I am not one to spend too much time shopping. However, our DVD player ("home theater*") blew up. Bang and a little poof of smoke. It was made by RCA and had just a one year warranty. It was a bit too expensive so I am not anxious to buy a replacement or end up paying almost what it cost to have it repaired.The truth is we don't really a new DVD player because we have a compound entertainment system. A TV Tuner that feeds the LCD Monitor and a Computer that feeds sound and video to the TV Tuner. The TV Tuner used to feed the audio to the DVD Player for nice sound.
Since the DVD player blew up we've had sucky sound from the TV Tuner box. Worse than an old transistor AM radio. The computer plays DVD's just fine, so all we really need are some decent speakers. Using a boombox or mini component gives us a radio too.
Now the key feature needed is an aux input so we can connect the TV Tuner to the Boombox (hopefully the new Boombox won't go BOOM! like the RCA Home Theater System).
I checked out a few stores at the mall and one had the best selection. They had a really nice Panasonic Mini Component system. It had two major faults that prevented me from buying it:
- It lacked a price tag. Everything else in the store had a price tag, but not the Panasonic Mini Component system I liked. In such a situation I am not inclined to ask a sales person... this is a store I walked into almost a year ago ready to buy a laptop but was ignored by all the staff for 15 minutes so I left with my credit card and found the exact same laptop in the grocery store for US$100 less).
- As I pondered breaking down and speaking with a sales clerk (well, I had already been ignored for more than 15 minutes, so maybe I am just clueless about how to give that store my hard earned money!) I noticed that the Panasonic unit had a "music port". Ah! Is that to feed music TO the box, or plug in headphones and get music FROM the BOX!?!? Uh oh! Panasonic you screwed up with that ambigious design.
So, Panasonic and the store lost out there.
I noticed they had a nice selection of boom boxes. The most expensive one was from Sony and had an aux in and headphone jack. It was too expensive and I think it is bad idea to buy the most expensive item of any selection.
Now, with some "reasonable" prices and some with aux in and headphone jacks were some Philips boomboxes. They also had a few other brands, none with an apparent aux in. Your thinking, ok, Wilbur, what's the problem. The price was right and it had an aux in. Everything you're looking for!
Yes, except they were Philips Brand. I had just received a reply from the CEO of Philips a month after I complained to him about a defective blender I purchased. He didn't say much except who he was referring my complaint to.
A little over a month ago I purchased a new, Philips blender and it didn't work when I got it home. I also believe the design is flawed and if it had worked, it wouldn't have worked for long. Some people believe that low quality, old and/or defective electronic junk is dumpped on South America. I am starting to climb aboard that train.
I had returned to the store in hopes of getting my blender replaced. When I said it didn't turn on, everyone started saying "click" "click"... maybe they were hoping I was in that Movie and could just rewind things and they'd be done with me! I believe a lot of customers have trouble with that Blender and don't click it hard enough for the interlock to work.
With mine, though it wouldn't click at all and you had to use all your might to momentarily twist it enough to get it to turn on for just a second. After they tested it and decide that indeed it was defective they asked if I wanted another Blender that was identical. Now, this is where it gets fun.
I affirmed that indeed I did. I was then asked if I wanted tape. That seemed to be a strange question until I realized all this time had been spent for nothing. I was going to be sent someplace else to exchange it and probably go through the whole CLICK experience again. I was a bit Clicked Off to put it nicely.
I decide that it would be a lot better use of my time to forget the whole thing, so I simply bolted from the store leaving the crappy Philips blender behind. I purchased a nice Blender from Brazil and I am sure spent much less time than messing around with the Philips thing.
I complained to the store, the CEO of Philips and decided that in shopping for small applicances, Philips would not be on the list. The store did call about a week later and left a message that my blender was ready to be picked up. I haven't bothered wasting my time to see if they have my defective blender waiting for me or a functional one.
Oh! I am still without speakers! I'll probably go to a store that is more anxious for my money and purchase a Sony boombox... maybe the grocery store carries those!
* Home Theater is just a new word that means too many wires and spending too much money.
