New TV

Saturday
We were walking around Katy Mills Mall a few Saturdays ago and stopped by Circuit City. We weren't there to look at anything in particular, just browsing. We were looking at their TVs and they have some pretty good prices. We've been wanting a flat panel TV to go over the fireplace in the living room for a while so we started talking to one of the sales guys. His name was TJ.

My only requirements were I wanted 1080p with a few HDMI inputs around 50 inches. He showed us some plasmas. I had always heard that plasmas don't last very long, are difficult to transport, and can easily get burn-in. He explained that when plasmas first came out that was true but they are a lot better now and the Panasonic was the best rated. Also, all plasmas run at 480hz as opposed to LCDs which run much lower.

So we found the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U. Its a 50" 1080p 480hz Panasonic with 4 HDMI inputs. They even had an open-box of the same one where they had taken off a few hundred dollars. Its has an MSRP of $2500 but it was going to be $1080. A deal that was too good to pass up.

So we started the purchase which is more complicated than buying a car. If you are going to buy a TV from here, please set aside a whole day. Its a lengthy process. In addition to the TV we got a swivel wall mount, a Monster power supply, 2 Monster HDMI cables, a PlayStation 3, and the extended warranties. TJ was real good about finding all the coupons and discounts for everything. So-and-so dicount for the mount if you buy a TV, so-and-so discount on the cables if you get the warranty, etc. etc.

When we were done the final damage was $3800. Swiped the debit card... declined. Swiped again... declined. The money was there but the card wasn't working which was weird since we had just used it elsewhere in the mall. TJ said they'd take a check so I had to walk to the other side of the mall to where the car was parked to get my checkbook. When they tried the check it was declined too. I suspected that there might have been a fraud protection activated on my account since earlier that week we'd purchased plane tickets to Las Vegas and some furniture. I tried to call the bank but there's no way to speak to a representative. TJ agreed to hold everything for us if we would come back Tuesday. After having spent all that time in the store trying to complete the purchase it was disappointing to leave empty-handed. When I got home there was a message on the answering machine from the bank saying that they had put a hold on the account for suspicious activity so I called and straightened it out with them. Nice feature, but a pain in the ass when you actually want to make a large purchase.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning we went back to the store and were there when it opened. I had stopped at the bank the day before and got cash in case there was a problem with the card again. We decided to save a little money and hold off on the PlayStation 3. We bought everything else and scheduled the delivery for Wednesday and the installation for Tuesday. Later that day I called Dish to schedule to have them come out to put a satellite drop in the living room and switch out a receiver we don't use upstairs with an HD receiver with DVR. The earliest they could come out was Monday.

Wednesday
The delivery guys came and dropped everything off. I had to be there when they got there so I worked from home that day. I didn't have Dish and it wasn't on the wall but I was able to play Xbox 360 on the floor.

Thursday
The installers come out and as soon as they got there they noticed I didn't have a power outlet above the fireplace. They aren't certified to install high-voltage lines, so they said I needed to call an electrician and have them install a power outlet and then call them and reschedule the installation. That was something they didn't tell ask me at the store. They also recommended against the swivel mount. They recommended I get the tilt mount since you can see the TV from anywhere in the room anyway and the swivel mount is really heavy, sticks out from the wall pretty far, and when you pull it off the wall and then put it back it wouldn't be straight unless you leveled it each time. that was fine with me since the tilt mount is $500 less than the swivel mount -- money I'd spend on the electrician. I called and scheduled an electrician to come out for a quote on Friday. I worked from home that day too.

Friday
I took the swivel mount to the Circuit City at West Oaks Mall which is closer to my house than Katy Mills Mall. I knew I'd made the right decision to exchange it when I saw the one they had on display. Unfortunatley they couldn't exchange it since their POS system is different from the Katy Mills store because the Katy Mills store was a newer store where they were piloting a new POS system. So I had to drive back out to Katy Mills to exchange it. I got the tilt mount and $500 back. I bitched at TJ for not telling me about the power outlet and I got 15% off the tilt mount. Later, the electrician came out he quoted $400, but he didn't have all the supplies he needed and someone would have to come out Saturday to do it.

Saturday
The other electrician comes and installs the power outlet. He only charged me $360 and I got him to fix my busted porch light too. I called Circuit City to reschedule the installation and the soonest they could come was Wednesday.

Monday
The Dish guy comes out and picks up the old receiver and sets up the new one.

Wednesday
The installers come and hang the TV on the wall. Finally I have everything all together. It looks awesome. The picture is amazing. It really changes the shape of the room. All the cabling is behind the wall so its very clean looking.

Monday
The TV quits working. It just turns off and doesn't turn back on. A few times it would come back on by itself and then later turn off. I checked the outlet, the surge protector and the power cable and every thing was good. It just wouldn't turn on. I called the extended warranty people and they scheduled to have a repairman come take a look at it on Saturday. Now I have $3000 worth of broke TV hanging above my fireplace. That's what I get for buying an open-box item. Good thing I got the extended warranty though.

Saturday
The repair guy comes out and checks out the TV and determines that its the power supply. He's going to have to order the part which will take about 7-10 days. When the part arrives I have to schedule the installers to come uninstall the TV, then schedule the repair guy to come replace the power supply, then reschedule the installers to re-install the TV. What a pain in the ass.