As Seen on TV

The other morning, I was sleeping with the TV on, as usual, and an infomercial for the NuWave Oven came on. The exceedingly upbeat, amphetamine-induced voices of the NuWave hosts woke me up.

The NuWave Oven is a counter-top oven that every home should not be without according to these hyper-vigilant hosts. Your life will be hugely incomplete and a total disaster unless you call within the next ten minutes and purchase one. Here’s the infomercial:



So, I got up and decided to go online and find some reviews about this incredible device. I had no interest in ordering one because it just sounded, well . . . stupid.  I just wanted to see how much of a rip-off it was.

Of course, everyone hated the NuWave Oven. According to these poor folks that actually bought one, everyone remotely associated with NuWave are evil cretins and should be destroyed. I kept seeing complaints about the ninety-dollar shipping charges, rebates that never came, non-existent customer service, exploding NuWave ovens and on and on and on.

Ninety dollars for shipping? I just had to find out more about that. I was now on a NuWave mission.

So I called the NuWave toll-free number and asked what the shipping charges were. I couldn’t get a straight answer so I politely said I wasn’t interested. I called again and after some insistence, I finally got an answer. Here’s the deal.

The shipping costs for the NuWave are $29.95. But wait! You also get a free pizza serving kit AND a free mini-blender. You just pay shipping costs for these free items. How much shipping?
$29.95 each. Nintey bucks total.

Can you believe that? How awful for these poor folks, many of whom are probably elderly and get sucked in to this slick deal. It really made me angry.

But wait! It gets better.

About an hour later someone from NuWave called me and wanted to know why I didn’t want a NuWave and was there anything they could do to “help.” I told them it was because of the shipping costs. That’s when she offered a forty-dollar rebate.

That’s when I pounced. I said that I had just read all these reviews online where people never actually got these rebates.  (She claimed she’d never heard of such complaints.) I also said that their customer service was reported to be horrible and that the NuWave lids were known to crack (explode.)

She still wouldn’t let up. “Is there anything we could do to interest you?” she pleaded.

I said, “Let me send you a postage-paid shipping box so that I don’t have to pay any shipping fees.”

No way, no how,
uh-uh.

“Please place my number on your do-not-call list.”

After reading all those frustrated reviews, all those folks who couldn’t contact the NuWave people, it felt so good to hold someone at NuWave accountable, at least for a little bit.
I wanted to dance.

Here’s the thing. These As Seen on TV items are huge rip-offs. (Gee, ya think?) If you find that you want to buy any of these items, go online and read the reviews. If you absolutely must have it after that, go to walgreens.com or amazon.com and buy one of the items for half the price rather than getting a second one “free”.

And if you really want to have some fun, call NuWave at 800-393-1369, ask about the shipping, decline, let them call you back, - - - and then give ‘em hell.

Or maybe you’re unlike me and actually have a life.