Teevee! We talk teevee!
Aug. 4th, 2003 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandySo this weekend I bought a TV. And what a palaver it was!
I was bored of paying thirty five english pounds every month for use of our old one. We have had it for two years, and while it is most large and wide it is undeniably old. I decided, on the spur of the moment and a very long drive home, that I would stop at the supermarked and see if they had a cheap one. Yes, perhaps not the best place in the world. But I knew they had TVs, and I was only really looking. I saw what I thought was a good one, and it had large jubblies, and was made by people I know (Sanyo). I can't find the exact model. It was 28", and looked quite wide, but didn't say what its dimensions were. And it was reasonably cheap. So I thought, what the hey.
After loading the damn thing into my tiny car, and unloading it at the other end, and reading the manual with my housemate, we realised that it was not, perhaps, widescreen. In fact, it was not very good at all. (Well, it was still large. But size, it turns out, is not everything.) They had fooled me by placing the speakers on the sides! Curse them!
So we took the TV back to the shop the very next day and proceeded to the nearest Comet. I say "nearest", it was really the most accessible within the Manchester area. If I'd only thought to check, there was one much closer in the next district over (Stockport). But that is not what I asked the nice shop-finding website, I asked for Manchester.
We checked several shops in the retail park, and settled on the one TV that seemed to give us the best features for the least money. I was very glad to have Katy with me. For in the same way nothing I create can be as good as other peoples', nothing I select can possibly be worth what I paid. I have a perfectly good stereo at home that I have never been entirely happy with because it was my choice. But thankfully, the TV is only half my fault. So I am happy with it.
Ah, but I am skipping to the end.
You see, though the nice man at Comet sold us the TV, he realised in short order that they did not in fact have one in stock. They had one at the next branch over, he said, in Altrincham. This is no small distance, being outside the M60 ring road by some considerable way. It is further than I was planning to go for my TV. But I had already paid, and there was a TV ready and waiting for me there, so I was willing to go the distance.
The people at the Altrincham store were courteous, but not as nice as they would have been if we had bought the TV from them in the first place. See, the man at the first shop officially "sold" the TV, so he got the commission. The staff at the second store were basically losing a TV and getting nothing back for it.
So that was that. We now had a TV. OR DID WE?
Well, yes. But we did not have a functioning stand. One of the parts was wrong - it did not have a hole where a hole should have been. There was much ringing and waiting until we found that there was a stand available for me to pick up from the Stockport branch. Ah! quoth I, Ah! If Only I had known there was a Stockport branch! I would have been able to save all my time and effort. Oh well, off I went and got the stand.
Then I rang the rental people. I am in mixed feelings about whether I should have rung them before buying the TV instead of after. On one hand, they tried to convince me not to cancel by reducing the costings (to twenty english pounds per month). If I hadn't already had the TV, I would have seriously considered that. And I would not have had my new TV, which would be bad, so I am glad I bought it first. On the other hand, they can not pick the TV up until after the end of the month, so perhaps I should have found that out before buying. We now have two widescreen TVs cluttering our living room. And I live at [LOCATION CENSORED].
I was bored of paying thirty five english pounds every month for use of our old one. We have had it for two years, and while it is most large and wide it is undeniably old. I decided, on the spur of the moment and a very long drive home, that I would stop at the supermarked and see if they had a cheap one. Yes, perhaps not the best place in the world. But I knew they had TVs, and I was only really looking. I saw what I thought was a good one, and it had large jubblies, and was made by people I know (Sanyo). I can't find the exact model. It was 28", and looked quite wide, but didn't say what its dimensions were. And it was reasonably cheap. So I thought, what the hey.
After loading the damn thing into my tiny car, and unloading it at the other end, and reading the manual with my housemate, we realised that it was not, perhaps, widescreen. In fact, it was not very good at all. (Well, it was still large. But size, it turns out, is not everything.) They had fooled me by placing the speakers on the sides! Curse them!
So we took the TV back to the shop the very next day and proceeded to the nearest Comet. I say "nearest", it was really the most accessible within the Manchester area. If I'd only thought to check, there was one much closer in the next district over (Stockport). But that is not what I asked the nice shop-finding website, I asked for Manchester.
We checked several shops in the retail park, and settled on the one TV that seemed to give us the best features for the least money. I was very glad to have Katy with me. For in the same way nothing I create can be as good as other peoples', nothing I select can possibly be worth what I paid. I have a perfectly good stereo at home that I have never been entirely happy with because it was my choice. But thankfully, the TV is only half my fault. So I am happy with it.
Ah, but I am skipping to the end.
You see, though the nice man at Comet sold us the TV, he realised in short order that they did not in fact have one in stock. They had one at the next branch over, he said, in Altrincham. This is no small distance, being outside the M60 ring road by some considerable way. It is further than I was planning to go for my TV. But I had already paid, and there was a TV ready and waiting for me there, so I was willing to go the distance.
The people at the Altrincham store were courteous, but not as nice as they would have been if we had bought the TV from them in the first place. See, the man at the first shop officially "sold" the TV, so he got the commission. The staff at the second store were basically losing a TV and getting nothing back for it.
So that was that. We now had a TV. OR DID WE?
Well, yes. But we did not have a functioning stand. One of the parts was wrong - it did not have a hole where a hole should have been. There was much ringing and waiting until we found that there was a stand available for me to pick up from the Stockport branch. Ah! quoth I, Ah! If Only I had known there was a Stockport branch! I would have been able to save all my time and effort. Oh well, off I went and got the stand.
Then I rang the rental people. I am in mixed feelings about whether I should have rung them before buying the TV instead of after. On one hand, they tried to convince me not to cancel by reducing the costings (to twenty english pounds per month). If I hadn't already had the TV, I would have seriously considered that. And I would not have had my new TV, which would be bad, so I am glad I bought it first. On the other hand, they can not pick the TV up until after the end of the month, so perhaps I should have found that out before buying. We now have two widescreen TVs cluttering our living room. And I live at [LOCATION CENSORED].
