Worry Angels: symbolic of what was shambolic about Bid/Pricedrop

Really, Mike Mason's justification and spiel about loneliness and talking about 'problems' to sell his tat to vulnerable people is worthy of a Romford market stall. An utter disgrace of a shopping channel hosted by presenters who would sell their Grannies and steal candies from kids if they had the opportunity.

In the very unlikely event that anyone has any sympathy for Mike Mason then i'm guessing it was all but extinguished when they watched that video.

It's behaviour like this that all those Sit-Up cheerleaders seem to so conveniently forget. But it's also behaviour like this that almost certainly contributed to their demise.

So take a bow Gollum, there can surely be no doubt that you played a pivotal role in Sit-Up's inevitable collapse.

Criticising people for saying he's preying on the vulnerable while he preys on the vulnerable. Beyond parody. That said, nobody can top Peter Simon, the Grandmaster of the Worry Angels. He takes (sorry, took) it to a whole new stratosphere of bizarreness.

Try clicking the YouTube button (bottom right-hand corner) to watch the same video on the YouTube website; you may get fewer/no ads doing it that way.

Certainly the introduction of the worry angels - firstly as a wearable good luck charm (I think) - signified a point when things started to go all wrong for them, and when they were stripped of cash reserves their viewers were at that point watching them more for the car crash factor as opposed to loyal buyers. The Shop at Bid launch was too little too late to restore their busted reputation (if it happened in 2009 it might just have worked), and "What were they thinking?" new-format Price Drop was a suicide run into unprofitable oblivion. (Again, having a hidden reserve price might work for the occasional speed auction but certainly not all the time. There's a good reason why that sort of thing hadn't been done on television before!)

Mason's TV career has been one unremitting stream of bullshit from beginning to end. I remember the faces he used to pull when he revealed the ludicrously obscure answers time and time again on that cheapjack quiz channel that used to employ him. Only a pathetic little chancer like him could have the gall to repeatedly rip off the unwitting punters and do it with a smile.

For me, it was the comments that Peter Simon used to come out with occasionally when selling handbags. He used to say that people in the office were convinced that the bag was a Mulberry. They were nothing like Mulberry (which can cost over one thousand pounds). That was utterly misleading to people who didn't know brands. The good thing is that comments like this stopped a while ago which is an indication that he was wrong to say that and was stopped.

Goodluckifyageddit said:

Mason's TV career has been one unremitting stream of bullshit from beginning to end. I remember the faces he used to pull when he revealed the ludicrously obscure answers time and time again on that cheapjack quiz channel that used to employ him. Only a pathetic little chancer like him could have the gall to repeatedly rip off the unwitting punters and do it with a smile.

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I don't think i'm being unfair when I say he dosen't have the most illustrious of CV's does he?

iBuy - Suspiciously similar to the morally and financially bankrupt Auction-World
QuizCall - Hammered by MP's and Regulators for shystering and eventually pulled off air
Sit-Up - Hammered by Regulators for shystering and eventually closed down

Wirral70 said:

I don't think i'm being unfair when I say he dosen't have the most illustrious of CV's does he?

iBuy - Suspiciously similar to the morally and financially bankrupt Auction-World
QuizCall - Hammered by MP's and Regulators for shystering and eventually pulled off air
Sit-Up - Hammered by Regulators for shystering and eventually closed down

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but did the regulators truly help to shut them down.... if bid had the money, they would still be on air I suspect.

mr tom said:

but did the regulators truly help to shut them down.... if bid had the money, they would still be on air I suspect.

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Oh no I wasn't suggesting that Mr Tom but merely that the ASA weren't exactly showering them with praise on the day they referred them to Ofcom and that later on they were shut down.

I have no doubt the reason they closed was purely financial but their behaviour and appalling reputation surely contributed to their financial mire.

To me, only this type of show would employ Mike Mason. No reputable channel would let him over the threshold.

Wirral70 said:

Oh no I wasn't suggesting that Mr Tom but merely that the ASA weren't exactly showering them with praise on the day they referred them to Ofcom and that later on they were shut down.

I have no doubt the reason they closed was purely financial but their behaviour and appalling reputation surely contributed to their financial mire.

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Fair enough, I mis-read, my mistake sir.

I didn't watch Bid or Price Drop for the longest time; I only started watching after discovering this forum.

When I read people joking about "worry angels", I thought it was just that, a joke. I assumed people were massively exaggerating.

I assumed it might have been some plastic garden figure and they might have occasionally mentioned that people liked angels or something.


The shock I had when I saw them presented for the first time myself.
Beyond ****** words, the video posted does all the talking. I'm not going as far as to say Mason is a bad person, but they were pretty disgusting presentations, for obvious reasons.

For me that short clip perfectly sums up why the channels closed down yesterday.

I think that was recorded when the channels were at their very worst. I genuinely do not think that they could ever have recovered from the damage that was done to their reputation during that 2-3 year period. It was the period of 'Debenhams', 'gold, gold, gold', 'you can buy 9 of these for just £9 in one call', 'opals' that were just triplets and all manner of other disingenuous claptrap, and much worse.

Nobody could honestly say that they didn't improve because they did but I don't think it was ever done with any real desire to be honest, I always got the impression it was because they got caught.

But I guess it didn't help that the 'mistakes' continued, to the bitter end.

Wirral70 said:

For me that short clip perfectly sums up why the channels closed down yesterday.

I think that was recorded when the channels were at their very worst. I genuinely do not think that they could ever have recovered from the damage that was done to their reputation during that 2-3 year period. It was the period of 'Debenhams', 'gold, gold, gold', 'you can buy 9 of these for just £9 in one call', 'opals' that were just triplets and all manner of other disingenuous claptrap, and much worse.

Nobody could honestly say that they didn't improve because they did but I don't think it was ever done with any real desire to be honest, I always got the impression it was because they got caught.



But I guess it didn't help that the 'mistakes' continued, to the bitter end.

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Good God, I don't know how I missed this clip...just watched it!!! Hey Mike perhaps you could talk to the "Money" one!!!!! - What comes around etc!!! ...and don't worry if you feel a bit silly Mike, not everybody can afford counselling - You've got nothing to lose, apart from your dignity of course - but in your case, I think that bird's long flown!!

merryone said:

Good God, I don't know how I missed this clip...just watched it!!! Hey Mike perhaps you could talk to the "Money" one!!!!! - What comes around etc!!! ...and don't worry if you feel a bit silly Mike, not everybody can afford counselling - You've got nothing to lose, apart from your dignity of course - but in your case, I think that bird's long flown!!

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What goes around always comes around. I'd very much welcome some of those people on 'his' facebook page who seem to hate this forum to watch that sale and comment.

But somehow Merry I doubt they will.

Wirral70 said:

For me that short clip perfectly sums up why the channels closed down yesterday.

I think that was recorded when the channels were at their very worst. I genuinely do not think that they could ever have recovered from the damage that was done to their reputation during that 2-3 year period. It was the period of 'Debenhams', 'gold, gold, gold', 'you can buy 9 of these for just £9 in one call', 'opals' that were just triplets and all manner of other disingenuous claptrap, and much worse.




Nobody could honestly say that they didn't improve because they did but I don't think it was ever done with any real desire to be honest, I always got the impression it was because they got caught.

But I guess it didn't help that the 'mistakes' continued, to the bitter end.

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That sums it up really. You could multi buy 9 items at a time, but even if the products cost a pound, you had to pay £7.99 for each item to be delivered! The ridiculous claims about Thomas Earnshaw, Ingersoll, who could forget James Russell talking about Balmain couture gowns when selling a ballpoint pen! I have a Balmain pen. A rep gave it to me at work. The box clearly states 'made in China!' They didn't change because they wanted toas you said, they were told to, therein lies the difference. The worst offenders have only themselves to blame, they should be ashamed.

Just watched that clip! Was that a spoof? Wonder if his lady/goddess has seen it? What a plank he is! If I were her, I'd run. Run and never look back. I'd rather open my car door myself......

Their inevitable demise was down to three simple things:

1. Too much repetition of products. Once you've bought a whizzy mop or a steam cleaner, why would you want another? There's only so many times they can appear on air before: a) people already have one and therefore won't be buying, or: b) those that haven't got one don't want them - and therefore won't be buying either. By the 50th time they've been on air, people are not interested. If they were, they'd have bought them first, second or third time around.......

2. They were found out. Their customer base got sick of all the over-exaggeration and false information used to sell goods - for example, claiming a watch was Swiss when it was made in China, or claiming that a £20 unbranded alarm set can save "hundreds" on your insurance. Insurance companies only offer discounts when certain types and brands of locks are fitted that are proven to improve security. They don't give discounts on any old cheap locks and alarms.

3. Probably the biggest killer for them was high prices followed by extortionate P&P prices and slow deliveries. Why would I pay £35 plus a £1.50 phone call plus £7.99 delivery for a car fault code reader (and wait 14 working days - or three weeks in real terms) when I can buy the same, identical, product from Amazon for £20 plus free 2nd class delivery (3-5 days).

I notice Lisa Brash said that the postage prices were higher because the products were often lowered in price. Now that would have made sense, and was probably true 4-5 years ago - but that hasn't been the case recently (see my point above). Both the prices and P&P were high - plus you had to pay a premium rate number to buy!

They simply didn't keep up with the times. 10 years ago, they offered a niche service - a fun, novelty, telly sales channel - that offered, on occasions, good quality, branded products at a reasonable price. Delivery was 7 days (which is tolerable) - and internet ordering was only just taking off. They were reasonably competitive - and they did appeal to a certain clientèle (the elderly, disabled/housebound and those that, generally, didn't mind paying a little extra simply because they liked the channel and the laughs that genuine but funny hosts like Andy Oliver and Richard Hardwick would provide. It kind of made you want to buy just because it was fun). Back then, they could shift quantities of 200 in less than a minute.

More recently, they've been selling unbranded, every day products (Shampoo! Fake Tan! Glue!), that you can pick up from your local Pound shop or cheapo home store such as Wilko or B&M at a fraction of the price and without the £8 postage - or branded products such as Tefal Fryers that were £40 cheaper at Amazon.

Almost everyone has the internet these days. Either at home, or on their mobile phones. Its easy to look around and find PROPER price comparisons. To compete with the likes of Amazon, etc , they needed to be able to offer products at similar prices, with similar delivery timescales and free postage.

If they couldn't offer that, then at least offer something close - and pull in customers by offering a funny, entertaining, channel that makes people want to spend a bit extra.

In the end, they could offer neither. It was desperate TV. We either had to watch a grown man (Paul Evers) dancing round like a Hyena with diarrhoea - or the boredom of listening to presenters waffling about Worry Angels for 15 minutes - just to struggle to sell a quantity of five. It became embarrassing viewing - and it became watch-able for all the wrong reasons. It was comical for all the wrong reasons - watching a presenter humiliate themselves by hyping up a plastic made-in-Taiwan ornament that couldn't sell. Watching clocks on the screen and locked phone lines and other silly gimmicks to try to make out an item was more popular than it actually was. It made me cringe seeing "Phones Locked" on the screen, and then presenters going on about how "this will fly out" and "gallons of buyers on the phone lines" (as Mike Mason would say - even though gallons are liquid measures....) - only to see a quantity of 5 still showing a quantity of 5 some ten minutes later. It was embarrassing.