The "Infinity Razor" Shaves Wallets Better Than Faces
Why do people buy things they see on infomercials? We're confused. Anyway, apparently people who write for the paper of record aren't immune to the midnight tv shopping impulse. The pull of the Infinity Razor was too strong. Just to get you up to speed, the Infinity Razor is a razor that never gets dull. Ever! You can use it a thousand times. And they give you two of them, despite the fact that that makes no sense. Anyway:
Then I was told that "regular" shipping would take four to six weeks, an eternity to someone trying to prove the replaceable razor blade consortium corrupt. So I chose "rush." Suddenly, with $18.90 in shipping and handling fees, my $19.95 razor (plus fogless mirror) was costing $56.75.Fred blames himself for not Googling first, as the internet turns up plenty of reviews of said crappy razor. Google first. This lesson can be applied to so many things. —MEGHANN MARCOAnd there was no turning back. Once I chose a shipping option -- expecting a chance to review my order -- the Web site thanked me for my patronage. My money was gone, like the ball in the last hole of a miniature golf course.
I felt swindled. And that was before the razor arrived. Distinguished only by a red infinity symbol on its gray handle, it was a flimsy disposable razor, barely long enough for a grown-up to hold on to.
And here's the rub (and I mean rub): The blade was so dull it wouldn't shave me even once, much less thousands of times. I got a cheek massage instead.
Shaving My Wallet a Lot Better Than My Face [NYT] (Thanks, E.G.!)
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Comments:
This just in: Advertisments selling products sight-unseen are prone to hyperbole!
Maybe the infinity applies to how long it should take you to shave with razor??
Dude got taken.
Maybe he could do a chargeback ("product not as advertised")? I don't know if it would get him his shipping back, but at least he could try to get his money back for a crappy product.
I saw the ad for this last night and wondered if the product was any good. There's a flea market I go to when I visit my parents and there's a "As Seen On TV" store there. All of the products are the crap advertised late nights and such. I thought about buying one of these razors the next time I go, but I guess I won't be doing that!
Not 100% sure, but if the product was SOOO great, wouldn't they do a lot better with it by selling it in stores? Or does the fact that you can't return it (because they don't sell it in stores) not tell you something about it...
It seems totally obvious to me that the razor which never gets duller is the razer which was never sharp to begin with. Stuff doesn't stay sharp forever, even those fancy Kyocera ceramic knives wear down over time, just very very slowly.
I think the same thing about this as I do anything else on an infomercial: If it's that good, how come it's not in stores?
Case in point: OxyClean. Turned out to be a decent product, and now you see it everywhere. In-the-egg scrambler? Not so much.
All I want to know is will it cause pretty girls to want to kiss me.
Coming soon to a dollar store near you!
I worked at a giant sporting goods store, and we could tell which infomercials aired the previous night because of the hundreds of people coming in to ask if we carried the latest ab workout machine that day.
The only exception to the atrocious and horribly misleading sporting goods infomercials is the Total Gym. It actually is a pretty good product for most people.
I always said that when I invent something, I'll sell it via infomercial. Guaranteed moolah.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/infomercials/how-to-make-a...
Infomercials are just too fake to be trustable even it is really a good product. It's like godsend to the user of that infomercial which I hardly believe anything in the world will make me that happy.
Am I missing something? How does $18.90 plus $19.95 come to $56.75?
Remember the buy one get one free offer? They charge you S&H for each one, talk about fishy, they can't even dutch your stuff in one box >.
@Craig: The fogless mirror must have cost 15 bucks. or at least 10 and then tax finished the rest.
Anyways its the shipping and handling which gets these people their money. They don't get returns because return shipping would cost people more money.
These products wouldn't sell very well in stores, and would actually be subject to "returns".
In defense of Mr. Bernstein, he probably bought the product half expecting to get a newspaper article out of it.
It just boggles the mind that there are companies out there that specialize in blocking spam; but there is none that makes a device that blocks out infomercials and the other TV scams like Leptopril or Enyzte. There's a business that will make a ton of money.
I believe now that broadcasters shoulder a huge amount of blame for the scams we see on television commercials and infomercials. They are only to happy to sell out their commercial time to these charlatans, the biggest offenders are Comcast and other cable/satellite companies, who play these ads over and over and over, inserting them into other broadcaster's signals.
@Craig: The scam is that the "free bonus item" is shipped seperately at a ridiculous rate. The free cup holder thing that was supposed to come with my Auto Cool would have been an additional twenty five bones. Sadly...I still got the Auto Cool...
Well, live and learn... You get pretty desperate living in Florida with a car that doesn't have A/C!
Instead of Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, Quantum Leap, Man/Girl from U.N.C.L.E or other quality cheese, broadcasters pile infomercials in their schedules that result in this crap. Explain to me exactly how deregulation & ownership rules changes were a good idea?
He should really contact the FTC. Stopping stuff like this is their job.
Buying directly from the infomercial is the ripoff here.
Wait a month, you can find these things at a flea market for a few dollars, or plug the products name into ebay, and i'm sure you can get anything "seen on tv" for half the cost.
Now, you don't have to spend 19.99 plus 19.99 for shipping for that magic potato peeler.
@getjustin:
OxyClean is just Borax. Buy a box of 20 Mule Team and save a lot of money. You won't have to buy Clorox 2 anymore either (or any form of oxygenating bleach).
I like the paid google hit,
"The Infinity Razor
TheInfinityRazor.com Razor That Lasts A Lifetime! 30 Day Money Back Guarantee."
Guess it only applies to people that plan on living 30 days?
I work in video production and one of my first jobs was as a set PA on infomercial shoots, and after that experience I learned one very important thing that I already suspected. DO NOT BUY DIRECT MARKET PRODUCTS. They suck, if the products worked in the first place stores would have no problem putting those products on the shelves.
two words: no duh.
Actually believe it or not right before Christmas our Walmart was selling this infinity razor. Which is where me and my husband seen it. I had never seen the late night advertising and since my husbands what you could call a gadget man we bought one. And of course it wouldn't shave his face even once. But to tell you just how big of a piece of crap it is. After not working for him we gave the razor the benifit of the dought because my husband does have very course facial hair I tried it. Still nothing but it was when our thirteen year old daughter couldn't get to shave even her legs that I started to demand a refund. Of which Walmart told my to take up with the company that makes the infinity razor. Which is a huge joke, you just put out more money to them in order to get a refund. And apparently Walmart does not have to stand behind the products they sell either.
How are companies allowed to sell this mess? Truth in Advertising, not Infomercials? Gah.