Daily Home Renovation Tips

Last time, I wrote about the purchase of our replacement High Definition Satellite Receiver. To remain on topic, I did not tell you about my issues while at the retailer.

Let me do that now so (A) you have the full sense of my frustrations on the weekend and (B) you can hopefully avoid these for yourself. 

I went to the Future Shop store in our area where we purchased the original unit about 5 years ago.

The person who I spoke with over the phone was busy with another customer when I arrived so I dealt with another gentleman.

As mentioned yesterday, this satellite receiver was on sale for 25% less at one of their competitors.

When I mentioned this to this salesperson, he said that I was wrong.

He indicated that these receivers only go on sale for new subscribers to the satellite company’s service and that the reduced price was really in the form of activation credits or free movie channels for a month or two.

I told him that I was aware of this type of promotional practice and had already checked the competitor’s web site but could not find any asterisks or fine print.

He blew me off, not believing me.

Worse, he wouldn’t take the time to even check this out for himself to be sure who was right.

Sigh.

Perhaps I was wrong after all.

When I arrived home with the new satellite receiver and HDMI to DVI connector adaptor, the first thing I did was not to hook up the new HD satellite receiver, shown on top of its box in the picture below:

Rather, I went back on the Internet to the store’s competitor’s web site to check to see their price.

Sure enough I was right; there was no fine print or asterisk related to the sale price.

To be absolutely sure, I then called up the competitor’s store in our area and asked them to confirm the price which they did.

So, I called back the Future Shop store  to have a chat with the customer service person about this.

After a quick discussion she agreed that I was indeed correct. She also indicated that the sales associate should have at least checked the competitor’s web site to be certain rather than assuming I was wrong. That would have been easy enough to do as the store sells lots and lots of computers which are connected to the Internet out on display.

So, all I needed to do was to return in the near future with the receipt and I would receive both the $50 in price reduction plus $5 (10% of the price difference).

And, as I was to learn later that day, my return to the Future Shop store would be sooner than I would think, for my adventures in simply replacing a 5 year old HD satellite receiver were about to take a more frustrating turn.

Select this link to continue to our woes with the satellite TV’s customer service (so you can aviod them).