Sunday, August 14, 2005
Give Me TV or Give Me Death!
Where was I? I'm too lazy to go back and check, but I believe I was talking about getting rid of my old TV and deciding we needed a new one.
So, given the dimensions of the room, it seemed to us that a flat-screen TV would be necessary. I wanted a sizeable, clean picture, and figured that plasmas and LCDs had come down enough in price to make them worth investigating.
We went to Best Buy on three consecutive weekends. Now, I realize that Best Buy is not the place to go to find advice from knowledgeable people, but it is a good place to go to judge the aesthetics of TVs and compare them in person. As it turned out, we ran into a woman who actually was moderately intelligent with regard to TVs, and didn't seem too saleswoman-like. She actually seemed eager to help, unlike most Best Buy employees, who appear burdened by having to deal with customers.
She, of course, pointed us to one of the most expensive TVs they had, a 50" Phillips. I was leaning towards a 50", while Sam wanted a 42", but I believe that was because she was traumatized by the size of my previous television. I figured I was willing to get a smaller screen, but not THAT much smaller. I asked her if they were willing to negotiate prices, and she said they probably would be willing to if we got some sort of a package deal.
We went home and I did some research. One of the best-reviewed TVs was a 50" Panasonic, and I did some comparison shopping. I had never really thought Panasonic was that good a brand, but it turned out that it had gotten rave reviews. Plus, I looked around, and it was pretty reasonably priced, at least compared to some of the other brands (Sony, Phillips, Pioneer, etc.)
So, on the second trip, we returned to Best Buy and hunted our salesgirl down. I told her that I had found the TV online for about $1000 less than they were advertising it in the store, and that if they could match the price, I'd consider getting it there. She went to her manager, and they said they could go about $500 less, with free delivery, but that was about it. And, I'd have to take it right then. Well, we weren't prepared to do that, so we thanked her and left.
We stopped at Circuit City, but it was basically the same selection. There were even less salespeople around to help, and the didn't seem to really be interested in keeping the store clean. Once again, we postponed our purchase, figuring we could always order it online.
Finally, we decided we were ready to make the purchase. I did some intense comparison shopping, as prices seemed to fluctuate from day to do. I also wanted to make sure we ordered from a reputable company that would give us a service plan. As it turned out, there were only a couple decent sites that would ship us the TV, and give us a service plan for less than the total cost at Best Buy. I selected one of them, and even with shipping, I would save a few hundred bucks over what Best Buy would do.
I went ahead and placed the order, and had a weird time checking out on the internet site. The instructions conflicted a bit, giving me one shipping option for free, but also having a disclaimer that certain types of TVs needed to be shipping by some other method. Of course, I figured that if the free shipping option wasn't available on the TV I had chosen, it wouldn't pop up as selectable. Silly me. And, by the way, when you're shipping a 50" TV (yes, I won that debate), we're talking at least a couple hundred dollars in shipping, so it was significant.
I placed the order, with the total cost around what I had planned. But then I got an email from the company, first asking me to call the credit card company so the charge would go through (that was easy - they're always eager to help you spend money as long as it's not going to bite them in the butt later because it's fraudulent), and then informing me that the shipping charge would be about three hundred dollars more than what I selected online. They were friendly about it, but it was frustrating, because the comparison shopping site had gotten things all wrong, and now it turned out that Best Buy was probably comparable. (Actually, Best Buy would still be a bit more expensive, because I'd have to pay tax, but there's something comforting about knowing there's always a Best Buy down the street to hold accountable, instead of some phantom store in New York City, despite their good CNET rating. I figure that comfort's worth around a hundred bucks, maybe more. Plus, I wouldn't have to wait.)
At that point, I gave up ordering online, and resigned myself to Best Buy. Over the weekend, we went to Best Buy, but it turned out the friendly salesgirl was on vacation (despite her saying that she "lived" at the store, and would be around), so we tracked someone else down. The fact that we had to go find someone that would allow us to spend our money there should have been a sign. Clearly, they weren't that interested in our business. We asked the guy we found if we could have a similar deal, and he went to ask his manager, but they would have none of it. I went to the manager directly, but the best they could do was 10% off, which really wasn't close to the price we found online. Furthermore, it wasn't like they were even doing anything special - you can find 10% off Best Buy coupons everywhere you look. We said "screw it" and walked out the door.
Later in the week, I stopped by Circuit City. This time, there was a salesman on hand. I told him the whole story, about the price I was able to get online, and asked if they could come close. He talked to his manager, and actually they were willing to come closer. After all was said and done, they'd give me a 5-year service plan and only be a total of two hundred bucks over the internet price I found, including tax. Not a bad deal. But the kicker was that if I signed up for a Circuit City credit card at the time, I could use it, and get 5% of the purchase price back in coupons to use later. Since we knew we'd want to buy a TV stand, this would work out well. We were sold.
I filled out the credit card application, and waited for it to go through. We had a deal! Now, all we had to do was get the darn thing home. We had moved a 65", 323-pound television. This was less than 100 pounds! How hard could it be?
To be continued...
So, given the dimensions of the room, it seemed to us that a flat-screen TV would be necessary. I wanted a sizeable, clean picture, and figured that plasmas and LCDs had come down enough in price to make them worth investigating.
We went to Best Buy on three consecutive weekends. Now, I realize that Best Buy is not the place to go to find advice from knowledgeable people, but it is a good place to go to judge the aesthetics of TVs and compare them in person. As it turned out, we ran into a woman who actually was moderately intelligent with regard to TVs, and didn't seem too saleswoman-like. She actually seemed eager to help, unlike most Best Buy employees, who appear burdened by having to deal with customers.
She, of course, pointed us to one of the most expensive TVs they had, a 50" Phillips. I was leaning towards a 50", while Sam wanted a 42", but I believe that was because she was traumatized by the size of my previous television. I figured I was willing to get a smaller screen, but not THAT much smaller. I asked her if they were willing to negotiate prices, and she said they probably would be willing to if we got some sort of a package deal.
We went home and I did some research. One of the best-reviewed TVs was a 50" Panasonic, and I did some comparison shopping. I had never really thought Panasonic was that good a brand, but it turned out that it had gotten rave reviews. Plus, I looked around, and it was pretty reasonably priced, at least compared to some of the other brands (Sony, Phillips, Pioneer, etc.)
So, on the second trip, we returned to Best Buy and hunted our salesgirl down. I told her that I had found the TV online for about $1000 less than they were advertising it in the store, and that if they could match the price, I'd consider getting it there. She went to her manager, and they said they could go about $500 less, with free delivery, but that was about it. And, I'd have to take it right then. Well, we weren't prepared to do that, so we thanked her and left.
We stopped at Circuit City, but it was basically the same selection. There were even less salespeople around to help, and the didn't seem to really be interested in keeping the store clean. Once again, we postponed our purchase, figuring we could always order it online.
Finally, we decided we were ready to make the purchase. I did some intense comparison shopping, as prices seemed to fluctuate from day to do. I also wanted to make sure we ordered from a reputable company that would give us a service plan. As it turned out, there were only a couple decent sites that would ship us the TV, and give us a service plan for less than the total cost at Best Buy. I selected one of them, and even with shipping, I would save a few hundred bucks over what Best Buy would do.
I went ahead and placed the order, and had a weird time checking out on the internet site. The instructions conflicted a bit, giving me one shipping option for free, but also having a disclaimer that certain types of TVs needed to be shipping by some other method. Of course, I figured that if the free shipping option wasn't available on the TV I had chosen, it wouldn't pop up as selectable. Silly me. And, by the way, when you're shipping a 50" TV (yes, I won that debate), we're talking at least a couple hundred dollars in shipping, so it was significant.
I placed the order, with the total cost around what I had planned. But then I got an email from the company, first asking me to call the credit card company so the charge would go through (that was easy - they're always eager to help you spend money as long as it's not going to bite them in the butt later because it's fraudulent), and then informing me that the shipping charge would be about three hundred dollars more than what I selected online. They were friendly about it, but it was frustrating, because the comparison shopping site had gotten things all wrong, and now it turned out that Best Buy was probably comparable. (Actually, Best Buy would still be a bit more expensive, because I'd have to pay tax, but there's something comforting about knowing there's always a Best Buy down the street to hold accountable, instead of some phantom store in New York City, despite their good CNET rating. I figure that comfort's worth around a hundred bucks, maybe more. Plus, I wouldn't have to wait.)
At that point, I gave up ordering online, and resigned myself to Best Buy. Over the weekend, we went to Best Buy, but it turned out the friendly salesgirl was on vacation (despite her saying that she "lived" at the store, and would be around), so we tracked someone else down. The fact that we had to go find someone that would allow us to spend our money there should have been a sign. Clearly, they weren't that interested in our business. We asked the guy we found if we could have a similar deal, and he went to ask his manager, but they would have none of it. I went to the manager directly, but the best they could do was 10% off, which really wasn't close to the price we found online. Furthermore, it wasn't like they were even doing anything special - you can find 10% off Best Buy coupons everywhere you look. We said "screw it" and walked out the door.
Later in the week, I stopped by Circuit City. This time, there was a salesman on hand. I told him the whole story, about the price I was able to get online, and asked if they could come close. He talked to his manager, and actually they were willing to come closer. After all was said and done, they'd give me a 5-year service plan and only be a total of two hundred bucks over the internet price I found, including tax. Not a bad deal. But the kicker was that if I signed up for a Circuit City credit card at the time, I could use it, and get 5% of the purchase price back in coupons to use later. Since we knew we'd want to buy a TV stand, this would work out well. We were sold.
I filled out the credit card application, and waited for it to go through. We had a deal! Now, all we had to do was get the darn thing home. We had moved a 65", 323-pound television. This was less than 100 pounds! How hard could it be?
To be continued...
Comments:
"...Sam wanted a 42", but I believe that was because she was traumatized by the size of my previous television"
That was very, very funny. Made me laugh out loud.
Good call on the 50". For the record, that's what you should have bought the first time, you fool.
Does it have the 2 features I demanded of it, namely the ability to watch non-stretched shows 100% of the time, and good off-center viewing? If not, return it immediately.
-Shear
That was very, very funny. Made me laugh out loud.
Good call on the 50". For the record, that's what you should have bought the first time, you fool.
Does it have the 2 features I demanded of it, namely the ability to watch non-stretched shows 100% of the time, and good off-center viewing? If not, return it immediately.
-Shear
# posted by 
: August 15, 2005 at 12:28 AM
: August 15, 2005 at 12:28 AM
Back when I bought my first television, plasmas were much more expensive - I probably would have paid 2-3 times as much. Given that the one I bought fit nicely into the house I had at the time, I think it was a good decision.
Every TV allows you to watch non-stretched shows 100% of the time. In fact, this TV has the best limited-distortion streching I've ever seen - you know, where it zooms into the center of the picture and stretches the sizes? Somehow, it hardly looks stretched. But, once again, I don't mind the stretching.
I know you think that off-center viewing should be standard on every TV, but it's not. It's much harder to find a TV with that feature than you'd think, although I'd like it. However, if I did care about stretching, it wouldn't be a problem - the loss plan also covers burn-in.
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Every TV allows you to watch non-stretched shows 100% of the time. In fact, this TV has the best limited-distortion streching I've ever seen - you know, where it zooms into the center of the picture and stretches the sizes? Somehow, it hardly looks stretched. But, once again, I don't mind the stretching.
I know you think that off-center viewing should be standard on every TV, but it's not. It's much harder to find a TV with that feature than you'd think, although I'd like it. However, if I did care about stretching, it wouldn't be a problem - the loss plan also covers burn-in.
