Beware of Black Friday Electronic Deals
You may be one of those shoppers that will wake up early on Friday in an attempt to cash in on Black Friday deals from retailers like Walmart, Target, & Best Buy.
However, wise shoppers may wish to wait before purchasing a TV this Friday.
Forbes reports, “TV sets offered by obscure manufacturers may be of dubious quality, but consumers generally know this going in. However, what can be deceptive is that models from more well-known electronic companies — Sony or Samsung, for example — could fail to live up to expectations.
In order to offer models at bargain prices, some manufacturers produce “derivative models” — that is, scaled down versions of their normal TVs. However, most consumers don’t realize this, looking only at the brand name, the size of the screen and perhaps what type of HDTV it is (LCD, Plasma, LED, etc).
These derivative models are toned down versions of standard ones, perhaps offering a reduced number of HDMI ports or lower quality components. However, it’s hard to say — it can even be hard to tell which specific TVs are derivatives, requiring a careful scan of a model number which could total eight or nine digits.”
So are you really getting a bargain? I personally think not. These derivative models are only in production for a short period of time (maybe only a few days) which makes them more likely to have problems, they are made with cheap parts, and their warranty is poor.
At any rate, Black Friday TVs might be best thought of with a couple popular phrases: “let the buyer beware” and “you get what you pay for.”