It's happened again.
Last time it was a new refrigerator. Back in 2005, our 6-year-old, contractor-grade refrigerator started leaking water from the freezer down to the fridge. So we did what any homeowner would do: we went to Home Depot, Lowes, RC Willey and Sears to look at fridges.
I thought I wanted one of those french door models with the freezer on the bottom. I ooed and awed over them trying to decide whether to get the white that matched our other contractor-grade appliances, or stainless which might match the appliances in the home we might move into someday. And was it worth it to play all that extra money for the french door fridge when I could get a side-by-side for a lot less. And none of them seemed to have all the features I wanted all together. I poured hours of Internet research into it on Consumer Reports, Good Housekeeping, and we asked everyone we knew what they would do.
At Sears, we met a nice young salesman named Hector. He showed us all the models and answered all our questions. We told him we needed to think about it some more. A few months later, we went back to Sears and talked to Hector again. The new models were coming out and didn't we want to buy one of the old models on clearance. Still needed to think about it and do more research. Came back in a few more months, and then again few months later, etc. Each time we left with a "let's think about it." It got to the point where Hector would see us and just start laughing because he knew we had more questions, but weren't really going to buy anything.
In May of 2007, Sears was having a great sale on appliances and we finally settled for a white side-by-side that had some of the features we wanted and was a lot less than the french door one I really wanted. We headed to Sears to finally buy that refrigerator only to find that Hector had the day off. We made a special trip back to Sears the next day so we could buy it from him. I bet Hector never had to work for 2 years to get a sale before or since.
Now, it's TV's. The main TV in our house is a 27" set we received as a hand me down from James' parents shortly after we were married. Since tomorrow is our 13th anniversary, that gives you some indication on its age. Needless to say, HDTV wasn't even a consideration back then. The tuner in the TV went out several years ago so we have to use the VCR's tuner to do anything (it's the entire reason we still have a VCR). Now the power switch doesn't always work.
About a year ago, when we started get inundated with all the HD-switch talk, we got all confused and thought we'd better go get a new TV right away. I think it was really a ploy by the electronics industry to make us believe we had to have a $2000 HDTV or we would be lepers. We learned that because we have cable, we really didn't have to do anything to be lepers. Whew.
Then we got a Wii and Mario Kart last Spring. For those of you who are Wiiophytes, when you play Mario Kart with 3 or more people, it divides the screen into four sections. On a 27" TV, you get what seems like a 2" square of screen to drive your kart down. So we have to get a bigger TV if we are going to play Mario Kart as a family. And isn't that why we bought a Wii in the first place?
So off to the Internet to do lots of research on Consumer Reports, CNet, and every other website imaginable. Do we get one that will fit in our entertainment center (very few 37" ones will) or do we go for broke and get the 47" and a new entertainment center. LCD or Plasma? 720 or 1080? What the heck is an HDMI and if our current TV has none, how many do we need? And if we get a new HDTV won't we have to get a blu-ray too?
And we harrassed lots of Hectors at lots of different stores. The HDTV guys at Costco probably think I am stalking them. Twice I have gone to buy a TV thinking I had my mind made up, only to either be talked out of by the sales guy or find it not available in the store.
I think we finally have it narrowed down to two choices: a 37" Toshiba that will fit into our entertainment center from Costco.com, or a 42" Vizio that won't fit but is available at our Costco. How we pick from the two could drive us crazy for another six months. And by then, a whole new batch of TV's will be out and we will have to start the process all over again.
I wonder if Hector sells TVs?
5 comments:
do you have wireless internet?? If so, we should connect and play each other in mario kart with our wii's!!!! It's so fun!!
P.S. we LOVE our vizio..... if that helps. You can come check ours out if ya need to. Ours is on the wall in the new room that we made during the remodel..
Anyway, good luck with the t.v. Hope ya had a very Merry Christmas!
ok, well, since we have the same entertainment center, and since we recently bought a ne, bigger TV only to return it after failing to find a new entertainment center we liked, we are waiting on pins and needles to hear what yall decide! :)
So Steve TV broke just after Halloween. He and Lana made their way to Walmart because in the country you don't have much other choices. Well there they ran into a member of their ward. Steve told him he was going to buy a new tv. The ward member looked at Steve and said I have brought home each one of these tv and have return every single one except the Vizio. Then his wife showed up and he asked her to verify his story about about every tv. He went on to explain to Steve that if you are using non-HD connections like HDMI or other compontents with the HD hook up then you get a very grainy picture. I hooked up our wii and old dvd player using just the old rca connections and understand what he was saying. So if you going to use old connections get the Vizio. IF you upgrade everything to HD connection then it really doesn't matter.
Just my two cents.
We love our vizio and both DH parents and brother have since bought one. Oh, and da nephew last weekend too.
We ended up with a new stand/entertainment center with ours, but we are not sorry a year later we did.
Happy hunting!
I say go for the bigger one!! Robert thinks you'll be glad you did later on!
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