A shocking discovery

[Brit1chick]

I've just added up from my qvc account of my years spending , it comes to £3992.54 . Although there are a few electrical items on there and a couple of Bernini fountains the majority is expensive creams that are sat unopened in a cupboard in my bathroom. I had an Elemis tsv on auto delivery that I kept forgetting to cancel and its depressing reading to see its cost me over £300 for them and they are still unopened.....and so many different make up sets.... I need to stop watching and to cancel the notification e-mail I get every morning telling me what the tsv is....and bloody easy pay has been my downfall too !

 

[Pick-a-Lily]

Thanks for your very honest post strato.
I cannot imagine how much I've spent with them over the 10 years or so that I've been a customer. Loads of beauty stuff that got stockpiled and then thrown out, untouched. All manner of crap that seemed like a good idea at the time. I got into a bit of trouble with personal debt a few years ago and radically reduced my spending in all areas, not just with Q. It made me realise how much rubbish I was buying, and that I had a psychological problem with 'having things' and hoarding.
I'm pleased to say the shock worked and I got myself out of debt pretty quickly. I'm still working on the hoarding, but I'm much more in control than I used to be - and I hardly buy anything from Q these days.

 

[Dave]

The only item I have purchased from I/W was a Sat Nav when Andy Love was presenting 4 years ago. It cost £129.99. It was his professional way he presented the Tom Tom that was the deciding factor, and 3 easy pays and was a great buy, still use it every day. Oh, how the quality of presenting has declined since Andy and Loen have been off the channel. Onwards and "Downwards" eh I/W?

 

[Silver Fox]

I am not going there, you are so brave! I decided to seriously curb my Q spending some time ago but have been sucked in to some TSV's.I am letting my round of EZP's run out then it's back on the no spending wagon!

 

[Brit1chick]

I am not going there, you are so brave! I decided to seriously curb my Q spending some time ago but have been sucked in to some TSV's.I am letting my round of EZP's run out then it's back on the no spending wagon!

I'm going to do the same, it's shocked me that I have frittered away nearly £4000 in one year ,on mainly cosmetics and skincare that I'll never get round to using. Hopefully this will be a big wake up call and I won't be tempted by anymore items that are just ....'phenomenal value !!!'

Thanks Stratobuddy for your OP, I'd never have thought of doing that.

 

[Caroleanne]

I don`t think I`d better do that ...in case my OH see`s it !! He never complains about what I spend but even so its better kept under wraps !!

 

[AndiK]

I think it's very brave of you, stratobuddy, to even consider everything you've ever bought from QVC and the total cost, never mind examine the list to see how much was a waste of your money. They say facing up to an addiction (in any sense of the word) is the first step to "owning" it and then conquering it! Just a suggestion: if you decide to go cold turkey, don't order that from QVC because they'll promise it for Christmas and it won't arrive.

Looking at the replies on here, it's made us all stop and think about our spending. Anyone else going to ask for a copy of "The List"? Not sure I'm brave enough but I did put together lists earlier this year of all the things I've got too many of in store (candles and beauty products) and that really helped me cut back (even if I do transgress occasionally).

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I have cut back Q from a ridiculous weekly amount in the early days to vertically nothing, the odd bit of jewellery.

However I haven't managed to stop buying at a certain high street shop and now eBay is my downfall.

I got 3 pairs of shoes/sandles in Marks today for approx £55 and they weren't in a sale. I had a 20% discount voucher and they had money off depending on your total spend so it started at £85 and I saved £30.

I also have an offer of a £120 beauty box for £25 but as I don't do beauty (ultra sensitive skin so don't experiment) I have to keep telling myself that £100 saving for something you don't use is no bargin (but I just might:mysmilie_17

 

[stratobuddy]

Wow, you are a star customer. Have you ever been invited to any special events? Remember when they had loyal diamonique customers guesting on shows? You should be asked to appear as a keen techie or diy fan. At the very least, anyone spending over £1000 per year should get free p&p and be asked to trial new products. A bit of loyalty recognition wouldn't hurt.

No, I've never had a thing.

 

[stratobuddy]

I am away at the moment and don't have the list with me, but I intend to post the good, bad, useless, and never used when I get the chance.

Most of my gadget buying has been transferred to Lidl now. Luckily I am nowhere near an Aldi

It is hard to resist gadgets. But I actually bought a gadget from Lidl this week for "my Christmas present drawer" LOL.

It's not for the dustman, but for one of OH's sons. I hope I can find it when the time comes.

If anyone is interested, it is like a Leatherman folding multi tool eg knife, pliers, cutters, screwdrivers, tin opener etc etc.

My genuine Leatherman was about £80 (from Amazon). The Lidl one costs £4-99 and looks good.

 

[Scout]

I've spent £1,341.62 in the past year. The only beauty purchase was a Molton Brown set, nothing else until the other brands become cruelty free. I'm happy with this spend because everything I've bought I use or wear regularly and I don't feel anything has been wasted. The only thing still in the box is a Vax carpet cleaner, but that will come out once I've decorated the rooms.

 

[Marina]

On that QVC statement, do they tell what items were returned or cancelled and show refund? I can buy loads but then sober up by the end of 30 days and return some or even all. So it may look that I've spent loads if not counting the what I returned. I was trying to audit my spending through my order page but there's only 4 pages, I remember when I could go years back in my orders up to 20 pages, I bet they put a filter on deliberately so one can only view three months or so.

 

[stratobuddy]

On that QVC statement, do they tell what items were returned or cancelled and show refund? I can buy loads but then sober up by the end of 30 days and return some or even all. So it way look that I've spent loads if not counting the what I returned.

It is like a spreadsheet, with farly small print.

I'm not sure if it shows returns or not, and I haven't got it with me at the moment.

It shows the unit prices, how many units you ordered of that particular item, and the individual PP.

At the end, it totals the number of items, the total cost, and the total PP.

Ive never returned anything under the MBG, only faulty items.

 

[Scout]

I've never returned anything under the mbg in 20 years either Strato, if I'm not certain that I'll want to keep it I don't buy it.

 

[CallMeQ]

I personally return things using the 30 day MBG as the way I see it is even though I'm paying 2 lots of P&P its better to return it to save at least some money... if the cost of returns + delivery is less than the overall total...

 

[maymorganlondon]

I have bought things I was certain I would love and keep... but when I tried them they were just not for me. Particularly with clothing items. Sometimes in the early days, before I was aware of DSR I would send back under the 30 day MBG when I should probably have done DSR. In fact, I would say a rather large number of items I sent back on the 30 day MBG should definitely have gone back under DSR when I was "learning the ropes". With the beauty products that I've sent back that was because I'd tried them rather than just swatched them... so clearly 30 day MBG was the right thing to use.

I've had some fab stuff that I would never have known about if not for QVC, so there's good as well as bad with the spending.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I just don't see how anyone would know for certain that they won't need to return unless it is an item they have had before or a high street brand.

With clothes I have made repeat purchases in a second colour only to find that the fit isn't even remotely the same as the original. I have noticed of late that different colours are not the same fabric composition particularly YK but other brands are guilty of this.

 

[Lilo Lil]

Are you having therapy now Strato?

 

[maymorganlondon]

I'm actually quite pleased with my spending with QVC so far this year. I'm still spending more than I did when I first dipped my toe in the QVC waters.

I now do generally research what I'm buying elsewhere first and mainly jump in with QVC when it's a better price, and when I think I may need to take advantage of the 30 day MBG.

So even without exposing myself to the full horror of my spending over the time I've shopped with QVC, I have reined myself in. I'm not even spending elsewhere instead on equivalent items. I just keep looking at the stash of beauty skincare and cosmetics (the biggest element of my QVC spending until last year), and the candle and melt mountain... and think of the clothing that went in the charity bag. But I wouldn't have tried Birkenstocks without QVC and they have become an essential part of my wardrobe - I look forward to being able to start wearing them and dread having to put them away. I regularly use my Ninja appliances (I have a Ninja Professional and a NutriNinja) both bought when Jilly Jones was the guest. I dare say I wouldn't have bothered if Caroline Sandry had been presenting - she has zero credibility for me.

 

[stratobuddy]

I can see that it would be much more common to send back clothes than gadgets.

With gadgets (tools, technology, etc) the demos USED TO BE very good and you could judge whether they would be useful for you. So I've never had to send any back, and I've been grateful to Q for showing them to me (even if I've bought them elsewhere).

What happens with technology is that better things come along, and the old ones are discarded.

For example, the iPad is notorious for not having any connection sockets to put photos, music etc on an off it.

So Q showed me a gadget that connected to it via its own wi-fi (not your home wi-fi, so you could use it anywhere).

This was very useful, but a bit long winded. Then Q showed me a special memory stick with a USB one end and an iPad connector on the other. This was much easier, so the other £100 gadget got relegated in favour of the new £100 gadget.

And this sort of thing has happened time and time again, in particular with cameras. Over the 12 years I've bought 3, as each one was so much better, even though about £300 each (all TSV's). But I don't intend to buy another one as the one I've now got does everything I want (eg a huge zoom). I don't need gimmicks like face recognition, or only taking a pic when everyone is smiling, or tags each photo with your location.