I visited Walmart yesterday. They have had these new digital converter
boxes
on display for a while now. But I decided to pretend like I wanted to buy
one
and asked about it.
The first thing I asked is if I could see how well they receive. Since
these
are for over-the-air reception, I wondered how this would go, given that
they
don't do this for their TVs. The guy said they don't have a way to hook
it
up since they don't have an antenna, and even if they did, they would not
be
allowed to hook it up in the store floor since there would be too many
units
around at risk of lightning damage.
So I asked, what if I get it home and it doesn't do very well to receive
any
channels. He said I could return it and exchange it for another one.
Then I
pointed out they have only one model, and asked what if the problem is
that
this model is badly designed? So then he says I can exchange it to get my
money back, and find one somewhere else to buy.
OK, so I asked him the hard question. What if I paid for it using a
coupon to
get a $40 discount? He thought about that one. So I discussed it
further.
If the coupon cannot be refunded, that means Walmart gets $40 for no sale.
He agreed that didn't seem right, so he concluded that maybe I would get a
refund. So I asked how would that refund come? I then pointed out it
cannot
be in the form of cash or a check, as that would be redeeming the coupon
when
no sale has effectively been made, and open the system up for abuse. He
agreed
with me and finally concluded he had no answer and it would be a
complication.
I then went on and suggested that even if they had the original coupon to
just
give back to the customer, it is a dated and might not even be usable
again.
Has anyone here experienced or heard of any issues like this, and how they
may
be dealt with?
FYI, I have no intent to use such a coupon. I don't even qualify since I
have
cable TV. I am considering dropping that and switching to OTA since it
seems,
based on initial tests, that digital will get me better reception than I
have
now with analog). I'm just curious what kind of mess Wa****ngton
bureaucrats
and Congress people have foisted on the unsuspecting population of analog
TV
owners that only use antennas now.
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