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So you’ve all seen the Shamwow commercials, right? Well, if you haven’t, watch this one below. Note, Shamwow is different than Zorbeez, chamois, and shammy.
I’ve always thought that these would be good products. Why? Because they’re made in Germany… NOT! I have seen this guy in person. It was years ago at the local Expo (carnival rides, expensive food, mud volleyball, and lots of people trying to sell their stuff). This guy did everything right in front of me that he does on the commercial. He wiped up water with little effort. He soaked up a tray full of water with one Shamwow towel. He even soaked up soda right from a piece of carpet, and it actually pulled the soda from underneath the carpet. He wiped up spills and messes and did it all with a wet Shamwow towel.
I could just rely on my memory to serve me well, but I thought I would do some research before purchasing this product. So, I visited my trusted friend the Internet. My friend burned me. He burned me good. Almost every comment on all the Infomercial, consumer report, and other complainy consumer websites was negative. The Shamwow was not looking too good at this point. There were so many negative comments, it made the positive comments sound like ads placed by company gophers.
Even though there were so many negative comments, I did find a sliver of light shine my way. Something that hit me was the realization that many of these people might not be talking about the same product. Maybe they did not buy official ShamWow products… or maybe they were just talking about some other type of shammy towel. Something else I noticed was all the people who were completely honest about their use of the ShamWow towels. They gave the good and the bad they found about the towels. The last bit of light which shined upon my face was the people who said these complainers obviously did not read the instructions. Instructions? For a towel?
These people were saying the instructions which came with their ShamWows said to soak the towel in water and wring it out a few times. The exact procedure differed from person to person. Some said you just need to soak it in warm water. Another said it should be warm water first, then soapy water. The third derivation was warm water, then a solution of 5 cups of water to 1 cup of vinegar. All of these include wringing between soakings. So if you really have to do this, why don’t they tell you? Oh, of course, these are instructions that you have to read when you open the product box. So… where are my instructions?
I ordered some ShamWows from the “Official” website. I got the 4 big, orange towels and the 4 smaller, blue towels. This cost me a total of $27.90. They said it would take 3 to 4 weeks for delivery, but it was really more like 1 week and some change. So that’s already a plus in my book. They came all the way from Wallingford Connecticut. However, they did not come in a box of any kind. They were just placed into the shipping bag with the “warranty.” (the “warranty” being a little pink piece of paper with instructions on one side and the terms of the warranty on the other side) These instructions were only on what to use the ShamWow towels for. I found nothing saying they need to be soaked in warm, soapy, or vinegar water. I did however notice that the instructions say the towel should already be damp for most dryings. It also said in order to clean pet stains out of a carpet you should add vinegar and water to the carpet stain. So I am finding some truth in the commentors comments. But we all know there’s only one way to really tell.
We have to test it. And I’m not going to simply throw water around and see how much the ShamWow can pick up. I am going to test paper towels, cotton dish towels, cotton bath towels, microfiber towels, dry ShamWow, wet ShamWow, ShamWow pre-soaked in soapy water, and ShamWow pre-soaked in vinegar water. Stay tuned to see the results. Till then, check out the places I have visited on the web. Just be warry of what you read and where you read it.
Links
http://www.infomercialratings.com/product/shamwow_reviews
http://www.measuredup.com/company/Shamwow-3117
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/shamwow-c64659.html
http://www.fox16.com/mostpopular/story/Deal-or-Dud-Shamwow/7whX5wNRpUKVnCHrlVlWFQ.cspx
Adult Under Construction 