Infomercial Backlash!

As is often the case, I have trouble sleeping at night. So, I do what every other person does at 1:30 a.m. I flip through channels and long and behold, I came across an infomercial about eliminating debt.

The product: A book by Kevin Trudeau. “Debt Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About.” Apparently, it’s a tell all type of read disclosing secrets credit card companies and banks don’t want you to know about, etc. So, I’m motivated to call after about 10 minutes of watching the program. The author of the book was animated and believable. I was thinking, “A book for $29.99; not a bad price. I can spend that on one outing.” So, I get on the line with the salesperson; she takes my contact info; billing address, blah, blah, blah, then SMACK. I get bombarded with other offers: Try this for free; apply for this; do you want to purchase other books as gifts for half the costs, free shipping, etc. 

I got so infuriated with the call, that I couldn’t complete the order. Here is a guy preaching that people can get out of debt if they know “the secrets” companies don’t want you to know about and yet his sales people are plugging away at more ways for people to spend money. Typical pitch: “Try it for free and cancel in 30 days.” Oftentimes, people are too busy to make that follow-up call or simply forget, and get charged for a service or product that they didn’t even have a chance to use or like for that matter, which is a scam within itself. “They” bank on you forgetting to following up. Hey Kevin, is this one of your secret? Case in point: Avoid specials you are not interested in, even if they sound good.

I did like one of the offers. Apparently, you could buy other copies of the book at like $11 you get free shipping. The beauty of it is that I suspect people are going ahead and getting the other books because I see a lot of Debt Cures books for sale on ebay for more than the original price. Hmm, that’s one way to cure debt.