Buying your next TV online? E-Consumer BEWARE!

Try www.pricegrabber.com In addition to the reviews of the product, they offer customer reviews of the seller. The most expensive things that I have bought online was were digital cameras. Saying that, if there were a choice between a higher or lower rated dealer, and the prices were within range, I would pay more to deal with a better rated vendor.


You need to know a lot of things, when it comes to buying a big ticket item on the net. What is their policy towards returns? (Some stores charge a "restocking" fee). How is their customer service? If something goes wrong with an item, do you have to ship it back to them at your expense (which could be costly, if it is a large item), or do they pay for shipping? Can you have it fixed at a factory authorized dealership?

Is the item from the "gray market"? That could explain the great difference in price.

http://www.newyork.bbb.org/library/publications/subrep45.html




The interesting thing is that I am interested in the same XBR TV, but in the 60" version. I am not quite ready to buy it yet, (I have a perfectly good 50" set now) but I think that when I buy it, I would probably end up going to a local vendor.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=11402915&search=KDS-R50XBR1

Hmmm.............This is getting more interesting. Check this out:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Finddealsonline/P36484.asp

I became aware of gray market merchandise when questioning the various e-retailers. That could explain the lower price. Not many will admit that they are selling gray market merchandise. Some will say on their web sites "not gray market" and "factory sealed" but that's not a guarantee. Another reason for the lower prices and a bigger problem is the manufacturer's warrantee. Sony tells me that they will not honor the warrantee that usually comes with their products (1 year parts and labor) if the product was not purchased from an "Authorized Sony Dealer." Only one online retailer makes a clear statement concerning this point on their web by stating "We are not authorized dealers for the products we carry, we are brokers connecting buyer and sellers together." None of the online dealers who are offering the lower prices display the "Authorized Sony Dealer" icon on their web sites. When I ask point blank, "Are you an Authorized Sony Dealer?" I don't get a straight answer. More importantly, they refuse to acknowledge the fact that the warrantee is void. It was not lost on me however, that prominently displayed on their web sites were their "special deals" on extended warrantee packages (not from the manufacturer but from a third party co.) Bottom line is the consumer must be aware; there is always a reason why things look too good to be true.

The last item to share is the fact that most of these web sites belong to the same company. There were only 5 companies behind the 25 different low cost web sites I found on Pricescan.com. This is something many internet savvy folks are aware of. My point is these dealers think they can mask what they are doing by using the "safety in numbers" theory. Inexperienced internet shoppers might look at the results of one of these so called "shopping bots" and see that that the vast majority of dealers offering this item are selling it for far less than Sony or Best Buy for example. They might think that the norm is the lower price and that the one or two offers that might show up from the big guys (the legitimate retailers) show the same item at a higher price to cover their overhead or some similar reason.

I'm going with Sony or Crutchfield. Both offer a 30 day (after delivery) grace period which will allow me to return the item for any reason at their expense. Both will deliver, unpack, clean, do limited set up and take away the packing materials. If something is wrong with the TV, they will bring me a new one and take the old one away within the grace period. Most importantly, I know I'm getting a genuine Sony product and my warrantee is valid! I hope this helps those who are considering a significant purchase.

You don't have such problems about e.g. the warrant in any of the 25 EU-states: everything sold here gets two years warrant - "normal" retailers usually give you an additional one year (= 3 years for the product) to compete with the online shops.

If anything is wrong with a product, you can resent it, bought online or in a shop, at the seller's expense.

If you are sure you plan on buying a Sony then why wouldn't you go to Sony's WWW site and find the list of authorized on-line retailers from them instead of contacting every on-line seller you run into??

Seems to me that you are taking the hard route to get to your deisred end-point.

http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/lc/authorized_dealers/index.html