The main complaint of people who purchase merchandise through a TV shopping channel is the quality of the merchandise, says the September issue of Consumer Reports. The magazine says 8 percent of its readers made a purchase through TV shopping channels during the year prior to its survey. Nearly one in five said the merchandise looked better on TV than it did when they had it in hand.

Problems they encountered included getting through on the phone; out-of-stock merchandise; and items that arrived damaged or broken.The two major rivals in TV home shopping are the Home Shopping Network, which airs "Home Shopping Club" on regular and cable TV; and QVC, a cable network.

If you buy from Home Shopping Network, you must make the purchase while the item is still on the air. If you buy from QVC, you can buy anytime. The company sends you a printed schedule of the types of merchandise that will be sold.

Magazine readers who responded to the survey had fewer problems with QVC than Home Shopping Network.

The magazine advises anyone who shops by cable TV to:

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- Pay attention to to shipping and handling charges. They can be significant. QVC lists them on the screen. You must ask for them from Home Shopping Network.

- Take the list prices with which the price of the TV merchandise is compared with a boulder, not grain, of salt. Two years ago the New York State attorney general checked on 150 items Home Shopping Network was offering and found that prices had been adequately documented for less than one-third of the 150 items.

Both shopping networks say they use retail surveys or traditional markups when a manufacturer doesn't specifically give a list price.

Last year home shopping viewers spent $2.3 billion on merchandise. Items ranged from cubic zirconium jewelry to porcelain figurines, sportswear and camcorders.

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