Products People Believed In Until They Realized They Were Bogus

Relentless advertisers inevitably get consumers to purchase goods regardless of how much they want them.

The goal is to make the customer happy, once the transaction is made, but that isn't always the case.

Some customers get buyer's remorse after realizing they weren't in the market for the item they bought but were easily manipulated by ingenious marketing, or they, unfortunately, discover they've been had by a sham product.

Curious to hear from strangers online who've regretted purchases, Redditor misterdominic asked:

"What is a product that you swore by your whole life, but have only recently learned that it’s essentially just ‘Snake Oil’?"

These customers were taken for a ride.

Hard To Swallow

"Had a friend who religiously took anti-jet lag pills. I asked what the hell they were and he showed me. You took one with a full glass of water every two hours while flying in long flights."

"All they did was get you to drink water. People get dehydrated on long plane flights. So they worked, but it was really just the water that helped."

– clorox2

Pore Me

"Facial toners that 'close pores'. I was amazed when I learnt that pores don't open and close, I'd spent my entire life believing this."

– knittingkitten04

"I keeping telling my young teen this. 'You don't need to close your pores. They are meant to be there!' Bloosy Instagram filters and such!"

– LittleRedCorvette2

Caveat Emptor

"Any cold and flu medication with phenylephrine as the 'active ingredient' for decongestion. Complete scam."

"Drug companies just wanted to minimize their losses when purchasing limits for pseudoephedrine were introduced, and came up with an alternative product that would plausibly work in theory, but actually doesn’t."

"Source: Am doctor. But here's an expert panel from the FDA stating so as well."

"Edit: lots of people asking 'what works' instead. Phenylephrine sprays still work. Just the oral tablets are useless. Oxymetazoline sprays also work. And of course, the old Sudafed containing pseudoephedrine works."

– HappinyOnSteroids

Period Relief Scam

"Feminax. It’s just Ibuprofen in a pink package and costs 3x as much."

– NochMessLonster

"An Australian company Nurofen got a 6m dollar fine for doing this. They had different coloured packages claiming they worked for different things but it was all just plain ibuprofen."

– Darc_ruther

"The interesting part of that is that (supposedly) it actually works. Putting the same product in a different colour package and writing 'migraine relief' on it actually makes it work better for migraines. Essentially the placebo effect adds a measurable effectiveness."

"Hell, even just pricing it higher and putting 'premium' on the box would make it more effective this way."

– chton

It doesn't get any better.

Hair Brained Scheme

"Repairing hair products/split ends repairment. The belief that hair repair products could reverse damage to my hair and fully repair split ends. I spent so much money on shi*ty products and even recommended it to some people. I know better now, and it shows…"

"The 'repairing' hair product marketing is designed to create a cycle of dependency. It thrives on the illusion of fixing the problem, but it’s really just a bad band-aid. The best approach is prevention, scalp care, regular trims, and accepting that no product can reverse true damage or split ends."

"A bit like whitening toothpaste, it can remove surface stains but too much of it also breaks down the enamel."

– bagtkartoffel1

Gran's Advice

"My granny insisted that mustard plasters on our chest would cure us of colds. I hated those things! But up until she passed, granny was loyal to mustard plasters."

"Granny mixed dry mustard powder (grated seeds?) in a bit of water and spread the poultice on our chest to treat anything that gave us chest congestion. It was a fairly common remedy for farm folk, but I don't know if it was common for everyone."

"It burned like the dickens and was really weird feeling when it dried out to being a 'crust.' Sometimes we got blisters from it. I don't think it helped, and now they say never do it because it's bad for skin."

"We weren't even old enough to go to school yet and had big blisters on our chests. But the fresh lemon juice mixed with honey for cough medicine was yummy. I loved that."

"We stayed at granny's place while mom worked at the potato plant so we also were told to chase the chicken after she chopped its head off for supper. They actually do sometimes run when you do that. We were definitely country folk in the early 1950s. Makes me think Oh Em Gee to think about it now!"

– bad2behere

Placebo Effect

"Zicam. The nose swabs version. I know it doesn’t have zinc in it. I know it’s just homeopathy, so basically nothing. But I swear if I feel a cold coming on I swab my nose a few times a day with those for a couple days and I don’t get sick."

"It goes against all logic and is probably placebo but I swear it works for me."

– Thenadamgoes

You can't blame the customer for not knowing any better.

Fool Me Twice

"I have restless leg syndrome and Hylands Restful Legs medicine is the only thing that works for me. I know it’s a homeopathic sugar pill but the placebo effect is powerful."

"For years I didn’t know that it wasn’t effective medicine so now my brain makes me feel better when I take them, even though I know better."

– apiprotester

Comfort Remedy

"Vick’s Vapo-Rub. I swear it helps you breathe better, but I read it’s not really backed by science. You can still pry it from my cold, dead hands."

– threadbarefemur

Deli Drama

"Boar's Head. Along with their premium price I had assumed that they had premium products, but their recent Listeria outbreak exposed how they were warned by health officials over and over and over again and that they still fixed nothing."

"That they only did the bare minimum for safety facility cleanliness, which unfortunately resulted in the deaths of 10 customers. I'm sure there are worse offenders, but I no longer see the point in paying the premium for Boar's Head, and I never will again."

– SMOKEBOMBSKI

Low Priority

"It’s been proven over and over again; if you let businesses regulate themselves the vast majority will almost always choose profit over consumer safety."

– Win_Sys

"Companies are so powerful not only do they subvert common sense regulation, but they often times use the government as a tool to advocate expensive, unnecessary regulation that creates barriers to entry for their potential competitors."

"I think it’s why the issue of regulations is contested. One side just wants common sense regulations, and the other looks at some of the ridiculous regulation these companies have squeezed through and think the whole system is to blame. Making them anti regulation against their own interest. I don’t blame them necessarily."

"I saw a lady in Idaho who had to get rid of her 2 cows or stop selling commercially bc large corporate farms lobbied to put in place a regulation that requires anyone with 2 or more cows have a specialized watering area that was extremely expensive. It’s not necessary, serves no benefit to the customer, the big guys can afford it, she couldn’t."

"All it did was put people like her out. And let’s be honest, the produce you could get from her small farm was probably leaps and bounds better in quality than what these big operations are producing."

"The tool needs to be taken back by getting money out of politics. That way regulations can’t be influenced by the entity being regulated. Make oligarch money obsolete."

– chronobahn

With so many vendors selling their wares in a crowded market, it's tough to tell which ones are the most effective for your needs.

Every company will insist theirs is the best product available or the most affordable, but don't be fooled by those convincing tactics.

The best sales pitch will always be the recommendation from family and friends.

Happy shopping!