# Worst Purchase Ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727 "2009-02-20T16:04:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/61 "2009-02-24T02:38:12Z")
> [@MissGypsy](#): > > Thank you for that idea! I like my WetJet, because I have 3 little boys, and it makes for quick cleanup of the kitchen floor after dinner. You just saved me some money, because now I can use whatever, instead of the Swiffer cleaning solution. FWIW, I’ve perfected the method: Punch a hole in the top of the container and refill, plug it up with some silly putty or something so if it tips it won’t leak everywhere. I did find that if you remove the bottle and replace it multiple times, it will develop a leak, so it’s best if you can leave it in place and just funnel in your solution, avoiding re-piercing the bottle at the insertion point. Also FWIW to those that don’t like the WetJet, it’s not meant to be a total cleaning tool, it’s meant for loose dirt/hair free floors in the place of mopping. I love it for in between actual mopping jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/62 "2009-02-24T02:46:24Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > Yeeesss! My worst purchase ever would be the medieval torture device otherwise known as the Epilady. DO NOT use it on your tender bits! In case you are not familiar with the device, it grabs several hairs at once and viciously rips them whole out of the follicles while you scream the foulest obscenities and scare the daylights out of your beloved pets. The neighbors will call the cops on you, so be sure to have your bathrobe handy. Oh, and don’t ask. The police will not shoot your epilady. Apparently, it’s against the rules or something. > > Then there was the Epil Stop. Can you say chemical burns? Yeah, bad. Stay as far away as possible from this stuff. I have since learned my lesson. It’s okay to not be hair-free. I’m fine with the Epilady - though yes, you do have to be careful about getting it near your tenderest parts. However, I will agree with you on the Epil Stop. I got nasty chemical burns from it too - the worst part was feeling a tingle, looking down, and seeing that the foam was pink (yes, from blood). :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Jaglavak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jaglavak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaglavak)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/63 "2009-02-24T02:47:54Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > I feel dumb now, but it would make me feel a lot better to hear about your worst purchase ever! That would have to be buying a mutual fund that invests in financials. There goes a third of a year’s pay right off the top of my retirement account, thankyouverymuch. That ought to make you feel like a freakin genius. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/64 "2009-02-24T03:02:23Z")
It seems to me, the take-away lesson from this thread is that the worst purchase you can ever make is a cat. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/65 "2009-02-24T04:31:47Z")
Cat toys. Some work, some don’t. Feliway didn’t make much of a difference in the neurotic cat. Or the inkjet printer which I don’t use all that often so the ink tends to have fossilized by the time I need something printed. :smack: Don’t laserjets have less of that problem? ---
**Author:** ![Jaglavak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jaglavak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaglavak)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/66 "2009-02-24T04:44:07Z")
You don’t buy a cat. They decide to hang out with you. ---
**Author:** ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/67 "2009-02-24T10:23:40Z")
> [@Astroboy14](#): > > I don’t know first-hand how crappy the "shamwow"s are, but I’ve considered buying one just to support Vince Offer’s fight against the foes of Xenu. The forces of Xenu, not the foes. but yeah, even if the product is as bad as the Dopers are saying, at least it’s for the greater good. My worst purchase was [these](http://www.centurynovelty.com/detail_150_086-060.html) Christmas stockings. Cheap, thin, shoddy workmanship, full of flaws and hopelessly creased. ---
**Author:** ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/68 "2009-02-24T10:48:00Z")
> [@Baraqiyal](#): > > > [@Astroboy14](#): > > > > I don’t know first-hand how crappy the "shamwow"s are, but I’ve considered buying one just to support Vince Offer’s fight against the foes of Xenu. > > The forces of Xenu, not the foes. but yeah, even if the product is as bad as the Dopers are saying, at least it’s for the greater good. You were right to begin with. I forgot that in Scientology mythology, Xenu was the bad guy. ---
**Author:** ![Wisthekiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/2acd7d/32.png) [@Wisthekiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisthekiller)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/69 "2009-02-24T12:31:12Z")
My mom just bought a cat leash, they sell them at petsmart or petco or something and make your cat think its being hanged. Just dont get it unless you can catch up with a cat(dont mock me, theyre fast) ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/70 "2009-02-24T12:37:49Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I’m fine with the Epilady - though yes, you do have to be careful about getting it near your tenderest parts. However, I will agree with you on the Epil Stop. I got nasty chemical burns from it too - the worst part was feeling a tingle, looking down, and seeing that the foam was pink (yes, from blood). :eek: Yes, but after it scarred up, did it stop hair growth? P.S. I love my Wet Jet. I use it most weeks. Every 3 months or so, I’ll get out my Hoover FloorMate. ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/71 "2009-02-24T14:21:55Z")
A Canon 4 in 1 combination printer, fax, scanner, copier. It did all of the jobs equally bad and the price of the ink cartridges bordered on extortion. This was about ten years ago so maybe they have improved but no more Canon products for me except maybe a camera. Under the category of some things can’t be improved on: I saw this neat looking fiberglass leaf rake with all of these extra tines along the side. Extra tines = less raking, right? Wrong. All it did was grab the grass and edging and made the job three times harder. Give me the old fashioned springy metal rake any day. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/72 "2009-02-24T14:53:00Z")
The worst purchase I’ve made recently was a resin figure kit I bought for an incredibly low price from a guy at a swap meet. There was a reason for the low price; it’s a copy of somebody else’s kit (a “recast”), and it’s malformed and incompletely cast. The details are “soft” and the resin is full of bubbles, and the parts don’t fit right. I took a first crack at making it useable, but essentially, it’d take me so long to fix it that I’d be better off getting a part-time job and using the money to buy an original. Plus, it has the ethical stigma of being a recast. Sigh. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/73 "2009-02-24T15:13:35Z")
At a garage sale, I picked up one of those devices that uses a garden hose to help clean your gutters. It’s basically a wand with a U-bend on the end. The idea is that it emits a strong jet of water and drives the leaves and crap towards the drain where it can be easily removed. Nice theory and maybe it works if you have a low roof with gutters easily accessible from the ground. But the mechanics of balancing on a ladder 20 feet up while dragging a heavy hose are suboptimal. Further, like most hoses, the fittings were not watertight and there was sloshing from the gutter, so as you used it you got doused with a constant stream of water. One cold wet morning of experimentation with the wand and it went back into the garage for some future garage sale of my own. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/74 "2009-02-24T19:44:17Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > That’s a pretty awesomely bad purchase. If that’s just ONE of the stupidest things you’ve ever done, I implore you to start a thread called “Other Stuipd Things olives Has Done” - it’ll be _fantastic_ 😃 But she was so _nice_. She was asking me questions about my cat and the weather and everything. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/75 "2009-02-24T20:10:41Z")
Okay, the automatic cat feeder gets better every day. The kitties are learning how to use it properly and it is helping me get some much needed sleep. I will amend my worst purchase ever to the time my ex and I went out to dinner on Valentine’s Day at a somewhat ritzy restaurant in town, ran up $100 in food, drinks and dessert, and then at the end of the evening he looked at me and said he didn’t have any money. I didn’t expect him to pay for the whole thing but I expected him to pay for half! We broke up not long after that. That was the biggest waste of $100 ever. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/76 "2009-02-24T21:13:20Z")
> [@Wisthekiller](#): > > You guys all suck, my shamwows work fine. > My worst purchase was a hermit crab i was too stupid to notice was already dead He wasn’t dead. He was tired and shagged out following a prolonged scuttle. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/77 "2009-02-25T13:42:56Z")
I was waiting outside an electrical goods shop for some mates that I was going for a pint with when I spotted a metal detector in the window and went in and bought one on impulse. After I got it home I tried it around the house to hear the bleep and never ever used it again. I gave it away in the end. ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/78 "2009-02-25T14:27:47Z")
> [@Minnie\_Luna](#): > > I like my Swiffer WetJet. Generally, I use the dry swiffer or vacuum first, but the WetJet does a good job on light cleaning for hard floors. I agree. I liked the Wetjet just fine, but didn’t use it until after sweeping or dry swiffering first. Wet dust and fur, yuck. I also loved my Roomba. I miss these things. My “as advertised on television” product was the Egg Wave, which was supposed to make scrambled eggs in the microwave oven. What a great idea! I needed more protein in the mornings without having to mess up a frying pan 'cause I’m lazy as dirt - easy and quick, right? Hah. Every single egg I tried exploded. Within seconds. Every single time. No matter what I did, I was cleaning up scrambled egg. I gave up and threw 'em away. I’ve learned my lesson. Never again. But … Magic Bullet? Doper’s mother loves it? Hmmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/79 "2009-02-25T15:52:24Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Yes, but after it scarred up, did it stop hair growth? No. ☹ Days prior I’d barely scuffed part of my leg; it was merely a little pink at that time. By the time I used the Epilstop it wasn’t even noticeable. So I can only assume that part of the epilation effect is to remove the outer layer of skin. In other words, if I’d done a normal exfoliation on my legs I might have had that everywhere. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727/80 "2009-02-25T16:05:14Z")
> [@Wisthekiller](#): > > My worst purchase was a hermit crab i was too stupid to notice was already dead What’s wrong with that? Most food is dead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-purchase-ever/486727.md?page=5)