Jody, try polishing something that's dirty. It might work better for you.
Honestly, it works pretty decent. You do have to follow the directions though. I tested it on one of my Cragar Superlite II wheels that are currently on the Camaro. They are dirty as all hell. Well, three of them are. I used Windex to clean up the wheel first. Did ok, but not good. I then used the small powerball on it. It worked pretty good. There are some deep stains in there still, but most of it cleaned up. Work the thing back and forth, and if it's not clean enough for you after one application, try it again. A variable speed drill works great. I'd recommend the small version.