Mar 30 2009
Buyer Beware of the BEST of Anything
The “BEST” of anything is usually just a subjective opinion at BEST, and such opinions are often nothing more than a paid promotion, particularly on blogs.
I recently read some product reviews on a commercial retailer’s site that were obviously written by a paid reviewer.
These reviews were very positive in tone, and seemed “canned;” whereas, the only “real” review stood out in stark contrast to the others, and the reviewer flat out stated that the product was flimsy and not likely to make it through a Colorado winter, and he doubted that it would stand up to wind over 40 mph and he thought he would likely regret his purchase. That sounded real, and I did not purchase the product, which was selling at a huge discount, (perhaps because of buyer dissatisfaction), as I live in Montana and we have winter and wind too.
There are always going to be shysters eager to take advantage of a naive or gullible buyer. As we get older, the shysters seem to come out in greater numbers to beat a path to our door, or to our e-mail accounts. We always have to be on guard.
Remember the old adage about “things that sound too good to be true are just that.”
And, “anything that is offered to us at no cost is probably worth exactly what we are paying for it.”
Watch out for the hidden costs in the fine print. As we get older we need to protect ourselves. Oftentimes this means having a third party read contract terms and interpret them for us. This is something a good accountant or lawyer can do and sometimes save us a lot of trouble later (and money too).
Good advice
by Susan Berg, author