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Anyone heard of this ? Possible "scam" ?

My girlfriends parents just purchased a big screen HDTV. Don't know make, model or who they purchased it from. It is supposedly a local place with two branches, but that is all that i could find out.

However, my girlfriend spoke to her mother today and was given some more info about the transaction. Her mother stated that the tv is due for delivery on Tuesday. The company will deliver it, but will not install or connect any accessories such as vcr, cable box, etc... to it. She was also told that the tv should not have power applied for 24 hours, as the transition from cold outdoor temperature to warm indoor temperature could damage the unit, even more-so if the unit was "fired up". The only reason that i know this much is that i was asked to come by and hook everything up for them sometime after that.

Quite honestly, this sounds like some type of scam. What company would sell a product to you, tell you not to use it for a period of time and then make it more difficult to use ( for the average consumer ) by not installing it ??? As some of you may be aware, current TV's can be pretty confusing to the "electronically challenged" due to the phenomenal amount of input and output jacks, etc...

Has anybody else ever heard of such a thing ? Is the temperature change situation something peculiar to HDTV's ? My big screen ( non HDTV ) was delivered a year ago December and they fired her right up once they hooked jup the basics. Any thoughts or comments welcome as i don't want to see them get taken. Sean
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sean
makisupa
5 posts
 
The 24 hour waiting period is a good idea. The CRTs in the TV are liquid cooled. It would not be a good idea to fire up the CRTs if the cooling liquid was not at room temperature. This could cause condensation on the CRT face or worse (but fairly unlikely) the pressure differential could hurt the CRT in several ways (breaking the seal, cracking the lens, etc.).

As far as the lack of setup, as mentioned previously, it could just be the retailer's policy. Who know whats going through the head of most chain store retailers...

Hope this was of help.
judit
217 posts
 
Bringing the HDTV to thermal equilibrium makes sense.
However, what does not make sense is buying something
as expensive as an HDTV without any support for
installation and set up. What's up with the vendor?
sean OP
6,229 posts
 
No scam involved. They delivered the TV first thing Tuesday morning. 8 AM to be exact. I guess that they "assume" that if they hook it up for someone, that person will PROBABLY turn it on the moment that they leave. Since that could increase warranty claims that they have to deal with, they probably make it as hard as possible for us to screw things up : )

This is not to mention that they are not liable should a component not work correctly upon re-installation and power up. I have had that happen to me on the bench and believe me, it's not fun fixing things for free when you had NOTHING to do with them breaking. Sean
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bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
Sean haven't you ever brought a cold scope inside from a service vehicle & then tried immediately to use it? That cold glass tube has condensate all over it; when the high voltage is applied it will find an alternate path through the moisture to ground. If you're lucky the instrument just shuts down via safety trip; if not then it can get expensive pretty quickly.
I think they're pretty smart to not connect your equipment initially. They just know that you're gonna fire it up asap, so even if joe average consumer does get everything connected it will take several hours & by then it's a safe bet to apply power anyway. As a low overhead outfit, they're also smart to not connect the ancilliaries for you. This "simple task" can turn a brief housecall into an overnighter - I know...
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