Just before heading to bed this Friday, we flicked on to Pricedrop TV to have a laugh about what tat they were flogging. Normally they bend the truth slightly, or exaggerate the quality of the products, but whoever was presenting on this occasion was just coming out with lie after lie.

The first product they were selling was a mini Freeview adaptor that plugs straight into a scart socket. Quite a neat little solution to convert an old analogue TV. Looking on the website now it says the starting price for these is £50, but I seem to remember it starting at around £30 – £40.

Here came the first lie. He said “If you buy one of these, you don’t need to fork out £40-£60 for a Freeview set top box”. Now when we bought our first Freeview STB a few years ago, I think it was around £25. I had a quick look in the Argos catalogue, and their Freeview boxes range from £16.85 to £39.99. The only basic Freeview box they do for over £40 includes 1 month of Setanta, which is worth £10.99.

So, not only would you be silly to pay the claimed £40-£60 for an equivalent product, you;d struggle to find anyone selling one for that price. In fact Asda are currently doing  a Freeview PVR with hard disk recorder for £40! After the claim of how much these things normally cost came a challenge: he said “I defy you to find Freeview for less than £40“. He either didn’t do his research, or is a complete liar.

In the end the “auction” ended at £19.99 + £7.99 for delivery. £28 seems like a high price for this basic piece of kit.

Next came a set of wireless headphones. A fairly basic set consisting of a base that pugs into a headphone socket, with a seat of headphones with a wireless connection in between. When describing these he kept using the terms “Bluetooth” and “WiFi”. Bluetooth is a possible technology for this type of device, but certainly not wifi (well, it’s possible, but not all likely). I got suspicious about the bluetooth n the price went so low, and it turns they don’t use either technology, they just work on standard analogue radio frequency! Another complete lie to try and sell more tat!

I also noticed another presenter today describing a necklace as “Swarovski“, when it definately wasn’t. I bet Swarovski wouldn’t be too pleased! I also noticed someone saying you would pay “literally an arm and a leg”, but that’s another rant for another day.

I feel I ought to report these complete lies. Anyone know who I should report them to? Trading standards? OfCom? ASA? Maybe I should just leave them to ripping off poor (ignorant) people.

On a happier note, we stayed in on Halloween, and only got sweet young trick or treaters. No teenage scallies, and all done before 8pm!