I’m curious if anyone has any personal experience with or qualified opinions on the purchase of floor model electronics vs. brand new units. Specifically, I’m curious about HDTVs but I’d certainly welcome your perception of their (floor model) value on the whole.
Not to sidetrack the thread, but here’s why I ask. I just signed a contract with an A/V store for an HDTV and all the home theater trimmings, upgrading what was a pretty decent system into something several appreciable notches beyond that. I looked hard at the price but the quality of the pieces and having an expert, everything perfect upon completion install made me pull the trigger. All well and good except I discovered this afternoon that the HDTV, the Sony RDF60WF655 rear projection LCD I purchased is a floor model, not fresh from crate. I’ll take responsibility for that, although privately with the salesperson I’ve made my displeasure quite well known.
Here’s my quandry… a floor unit that’s been used as a display for (they say) 3 months gets me a $400 discount. I’m figuring 650+ hours are on the set. I’m a little upset with the company, but it is discounted beyond it’s use. Opinions?
Oh, and thank you Sam Stone, spingears and many others for your HD and Home Theater threads and replies on this board which I was able to search out, read through and learn from. Much appreciated!
We bought a ProScan (RCA) HDTV set a couple of years ago that had been a floor model. It was a 36-inch glass CRT set, with a 4x3 screen. It came with a full warranty, and we purchased an extended warranty. Fortunately, when the thing failed, it was still under the extended warranty (just barely). RCA was unable to get parts with which to fix the set, and after a few months of dickering, they replaced it with a much nicer 42-inch HDTV rear-projection set which is 16x9, a format that we prefer.
The rather rapid failure of the original set may have been due to its service as a store demo, but there’s no way to be certain. If you buy a floor model, you may want to consider getting an extended warranty.
Some models of HDTV suffer from image brightness/contrast degradation as they’re used. I don’t know that much about them, but with 650 hours on the unit you might want to find out if the technology that model uses has that problem.
That’s the equivalent of about 8-12 months of actual ownership time.
Then there’s the issue of people playing around with the controls - dunno how much of a difference it makes, but when I’ve seen folks messing with display models, I’m thinking of drivers of rental cars…
My folks bought a 45" big screen TV ten years ago (well, it was a big screen back then) and it was a floor model. It’s worked spectacularly since then without very few problems. Plus, it was warrantied like any other ‘new’ TV.
Every TV since then that they’ve bought new … psssh.
If you like what you saw at the store I would think that you would be alright with the floor model. I assume you are getting a new set warranty. The rear projection models have a bulb and there is a life span to them so that would be my main concern considering the hours that are on the set because they aren’t real cheap.
I’m thinking that 650 hours is a low estimate. Three months is 90 days and that would mean it was on only 7.2 hours out of each day. If it’s someone like Circuit City I’d assume they keep the thing on during the working day (~12 hours) and possibly longer, hitting around 1000 hours.
Personally floor models are pretty much all I buy. We bought a 32" Sony Wega 6 years ago as a floor model, and it’s worked without a problem. For $350 off, it was worth it to me. I guess it just depends on what you feel comfortable with.
We buy floor models all the time, in fact we seek them out for the discount. For a tv like yours though, I might be wary. I don’t know much about them, we don’t have one but they seem to be more sensitive than some other products. For example, we bought display models of a DVD player, a stove, and a regular tv but those kinds of things are not likely to get messed up or hours of use on the floor. People are attracted to the high end tv’s and like to play with them even if they are not looking to buy one so yours has probably been messed with more. If the discount is worth it to you I would say go for it.
What kind of store did you get it from? Was your tv prominently displayed or in a corner somewhere? Was it the only one of it’s kind or one of many that could be on?
It’s a high end A/V Home Theater store, as they’re installing everything I’m replacing… receiver, speakers, HD local ant., sub, conditioner, wiring, etc. This one was in a room with other LCDs, DLPs and Plasmas so they could be compared head to head (and it did so rather nicely). A salesperson is always there, the sound is off on all of them and there’s not any “fiddiling” going on that I could tell. They have agreed to throw in a $300 lamp. It’s a good deal, 700 in savings plus the same warranty, but if after finally taking the plunge and spending what I am, I’m gonna be really upset with myself if things start quickly going wrong or if the quality is obviously less than new.
Are lamps the only thing that degrades on this technology? Can the rest be counted on to remain reasonably stable?
In terms of stereo equipment I think they’re great. Virtually every piece I have I bought a little used, either off audiogon or discounted floor models.
TV’s I’d be just a little more discriminating, but most higher-end stuff is not going to have had three-year olds yanking on them for any length of time. If there are no obvious issues with something like burn-in in the screen or some magnetic weirdness ( color fades or distortion near the edge ), I would think they would be okay. Unless you are buying a really old model, the chance of them sitting out there long enough to seriously compromise their life expectancy is probably reasonably low.
For the purchase your describing I would say you are safe with the floor model and the discount seems fair.
Unless the tv is setting at floor level in a WalMart I don’t think it will have been worn at all besides the hours put on the set. Demos usually have a direct feed of a source and therefore the only button pushes they get are on and off once a day.
Any wear will be physical on the exterior and would be immediately noticeable.
You may want to check the following before accepting the set after they install it:
-Check the screen for any scratches, streaks, blemishes that may have occured while it was on display or in transport.
-Check all the buttons on the remote and set to make sure they work, especially the power button on the set that would have gotten mashed by an overeager employee powering up/down the sets everyday.
-Check the connections on the back of the set to make sure none of them are loose. When the set is hooked up at the store and somone wants to check the back of it it’s not uncommon for the cords to be yanked and the connections broken.
-Check with a blue screen (like a non-used input setting) to see if there are any defective pixels on the set.
Good that they included an extra bulb. That pretty much solves the “hour used” problem.
I’d encourage any further opinions as it’s really been enjoyable reading everyone’s comments, but I’ve made a decision about my little portion of the subject here. The stories being posted though will, I’m sure, be useful on down the road.
They can get me a new set but it’s back-ordered and can’t be here by the date I need. To make up for it, in addition to the spare lamp (which I can save) they’re throwing in a 5 year full warranty that includes lamps, parts, labor and in-home maintenance service, something I’d at first declined for $399. I may not have to buy a lamp for 8 or 9 years. So, in addition to the discount, throwing a bit of a fit raised my savings from 400 to $1100. Those cool beans I can live with.
The 61" Pioneer Elite Plasma right next to it I used for comparrison was just a tad warmer in it’s color, but other than that - no difference between the quality of the two displays.
They’re programming a Harmony Universal Learning Remote for me so no worries there but all your other suggestions are applicable and excellent. Thanks!
Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. All are appreciated.
One thing about electronic equipment is that if it’s going to go, it will probably go in the first few months of use. So you can view it as these guys having put it through an unusually thorough quality control.
(Heck, the thing I’d worry about is that if the TV had been on the sales floor for three months then at the rate technology is changing, it must be an obsolete dinosaur by now
Sounds like a great deal from what you are describing. I would snap it up and feel fine about it. I was picturing a tv sitting out at Best Buy, but it sounds like you are dealing with quality people here.
