From the Weekend Files

I got a new battery for my watch on Sunday; it seems to be behaving now.

I got the copy of the receipt and serial number sent off to Vizio.

Why?

Because they wanted to research the history of the TV we just bought.

Why would they want to research it?

It's a long story, got a couple minutes?

Sure

We've been wanting a new TV for a while now, the old one was losing its picture off the edges and it was getting hard to read the scores of games. We kinda decided we wanted a 42" LCD HDTV. And we didn't want to spend a lot for it. About a year ago I suggested we wait until Super Bowl time, TVs usually go on sale then. But that came and went and we were still with a 25" CRT.

I went to BJ's and looked at their selection and found the 37" TVs were under $800, the larger units were $1000 or more. Yuck.

This past Saturday Dan, Kevin and I went back to BJ's (in the Honda Fit) to look and the same selection I'd seen the week before. But what I didn't do was turn the corner to look at the mumbo-sized units, the 50s and the 65s. And there at the end of the shelf was a discontinued display unit on sale, a 50" Vizio plasma HDTV, for $719.

Hot Dog.

I snatch the shelf tag and go to customer service to let them know we want that TV. While they are looking for the remote and manual I pay for the rest of our things. How are we going to get a 50" TV and the three of us home in the Fit?

Well, it turns out they couldn't find the remote & manual pack. It was supposed to be filed by item number with all the other packs from the other products on display. I ask what kind of compensation I'd get if they couldn't find the remote. $675.

I took Dan and Kevin home and drove back to buy the TV. I asked them to look again for the accessory pack to no avail. They helped me load the new TV into the car and off I went.

Dan and I moved the old TV and put the new one on the old stand. Meanwhile, Fern didn't know what was up. The first time she walked into the room, she was amazed.

Sunday I called Vizio tech support in hopes to get them to send me the accessory pack. They wanted to know the model number and the serial number.
It seems they were an invalid pair, could I please send them a copy of the receipt and the serial number, they would have to do more research.

To aid in this research, I photographed the back of the TV and sent them the serial number in picture form. That was when I discovered the serial number on the back of the TV didn't match the shelf tag from the store. It was a different unit altogether, still a 50" plasma, but the 2007 model, not the 2008. Sheesh.

Monday I called BJ's back and told them my discovery. The nice lady there found me a remote and told me she is supposed to charge me for it since I got a discount on the TV in the first place but then explained it was their own stupidity they'd lost it so it would be free for me. Yay.

I printed the manual from Vizio's site and now I just need Vizio to come through with the HD connection cables and all will be well. Oh, yeah, I guess I have to call the satellite and order HD service. And so on and so forth...