BIG Money Saving Tip!

[MJ DeMarco]

This tip is the cousin of this thread (EZ Money Saving Tip) ...

Here is a BIG Money Saving Tip ...

Anytime you have the urge to purchase a product or service that *seems* to good to be true, just drop the product/service into google and append the keyword "scam" , "complaint" or "rip-off" to your search query.

For example, thinking about buying "XXX Widget?" Search for "XXX Widget Scam" and see what comes up.

If multiple results are hit, more than likely you have a problem product/service.

I have 2 examples just in the last week that this strategy has saved me hours in time and quite possibly, thousands of dollars.

As some of you know, I've been remodeling my house and it has been very costly in terms of time and money. Well, I saw an advertisement for "Direct Buy" -- a membership club for buying home products supposedly at "below retail prices".

My prior knowledge of the company was that I knew they employed very high pressure sales tactics. Despite this, it still might be something that would benefit me since I was spending $thousands on home remodeling stuff.

Enter this strategy.

I hit Google and typed in "Direct Buy Scam".

Within a micro-second, Google produced hundreds and hundreds of hits -- disgruntled customers and potential customers broadcasting their grievances. I spent 30 minutes analyzing the data and made my decision -- Direct Buy is not for me. (Of course, I'm not saying Direct Buy is a scam -- do your own diligence and make your own informed opinion).

Another instance of this tip in action -- I've been looking to do a "fast" and recently saw an infomercial for the "Dual Action Cleanse" a colon cleansing product .... before buying, I hit Google and typed in "Dual Action Cleanse Scam" and again was hit by hundreds of search results. Again, I chose not to buy.

So here is the strategy ... hit Google and search:

[Product/Service] scam
[Product/Service] complaint
[Product/Service] ripoff

If you get minimal results, respective to the product, more than likely the company/product is on the up-and-up. Understand however, that no company is immune from angry customers -- you must make your own judgment as too what is an acceptable number of complaints per market saturation.

For example, I did buy a cleansing/fasting product and this test revealed little results.

Also, for research on my book, I did the test on most "money-making" infomercials and ALL OF THEM failed this test with some very interesting data to boot...

Kevin Trudeau has quite an interesting story ... and Beck tops the list of complaints.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I could spend hours here...
http://www.infomercialscams.com/

 

[howard_two]

Kevin Trudeau has quite an interesting story ... and Beck tops the list of complaints.

Trudeau has indeed quite an interesting story...He was even a guru for Nightingale. Something about increasing memory powers. But this guy amazes me. He is an excellent sales man. He lets nothing stops him: Not even the US government. Talking about perseverence. I mean with this guy of great attitude, why didn't he use some imagination and came up with a legit product? He could've bought a failed one and made it prominent.

 

[Redshft]

Great info. I'll actually be trying this technique soon. I saw a commercial today, not an infomercial, about a new product that seemed interesting. Of course I wondered if it works. The name has escaped my mind, but next time I see it, I'll be sure to google it.

 

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[TaxGuy]

and Beck tops the list of complaints.

my favorite!!! lol, I can't stand it when I'm trying to find something on at 2am and the TV Guide channel has his annoying "tax lien sale secrets" w/ that even more annoying blonde lady who looks like Janice from the Muppets(the one w/ blonde hair and big lips)

i looked it up and went "OMG!" I thought the upselling jag at the Learning Annex was bad for wanting $1600 UP FRONT, this guy sells his "system" for $29.95 and then tricks ppl into spending $1000's to get the real "secrets"....

I hope he goes the way of Blue Hippo, read a nice article about them a few weeks back and also hope that Extenze joins Enzyte in the failure dept... can't stand the annoying "innuendo" commercials, I mean if it's real "science" atleast use words like "fallace" or "libido" instead of "that certain area of the male body"...


and to add testemonial to this, when I was doing background checks on potential roommates, I originally used Intellius as my dad recommended it, but then did the "scam" search and found some distasteful stuff about them and Integrascan, the other one that comes up right away on google, so after more searching I found TenantVerificationServices, which was not only reasonably priced $19.95, but was to my liking!!!!

 

[mtnman]

Little tip for those that buy things with monthly recurring bills....If you have a personal credit card with Bank Of America or Suntrust, they have an online service when you log into your account called Shopsafe. It spits out a random cc # for a set interval and a set amount. Problem solved.