Bought an HD-TV: Waste of Money

[Mr Light]

I rent DVDs at Red Box for one dollar They don't do Blu Ray. So I got my HDMI cables in the mail today! I excited ran over to plug them into my X-Box 360... yeah I don't have an HDMI port. The thing on the component plug is half the size like I thought, and the other plug is for the ethernet. So the older 360 models don't have an HDMI port and there's no converter or anything I can use for it?

 

[Mr Light]

OK, went to Walmart today. The cheapest BR Player was still $128 I didn't see anything for 70ish...

 

[Gary Mitchell]

OK, went to Walmart today. The cheapest BR Player was still $128 I didn't see anything for 70ish...

http://www.walmart.com/search/searc...rch_query=blu+ray&Find.x=0&Find.y=0&Find=Find

97 cent shipping.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I rent DVDs at Red Box for one dollar They don't do Blu Ray. So I got my HDMI cables in the mail today! I excited ran over to plug them into my X-Box 360... yeah I don't have an HDMI port. The thing on the component plug is half the size like I thought, and the other plug is for the ethernet. So the older 360 models don't have an HDMI port and there's no converter or anything I can use for it?

I thought people had already pointed out a few pages back your 360 was a component connection only, if you really want to know how old your 360 is, on the back above that big AV port thats not HDMI, you will see some writing, that will tell you the manufacture date of your 360, I'm guessing your will be circa 2007, might even be older.

 

[Mr Light]

Some did say that but then some others said it did have it. It's confusing

 

[Amaris]

Particularly since I won't be getting Blu Rays!

Don't be so quick:
Blu-ray movies $10 or Less

 

[Mr Light]

It's out of my hands I'm afraid The missus bought a Sylvania BR Player on Amazon for $100. Our first blu ray purchase? Clone Wars Season One! It's only $5 more than the DVD which I hadn't bought yet! WOO!

 

[Amaris]

It's out of my hands I'm afraid The missus bought a Sylvania BR Player on Amazon for $100. Our first blu ray purchase? Clone Wars Season One! It's only $5 more than the DVD which I hadn't bought yet! WOO!

Sounds great!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

In the U.S., most retailers of any size who want to stay in business have very liberal return policies for any recently-purchased items in good condition - your reason for return is not an issue. In many, many cases if there is some question about the policy the customer can successfully appeal to management off the sales floor and have an exception made - you just have to be a little persistent.

That's almost never necessary with a chain or major retailer here, though. Sometimes they do charge a "restocking fee" on large or expensive items which is a bite out of your refund - again, ask to speak to management.

Yes, go in the store, act like a dick, and demand that store/corporate policies be bent or broken for you. Retailers love it when people act like petulant little toddlers.

Of course, that's not what I said.

However...I don't really care what retail clerks resent, because the fact is that their bosses generally have the authority to make all kinds of adjustments - it's just the clerks who aren't trusted to do it. You know, if you don't want people to "act like dicks," then perform a service with a little competence and initiative - and in most cases requiring an adjustment, that would consist of calling in a superior to straighten things out before the customer has to explain your job to you.

To me that sounds like a policy that's ripe for abuse. Refunds if the product is faulty or the sales associate gave misleading advice or it genuining is unsuitable sure, but when the customer buys something and dones't understand it, well tough.

That's pretty silly - I can't imagine why customers put up with it in your country, if they do, unless you simply don't have adequate consumer protection agencies. Hell, in America many states mandate return policies in the case of certain kinds of merchandise.

 

[Rii]

Don't buy that Magnavox Shit-box BD player.. It can't even do BD-live.. So that means it can't use internet for updates.. Spend a few more bucks and get a real player.. Something with an ethernet jack in the back.

Why anyone would want to give Sony et al. the ability to brick their player by remote is beyond me.

 

[Amaris]

Don't buy that Magnavox Shit-box BD player.. It can't even do BD-live.. So that means it can't use internet for updates.. Spend a few more bucks and get a real player.. Something with an ethernet jack in the back.

Why anyone would want to give Sony et al. the ability to brick their player by remote is beyond me.

That's right. My player has played every Blu-ray new release I have (mainly from Netflix). Not one single instance of inability to play.

 

[Captain Ice]

It's out of my hands I'm afraid The missus bought a Sylvania BR Player on Amazon for $100. Our first blu ray purchase? Clone Wars Season One! It's only $5 more than the DVD which I hadn't bought yet! WOO!

Your wife rocks!

 

[Mr Light]

Fiancee, but close enough

 

[Trekker4747]

Of course, that's not what I said.

You said to be presistent and appeal to higher people of authority so that the rules can be bent for you.

I deal with this shit all of the time. People want me to bend the rules for them. "Gee, why do you have a limit on this sale item? Can't I buy 2x what the limit says? I really need it!"

"Gee, why can't I return this item that is damaged through no fault of the store, can't I do it just this once?"

Yeah, as a manager, I've made exceptions in some cases. I had one lady who accidently lef one of her grocery sacks in the car and the meat spoiled. She's a nice lady, someone I talked to all of the time, and I knew she was in a rough-spot so I gladly replaced all of the stuff she lost in the sack.

But if a guy marched in their, talking to one of my employees, demanding rules be bent for him just because and insisted he gets to talk to a manager so he can have special treatment "because the manager can break the rules" I'm not going to bed the rules for him. If the situation is extreme enough, yeah, I'll consider it. But just because I can? Sorry, buddy, the rules are there for a reason.

And it pisses me off to no end when customers go over even my head to my managers to get rules bent for them. And then at the end of the month they want to know why my throw-aways are so high.

Sorry, if the story policy is a restocking fee, or being unable to return an open item. That's the rule. Yes, the manager can break that rule, but he's not doing it because the rule doesn't matter so as to not give subordinates to much power -it's there to keep the store profitable- he's doing to keep a customer and because he can break the rules to do that.

Again, if your situation is dire or special enough, yeah, I'll gladly break the rule for you. Break the rules for you just because you climbed up the ladder to me? No. If I do it for just anyone then there's not much point in having those rules, are there? I've got a department to run and numbers to meet.

 

[Pingfah]

Sorry, if the story policy is a restocking fee, or being unable to return an open item. That's the rule. Yes, the manager can break that rule, but he's not doing it because the rule doesn't matter so as to not give subordinates to much power -it's there to keep the store profitable- he's doing to keep a customer and because he can break the rules to do that.

Err, yes exactly. That's why it's worth being persistent.

Consumers don't care about your numbers, and why should they?

 

[JoeZhang]

I had all of those problems when my father got a HDTV, he complained the picture looked blurry - I got him a Sky HD box and he was much happier (especially since he mainly watches the football).


Having said that, I find many old shows unwatchable on my HDTV, Star Trek: TNG looks absolutely terrible.

 

[Trekker4747]

Err, yes exactly. That's why it's worth being persistent.

This is the kind of entitlement and nonsense I have to deal with all of the time and I hate it. I had a guy almost hit me with his cane because I wouldn't bend the rules for him. People can take their "persistence" and shove it up their ass.

Consumers don't care about your numbers, and why should they?

If my numbers look bad I have to raise prices to ensure they look good next month.

 

[Pingfah]

This is the kind of entitlement and nonsense I have to deal with all of the time and I hate it. I had a guy almost hit me with his cane because I wouldn't bend the rules for him. People can take their "persistence" and shove it up their ass.

The entitlement is something you are projecting, nobody said anything about feeling entitled to anything, but rather seeing what you can get.

You're just taking out your frustration with your job on other people here, and making ridiculous assumptions about the way we might approach it so you can freak out and whine at us. It's incredibly childish.

If my numbers look bad I have to raise prices to ensure they look good next month.

We're not talking about returning meat here, the guy was talking about returning opened but hardly used electrical items to a massive department store.

But of course, it all HAS to be about you and your miserable attitude to everything.

 

[Trekker4747]

If my numbers look bad I have to raise prices to ensure they look good next month.

We're not talking about returning meat here, the guy was talking about returning opened but hardly used electrical items to a massive department store.

And the store cannot legally sell that opened item as new, meaning they have to sellit as a "used" or "open box" item, meaning they have to either sell it at a lower profit or at or below cost, which means this hurts their numbers forcing them to raise prices somewhere else to compensate.

The entitlement is something you are projecting, nobody said anything about feeling entitled to anything, but rather seeing what you can get.

See it's the "seeing what you can get" thing that bothers me. All you're (general) doing is exploiting your (general) power to get what you want. If a store's rules are you cannot return open-box items then that's their rule. Bitching about it, arguing about it, or climbing up the power chain is just stamping your feet until you get your way no matter how civil you are in doing it. The rule is the rule is the rule.

And, yes, people with more power can break them but that doesn't change the fact that the rule is there for a reason, it's not there as a hurdle for people to jump over to get to what they want.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Sorry, if the story policy is a restocking fee, or being unable to return an open item. That's the rule. Yes, the manager can break that rule, but he's not doing it because the rule doesn't matter so as to not give subordinates to much power -it's there to keep the store profitable- he's doing to keep a customer and because he can break the rules to do that.

Yep. So which other part of my post didn't you understand?

There are real company policies, and there are the company policies that retail clerks are told to follow. Just as your "real boss" is the guy who can give you a raise or fire you without asking permission, the real boss is the one who can apply the real return policy. If a clerk is going to be argumentative, don't argue - talk to the real boss.

The extreme example of this kind of nonsense is with health insurance companies in the United States. With many there are examiners who are encouraged to simply reject every claim about which there's the slightest doubt on the first round. The hope is always that the insured will become frustrated or disheartened after one or two rounds at the most and simply go away leaving the insurance company in possession of their money. If the insured persists, it's amazing how many claims turn out to be good.