Fancy a Gamble?

The Luminox Lxdfi4030 Digital Photo Scanner, described by one unhappy customer as "not a scanner, more of a webcam in a box." (see the review at the bottom of that link to its Amazon page.)

When products break, you get them fixed. But what happens when they're just useless? Isn't there some sort of trade description act? Or do we just write it off as wasted money? In most cases I do the latter, because in most cases it does do what it says it would do, it just does it badly.

You can do as much background research as you like with the information available about that product, but without that independent third party - whether that's from a friend or a product review - you can never really be sure of what you're buying. You can even be reasonably sure that a sales assistant in a reputable store won't sell you a heap of crap - sure, they may not sell you the best product for your needs, but it's unlikely to be a total dud.

In this Amazon review, the guy states "a good hint of if a product is good is that you'll have press reviews. I see none."

He's right. I've spoken to enough review editors to know that they will rarely even include a total dud product in a round-up. So if a product even has a review, it got past the first hurdle. Of course there is also an element of PR people pulling in favours, but we can't turn water into wine and a reviewer won't lie - for starters, just think of the complaint letters from readers.

So the Luminox does copy an image: "it is like a webcam in a shell that has a window at the far end of the box, this allows light in. You then put your photo in the frame and 'scan' it in." It just also happens to be "unreliable and probably the poorest image type product on the market today."

So that's £80 down the drain.

At least he remains undefeated, and has found a use for his Luminox, deciding to "convert it into a litter tray for small cats."

Let that be a lesson to us all - never buy a new toy without reading a review first.

As for how these products ever make it to market...well that's a post for another time.