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Home > Personal Finance > Topics:  Consumer Protection
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Never Order from a TV Infomercial Phone Number

Submitted by: anonymous  12/02/2008 9:38 PM
 
Always call that number first and ask the agent for the customer service phone number. Not only will you avoid all sales upcharges for all the extra items that have hidden shipping charges but you will get roped into all the sales pitches for other companies at the end of the call. NEVER give your credit card to these people ! The agents work from home and have your credit card information at the finger tips! Tell them you already own the product and need help with the return. When you order from an infomercial always use a credit card that you do not intend to use for anything else and for god sakes NEVER use your checking debit card ! Most often they have more shipping charges then you know of and the agents read scripts poorly and are uninformed of what they are doing. NEVER USE YOUR DEBIT CARD ! your account will be overdrawn until the items are returned and you are NEVER reimbursed for shipping charges !!!! Where i work it can be as much as 64.00 in shipping before you know what hit you. Its unreal what i see go on here.
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thanks, I never knew this.
 
Posted by mem70 on December 05, 2008 2:27 PM
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You are so right! I got caught with the Debit card deal. I had to pay $70 overdraw payment and $90 in bank fees. My bank was sympathetic and knew the deal so they removed the charges but that company just kept taking my money. You will have to change bank numbers to stop them. Horrible! I never did it again. People beware this is true!!!
 
Posted by Wanda on December 05, 2008 8:50 PM
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Great advice. Also consider checking out the website www.infomercialratings.com Its a site where people review products that they have bought off of infomercials. I have gone here a few times and read about items that I considered buying. Glad I did. Some products actually do work, but so many more seem to be complete scams.
 
Posted by paylessforfood.com on December 06, 2008 1:26 AM
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ADDITIONALLY

There are a couple of other things buyers should be aware of which are:

1) The congress just passed a new credit card proviso that dramatically changes the way credit card companies can do business. Predominant among the many changes is the restriction on changing interest rate charges mid-stream.
2) There are also changes to the "PCI standards", that significantly affect the security of your credit/debit card numbers and your account. The fly by night homebound vendors may not be aware of this. See https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ for more information. There are now fines up to $25,000 for vendor misuse of a credit/debit card.
 
Posted by Tony on December 20, 2008 3:20 AM
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The people who take orders for these informaercials are screened and given a background report. i have never heard of ppl who who work from home stealing customer information. Fortunately, honest ppl do still exist.
 
Posted by at home worker on January 19, 2009 4:58 AM
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