Good site for BUYING TV's

Live forum: http://forum.freeipodguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=47058

hairyferry

12-10-2006 17:36:58

Just wonderin if anyone has had a good experience buying a TV online and which site they used.

johnjimjones

12-10-2006 17:39:28

What kind of TV?

dmorris68

12-10-2006 18:02:55

Bought my 60" Sony SXRD from Crutchfield in January. ;) Also a 27" Wega CRT when they first came out a few years ago.

IMO Crutchfield is one of the best online/mail vendors ever when it comes to electronics. Not necessarily in terms of price, but in terms of being a reputable dealer with the best customer service you could find. Been ordering from them for 20 years or so.

jy3

12-10-2006 18:08:44

crutchfield is awesome. i highly recommend that you compare prices after you decide on the model you want at
crutchfield
circuit city
worst buy
and your local vendors. we got a better deal at a local store than any of the chain stores.
of course there is always dell

jy3

12-10-2006 18:09:11

also as mentioned above customer service is a big part as well as the price

dmorris68

12-10-2006 18:23:49

And I should also add you don't mention what type of TV you're looking for, but if it's a high-dollar model from a company like Sony, you might be tempted (like I was at first) to bargain shop online. You can find TONS of dealers that will sell you a $5000 TV for $3200, and you think "great, I'm saving $1800!!!" Only to discover that (a) they aren't authorized to sell them, therefore NO factory support/warranty in most cases (Sony and Yamaha in particular), and (b) like the camera shops, they will try to hardsell you on ridiculous stuff like a $400 power strip, and if you don't buy, your order gets cancelled or (c) your TV arrives 6 weeks later damaged, etc. etc. Lots of horror stories from dealing with cheap, unauthorized vendors like that. If you're dropping a few hundred bucks then it might be worth the risk, but if you're talking thousands on a fragile and hard-to-ship item like a bigscreen TV, I'd bite the bullet and pay extra for a top vendor like Crutchfield or J&R Music World that will take care of you.

Another benefit to ordering big-ticket items like this online is that you usually save on sales tax, unless you're in a state where that vendor has a business presence (assuming you pay sales tax at all in your state). For example, Crutchfield had the SXRD and matching Sony stand for the same price as CircuitCity and BestBuy, however I would have paid almost $500 in sales tax had I bought it in the store. With Crutchfield I paid no tax, no shipping, and had it in about a week.

hairyferry

12-10-2006 18:46:23

Yeah, I'm looking for a 60 to 70 inch 1080p. I'm looking for Sony or a Sammy DLP, when I was searching through threads I saw someone say that http//www.crazy4digital.com was one that they went to or were going to.

michae229

12-10-2006 19:06:32

i herd conns was really cheap are those the repo stores

dmorris68

12-10-2006 19:11:09

[quote9b5074cc35="hairyferry"]Yeah, I'm looking for a 60 to 70 inch 1080p. I'm looking for Sony or a Sammy DLP, when I was searching through threads I saw someone say that http//www.crazy4digital.com was one that they went to or were going to.[/quote9b5074cc35]
Well, beware that vendor is one of those I spoke about. ;) You can identify them pretty easily outside of their mysteriously low prices, they all have almost the exact same web templates. When I was shopping around for my SXRD it looked like all these sites were owned by the same company. They all had virtually the same verbiage, layouts, and very similar pricing.

And nearly all of them liclaimli to be authorized dealers, but seldom are. You can verify if a dealer is authorized by going to the factory website (Sony, Yamaha, etc.) and most will have an authorized dealer search function.

Now you may go with one of these dealers and have a great experience -- some folks do. Maybe they'll actually ship without delay or without ripping you off, and maybe you never need warranty coverage. However when I'm looking to invest THAT much money, I don't take chances.

However I did go with an unauthorized Yamaha dealer (Electronics HQ[=http//www.ehqonline.com]Electronics HQ) when I bought my Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver. When I e-mailed them, they were up-front about not being authorized, and in place of the factory warranty they gave me a written warranty of their own, where if the unit failed THEY would replace it themselves. Since authorized dealers wanted $1200-$1400 for it and this place sold it shipped for like $897, I decided to risk it. They shipped quickly, were very responsive and polite with my questions, and I haven't had to test their warranty coverage yet. ) But for something like a big-screen TV, I wouldn't take that much risk myself.

At least before you do business with any of these questionable dealers, check them out on resellerratings.com, PriceGrabber.com reviews, etc. to see what sort of complaints are out there.

hairyferry

12-10-2006 20:02:38

yeah, I probably wont go with something as shaddy as that. It's better just to be safe than sorry.

hairyferry

14-10-2006 00:44:31

I think I made up my mind to go with the Samsung HL-S6187W. I just have to find a place to buy it now.

mistertomlinson

14-10-2006 18:20:29

I hope I'm not too late... crazy4digital is a bunch-o-shit! I too am planning on purchasing an HDTV (of some sort) and tried to find the cheapest site online. My conclusions have me reconsidering the cheaper sites and I think it would be wiser to pay a bit extra to get an HDTV from a reputable dealer (as stated earlier). I can't remember the site (I'm sure you can google it as I did), but I stumbbled into a site that has reviews for online business' and crazy4digital has nothing but TERRIBLE reviews. Every single person says despite the products they purchased being described as "new," ther are actually refurbished. EVERYTHING they sell is refurbished... there were several other complaints about this company, but that was the main one. Good luck with your choice.