And the tyres never wear out, and it sharpens razor blades too!

After I said rude things about an incoherently promoted automotive gadget in this letters column (as usual, it promised to give you better fuel economy, more power, and anything else they could fit on the page), one of the people who worked there sent me an e-mail.

He was, thankfully, not threatening to sue me (unlike some people mentioned in that same column...), but he did say that it was their policy to only charge customers who agree that they "feel the difference".

He asked me if I'd ever heard of a scammer who offered this level of service. He has not replied to me since I told him "yes, just about all of them".

Money-back guarantees are, actually, absolutely standard in this field. I'm sure some of those guarantees are fake, but they seldom need to be. People who're willing to buy a quantum dimensional vortex optimiser for their car's fuel line are also people who're likely to "feel the difference" from it, even when there isn't any actual difference to feel.

I often link to Tony Cains' excellent Guide to Fuel Saving when I'm talking about these kinds of gadgets (and fuel additives), because he's pretty much got the whole field covered. His page about the dangers of testimonial evidence is particularly relevant, to both this specific issue and the general subject of bogus products in which people believe.

One Response to “And the tyres never wear out, and it sharpens razor blades too!”

  1. Itsacon Says:

    Thanks for the Tony Cain link. Hadn't seen that one before...


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