Five reasons to avoid buying health products from infomercials

Having been in the health supplement business for eight years, I have watched the infomercial industry closely. We have also participated in the industry at times. Though you may hear from time to time about the FDA closing down an infomercial company, consumers do not have much access to the truth about what is really happening in the industry.

Here are five quick reasons why you should avoid buying health products from infomercials.

1) The industry is full of snakes and slime.
Most people in the infomercial business have to have a hard time living with themselves. There is a reason why the FDA and FTC spend their time shutting down company after company—they are run by crooks. When you buy, expect problems. You will never receive the product or you will be charged too much. Maybe you will be put on a monthly auto shipment without being told. By the way, forget about actually getting a refund if you send the product back.

The fact is that the business is so tough and competitive that crooks need to steal from their customers to actually make a profit. By themselves, those little “problems” you have can generate millions for the infomercial company.

2) The products are overpriced.
If you buy a product in a store, it is probably marked up two to five times over manufacturing cost. When you buy a product off an infomercial, it is marked up ten to twenty times over manufacturing cost. That $100 product you buy costs $5 to make and a similar product is sold in the store for $15.

The fact that infomercial products are marked up so much does not mean that anyone is getting rich. Trust me when I say that a company can easily lose money even with those kinds of markups. However, the infomercial business model necessitates those kinds of markups, and it is unnecessary for you to pay them.

3) The claims are blatantly false.
Infomercial companies rely on false claims to sell products. Because so many of them do it, it has almost become impossible to sell successfully on infomercials without making outrageously false claims.

You might wonder why companies do this if they know the FTC and FDA will come to stop them. That is all part of the business plan. They set aside a few million to pay their fine to the FDA and pocket the rest of their profits. It is a game to them, and they are knowingly fleecing their consumers.

4) The products are not unique or of superior quality.
Most products sold on infomercials can be bought on the internet for a fraction of the cost. In many cases, you may not be able to buy the exact brand, but you can get a product that is almost identical for much less.

I cannot tell you how many products I have seen on infomercials that are not at all unique. It takes a bit of research to examine the ingredients, but if you do, you will find out that you can get the same thing in any health store.

5) The “experts” are fakes and their information is biased.
Many infomercials pretend to be news shows and have a “doctor” to explain the benefits of the product. Be wary—many doctors will say anything to make money. Sometimes, they are not experts at all, but are just actors pretending to be experts.

The whole point of using experts in infomercials is to try to convince consumers that their product is really unique and more valuable than similar products on the market. Do not believe this for a second. The information you hear on an infomercial is biased to the point of being useless.

Bonus reason: You should not be up after midnight watching TV in the first place. Get some sleep!