A Slightly Fictionalized Serial Saga Of the Horrifying Complexity of Purchasing A Plasma TV
This is going to be posted over three posts as I don’t want to make anyone suffer through reading the grotesque length of this dismaying tale of how I love my buddy but hate his masochism.
It all started on a sun drenched day with a promise of being one of those low humidity, slightly warm fall days you wait for all year. When suddenly the phone rang, a little voice said, “don’t answer, don’t answer,” but much to my eventual dismay, I did.
George wanted my advice. An astute individual with a good heart and low technical skills, George always seeks my advice regarding any tech purchases. He even reads this blog!
I’ll save you a lot of reading right now. If you are considering purchasing a big screen TV on the web, you may wish to reconsider unless you have severe masochistic tendencies. There is no need to read the tawdry tale that follows unless you too, are masochistic.
My buddy George asked me for advice on a big screen purchase. Since I know Peter Putman , the renowned HDTV expert personally, I called him for advice. Pete told me definitely go 1080p and recommended plasma as all of the past negatives of plasma have been corrected and it is a better picture than LCD. He also suggested that the LED TVs are grossly overpriced. We did not discuss 3-D. My recollection is that he thought Samsung, LG and Panasonic products were all fine but he may have mentioned more.
I got together with George over an inexpensive box of Cabernet and we discussed TVs. We also discussed the Phillies, the Steelers and the Eagles but our purpose was TVs. I have discovered that copious quantities of Cabernet do tend to broaden the topic field though.
George decided on either a Samsung or an LG. He found the best price at Amazon on the LG 50PK550. Through a variety of humorous (my word, not his) setbacks in trying to use the Discover Card secure number software and both Amazon and Discover blaming the other for the process not working, he canceled the TV. He canceled the TV because at that point the Amazon online system would not accept any credit card for that order. Everyone at Discover and Amazon were very polite and both considered the other at fault.
George, learning from his mistake, then called a local TV dealer and got the TV. Don’t I wish! George had planned on reordering the TV from the same vendor but in a search of Amazon, he found a better deal from another vendor. Did I mention George’s masochistic tendencies? He ordered the TV and his credit card(Visa not Discover) went through. He thought he was done. Hah! We killed a whole 3 liter box of Cabernet through this saga. If you truly are interested in the rest of the tale, tune back into The Days of Tomorrow or Money Saving Tech Tips, your choice.
Comments