Argos DVD Players

Johntea

Taking back my second Acoustic Solutions AS-8099 player back tomorrow, they seem to die after a few months usage

Any decent players around the same price range (£29.99) or should I shop elsewhere?

Just want a player with similar spec to the Acoustic one (spec on Argos website)

bagand96

Wouldnt go for another one of those ones then! Interestingly the Argos website states:

"An Alba DVD65 DVD player may be received. This product is of a similar specification, but cosmetically different and is multi-region"

See if they can give you one of those instead, although its doubtful as they no longer stock that line. Failing that, I'd get your £29.99 back, pocket £10 of it and order the cracking Starlogic from Amazon.co.uk : http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002LHXBG/ref=br_lf_ce_0/026-4460475-1686013

That is a great little DVD player that does absolutely everything and is an absolute bargain at £19.99!

chrisw

Argos have a silver fronted DVD for £25 but it says an Alba 65 may be received instead. I specifically asked for the Alba and they fetched one out the back. Great player.

pavlovs_dog

have you considered the replacement product cover (the insurance they try to sell you at the till)? extending the guarantee from the 1yrs manufacturer's dvd to a three yr extended warrennty will cover you for all repair costs etc. if it dies on you within that time the store will replace it for you

if anyone is interesting, look out for the green and white leaflet by the till.

oh, and dont forget to keep your receipts. no receipt=no warranty

Nex0

pavlovs_dog wrote:

have you considered the replacement product cover (the insurance they try to sell you at the till)? extending the guarantee from the 1yrs manufacturer's dvd to a three yr extended warrennty will cover you for all repair costs etc. if it dies on you within that time the store will replace it for you

if anyone is interesting, look out for the green and white leaflet by the till.

oh, and dont forget to keep your receipts. no receipt=no warranty

Why bother with the warranty on a £30 DVD player it’s the biggest con going. Technology moves so fast these days that in a years time that DVD player will be well out of date.

Your much better of putting the money you would spend on the warranty into the bank earning interest and then take it out and buy another DVD player for £30 quid which is newer and a better model should you need to.

As for no receipts and no warranty well I have to disagree with you there as items pass through are department that are over 5 years old.

pavlovs_dog

Nex0 wrote:

Why bother with the warranty on a £30 DVD player it’s the biggest con going. Technology moves so fast these days that in a years time that DVD player will be well out of date.

i dont fully agree with you there...to the point that, if it dies on you towards the end of your extended warrenty, the specific model you currently own would have been RO'd many moons and catalogues ago, and it would be replaced with one to the equivilent value of what you paid, which, being a current catalogue line, would be more in line with current specifications.

if you buy what is essentially one of the cheapest DVD players argos sells (even if it is a fairly good spec for the price), you cant be all that surprised if it dies on you after a short time, because sadly things are not built to last these days. true, they should not be dying on you within the manufacturors warrenty, but no batch of goods to ever roll off a production line will be perfect.


as for the receipt/warrenty thing, true, it does very much depend on the good will/lack of training given to whoever serves you on customer services that day, but not all stores are as relaxed as yours in taking goods that old, and to cover your bases and ensure your basic consumer rights you should always keep your receipts. ( i know in my store, if there's no receipt and we think people are trying it on, we go through old catalogues to get a rough idea of when it was purchased. after a yr (or two (three at most) catalogues), the company isnt liable for most products, and even though it may sound harsh, that is often the line that is taken, especially when the customer is told at till/collection/on receipt that it is important to keep it as proof of purchase and guarantee yadda yadda yadda).

Nex0

Your right that things aren’t built to last these days it’s an interesting thought though because if my Sony TV broke down just after my warranty expired then I certernally wouldn’t buy another Sony. S

o thinking of it like that that would only push me to another brand and so Sony would lose out on money so thinking of it that way are things built to last or are companies just trying to penny pinch by using cheaper components?.

I still believe extended warranty’s are a waste of time personally id rather take a chance and keep my money in the bank earning interest rather then get a warranty out on such a cheap item. Id proberly look at it differently if the item was more expensive.

I don’t actually work in a store I work in one of the warehouses which deals with all the customer returns so I have a very good picture on the items being returned and to be honest it’s not good.

We get a lot of empty boxes being returned ipod's in particular are a big problem at the moment. The other big problem we have is the wrong item being returned in the box and car stereos are a classic for this.

For example you could go and purchase a £300 quid state of the art Sony radio from Argos talk your old one out of you car and put that in the Sony box take it back to the store and get you money back via the 16 day money back guarantee.

So what happens there were down £400 quid and they have nice shiny new stereo in there car which didn’t cost them toffee crisp.

I’ve noticed most people try that trick on a busy sat afternoon when the store is rammed and they just want you out as quickly as possible especially if you start kicking of because it looks bad for them.

But at the end of the day nowadays in stores you have got kids that have just left school working there for peanuts so what does Argos expect?

I’ve seen them being shouted at by customers who’s goods are faulty and they wanting it sorting now and at the end of the day if your being paid peanuts your just going to give it them just to shut them up and get them out of your face.

pavlovs_dog

like most things these days, its a case of weighing up the pros and cons.

some of the insurance deals cover you for accidental damage, so in that sense it can be worthwhile. what you do have to bear in mind is if you buy something in a sale, and you take out insurance, you are only covered for the amount you paid - so even if it is normally worth double what you paid for at the time, you will only get a replacement up to the value you paid on the day.


i think one of the biggest complaints about companies like argos is that things get put back into stock that shouldnt be (check out the are argos goods substandard thread if you're interested). there is a lot of pressure put on stores - targets etc, and when you're on customer services if someone returns something that is even halfway re-saleable we are urged to put it back into stock. if we dont comply with this, and damage things off which, in the company's eyes, could have been put back into stock, we get it in the neck - our cashier number is on every damage/returns sticker, on every item we adjust on the stock system etc. we leave a trail, so it pays to comply. the downside is that we then have to serve people on customer services who have been given an item that has been returned, and fair enough, they aint happy. if doing so helps keep costs down, then the customer wins, but if the RTS stock which really should have been damaged off is reaching the customer, well then thats not so good.


we get a lot of people trying it on at our store, and as a result we've had to become quite strict, to protect the geuine customers. what you said about customer service and saturdays is true of some stores - at ours, we can get 4 peeps on that dept at any given time, even more at christmas say, so everyone gets proper service, and the company doesnt get conned.


as for the things not being built to last debate, i think a big part of the issue is our disposable society. if soething breaks, people chuck it out and get a new one, rather than taking it apart to see what the problem is, or hunting down a part to fix it. i think the big companies know this, and with low prices, they encourage it. at the till, we have to offer customers insurance etc if the message pops up on the till. it could be 99p to cover something which costs a fiver - the number of people who turn around and say 'if it lasts a year, i'll have got my moneys worth so i'll just buy a new one' never fails to amaze me. they dont seem to realise that they are telling these big companies that its ok to make goods with a self destruct after x years components!!!