HSN Does Not Hold True To Their Promises, Misrepresents Themselves As Trustworthy

Full Review
This is a review of HSN, the Home Shopping Network.

HSN holds a unique place among retail outlets. I would compare HSN to the traveling door-to-door salesperson that, after a moment of character assesment, you've judged trustworthy and allow into your living room.

Unlike Sears or Home Depot, where a person will go to choose an item off the shelf and may ask a few questions to a sales floor person, HSN is invited into your home by way of the television set. A virtual person standing in your living room telling certain things about themselves and the product that they are representing.

Any retail outlet can sell a can opener, car, or computer. But HSN's unique situation is that they have an hour or more of your time while you sit on your couch sizing up the person speaking to you and the product that they are selling. In this situation they many times ask you to trust them because they are trustworthy, they offer a honest warranty and most of all they own the exact same item and are very satisfied with its quality and function.

These people that are put in front of the camera, who represent HSN as a company, are easy to look at and have communications skill that are above the average salesman. The ability to stand under hot lights for hours at a time on live television, is highly sought and well paid.
They are not unlike actors in a movie who are endeavoring to sell you a story line.

There is one other skill set that they own that the door-to-door salesman does not have, nor the brick and mortar store. And that is the ability to use the magic of television to enhance the item being sold. 
Ever wonder why the burger that you get does not look like the burger advertised on television? Magic! It's not magic at all. But some of the tricks used to make things look bigger, better, more desirable have been taken from the magician's handbook and used by movie makers and tv show designers alike.

It is very easy for me to fall under the spell of someone - easy to look at - telling me that I can trust them,
because they deal directly with and have a special relationship to the company that manufacture's the product.
That, they themselves own said product are very satisfied with its quality, functionality, and ease of use.
And if that is not enough, they also remind me of just how easy it is to gain satisfaction if there is any problem with the product. Throw in the ability to enhance said product by way of television trickery, it is a lethal mix of deception and dishonesty - a poison apple.

So my experience with HSN is dissapointing. I purchased an item because of the representative's words and actions. And because of the way the product functioned in the video presentation.


These things were not so. I did not receive that which was promised as part of the package of the whole product.
I did not receive that which was showcased. The product represented on the product presentation was not what was mailed to me.
And, when I sought relief from customer service, I was deflected with empty words of consolation and no effort on the part of HSN Customer Service to remedy the situation.