JL's Price Promise - my stiff test for it....

So, I'm after a Sharp LC-37GA3 LCD TV. John Lewis' online price is a whopping £3795!

A quick google search brings up hiway hifi offering them at £2199.99 and they have a London showroom into which you can go and buy said screen - this is important as the JL price promise stipulates you must be able to walk in off the street and buy it at the price they are being asked to match - they don't price match with internet only stores.

So I went into the Bristol (Cribbs Causeway) branch of JL and spoke with the young salesman - I got him to confirm they have them in stock (which they do) and I then asked him how the price promise works. Basically you fill in a form, it goes to the JL admin people, they check it out and then call you in 3 days to let you know if they will match the price or not.

I did warn the chap that I'd seen it A LOT cheaper which is probably why he didn't faint when I told him hiway's price (he was probably thinking "you're taking the piss mate" though).

So the forms have been filled in and I should hear Saturday or Monday. I'll keep you all informed - if it goes through that will be a FORTY TWO percent reduction in price!

Matt.

 

good luck
result will be interesting

 

dont you think john lewis is a bit over priced anyways?

 

If they advertise this price promise don't they have to stick to it by law? Some times they have a get out clause which says the item must be an official UK model. I.e purchased from Sharp UK and not imported.

It really makes me wonder exactly how much profit they do make on this stuff and who is daft enough to pay more than 40% over the odds.

 

its for pooosh people dont you know.
the rest of us buy the same products for as lot less but we cant say "it came from john lewis dont you know"
saying "it came from argos dont you know" just dosent have the same ring to it.

 

Bugger - JL just phoned - they can't match it as apparently (and I will check this out) although hiway hifi have a showroom where you can view gear, you can't actually buy it in that showroom but have to purchase it via the internet.

Oh well, I guess I could just buy it from hiway but I kind of thought I might do better with JL if there are any dead pixels etc.

Alternatively, there is always the Panny 42PW6 plasma at £1500 - the downside is the need to buy the input boards and table top stand - would still cost less than the Sharp though.

Matt.

 

My mate has got huge discounts at JL using price matching like that. For warranty and returns you're likely to be far better supported by JL than many more, ahem, fly by nite outfits.

Michael.

 

Matt,

Go for the Panny Plasma from AV sales. They are a quality outfit. We have recently bought one and the service was absolutely superb and the plasma is bloody good value for money at this price.

Cheers, Robbo,

PS, you'd be proud of me, I have just taken receipt of a very nice sub from your fave manufacturer.

 

Cheers Robbo. As it happens I had a word with a fellow that knows regarding plasma and LCD - his very words were "LCD is fine for the kitchen or the bedroom". He also reckoned it's worth paying the extra for the Panny PW7 - and it's only £100 more than the PW6 at avsales (plus I'd prefer silver anyway).

So that looks like the way I'll be going. I just need to work out whether to go for a HDMI out or a DVI out DVD player (and obviously that effects what boards I will need on the PW7).

Funny thing is, back when I had a top surround sound set up I only had a 32" CRT, now I'm going for a plasma, I've only got a stereo set up and the speakers aren't even either side of the TV! Worry not though as this will be remedied when we move to a bigger house where there will be two separate rooms for the system (and the plasma will be wall mounted with three small quality satellites growing out of the wall beneath it).

By the way, which sub model did you end up going for?

Matt.

 

Along these lines, I got PC world to drop the ADSL modem router I wanted from £129.99 to £61.63 to match dabs.com's price. They didn't have an issue with price matching to the online store because I made clear that I was perfectly happy to buy from dabs.

 

I got a DD12.

The HDMI board is not currently available on the PW7 I believe. The DVI input may not be that useful as it doesnt work well with the PAL 50 hz signals.

Those in the know over on AV forums say that component is virtually the same as the digital inputs on the pannys so it may not be worth worrying about too much. I'd just get the free 2 slot component/composite board for the time being.

 

John Lewis have always offered exempleray service where I am concerned, I always try to buy electrics from there espcially computers as you get 2 years on it where it normally is one year.

They are a bit more expensive and the only problem I have with them is that they sometimes carry oldish stock which they don't reduce in price, I think basically they don't scour the highstreet checking the best price they just set a price and stick with it.

 

I'm probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but......

You are aware of the differences in technical specs - particularly resolution - of the lower priced Plasmas vs the pricier ones aren't you?


GTM

 

There's a note at the bottom of the Hiway website that says the instore prices aren't as good as the website ones. There always seems to be a get out for the price matching.

Personally I prefer the higher resolution and picture from an LCD screen to the plasmas but am quite keen to see one of the SED screens that are coming out next year. They have the advantages of being flat but also low power consumption with the brightness and viewing angle of a CRT.

 

GTM,

It wasnt so long ago (less than 1 year) that the panasonic PW6 was one of the expensive plasmas at over £3K. it has really dropped down in price at an amazing rate and can be had over the net for £1500, which makes it barely more expensive than the poor quality budget plasmas.

True, the PW6 (and new PW7) has only 480x852 resolution, but feed it a good signal and it can look astonishingly good. It can take 720p and 1080p signals so is hi def compatible and it looks best with a scaled 720p signal. The only real disadvantage is that if you want to use it as a PC monitor when its resolution is not really adequate. The high definition models are available at a £1K price premium for those who need to use a PC or are fanatics about picture quality.

For £1500 you really cannot go wrong with the PW6 IMO. The 60,000 hour panel life (time to half brightness) and CRT like levels of screen burn resistance add more reassurance too.

 

On the resolution front, the chap I spoke with (who knows his stuff and instals home cinema equipment for a living) reckoned resolution/pixel count should be well down the list of importance - he said the number one consideration for any display device should be dynamic range (from the blackest blacks upwards).

He reckons the latest 7th generation plasmas (and particularly Panasonics) are streets ahead of ANY LCD screens.

Each to their own though and I must state that the most impressive display device that I have seen in the last few days was a rear projection 50" Sagem screen running in Comet - they were feeding it a high resolution signal via DVI mind but the picture was jaw dropping!

Matt.

 

How do one do this?
What do they ask as proof of offers from dabs?

 

The number one consideration with any screen is that it gives a picture you like whether that's plasma, LCD, CRT etc. IIRC when calibrated properly most Plasma and LCD screens have contrast ratios in the mid to low hundreds and nothing like the 1000's quoted on the marketing blurb. My problem with LCD is it crushes the details out of the dark parts of the image but to me they have more life to the picture than Plasma. Everyone sees things differently.

The Panasonic seems to be very popular and I'm sure you can't go wrong with one of them.

It's a damn shame those Sagem DLP's are to big to hang on the wall.