Buying a television: Local or Internet?


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In the past, Ive always bought my tv's locally.  Gives me a chance to go in and see them, and try to wheel and deal.  But now with the internet, like amazon, I found better deals that are not in stores.  Is there a major disadvantage to online vs in store?  Even if you go to the store to see models you like, is online still ok with big purchases like this?  I know they may not hold the same warranty or protection plans as in the store (ie. Best Buy)

 

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you could always go in store, look for a model that you like, then search for deals online for it? Amazon has a pretty good return policy, so does newegg.com

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I recommend local (not Internet); however, it has to do with SHIPPING, not price.

TVs (and PC displays, and even portable PCs, such as laptops and notebooks, let alone larger tablets) are simply too valuable (at least to me) to suffer the vagarities of what happens to non-conforming items in transit.  (Hie thyself to CNBC.com and watch the recently-aired special on watching a package travel through the monster hub of UPS Memphis known as WorldPort - it's not for the squeamish.)  You pay more when buying local (stipulated) - however, there are fewer (or none) chances of shipper screwups.

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I recommend local (not Internet); however, it has to do with SHIPPING, not price.

TVs (and PC displays, and even portable PCs, such as laptops and notebooks, let alone larger tablets) are simply too valuable (at least to me) to suffer the vagarities of what happens to non-conforming items in transit.  (Hie thyself to CNBC.com and watch the recently-aired special on watching a package travel through the monster hub of UPS Memphis known as WorldPort - it's not for the squeamish.)  You pay more when buying local (stipulated) - however, there are fewer (or none) chances of shipper screwups.

Yeah, but also, when buying local, it probably got shipped to them in the same manner.

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Draconian Guppy, on 15 Jun 2014 - 14:57, said:

you could always go in store, look for a model that you like, then search for deals online for it? Amazon has a pretty good return policy, so does newegg.com

This is what I usually do. Unless the price difference is large online/in store I'll get it in store (mainly for the I want it right now factor). :p

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I usually recommend going in store, look at the demo models, ask to tweak settings and have them play a reference quality blu ray disc you bring in and then after putting them through all that work order online. The guys at Best Buy don't get commission anyways. Unless you're buying from the Magnolia room which in that case I think they do.

 

It's just so hard to get an accurate feel for PQ in store because it is NOT an ideal setup at all. Maybe if you find a local, independent store that has a better set up suited to comparison testing.

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