Anyone order an LCD HDTV from Amazon?

[techwanabe]

I'm thinking of ordering an HDTV through Amazon. They say they offer free shipping. What about tax? Anythings I should be aware of?

 

[Slick5150]

Tax depends on where you live. Most states, no. California, New York, maybe a couple others, yes.

As for anything else, they're as good as anyone. I believe with HDTV delivery they'll actually bring it into your house, take it out of the box and turn it on to make sure it works (although I might be thinking of someone else that does that?)

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
Tax depends on where you live. Most states, no. California, New York, maybe a couple others, yes.

As for anything else, they're as good as anyone. I believe with HDTV delivery they'll actually bring it into your house, take it out of the box and turn it on to make sure it works (although I might be thinking of someone else that does that?)

I live in NY. Oh well regarding taxes.

As for shipping, I could have it shipped to my office since I"m not home during work hours for delivery.

 

[kalrith]

Amazon does the white-glove delivery on anything 27" or larger, and I think it's worth it to have it shipped to your house rather than the office even if it requires some time off. They might do Saturday delivery for extra.

If you get it shipped to your office, sign for it, take it home, and find out that it doesn't work or there are 50,000 dead/stuck pixels, then you'll have to go through a big hassle to get it replaced. With the white-glove delivery, be sure to have the spot for the TV cleared off and an input ready, so you can plug it in and test it BEFORE signing for it. If there's something wrong, you can refuse delivery, and they'll bring you another one.

You also MUST transport the TV upright. You can't just lay it down in your trunk or SUV, because the screen is likely to break. In that case you'd have a really hard time getting it replaced.

 

[iRONic]

I bought my 50" DLP from them. No issues with Eagle freight, the TV, or Amazon.

YMMV

 

[krotchy]

As Kalrith said, laying a TV flat isnt the best idea, but this is much much more of a problem for Plasma's than LCD's since plasmas have the large glass panel on them, LCD's screens tend to be lighter and as such get stressed less laying flat.

 

[techwanabe]

Great feed back guys. I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on one as the price has come down on the model I'm after. 46-inch Samsung.

They advertise "free shipping" so I"m not sure how that fits with the "white glove" delivery.

As for being home, like most people, I have limited time off so I am hesitant to burn vaction tiem while I twiddle my thumbs wondering when during an 8 hour window they will show up.

As of now, I have no cable TV service although I'm considering service because of the acquisition of an HDTV. I imagine I'll be getting a blue ray player to watch HD movies, and I do have a Wii and P2 to I can plug into it.

 

[kalrith]

The white glove delivery is free. Just be sure to purchase it from Amazon and not a reseller. If you don't have them already, get component cables for your wii and ps2 for the best picture quality from those.

You might be able to get your locals in HD with a $10 indoor antenna to a $50 rooftop antenna, depending on how good your reception is. www.antennaweb.org should tell you what type of antenna you need.

If you sign up for an HD service, I recommend directv because they have the most HD channels. They usually run pretty good first-year promotions too. For comparison our local cable TV offers 10-15 HD channels, and I'm getting over 50 right now (I'm not sure the exact number). They might also have your locals in HD, and you can check that on their website.

 

[JackBurton]

Ordered a Samsung 5271 LCD from Amazon and they were great. And I believe they delivered it on Saturday. The delivery guy called and we asked to schedule the delivery for Saturday.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: JackBurton
Ordered a Samsung 5271 LCD from Amazon and they were great. And I believe they delivered it on Saturday. The delivery guy called and we asked to schedule the delivery for Saturday.

I'll look into that. It sounds like a matter of timing. What is their shipping time? 4 or 5 days from order date?

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: techwanabe

Originally posted by: JackBurton
Ordered a Samsung 5271 LCD from Amazon and they were great. And I believe they delivered it on Saturday. The delivery guy called and we asked to schedule the delivery for Saturday.

I'll look into that. It sounds like a matter of timing. What is their shipping time? 4 or 5 days from order date?

Mine took two days.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

I placed an order for a 46" Samsung A650 on Wednesday evening, and it shipped the next day (yesterday). The estimated delivery date says the 28th, so I suspect it highly depends on where you live, and what shipping company Amazon has to contract to get it to you. (Mine says it's coming via CEVA.)

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: ZetaEpyon
I placed an order for a 46" Samsung A650 on Wednesday evening, and it shipped the next day (yesterday). The estimated delivery date says the 28th, so I suspect it highly depends on where you live, and what shipping company Amazon has to contract to get it to you. (Mine says it's coming via CEVA.)

Ok, pulled the trigger. Samsung LN46A650 46-inch.

There was no date to indicate when the shipment will arrive but I was told 4-5 days.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Hey, nice choice of TV.

For what it's worth, I was able to check the tracking number with CEVA today, and that now indicates an arrival date of the 24th. So, 4-5 days after shipping seems right in line with that.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: ZetaEpyon
Hey, nice choice of TV.

For what it's worth, I was able to check the tracking number with CEVA today, and that now indicates an arrival date of the 24th. So, 4-5 days after shipping seems right in line with that.

Thanks! It should be a major upgrade from a 27-inch tube TV.

When I looked at your estimated arrival date, I wasn't sure if I could be available for delivery if it was later than your listed date of the 28th. I got no estimated date when I ordered, but I'm glad to hear most deliveries are 4-5 days. I'm not in some remote town so I should probably get similar delivery service.

I settled on the LN46A560 120 hz model after checking different similar size 1080P HDLCD TV's. My feeling is it seemed like a good compromise between price and quality and size. There is only one major step up from 46-inches in that class of TV (52-inch) and the extra cost would have been about $500, which was a lot. I think the higher refresh rate and contrast ratio will be make for longer term satisfaction. I don't buy new TV's very often so I want something I"m going to be satiisfied with for a good while hopefully.

Amazon's cost for this model had been around $1868 for about the last month or so, and it just dropped to $1699. I was waiting for a price drop before ordering. While having a 52-inch would be awesome, I still need something to play high def movies on, so I figure I'll be looking for a good deal on a Blue Ray player in the coming weeks, maybe a PS3 deal?

 

[daniel1113]

I also got the LN46A650 and it was delivered by CEVA. Just a quick note about the delivery. Even though the CEVA crew arrived on time, they seemed to be in a huge rush. The literally ran in the door (without so much as greeting me and checking if I was the purchaser), ripped off the box, plugged in the TV, threw the clipboard in my face, and left. It was pretty pathetic overall.

But, the TV is fantastic, and as I mentioned above, took a total of two days to arrive after placing my order.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
I also got the LN46A650 and it was delivered by CEVA. Just a quick note about the delivery. Even though the CEVA crew arrived on time, they seemed to be in a huge rush. The literally ran in the door (without so much as greeting me and checking if I was the purchaser), ripped off the box, plugged in the TV, threw the clipboard in my face, and left. It was pretty pathetic overall.

But, the TV is fantastic, and as I mentioned above, took a total of two days to arrive after placing my order.

Houston, we have a problem. The customer service person at Amazon told me 4-5 days transit time. I ordered on Friday the 18th and they are telling me estimated delivery date is July 30th. Thats 12 freaking days. I'm on the phone with customer service since I will definitely not be around to take delivery. The customer service guy I called to express my concern told me this time 5-9 days. If that were the case, maybe I could work with it.

I hope they can kick CEVA in the butt. Cincinatti is the origin and I'm only 2 states away. WTF? 12 days for two states from one major city to another? What the heck to they used to ship TV's these days? A sea turtle? Twelve days for 2 states away?

Edit:

I got off the phone with Amazon. Of course it's out of their hands and in the shippers hands. Probably the only thing I can do now is call them and redirect the order to my office since won't be able to be around to accept delivery. So much for "white glove service"

While Amazon may be a reputable company, I'll think twice before ordering from them in the future. :disgust:

 

[techwanabe]

Update:

I checked the tracking and my TV is now one city away (a 2 hour drive). Why they posted July 30 as the estimated arrival time is hard to see, unless they are like Scotty on Star Trek and add a few days on the realistic shipping time so they will appear to be miracle workers when it arrives way early. The origina was like 2 states away and 12 days transit time?

Anyway, I called CEVA and it looks like I should get deliver before the end of the week. Yay.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Cool, mine is about that far away as well.

Only the original estimated arrival date from Amazon seemed abnormally long to me, the CEVA tracking thing has always shown a more sane date.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: ZetaEpyon
Cool, mine is about that far away as well.

Only the original estimated arrival date from Amazon seemed abnormally long to me, the CEVA tracking thing has always shown a more sane date.

The problem for me was the Amazon customer service rep game me the impression the shipping would take 4-5 business days. After I saw the CEVA estimated delivery date of July 30 after I placed my July 18 order, and called Amazon back and got a different tune. Oh, that was when Amazon expects it to get shipped, not how long it takes to get to you. Then the Amazon person said customers should expect approximately a 5-9 day transit. Gee, this does matter!

Amazon's arrival date they post in your account is from CEVA. Yes 11 or 12 days, depending on when the box actually went out of the warehouse, seems obnormally long. In my case, the origin was apparently Cinncinati OH, which is two states away. WTF? 12 days for 2 states away? Like I said, it appears their estimates are off, fortunately over estimated. It was alarming but now it seems the actual transit time should be much shorter than that. I'm much relieved.

 

[thegimp03]

I was considering buying one from Amazon almost a year ago, since they had the Samsung LN4071 for a really low price at that time while Best Buy and other b&m stores were over $1k more. The reason I didn't end up buying from Amazon was because of the fact that if the tv was delivered and something was wrong with it, it'd take a lot of time to package it back up and send it back. Then worrying about it in the mail and everything, it just wasn't worth it to me. The last thing I wanted to happen was for some delivery guy to drop my $2k tv.

I ended up buying it from Best Buy. I price matched it to Fry's to get like $500 off of the tv, and BB's policy at the time was to give customers a 30-day window that they could come in and get a lower price if there was one. Nearly 3.5 weeks later I found the tv on sale at Fry's for another $500 off, and I went back to Best Buy. They almost wouldn't do it since it was in total $1k off of the current price of the tv in their store, and I had to fight them for it and ended up getting it in the end.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: thegimp03
I was considering buying one from Amazon almost a year ago, since they had the Samsung LN4071 for a really low price at that time while Best Buy and other b&m stores were over $1k more. The reason I didn't end up buying from Amazon was because of the fact that if the tv was delivered and something was wrong with it, it'd take a lot of time to package it back up and send it back. Then worrying about it in the mail and everything, it just wasn't worth it to me. The last thing I wanted to happen was for some delivery guy to drop my $2k tv.

I ended up buying it from Best Buy. I price matched it to Fry's to get like $500 off of the tv, and BB's policy at the time was to give customers a 30-day window that they could come in and get a lower price if there was one. Nearly 3.5 weeks later I found the tv on sale at Fry's for another $500 off, and I went back to Best Buy. They almost wouldn't do it since it was in total $1k off of the current price of the tv in their store, and I had to fight them for it and ended up getting it in the end.

Too late for me. Its on the way.

 

[Oyeve]

You should be fine. I ordered my Samsung LN32A330 from amazon and it was shipped via Eagle (got it before they started collecting NY tax) and it came in perfect condition.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Mine arrived yesterday afternoon, 2 days before the earliest estimate shown anywhere.

It's fantastic, and I'm 100% satisfied with the whole purchasing and delivery experience.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: ZetaEpyon
Mine arrived yesterday afternoon, 2 days before the earliest estimate shown anywhere.

It's fantastic, and I'm 100% satisfied with the whole purchasing and delivery experience.

Sounds great. My delivery has been scheduled for tomorrow early afternoon. I'll go home for lunch and hang until it is delivered.

You should be fine. I ordered my Samsung LN32A330 from amazon and it was shipped via Eagle (got it before they started collecting NY tax) and it came in perfect condition.

I certainly wish I didn't have to pay the $135 sales tax. However, it I would have ordered when you did, the higher price of the same TV would have more than exceeded the tax I paid. Before the most recent price drop, the same TV was $1865 and it may have been substantially higher when taxes weren't being collected. So in the end, it looks like I saved more money by waiting. The cost savings could fund most of a PS3/Blu Ray if I get the Sony CC credit.

If I would have gone to Best Buy, I think their price for my model Samsung was more than $200 higher than Amazon. For the convenience of an easy return, I would have paid in the neighborhood of $270 more gimp03's way than what I did pay via Amazon. I'd say that was worth it since part of the goal in me waiting this long was to wait for costs to come down.

My original target was around $1500 for a 46-inch 1080P HDTV when I saw the newer prices late this spring, but I ended up paying about $300 more because I wanted the higher contrast ratio and refresh rate when it came down to shopping brands and features. (I don't buy TV's very often and I wanted something high quality that I would be satisfied with for a long time, so I was willing to pay a little extra over the more basic models.