Thursday, October 30, 2014

Guarantee Doesn't



When you hear or see a claim in an ad that ”guarantees” the claim, it really doesn’t, if the rest of the sentence says ”or your money back”. This tactic is a favorite of mail-order advertising because they know one simple truth about human nature.
If you order something, especially something that can be consumed or used up, and the product doesn’t perform as advertised, you will probably just throw away the rest. The last thing most people would do is save the rest, wrap it up and pay postage to send it back for a refund. Sometimes also having to fill out a form explaining your reasons for doing so. They know that. Statistics prove it to them. They don’t expect re-orders from you. These people deal in thousands, if not millions, and if someone actually does send it back, they will gladly refund their money. What a perfect demonstration against law suits.
They get away with this because laws were lobbied to enable them to.
If a consumer organization ever decided to be on the consumer’s side, they would lobby to have the law changed to have “guarantee” mean exactly what it says. The guarantee isn’t that you’ll get a refund if the product doesn’t work, but guarantees the claim that they make is valid, or be guilty of false advertising. Class action suits would then quickly change these legally fraudulent ads. 

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