I was over at a friend's house last night watching a Red Sox game (well, Sean was watching the game and we were socializing). This commerical kept coming on for thingswebuy.com. It was a slick guy talking about ThingsWeBuy offering to buy your old watches and jewelry for a good price. You mail them in and they send you a check. An attractive gray haired lady is saying things like: "It was so easy. I just sent in my jewelry and got the check right away. It was a pleasure doing business with such a reputable company!"

In informercials, they say something like "Famous television actress BlahBlahBlah" to introduce someone who isn't really that famous. If people are famous, you don't have to say that they are. If a company is reputable, you shouldn't have to say so either.

I went to the website and found ThingsWeBuy is owned by a larger cooperation called Lippincott, LLC. And since they have a Better Business Bureau ad on their website, I thought I would look up this company's profile on the BBB website. 93 complaints in 36 months. Hmph. To see if that was normal, I looked up a few other companies in my area. Not only did the companies I looked up have a lot less complaints (Hannaford had 3 for example), but all the ones I looked up had a "satisfactory" rating on the top of their page. Lippincott, LLC did not. To be fair, I have no idea how big this company is and the BBB does not evaluate the validity of its complaints. Still though, doing research on this company did not put more at ease with sending jewelry to them. (Not that I would; I'm a personal finance blogger! I have my emergency stash already.)

So are these commericals coming on more often because of the economy or is it just that I haven't had television in awhile? Because if you are pawning your grandma's diamond jewelry or your Rolex you actually couldn't afford to begin with, you've got to need the cash bigtime. One way or the other, a little research into that internet company doesn't hurt and the BBB is a good place to start.

Check out an actual customer experience with this company at ripoffreport.com…
Look up a company at the Better Business Bureau's website…

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