How Can I Get My Mom Off QVC?

My mom has been a long time QVC addict. She is on a fixed income and will buy Omaha steaks from QVC rather than pay her utilities. But hey, she has it under control. She limits herself to 5 easypays at a time.
Today she got a check for $8000, and I shudder to think of the freaking Diamonique she will order before she bothers to pay past due bills.
 
I have a friend that is totally hooked on QVC, she is retired and her husband is wondering if he will be able to retire as well. Of course my addiction is free, its called the disboards. If they ever start charging me to log into this place, I'll be working until I'm 90.
 
I have a friend that is totally hooked on QVC, she is retired and her husband is wondering if he will be able to retire as well.

That's sad. Maybe he can take the credit cards away before this shopping addiction totally destroys their retirement future. I wonder if the husband can call QVC and put a limit or even a stop on the account. I'll bet QVC has had to deal with these type of situations before.
 
MY MIL loved HSN and QVC. She would buy everyday, and was on the air, etc.

After she passed away, she was getting UPS deliveries to the house. It was unnerving. Yes, she ordered almost all the way up to her death.

We found all kinds of boxes in her house, most of them unopened. We wound up returning most of them and the account was cancelled.

She lived alone as well, and she never truly got the knack of internet ordering. (I shudder to think about her and Ebay!). It was gratification for her.
 

Everyone one of us struggles with some type of addiction. It really is a measure of how successful we are in this lifetime. IMO If we overcome the addiction and do not move on to another one we are doing well.
 
Please add my mom to the list. She has stuff she doesn't even know she ordered. And heaven forbid if they "upgrade" an item. If the new one is better she has to have it. (That's another way they "get" you.) How does one woman, who doesn't really cook, need 3 toaster/convection ovens, umpteen crockpots etc?

It's like Christmas when I visit cause I just bring home what I need. If only we wore the same size clothes....
 
Can't you just block the channel(s) on her TV like you do when you don't want your kids watching something? Seems like an easy fix (temporary, but it would give you time to think).

Sounds like all these "hooked on QVC" moms need non-TV related hobbies! It kind of sounds like they're using the QVC people to fill some need of having someone to talk to and something to look forward to. Is there a community group, church group .... something else to do to keep the TV off? Are they lonely? I'd say "Introduce them to the Internet", but then they'd just start buying off eBay!

:earsboy:
 
/
Everyone one of us struggles with some type of addiction. It really is a measure of how successful we are in this lifetime. IMO If we overcome the addiction and do not move on to another one we are doing well.

True. :thumbsup2

It's all too easy to buy from QVC and HSN occasionally or a part of a passing phase. But all too quickly it sometimes moves into a full blown addiction. It's truely scary. There's a reason those hosts are put on the air; they're very very good at selling and convincing you that you need a certain item. You wonder how you ever lived without it!
 
Have you tried an intervention? Seriously -- gather the piles and piles of stuff in the living room, pick them up 1 by 1, and say "this is a SICKNESS. This has to STOP. Look at yourself!"

Or have frequent yardsales, I guess, and set aside the money for when you're supporting them because they've blown every cent they ever had.
 
Have you tried an intervention? Seriously -- gather the piles and piles of stuff in the living room, pick them up 1 by 1, and say "this is a SICKNESS. This has to STOP. Look at yourself!"

Or have frequent yardsales, I guess, and set aside the money for when you're supporting them because they've blown every cent they ever had.

A bit off topic but I'll never forget a woman I started talking to at the big Sorcerer's Hat pin shop at MGM. She was a rabid, oops I mean avid, pin trader and she said that she never would have dreamed that she'd be spending all her retirement money on pins.:scared1: :scared1: :scared1:

I hope I never get that extreme on anything. :sad2:
 
I think I may have you all beat...my step mom! She's about 47-48 had a brain annuerism (sp?) about 9 years ago. Luckily she survived, but she has NO short term memory and is addicted to HSN and QVC. My dad is ready to kill her. She calls and orders things and doesn't remember that she's done it. She also signs up for their extended pay plans where they auto-debit your checking account(and doesn't remember if she doesn't write it down...). Right before Christmas my dad came home to 6 boxes of the same ornaments ordered from HSN. He also told me he paid the mortgage for December and she had scheduled 5 different auto debits which cause the mortgage check to bounce :scared1:

He can't figure out how to control it. He took the check book and debit cards away from her, but they have everything saved in their system at HSN, so she's still ordering. She also orders all of these off brand electronics that never work. SHe "surprised" my dad with a digital camera last year and the entire manual was in Chinese and we couldn't figure out how to turn it off lol.
 
He can't figure out how to control it. He took the check book and debit cards away from her, but they have everything saved in their system at HSN, so she's still ordering.

Easy, close the accounts at HSN and QVC. With no check book or debit/credit cards she can't open a new account.

He can also block the site from their computer, and either drop cable or have the channel blocked.
 
I had the same problem with my wife, only I didn't know about it until it was too late. She bought over a hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry on QVC, hid it, and opened up credit card accounts that I did not know about. When I found out, I left her, but she's going to end up keeping everything and I'm going to be paying off the debt for the rest of my life.
 
Wow. This was an eye-opening thread.

I agree with the other posters, generally: don't just hide credit cards, cancel. Call QVC, etc, and tell them that this person has an organic mental disorder and they are not to take any more orders.

Indeed, if my wife was doing this (due to organic personality change) I would go to probate court and get guardianship, having her declared mentally incapable of responsibly handling finances (your state laws will vary).

My thoughts are with you all.
 
Have you tried an intervention? Seriously -- gather the piles and piles of stuff in the living room, pick them up 1 by 1, and say "this is a SICKNESS. This has to STOP. Look at yourself!"

Or have frequent yardsales, I guess, and set aside the money for when you're supporting them because they've blown every cent they ever had.


i know a family who did this. the husband was a major start trek fan and purchased anything that came on the market. every month he purchased dozens of books, plates, figurines...it was close to $1000 per month for years.
his attitude was that so long as he could provide for his family on a monthly basis there was nothing wrong with it-his family pointed out that he was not looking at the long term implications of providing for them, and that he was not purchasing them for the purpose of enjoying them, just for the purpose of purchasing.

it was not a plesant situation but he did come to reccognize that the time he spent spending the money could be spent doing other things. in his case i think he was looking for something to do and just channeled it into his shopping-and it also gave him a topic of conversation and a 'friend' base (the shop keepers).
 
My ex-BIL is addicted to video games. He had to have every new game console they came out with. Thank goodness my Dsis has a good paying job. She supported the family and he wasted his entire income plus the income he made working in the part time job at EB Games. And his regular job made him about $75k a year! All that money wasted on games. :scared1: Anyway, they are divorced now and thanks to his 2 jobs he owes my Dsis alot in child support. This is the most money she's had ever!! She had never gotten a dime from him the entire time they were married. And he keeps complaining telling her how she supported them before, she should continue to do so now! :rotfl2: My Dsis just keeps telling him to complain to the judge.

Good luck with the QVC addictions. My DH goes through phases but fortunately he only orders things that we need!
 

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