just bought a new panasonic dmr-e30, guy at best buy said..

[HOWITIS]

that i needed to bring it back every 6 months for a 70 dollar cleaning. this struck me as pretty strange, he said that a regular cleaning disk wouldn't work, and it needed to be taken apart and cleaned from the inside or it would have a short life. whats the down low on this? is best buy just trying to bend me over a little more to deliver the final blow?

[wulf109]

Did he also offer you an extended service contract? Yes he's bending you over to xxxx up the xxx.
Normal use will keep your laser clean unless you run the unit with the enclosure off in a dusty enviremnet.

[HOWITIS]

ya it was 200 bucks, i told him to keep it, i'd take my chances.

[arealgijoe]

8)

Best $ale$ does it again!

When I bought my first DVD or 2 there I was told the same BS thing.

I have a Panaosnic E-30 and love it. GREAT as tony the tiger would say.

I did not buy mine at wror$t Sales, their price just too high. I bought mine from 6th ave using a link on here. $500 aprox delivered. Took teh extra ca$h saved and bought a burnner. So I have a E-30 and a DVD-R/ram burnner for about teh same (or le$$) than jsut a E-30 at Be$t $ales or cir-city.

JD on my $oap box.

[YukonXL]

I don't think BestBuy is all that bad. Basically it's just like Fry's Electronics. As long as you go in there knowing stuff (what you want/need, prices, etc.) Then I just ignore the sales people and when I make my decision then that's that. I only bought an "extended warrenty" once and that was on my Sony Wega TV. $39 for an extra 4 years. I call that a steal. Also, bought the TV for $800 18 months no interest financing. I got a lemon (made a loud noise everytime I turned it on), so on the 29th day I returned and and then rung me up with no problems. In fact, the TV was on sale at the time $50 less at that time. I didn't even know it until they rung me up and gave me the sale price with financing. The place I DISPISE is Circuit City. Walk through the door and already have 5 people wanting to sell you stuff. What a crap place.

[wulf109]

It's far more important to make sure the disks you use are clean. I alway clean rented disks with glass cleaner before playing. I got a disk from Netflix that was so filthy I had to soak it in alcohol before cleaning it just to get tthe caked on crud off it.

[HOWITIS]

ya i thought the whole thing was bogus, i hate sales people period. i can't stand for them to bother me, but i guess there just trying to make a few green backs, so best of luck to them.

has anyone ever actually used a warrenty? also, all sony wegas make a loud noise when you first turn them on, something about charging the screen or something. my 32inch trinitron has always done it.

[HOWITIS]

one other funny thing the guy told me was that alot of the recorders were brought back by people thinking they could just hook it up and start copying dvds, he made sure this was not my intention (and its not). you'd think people who had vcrs for such a long period of time would realize that dvd recorders would have similar protection.

[fmctm1sw]

As long as you go in there knowing stuff (what you want/need, prices, etc.)

I'm a huge believer in this. If you go into any store and don't know as much or more as the guy trying to jam you with that particular product, you are making a mistake. I've always researched everything I've bought. Even that cheap a$$ Apex DVD player I have. Maybe the salesperson know his stuff, maybe not. I don't take the chance......

[YukonXL]

has anyone ever actually used a warrenty? also, all sony wegas make a loud noise when you first turn them on, something about charging the screen or something. my 32inch trinitron has always done it.

I that's what they told me too, and I told them that this wasn't a normal "noise". Basically I could be out of the room with the door closed and I can hear my girlfriend turn on the TV. When I got the TV replaced and turned it on the first time.. it sounded a whole lot better and quiter.

[mikejf]

I recently bought the HS2 and have 20 more days left to decide to keep it or return it. I plan on keeping it. The store offeres a FIVE year anything-goes-wrong extended warranty for about $150. I rarely buy extended warranties but I plan for SURE on getting the extended warranty because I know for sure I'll be putting the HS2 thru heavy daily use and with a hard drive in this thing, it could die anytime without warning. You're lucky if a hard drive lasts 5 years (with heavy daily use).

Plus, these dvd recorders are still new and very complex technology and who knows what bugs might develop in a few years. Plus the warranty covers power surges.

[calebu2]

When I told Best Buy that I did not want the $200 service contract, I said "I just spent almost $1k on a DVD recorder - I don't have the money for a service contract, in fact where do you keep the cheap cables because I can't afford the Monster cables". The guy looked like he had just seen somebody get shot in the head right in front of him. I'm sure he was bummed about the lack of commission.

Anyway, Panasonic offers a similar extended warranty for about $50 cheaper. Which I knew would be the case from the time I bought a HP laptop from CompUSA and got the CompUSA service agreement with it. It was $100 more expensive than the HP one, but offered "in store servicing". So when my DVD drive failed, I was psyched that i was just going to have to send it in to CompUSA and get them to fix it. Unfortunately, they told me that for anything other than a simple memory upgrade, they would have to send it off to HP's service center after keeping it on a shelf for two days at the store for bookkeeping reasons. When I bitched enough about it, they let me have the money back and HP were more than happy to get a cut of the profits.

For something that gets as banged around as a laptop, the service agreement is almost worth it (especially with HP, who seem to think that it was their engineer who damaged the screen - and gave me a brand new $400 screen on the laptop . Just don't go with the store version. Anyway, that story wasn't very A/V related - apologies - if it will make it more on topic, I have exact audio copy installed on the laptop

Steve

[Arky]

Also be aware that many retailers get a discount from the manufacturer if they waive the original manufacturer's guarantee and repair units with their own workshops/engineers instead. Thus, you may find that the most heavily-discounted prices do not include the original manufacturer's warranty, although it is highly unlikely that this will be made clear at the point of sale.

Personally, I would always go for an original guarantee and have the peace of mind that, should my unit develop a fault, it will be repaired by qualified engineers, not by monkeys!


Arky ;o)

[thxkid]

yes I buy extended warranties have gotten a Free THX amp out of one, 4 new SVHS Editing decks, one professional SONY 8mm Camcorder, I bought a 2 year for $89 on my $600 E20 from Circuit city,no I would not spend $200 on one either but thats why I don't buy from those rip offs Best Buy.

[donpedro]

It depends... Sometimes I buy it too... It paid off twice.

Panasonic VHS VCR was exchanged for exchanged for JVC SQPB too years later (much better than old one).

Philips boombox for new one after 2 yaers too.

Some products have tendency to break