Sooo... y'all might remember that about a month ago my television exploded.
OK, OK... the TV itself didn't actually explode, but something inside of it did. CatMan and I had just finished watching a movie when... BAM! It made a loud exploding sound and the screen went black.
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| Apologies to anyone who's not a fan of The Jetsons! |
Big Mistake.
One month and $650 later, the scam artists repair shop where I took it says it can't be fixed. In fairness, these things can be difficult to repair, but honestly, the deeper I get with these people, the less I want to do business with them.
They offered to either refund half of the money or apply what I've paid toward a new TV from their shop where they would "match the price" of any store in town. But after about a week of frustration trying to get them to give me a price on the model I was interested in - with them insisting that I should just come down to the store to "pick out one that I liked" - it became clear that this was going nowhere.
The kicker came yesterday when they FINALLY called back with a price that was $200 more than the same TV was listed elsewhere... oh, and it would take a few weeks to get it.
Of course, when I went to check the prices at the other stores again, I found out that all of the other stores' sales on this model had conveniently ended the day they finally returned my call with a price quote. I'm sorta guessing they knew more than I did about the schedule of those sale prices, and that's why they stonewalled for a week on getting me a price. Grrrrrr....
That left me with two choices. I could buy the new TV from the people who've been jerking me around for a month, or I could walk away from about $325 and either buy something used off of Craigslist or buy from one of the evil big box stores.
They offered to either refund half of the money or apply what I've paid toward a new TV from their shop where they would "match the price" of any store in town. But after about a week of frustration trying to get them to give me a price on the model I was interested in - with them insisting that I should just come down to the store to "pick out one that I liked" - it became clear that this was going nowhere.
The kicker came yesterday when they FINALLY called back with a price that was $200 more than the same TV was listed elsewhere... oh, and it would take a few weeks to get it.
Of course, when I went to check the prices at the other stores again, I found out that all of the other stores' sales on this model had conveniently ended the day they finally returned my call with a price quote. I'm sorta guessing they knew more than I did about the schedule of those sale prices, and that's why they stonewalled for a week on getting me a price. Grrrrrr....
That left me with two choices. I could buy the new TV from the people who've been jerking me around for a month, or I could walk away from about $325 and either buy something used off of Craigslist or buy from one of the evil big box stores.
After shopping around on Craigslist for a used plasma, I came to the sad conclusion that going used was just not worth it. I mean, most of the TVs up there were at least 4-5 years old. And since plasma TVs apparently don't live very long because of the high voltages needed to make them work, it seemed likely that if I went used, I'd be back in the same place in a few years and honestly, I just don't want to go through this again anytime soon!
Sooo... while it pained me to walk away from $325, I honestly just did NOT want to get in any deeper with those people.
It remains to be seen if they will actually refund the amount they said they would. At this point, it would not surprise me at all if they come up with some reason that they can't honor the refund. CatMan (who has a slightly more devious mind than I do) even suggested that they might not have even tried to fix it, and that the whole thing is just a ruse to get you to buy a new TV from them.
Anyhow, as much as it pained me to do it, I ended up buying a new TV from the big box store. And you know what... it was easy as pie. I walked in, handed them a credit card, they loaded the thing into my car and in a few hours I was up and running and watching my beloved Denver Broncos eek out a victory in a game they should have won handily! (But that's another story.)
So I dunno. I have terribly mixed feelings about this entire experience. On the one hand, I totally believe that people should fix things, and buy used, and support local businesses rather than huge corporations. But when trying to do those things is expensive, horrendously inconvenient, financially risky, and also forces you to contend with somewhat shady characters... well, it makes me understand why people don't choose that option more often.
And while I know that having a giant home-theater sized television is not exactly a necessity - especially in a world where there are millions of people who go to bed hungry every night - I can't say that I blame people for simply plunking their money down at a big box store rather than trying to navigate the nightmare of other options.
I'm not sure what this all says about me or about our society in general, but I do know one thing. If "doing the right thing" requires this level of hassle and frustration, the vast majority of people are just not gonna do it. Period. And it's hard to blame them.
I just don't know how you get people to behave in a more ecologically responsible manner when the personal price of doing it is so high. I suppose if I was a "good greenie" I'd just get rid of the television entirely - but that's a topic for another post.
So tell me. What do you think about this little saga? Would you have stuck it out with the local repair folks? Do you think I'm evil for owning a television? I'd love to hear your thoughts...
Sooo... while it pained me to walk away from $325, I honestly just did NOT want to get in any deeper with those people.
It remains to be seen if they will actually refund the amount they said they would. At this point, it would not surprise me at all if they come up with some reason that they can't honor the refund. CatMan (who has a slightly more devious mind than I do) even suggested that they might not have even tried to fix it, and that the whole thing is just a ruse to get you to buy a new TV from them.
Anyhow, as much as it pained me to do it, I ended up buying a new TV from the big box store. And you know what... it was easy as pie. I walked in, handed them a credit card, they loaded the thing into my car and in a few hours I was up and running and watching my beloved Denver Broncos eek out a victory in a game they should have won handily! (But that's another story.)
So I dunno. I have terribly mixed feelings about this entire experience. On the one hand, I totally believe that people should fix things, and buy used, and support local businesses rather than huge corporations. But when trying to do those things is expensive, horrendously inconvenient, financially risky, and also forces you to contend with somewhat shady characters... well, it makes me understand why people don't choose that option more often.
And while I know that having a giant home-theater sized television is not exactly a necessity - especially in a world where there are millions of people who go to bed hungry every night - I can't say that I blame people for simply plunking their money down at a big box store rather than trying to navigate the nightmare of other options.
I'm not sure what this all says about me or about our society in general, but I do know one thing. If "doing the right thing" requires this level of hassle and frustration, the vast majority of people are just not gonna do it. Period. And it's hard to blame them.
I just don't know how you get people to behave in a more ecologically responsible manner when the personal price of doing it is so high. I suppose if I was a "good greenie" I'd just get rid of the television entirely - but that's a topic for another post.
So tell me. What do you think about this little saga? Would you have stuck it out with the local repair folks? Do you think I'm evil for owning a television? I'd love to hear your thoughts...
Three words - Better Business Bureau. They might be able to help you find a better resolution than losing out on $325 to the repair shop scam artists. I'm sorry that happened to you, but I personally wouldn't let them get away with that kind of crap.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea, though at this point I don't actually have any evidence that they did anything wrong... just a bad feeling about it all. However, CatMan is planning on calling them in a few weeks pretending that he's looking for a refurbished plasma - working on the theory that they're planning on fixing it and selling it. It would be pretty easy to recognize my TV from a distinctive scratch that Smoky left on the case when he tried to climb it. If that happens, then we'll have them for sure!
DeleteOo, clever!
DeleteOh, and here is advice from my boyfriend: 1) Get your credit card company to request a full refund since they gave you nothing. If you didn't use a credit card, he recommends small claims court. They took your money and didn't deliver. That's not okay.
Delete2) You can get a discontinued Panasonic plasma (60-inch = $1400) on Amazon.
3) But plasma is dead because it's not reliable and the new OLED technology combines the best of both worlds. It does perfect blacks with the clarity of LED. So you should get this if you can, but they're more expensive. You can get a 55-inch LG for $1800.
PS I forgot you already bought a new TV. Oops.
DeleteThanks Debbie. We considered going with an OLED, but then we read that there have been a LOT of factory recalls for defective parts because it's "first generation technology."
DeleteAnyhow, we went with a Sony 4K 55 inch. Apparently it has 4 times the number of pixels as a regular HD TV - but since most signals aren't 4K it has to "upscale." Anyhow, we just had movie night and while I could certainly tell that the blacks weren't quite as black as the plasma, I think it's completely fine. I honestly couldn't tell the difference with the pixel thing, but that may be because my eyes aren't good enough.
But get this... you can talk to this TV! Seriously, you pick up the little microphone and tell it what you want to watch and it changes channels or whatever. Holy Moly!
I think one problem is that with technology changing so fast, people don't keep around the supplies to repair things. Doing repairs works best on things with long-lived technologies. Like clothing.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is that in spite of what we learned about the magic of interchangeable parts in schools, nowadays things are often deliberately made not to be fixable as a business strategy to make you re-buy things.
Plus some companies that used to make easy-to-repair things have had to change their strategies to stay in business and use cheaper building methods that make it tougher to repair.
So my best advice is to make sure, during the buying phase, to look into what's durable and what's made to be fixable. Sometimes you can tell by looking; sometimes it's good to talk to repair people.
In this specific situation, I would absolutely have not given that repair company any more of my money. Slime-buckets!
You're probably evil for owning a television because of the bad treatment of people in third-world countries where some of the materials come from, but I can't blame you because we were raised with TVs without knowing what that meant. And I still don't know that that means, really.
We use a computer to watch TV shows. That's probably just as evil. I'm not sure how good the picture quality is compared to what you're used to. The only less-evil part of our system is that the monitor is set up in the small room, so we only need something that looks good from about 6 feet away, so we don't need anything big.
I think that's true. Third world exploitation... um... I mean "labor" being so cheap, stuff just isn't made to be fixed anymore. This whole thing is making CatMan crazy because, were it not for his bad back and neck, he'd have fixed the thing himself. He's the kind of guy who wouldn't order the parts either... he'd be in there with a soldering iron replacing components on the circuit board!
DeleteThe funny part about all of this is that I don't really watch TV! Seriously, I watch the local news and the Broncos, and that's about it. The rest of the time the TV is just a big screen for watching Netflix. But since CatMan's back and neck problems make it pretty much impossible to go out to a movie... or to go out in general, it works out to be a good investment for us even if it has to be replaced every 6 years or so.
Your level of evilness (evility??) has more to do with being a Bronco fan than with owning a tv. JUST kidding.
ReplyDeleteI would have been very frustrated by your experience--I had a similar one last winter with getting my car fixed, although in the end, the car repair shop made good on fixing my car and didn't charge me anything additional to my initial repair cost. You are right on target--people use big box stores precisely for the convenience--items you want are either in stock or can be obtained within a short period of time and dealing with returns/problems is often simpler. Time is a valuable asset ...
Ha! "Evility" I think that's my new favorite word. I'm assuming you're a Lion's fan... sorry about that. I'm not sure we really deserved to win that game!
DeleteAnd I think you're totally right about the time & convenience factor. The thing is... I don't mind putting up with a bit of inconvenience, but this was ridiculous!
Not really a football fan at all, but being from The Mitten, I occasionally stick up for Michigan teams. Even if they almost never win.
DeleteI'm not sure how I became a football fan. Baseball? Basketball? Hockey? You couldn't pay me to sit through one of those games, but football... I just can't help myself!
DeleteOwning a tv might not be your most environmentally friendly attribute, but at least you tried to get it fixed when it broke! I have to agree with previous posters that companies purposely make them difficult to repair to encourage people to buy new so I'm not really surprised that shop wasn't able to help. Hopefully your new tv lasts for a long time!
ReplyDeleteI hope so too. CatMan says that there's at least a chance that this one will last longer because the LED TV's don't use high voltage like the plasmas do. It doesn't mean that parts can't fail, but if they do they're much less likely to take out entire circuit boards when they go. We'll see...
DeleteYou tried to get it fixed, which is a plus....but owning a TV is bad, which is a negative, so you come out even on this. I have a TV, I watch mostly videos.
ReplyDeleteI have found buying garbage to be really frustrating, my solution is to own as little of it as possible, for the things I do own I look for back-up replacements in thrift stores. I know this wouldn't be feasible for a TV but in my case it works great for breadmakers, kettles blowdryers etc. This helps me feel better about replacing garbage with more garbage.
We do have to live in the world we have, changing it is a great idea, but as a realist, I know it won't happen in my lifetime.
I would have done the same as you, I agree with catman and I'd be looking for ways to curse those bastards
Marieann
Ha! I'm thinking about my backup popcorn popper. Because, you know, how could one EVER survive without a Whirley-Pop?!?
DeleteReally, I don't think owning a TV is evil or dealing with a big business over a small business because it is giving you better customer service is evil either. We all start with a set of ideals, but we have to apply them in the real world. And if we are honest and really look at the big picture, it's not so clear that any one way of doing something is the only way.
ReplyDeleteOkay, enough of an editorial. I'm glad that you and Catman have a way to continue your movie nights. And if it were me, I would report the plasma repairmen to the BBB and then move on. As with all difficult situations, consider it a learning experience. It's up to you to decide which lessons you learned.
I'm gonna call them tomorrow and officially request the refund, so we'll see how it goes. And I think you have a point with your first paragraph. I mean, I firmly believe that you have to "be the change that you want to see" but you also have to live in this society here and now... and deal with realities like bad necks & backs.
DeleteI actually don't think that owning things is bad... I just think that owning things that you don't use and enjoy is the real problem.
...I just think that owning things that you don't use and enjoy is the real problem....
DeleteNicely said.
...I just think that owning things that you don't use and enjoy is the real problem....
DeleteNicely said.
...I just think that owning things that you don't use and enjoy is the real problem....
DeleteNicely said.
Wow! In triplicate... you must have really liked that sentence! :-)
DeleteSeriously, I'm sure it was a glitch, but it made me smile so I'm leaving them!
I think you hit the nail right on the head,
ReplyDeleteWell... I hope so. Better than hitting myself in the thumb! :-)
DeleteI try and do the most eco friendly thing...but there is a point where you just get tired and frustrated with fretting about finding the perfect solution and go for the 'worse' but easier solution.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity the repairman turned out to be useless/theiving- definitely agree with others who have said you should report them.
Yup... I sorta think that a few people hanging themselves on some sort of a cross in the name of environmentalism (even if it is an organically grown, sustainably harvested, locally produced cross) - well, I just don't think that this approach really helps the cause very much. It just gives everybody else the message that environmentalism and misery go hand in hand, and getting anyone to join that sort of a cause is... well... let's just say it's a hard sell!
DeleteI'm not sure what it says about me, but I wouldn't want to live without TV. I don't watch it every day, but I really like knowing it's there when I want it.
ReplyDeletePlease don't hate me, but I've never fully understood people's aversion to big stores. I get that some places have questionable ethics and sometimes local options are better, but I think the blanket attitude of all box stores are pure evil is just over the top.
I try to strike a balance (or at least what works as a balance in my head). I will usually give small/local stores a try,but if they have much higher prices and/or don't do something to earn my business and make the higher cost worth it I don't go back.
We get tires from a local place, even though they cost a little more, because they're awesome. They're honest and have always been lovely to deal with. I do NOT care for the local bookstore. They're snooty, the prices are high, and the selection isn't great. So books usually come from chains or Amazon. That's kind of we divide stuff out.
And with some things it just doesn't make financial sense not to go with the more economical option. We have six rescue cats, so we basically have to buy litter at a bulk discount box store.
Like you said people are only willing to deal with so much hassle and frustration before looking for an easier option.
Thanks soooo much for your comment. Sometimes I start to feel like I'm just a horrible person for not doing more to support local businesses. But like you said, they are not all created equal - some are great do deal with and others... well, we know how others are!
DeleteI guess on some level it always bothers me that there's this ethos out there that says we should all have to pay more for the sake of ______ (fill in blank with good deed of the day.) I mean I get that we want to support farmers, and fair wages, and safe working environments, and stuff produced without chemicals etc.
But it just seems that if all of these "causes" are dependent on people willingly paying twice as much to get half the service - well, that just doesn't seem like a winning equation to me!
First of all, owning a TV isn't a bad thing, it's getting sucked into them and doing nothing else in life that is a bad thing. Since when do you have to pay upfront for repairs? Car repairs, dry cleaning etc all are situations where you pay after the repairs are completed so why would they charge you upfront? Seems like bad business practice to me.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to look over the owner's manual for your new TV, (or have CatMan do it) see this about the TVs that recognize your voice http://www.cnet.com/news/samsungs-warning-our-smart-tvs-record-your-living-room-chatter/
Ha! So what you're telling me is that the crazy people who think the CIA is using their televisions to spy on them aren't that far off? What is the world coming to!
DeleteBut thanks for the head's up... I'll check it out. This model does have a voice activation feature, but you have to push a button on a special remote and talk into the microphone to use it, so I don't think it's recording random chatter... but it would be good to know for sure! :-)
Yep crazy isn't it? To find warnings in manuals telling you jot to have conversations by your television is pretty weird.
DeleteBig Brother is watching you... :-)
Delete