Insurance Pays Off
Before I had my accident with my MacBook, I had noticed some problems with my television. Months ago you could see a dark spot in the lower left, and the upper left was starting to have a little more yellow. Under most circumstances, you couldn't notice the imperfections, but when the background was mostly white they stood out against the perfection of the rest of the image.
When I purchased the TV, I picked up the product service plan. Friends had been spinning nightmares about television problems. Even my neighbours are on their third replacement set. I figured if it broke, I would have it repaired. Thus, I bet that Futureshop would end up having to pay more than the $450 that I shelled out for the extended warranty. This confidence started me on the goose chase to getting my set fixed.
The service guy showed up in a car, with a clipboard and not a spare part in sight. I knew when he got out of the car, I wasn't getting that reparation today. 2 seconds in front of my television and he exclaimed: "You need a new light engine, happens all the time". He handed me the clipboard requesting my signature, and like like a fart in a hurricane was gone. The next day, I received a call from what I assume is the gentleman who receives this paper work. He grilled me on the phone for the symptoms. I found it funny, that the process of asking what's wrong with the television was much more intense after the technician had seen it. Although he seemed to accept my answers and told me that they would get back to me.
Futureshop called the next day, and said that it wasn't economical to replace the light engine, and that they would instead replace my television with the same model. I thought that was a pretty good trade, 2 year old used television for one fresh out of the box. I was asked which store was closest to my home, and told I would be contacted by the store's service department. Later in the day, a nice lady called to tell me that they had received my replacement request, but they didn't have my model in stock. She said she tried to get one from another branch in town, but it apparently was sold out all over Calgary, and I would be called when the next one came off the truck.
Life took over, and three months passed.
The service paper was nagging me from my desk, and I finally picked up the phone with all my contract and confirmation numbers in hand, and called the Futureshop store again. The local branch had no idea what I was talking about, so I went back to the 800 line. I spewed out the contract number, and after a pause was told I needed to be put on hold while she checked into something. I waited, for what seemed like eternity with their flavor of muzak, until I was told that they needed to send a fax to the Futureshop branch, and that I would need to call them to set up the replacement. I nagged the store for the rest of the day, but nobody had seen this fax of which I spoke. I let it slide since the monkey on the phone didn't seem to understand my concern, and it was pretty late in the afternoon. The next morning I managed to get a hold of a much more helpful person, and was told that the store was ready to receive me.
I went back, and strangely enough, they hooked me up with the same salesman that sold me the television two years ago. The complication, this time, is that Futureshop no longer carries either JVC televisions, or anything sporting the D-ILA technology. So, what was going to happen, was a replacement for like functionality. After pressing them on some of the more painful replacement issues, they ended up giving me in store credit for the exact value I payed 2 years ago. In essence, it was a 2-year technology reset. When I picked up my HDTV, 1080p was quite rare. It was even more elusive in the large LCDs, and nothing in a flat panel could be made above 50 inches in my price range. Now, for what you could pick up a 56" DLP 2-years ago, you can get a 52" LCD that sports 1080p and pushes the panel at a stupid 120Hz to reduce ghosting and lag.
As I drove home from picking out my new television, I started to factor in some costs. I paid $450 in September of 2006 for insurance on what I considered to be the perfect television for my needs at the time. 21 months later, I upgraded to an even better television, but didn't keep the old one. You could look at it that I had leased the television from Futureshop for $21.50/month, and now the lease is up. Not accounting for the time-cost of money, it's almost like I'm buying the Sharp television today, which I think is a pretty good deal. Let's just hope they actually follow through with delivering it this time.
