Many people prefer to buy high-end electronics from an actual brick and mortar store. They probably do this for three reasons:

1. they get the opportunity to talk to a sales person while shopping
2. they are worried about how shipping takes place
3. they want the ability to return the product

There are also shortcomings to shopping at a B&M store:

1. you are limited to the products that the store has in their warehouse
2. you can be pressured by a sales person to buy something that you don’t necessarily want or that doesn’t meet your needs
3. you may be helped by a sales person that is either biases, is not knowledgeable, or is working on some sort of commission

For the past couple of months, I have been researching the purchase of a HDTV for a client that I work with. We decided to purchase from a local B&M store that specializes in home theater installation. The two main reasons for this is because of customer support and so that the HDTV could be properly mounted by a professional; I am an amateur in that field. For those that are interested, we ended up ordering a Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR5.

For Christmas, my family received a rather large bonus. We decided to spend the bonus on a HDTV. After all, in February 2009, all TVs have to accept digital signals; which by the way, is different from high definition television. Since I had already done the majority of the research for business reasons, I knew what to buy so this was going to be a lot easier for my family especially since our needs are not too complex.

As we all are probably aware, prices for electronics are amazingly cheap the week after Christmas and for the majority of January. I did some comparison shopping on-line at BestBuy.com, CircuitCity.com, Amazon.com, and Buy.com. For the model that I wanted, the Samsung LN-T4661F, the cheapest location was Amazon.com.

One might hesitate to make this kind of purchase on Amazon.com and I completely understand. Remember that you can do your research on both the Internet and in B&M stores. You are not limited to using only one. If you are worried about sales pressure in a B&M store, I recommend that you purposefully leave your wallet or purse at home; after all, you can’t make a purchase without a credit card and they let you apply for an in-store credit card without some sort of identification.

Here are some advantages when purchasing an HDTV from Amazon.com:

1. tax free
2. no shipping and handling charges
3. ability to check product for shipping damages (they also take the box away if you want)
4. 30-day price protection (see RefundPlease.com)

The only disadvantage to purchasing on Amazon.com is the ability to return the product. That can be a big issue if the product doesn’t have any shipping damages on it. If the product is damaged during shipping all you have to do is refuse the package. For customer support, you will still be covered by the warranty that comes with the product. This just means that you get in contact with the manufacturer when the product needs to be serviced. Depending on the manufacturer, you might be able to purchase an additional extended warranty before your current warranty expires.

Different people have different experiences with the shipping company that Amazon.com uses to deliver HDTVs. They use a company called “Eagles USA” on your order information. This company is actually called “CEVA Logistics” (use link to track your order with more accuracy, the tracking number is found on your Amazon.com order). Once the order has been shipped to a “local” distributor, I live in Allentown, PA so when the order was shipped somewhere close to Philadelphia, PA, call CEVA Logistics (1-800-888-4949, M-F from 8am - 5pm CST) to schedule a delivery appointment. For the order that I had delivered by CEVA Logistics, I made my appointment for Friday and anytime after 12pm. Luckily, I had decided to take the whole day off to do various other things. I say this because they actually showed up at 10:40am to deliver the order. So, keep in mind that they may be early or they may be late.

One other thing to keep in mind is the price trend for the product. Watch the cost of the product several times a day for a week or two and try to get it for the best price possible but don’t be too greedy. If you wait too long, you might end up being shocked with a higher price-tag. Within the same day, it is not odd for the price to go up or down a couple of dollars. If the price goes down about $15 a day, for 3 consecutive days, it is probably a good time to buy before the price goes up again. When I bought my HDTV, Amazon.com was selling it for $1,479.99. Within one week the price was $1,699.99, and now it is $1,549.99. Remember that you have the RefundPlease.com website to help you track the cost for 30-days after your purchased the product. All you have to do is get in contact with Amazon.com and they will credit your account the difference; even if you ask them multiple times.

If you have any tips for buying things on-line, feel free to leave a comment.