product for a full 30 days. If I didn't like it, I could return it and get my money back.  Where was the risk?

I'd have been ready to whip out my credit card, had it not been for that phrase, in small type,  in almost every shot of the video: "Plus shipping and handling."

 

A little checking first. I called the number on the screen and got a nice young man named Omar who asked for my name and address

 

"Before I give you that, I'd like to know how much the shipping and handling charges are on this."

 He said he'd have to look that information up. A few seconds later, he started reading me numbers.

The shipping and handling in the first device would be $29.99. On the second "free" device: $39.99. (Omar did not know why the shipping on the second was $10 more.)  This appliance was small and, the informercial told me, light enough to put in a purse-size carrying case (included)  sling over my shoulder and take with me. So the "shipping" charges seemed a wee bit excessive.

My "less than $100" deal was now up to almost $170.

The S & H on the stainless steel pots was $59.95. The "$100 deal" was now going to cost $230.

There was also a grill and a griddle—(had I seen those mentioned on the program? Were they included in the $99.99? I wasn’t sure)— and the price of those with S & H would be nearly $90. 

The sauce pans? He'd look up the pans. Or wait...were they included in the cookware set?  

At this point, I interrupted him and asked if I could just get a total for the whole package.

$348.24.

Ah.

I said I'd think about it and hung up.

The program was still running. Up came a repeat of the promise that if I didn’t love this stuff, I could return it and get my money back.

This time, the relatively small printing on the screen said "Less shipping and handling."

In other words, if I packed everything up and mailed it back, at my expense, I'd get my $99.99 refunded.  A refund of the shipping and handling costs? Nope.

 

Too good to be true? Hell, yes.  I'd say more than $250 worth of too good to be true.

I pulled up some comments re the product off the internet. Plenty of complaints, much of them about the shipping costs and the terms of the guarantee.

 

No sale.

This morning, I checked another pitch. This was for a grilling device that came with Teflon plates that let you grill hamburgers, make waffles, grill sandwiches, etc. The "regular" price was $59.95. The "but wait, there's more" price was $39.95 and they'd throw in two extra Teflon plates, a small plastic storage rack for the plates and what looked to be a very, very small food processor. (I suspect you'd have to fine-chop almost anything before you could "process" it.) Shipping and handling on this deal was $24.90 for a total cost of $64.85. Full refund within 30 days, less shipping and handling.

I decided to look up complaints for the griller and found a bunch, enough to get it only a 2 1/3 star rating on Amazon, where it was selling for $29.95 (without the processor.) The shipping was $16.90. You didn't get the processor but you would pay only $46.85. If you sent it back, you'd again be out the shippng and handling.

No sale.

Here's my suggestion. Always ask first what the total cost will be, before you give them your name, address and credit card number. Ask for the specifics of any refund policy. Or take down the "Order Now!" phone number, but pull up some internet reviews of the product before you call.  

"Plus shipping and handling."

For the seller, a sweet deal.  For the buyer, when the total charges show up,  often not sweet at all. 

LOL! I just happened to run see another informercial pitch this morning, for a device that promised it would provide "hundreds" of free TV channels on your PC.  I checked for reviews and I'll just let this blogger give you his take on this "too good to be true" product.

http://askbobrankin.com/scam_alert_rabbit_tv.html