I know a ton of people got soft hearted and fell for the image Pitchmen put out, but at the end of the day, they're all businesses out there to make money (nothing wrong with that...just helps to remember that to keep things in perspective). The fact still stands that the majority of infomercial products are overpriced crap (as proven by how much wiggle room those prices had, and the fact that advertising costs that ate up 33% of the price were considered reasonable!).

Remember the Awesome Auger? Notice how they only used it to "aug" loose fill dirt? Wtf is the point of that? You could do that with a Dixie cup quicker.

Remember Impact Gel? Sure it can absorb the impact of a hammer.... but that has no relevance to how well it supports your arch. Ask any podiatrist and they will recommend even Dr. Scholls over that un-ergonomic joke any day..

Remember the "Grabit"? That's made of a REALLY soft metal and is no better than what Sears has sold for $6 for years.

Dualsaw seems ok, and I've heard decent things about What Odor...and OxiClean isn't half bad. Too bad they dilute the industry with crap like the "Jupiter Jack" which is utter shit.

I guess I also get annoyed at how they just assume us viewers are idiots with things like "call in the next 15 minutes and the operator will fellate you" or whatever. Really? Do the operators really know when the commercials are airing?

Also, the Bonus item/Just pay "processing" is rather slimy... $7 for processing? Nice try...

Btw, The link loops right back to this page...

For anyone that hasn't seen it yet, check out the guy who tried to return a comfort wipe, it was priceless!

WOW!!!

That was boring.

"Pitchmen" also made me less wary of... SOME infomercial products. The ones those particular guys were pitching.

On the other hand, we bought some ShamWows, and they're sham duds, not particularly better than a cotton kitchen towel for most things and way more expensive.

The other gotcha is the "Call Now" business. My wife and I saw Smart Spin storage containers years ago on an infomercial and liked it. (Still do!) So I called in to buy one. What a nightmare! They used an automated system that wouldn't let me buy it until they'd spent twenty minutes trying to upsell me into all kinds of other crap. Never again.

So now, if it's not on a website, I don't buy it. Also, I've discovered most things I want that are on an infomercial show up at Bed Bath and Beyond within a few weeks.

A lot of things that are on an infomercial show up at stores a month or 2 later as either the same product at a cheaper price or a product that works just as well as the one being pitched that comes with a cheaper price tag. I remember getting a whole "static duster" set at Walmart years ago for $5. I still use the duster to this day, and it still works.

There are a few products that do work very well that come from infomercials. They have Oxy Clean and Awesome orange at the dollar store in 64 oz jugs for $1 each. Both are cleaning supplies that I keep on hand and both work very well. Of course I get mine at the dollar store.

If you want it, don't buy from the infomercial. Wait until it shows up in a store at a cheaper price.

@RedwoodFlyer: Link?

@Con Seannery: Nevermind, Cracked...should have known.

@bobert:

I use the large ShamWows as bathmats and nothing more. They work well for that and I toss them in the washer once a week but then again. I only purchased them for that use. Yes, I spent 20 dollars at Walgreens for them but I've been using them for months for that single purpose and they work great.

Like bobert mentioned above, it's not necessarily that the product is poor - it's the way they sell it. The pressure to buy more, getting signed up for renewal programs you weren't made clear on, exorbitant shipping costs, finding out that 'but wait, there's more!' will actually cost you an additional $100 when all is said and done, etc. The whole industry is slime. How else do you think they can make a profit?

Browse the internet before you 'call now'. Type 'infomercial reviews' or 'as seen on tv reviews' into a search engine of your choice. A good consumer always learns from the misery of others, in my experience. :)

@RedwoodFlyer: IIRC, the Impact GeL wasn't meant/used for the arch. It was PART of the insole that you impact on:
, Unlike Dr. Scholl's, which is made of the same gel material throughout:
As for the Awesome Auger, they do show it during the infomercial cutting through soil and roots:

And as for your point if they know when you are calling, they do. It's called Direct marketing for a reason. If you watched Pitchmen, you could see the control rooms they use to calculate the sales that different versions pull in across the country at different times.

@2DaysTillTheState_GitEmSteveDave:

So what if you do not want the free stuff?

What's with the stupid video player? Every time I stop it, after a few seconds it starts up again. I'm glad that Ab-Coaster is responsible for Keith's sexy abs.

@Ben_Q2:
Wait 15 minutes before calling.

@2DaysTillTheState_GitEmSteveDave:

So you're the reason they succeed.... Did you not realize that the "Control room" was a prop-set? The graphs weren't even real! They were static displays! They bars on the bar graphs were the same for different products.... The "soil and roots" in the video are loose roots in loose topsoil. It's not like it was chomping through roots..

@2DaysTillTheState_GitEmSteveDave:

Oh...and they buy tons of ads in many many markets in various timezones...so basically anytime you call is within "the next 15 minutes". They only say that to add a false sense of urgency so that gullible people hurry up and pick up the phone.

AOL is a crock of crap. When I was in college going for game programming, I had to move to my grandmother's place for an emergency. I took my computer with me since i needed it for classes and i was only staying at my grandmother's for a couple of months and only needed the net for about 1, if that, so I got one of those aol discs which was supposed to be good for a month for free and then after that they would charge me.

Well it was about 3 1/2 weeks so i decided I would cancel the account since i was moving back home in a couple of weeks and would be getting cable net. I cancel my account and they were sending letters to my grandmother's saying that i owed some money for the account. It took 3 calls but I got them to remove the charge and had to fight them off with their "Are you sure you want to cancel? We can give you another month to try it for free"

Anyways, in the end aol is just a load of crap. Their net speed was god awful and their customer service is even worse.

@RedwoodFlyer: The funny thing about the Awesome Auger is the drill used in the commercial is obviously a painted 14.4 volt Dewalt drill which retails for $200. They say you can upgrade to a cordless model for extra but I guarantee it isn't the model used in the commercial.

@RedwoodFlyer: Do the operators really know when the commercials are airing?

In some cases: yes. I briefly recruited staff for a call center in Belgium, and they had screens all over the room showing which of their products' commercials were running so operators knew when the call volumes were likely to go up.

Still doesn't mean they about to run out of product, or that they'll refuse to take your money if you don't CALL NOW!!!