Buying Plasma Screen - Help??

McGroogle

Got a crappy TV and just come into some cash.

I know nothing about the latest flat screen TV's and got up to £800 - 900 to spend.

Can anyone suggest the best make, price and where to get a bargain from?

Thanks alot :beer:

Mcgroogle

agent_orange_2

Hi Mcgroogle, I recently purchased the panasonic TH-42px80b
I'm really pleased with this tv.
I purchased the tv from John Lewis Dept stores, where it was on sale at £899 and got them to do a price match with Sound and vision of Bolton http://www.soundandvisiononline.com/moreinfo/index.asp?product_id=15376

The beauty of the John Lewis price match is that you get there 5 year warranty thrown in.

superscaper

agent_orange wrote: »

Hi Mcgroogle, I recently purchased the panasonic TH-42px80b
I'm really pleased with this tv.
I purchased the tv from John Lewis Dept stores, where it was on sale at £899 and got them to do a price match with Sound and vision of Bolton http://www.soundandvisiononline.com/moreinfo/index.asp?product_id=15376

The beauty of the John Lewis price match is that you get there 5 year warranty thrown in.

In my experience it took three applications and a letter to the chairman to even get them to price match a TV. Beware if you find it significantly cheaper then JL will not price match, despite what their "promise" is.

agent_orange_2

superscaper wrote: »

In my experience it took three applications and a letter to the chairman to even get them to price match a TV. Beware if you find it significantly cheaper then JL will not price match, despite what their "promise" is.

I have to disagree, I purchased my tv from John Lewis Norwich. The tv was on sale in JL at £899 and I phoned their undersales dept and asked if they would do a price match with Sound and Vision of Bolton, who had it on sale for £703. I received a letter from John Lewis about 4 days later saying they were happy to price match at £703. Not only that, you have 28 days after date of purchase should you see the tv cheaper elsewhere, you can make another claim. I phoned John Lewis about 22 days after my purchase to say Sound and Vision had dropped the price to £663 - the lady at JL said she would wait until the 28 day to price match as the price at s and v seemed to be dropping daily. I received a letter from John Lewis just after the 28 days to say they had done a final price match at £654 and they had credited my payment card with the additional £49. On top of that I had the 5 year warranty - which can cost upto £200 on some sights.
I Could not fault JL customers service, superb. :beer:


The agent

totalsolutions

Hi Try the Panasonic retail outlets also. They have all the models on show. Also get the free 5yrs g'tee. Picture quality is better than LCD and do listen to the sound output any sets you are chosing, as this is where some cheaper sets are let down, with no bass/sub woofer. There is a lot more info if you search over in techie stuff. Mostly look for Panasonic, Pioneer brands. Think about placement Wall / Cabinet / Stand as these can come in extra costings. HDMI cable cost from about £6 do not get the ones priced many times over £20 they are all the same in 'digital' terms. Lastly do make sure if you take it home yourself or have it delivered it must be kept upright, as it says on the box.

superscaper

agent_orange wrote: »

I have to disagree, I purchased my tv from John Lewis Norwich. The tv was on sale in JL at £899 and I phoned their undersales dept and asked if they would do a price match with Sound and Vision of Bolton, who had it on sale for £703. I received a letter from John Lewis about 4 days later saying they were happy to price match at £703. Not only that, you have 28 days after date of purchase should you see the tv cheaper elsewhere, you can make another claim. I phoned John Lewis about 22 days after my purchase to say Sound and Vision had dropped the price to £663 - the lady at JL said she would wait until the 28 day to price match as the price at s and v seemed to be dropping daily. I received a letter from John Lewis just after the 28 days to say they had done a final price match at £654 and they had credited my payment card with the additional £49. On top of that I had the 5 year warranty - which can cost upto £200 on some sights.
I Could not fault JL customers service, superb. :beer:


The agent

Can only give my personal experience which is absolute fact (i.e. actually happened). Customer service was appalling to me. Even to the point of people I actually spoke to saying they didn't even want to talk to me and they didn't have to have good customer service to me because I was "technically not a customer yet". I was actually doing it on behalf of my parents but considering just how bad they were (they're on my list as the second worst company I've ever dealt with) I'd never personally ever use them again.

agent_orange_2

superscaper wrote: »

Can only give my personal experience which is absolute fact (i.e. actually happened). Customer service was appalling to me. Even to the point of people I actually spoke to saying they didn't even want to talk to me and they didn't have to have good customer service to me because I was "technically not a customer yet". I was actually doing it on behalf of my parents but considering just how bad they were (they're on my list as the second worst company I've ever dealt with) I'd never personally ever use them again.

fair do's, you can only go on your own experience

swebb

agent_orange wrote: »

I have to disagree, I purchased my tv from John Lewis Norwich. The tv was on sale in JL at £899 and I phoned their undersales dept and asked if they would do a price match with Sound and Vision of Bolton, who had it on sale for £703. I received a letter from John Lewis about 4 days later saying they were happy to price match at £703. Not only that, you have 28 days after date of purchase should you see the tv cheaper elsewhere, you can make another claim. I phoned John Lewis about 22 days after my purchase to say Sound and Vision had dropped the price to £663 - the lady at JL said she would wait until the 28 day to price match as the price at s and v seemed to be dropping daily. I received a letter from John Lewis just after the 28 days to say they had done a final price match at £654 and they had credited my payment card with the additional £49. On top of that I had the 5 year warranty - which can cost upto £200 on some sights.
I Could not fault JL customers service, superb. :beer:


The agent

Who did you contact/contact number? I've seen a tv on the website that JL at over £100 more and might try the same approach.

cheers.

vansboy

here is quite alot of helpful - or confusing - stuff in http://www.avforums.co.uk. A big section on JohnLewis price match, too.

The hints above about delivery & handaling & where you'll have to stand it, at home are all well worth thinking about.

Once you've seen some sets you like, all the Curry's/Comet/Empire direct links will have clik & compare facilities, so you can see at a glance, specification differences. Several sets have Revo ratings from REAL customers.

What does seem to be showing, on a lot of these, is poor or low quality sound.

Have you thought about a surround sound system as well as TV?

For your budget, I'd have http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=LG-HT902TB & http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=LG-42PC56

But there are loads more choices, so look at them in the store, before you choose!!

VB

agent_orange_2

swebb wrote: »

Who did you contact/contact number? I've seen a tv on the website that JL at over £100 more and might try the same approach.

cheers.

I phoned JL Norwich, direct, that is the nearest branch to me. Just asked to be put through to the undersales dept. You have to ensure the tv you are price matching is available at JL and that the the retailer you are quoting has the product, in stock and available in a shop at the price you are quoting. Internet only sales sites are not accepted by JL for price matching by JL. As I've stated above, Sound and Vision of Bolton fit the criteria and seem to offer some of the best prices around.

hope this helps

superscaper

agent_orange wrote: »

I phoned JL Norwich, direct, that is the nearest branch to me. Just asked to be put through to the undersales dept. You have to ensure the tv you are price matching is available at JL and that the the retailer you are quoting has the product, in stock and available in a shop at the price you are quoting. Internet only sales sites are not accepted by JL for price matching by JL. As I've stated above, Sound and Vision of Bolton fit the criteria and seem to offer some of the best prices around.

hope this helps

In my case we fulfilled all of the criteria so they started just adding more criteria, best one was the postage price was different to our address (even though we weren't getting it delivered). You've got to be really on the ball with making sure that you fufill all of the criteria to the letter (and even extra ones they feel like adding in my case ).