My Adventures to buy a 42" Plasma TV in Thrissur (Kerala)

[sachin_k5]

Calm people calm !!

All people want when they enter a electronic store is a big tv, they don't care if one technology is slightly better than the another. They buy what looks big, is the "in" thing and is recommeded. End of story.

Its only technically savvy people like us who want to look at minor improvements in picture quality and black levels i.e. better bang for the buck.

This is like the scorn audiophiles have with mass market audio makers like Sony. All that a common man wants is something that plays loud music and looks good in his living room. He doesn't want any cdp,ic,tube,dac nonsense. Thats for people like us !!

A better informed decision comes at a price. The price is time. Lot of people are not ready to pay that price, they may have higher priorities in life. So in theory they may lose some cash and clarity because they bought LCD instead of plasma but they gained somewhere else cause they saved time by not researching.

 

[avidyarthy]

Spot on .... Sachin

 

[VSG12777]

Calm people calm !!

All people want when they enter a electronic store is a big tv, they don't care if one technology is slightly better than the another. They buy what looks big, is the "in" thing and is recommeded. End of story.

Its only technically savvy people like us who want to look at minor improvements in picture quality and black levels i.e. better bang for the buck.

This is like the scorn audiophiles have with mass market audio makers like Sony. All that a common man wants is something that plays loud music and looks good in his living room. He doesn't want any cdp,ic,tube,dac nonsense. Thats for people like us !!

A better informed decision comes at a price. The price is time. Lot of people are not ready to pay that price, they may have higher priorities in life. So in theory they may lose some cash and clarity because they bought LCD instead of plasma but they gained somewhere else cause they saved time by not researching.

Quite true!!

 

[adder]

I see many people here pay lots of $$$ for the audio gear & most probably the hi fi gear is only going to be used or heard by the person who bought them.Wheres a tv is going to be watched by everyone in the family & they settle for a cheap average performing 42" tv .

 

[BLASTO]

In the case of sony ,their 40" lcds in the grey market are the cheapest FHD lcds one can buy in indian soil,in the showroom they are expensive because of high import duty of around 30% or more,where as the lcds from samsung and lg are assembled in india which are subjected to only 5% custom duties.
Yet they are priced very close to their main rival samsung.so one can expect the profit samsung is making.

How is it an argument favoring sony?
When Samsung and LG can setup assembly units in india, Why can't sony do the same thing?
Why should customers pay for their mis-management? Why should customers even worry about the 30% import duty?

Baseline is sony LCDs are unreasonably costly in india or does not have a warrenty! That samsung makes more money than sony is of no relevence to the customers. With this attitude, sony deserves the treatment it gets in india.

 

[adder]

How is it an argument favoring sony?
When Samsung and LG can setup assembly units in india, Why can't sony do the same thing?
Why should customers pay for their mis-management? Why should customers even worry about the 30% import duty?

Baseline is sony LCDs are unreasonably costly in india or does not have a warrenty! That samsung makes more money than sony is of no relevence to the customers. With this attitude, sony deserves the treatment it gets in india.

Well the reply was to the Quoted person "ANI",who said "Ill-informed Arrogant people buy Sony , Bose crap at Skyhigh price",which isn't correctl.He is comparing sony to bose which is baseless and Sony is far from crap with regards to major segments including tvs,which they very near on the top.

So the point was they are overpriced at least officially in india due to the taxes.Yes their high price won't help,but there lcds do have very decent performance against the competition.
I do not know the exact reason why sony hasn't set up a assembly plant in india .But their arch rival samsung officially sell more then sony in india.But sony lcds in grey market still outsell the sony lcds sold officially,which in one of the interviews in a leading magazine the sony india MD admitted.

The MD of sony did say they have plans to assemble them in india.
Their target for 09 was to become no 1 in sales in india with 30% share,which they didn't meet .They were second to samsung in sales,*there market share for 09 was 25% of the lcds sales officially and their 2010 target is to be no 1 in sales.according to them the indian lcd market is 1600K lcds a year ,their market share for 09 was 400K lcds their target for 2010-11 is 800K lcds.
*facts and info from sony press release.

So sure their high price isn't helping,no body would want that.
but what the treatment in india are you talking about that they deserve.If u mean the entire india business they still are no 1 in others areas like camcorder with 80% share,digital still cameras with 42% market share(not dslr).

 

[thevortex]

Calm people calm !!

All people want when they enter a electronic store is a big tv, they don't care if one technology is slightly better than the another. They buy what looks big, is the "in" thing and is recommeded. End of story.

Its only technically savvy people like us who want to look at minor improvements in picture quality and black levels i.e. better bang for the buck.

This is like the scorn audiophiles have with mass market audio makers like Sony. All that a common man wants is something that plays loud music and looks good in his living room. He doesn't want any cdp,ic,tube,dac nonsense. Thats for people like us !!

A better informed decision comes at a price. The price is time. Lot of people are not ready to pay that price, they may have higher priorities in life. So in theory they may lose some cash and clarity because they bought LCD instead of plasma but they gained somewhere else cause they saved time by not researching.

I think everybody is calm in this thread, Sachin .

By the way that discussion starting with cmsajith's post was about salesmen spreading misinformation either by purpose or due to a complete lack of knowledge.

This is not about personal initiative being put in or not put in by the buyers.

Like I said, even if you spend a 1000 hours of research you would still like to not be accosted by a salesperson and told that 'response time is the time delay between changing channels'. That is the point.

 

[ani]

No hard feelings against Sony guys . What I ment here is that Sony Generally are precieved to be of better quality than rest which may or may not be true .Sony has some of good product in its Kitty ( I m a big fan of Playstations ) but it doesnt mean its d final word for quality and technology .This is hugly pushed by many Multi brand outlet Salesperson .

 

[adder]

No hard feelings against Sony guys . What I ment here is that Sony Generally are precieved to be of better quality than rest which may or may not be true .Sony has some of good product in its Kitty ( I m a big fan of Playstations ) but it doesnt mean its d final word for quality and technology .This is hugly pushed by many Multi brand outlet Salesperson .

See its the way one puts it,i for eg criticize LG lcds on their performance,i don't call the people buying them as ignorant etc ,you can again call a product crap but you need reasons behind it ,if the reason is that you just personally dislike a company that doesn't have much wait.

now regarding sony they are one of the better companies compared to other mass market based companies.Unless a product is good the company isn't going to get a good name or reputation.
look at samsung when they first hit the market people were like yeah right a korean junk,but can one say the same today,sure a company may not be the best in every field,but they are pretty good or the best in some fields or may have better build consistently.

If you look at a saleperson perspective in tvs sony crts dominated in performance and sales,so that has a strong impact on the companies reputation .In lcds they were struggling initially and weere some where around the back in lcd sales in 2004 and before. but where on the top no 1 slot in roughly 2005 or 2006 this is due to their performance after partnering with samsung for lcd panels.

so it has a strong reputation ranked no 2 in forbes list of Worlds most reputable companies which doesn't come by selling crap products World's Most Reputable Companies Page 2 of 2 - Forbes.com

 

[ani]

Yes Shamlal Krishan Lal in Sadar

Finally guys I bought my Panny P42c10D . :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:
It costed me Rs 32940 , n yes it has 3 years warranty . I Just brought it myself .

But i cant open it and use it since i have to get it Wall mounted :sad:

Thank u guys at HIFIVISION . U guys rock . I was able to make such an informed choice . I would post my experience from now on.

Thanks a ton guys:clapping:

 

[gadgetcrazy]

congrats ani. Let me know if you find out how to find the hours used.

 

[BLASTO]

Finally guys I bought my Panny P42c10D . :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:
It costed me Rs 32940 , n yes it has 3 years warranty .

Lowest price Iam hearing with 3 years warrenty..
No one can beat this I suppose..

Is there anywhere I can get the TV at this orice in hyderabad?? Anyone??

 

[anoopes]

Contd....

yesterday evening i went to "Nandilath G-Mart" which claims to be the largest consumer appliances showroom in thrissur. As expected, while entering the showroom, all i can see was Sony LCDs and Samsung LEDs. They had only two models of Plasma available in their stock. Panasonic 42C10 and LG 50PQ60.

The price for C10 quoted was Rs.45000. I asked them can they get latest prices of X10, PQ70 and PJ560. They told me that;

1. they have only C10 in stock
2. As manufacturer's had stopped production, plasmas are rarely available in the market. They have only these 2 pieces available in the stock. and they will not get supply of plasmas.
3. Plasma is good technology, but there will be heating problem and i require an air conditioned room to view Plasma (here also the salesman was trying to force me to go for LCD tv)

As i expected only these kind of answers from them, i was not that much sad hearing all this.

although "big baazar" is there in thrissur, i didn't went there as i'm expecting similar answers from them.


i was trying to get contact with the "LG shoppee" guy for the last 3 days. Although he promised to call me this week, i didn't get any call. His phone was always "out of coverage area". so i decided to go there and meet him once again.

He recognized me and came to me. now only i knew that he is the owner of that showroom. he told me that he didn't get the new stock and the new prices. they are yet to get the new models. and thats why he didn't called me. he was unable to tell me when the new models will be available.

then he told me that if i can wait for one more week, they might be able to get the new PJ series and the new price list. i agreed. i told him that if the new models is getting delayed, i'll settle with PQ70. he quoted the normal price of PQ70 as rs.44000 (rs.1000 reduction from last week). i told that i need maximum discount that he can give. and i got a 29" Philips CRT to exchange. he told that he will give the best price he can. so we decided to wait till the next week.

i'm ready to wait. but till June 10th only (world cup soccer)

now i just thought about the incidents happened during the last 7 or 8 days. my doubts/observations are;

1. why the prices are this much high in Thrissur compared to other parts of the country? is it coz of high transportation cost or lack of competition or higher taxes? or whether the dealers are just earning high profits standing together?

2. i think the reason for getting good response from LG shoppe is that the owner himself was my point of contact there

pls put in ur views....

 

[shredder]

Good point about high prices in some parts of the country. You see, the big discounts that members talk about are usually available only in the big metros like Delhi, Bombay, Blore, Chennai,etc and the main reason is not tax but generally due to high volume of sales. Also there is a big margin in LCD/plasmas and due to high competition, especially from Croma, E-zone, etc., dealers are ready to offer bigger discounts if it leads to higher volume of sales. In small areas volumes are not that high and there is no great competition and so the dealers generally have a 'take it or leave it' attitude. It is partly true that transportation cost is high but then the company has its own distribution network, and so the high prices are not really justified.
The price for the PQ70 is reasonable. However as another member on this forum pointed out, do not mention about exchanging old TV until and unless you have settled on the final price. Only then mention your old TV otherwise the dealer will take you for a ride and you will be giving him your old CRT practically free of cost.

 

[sachin_k5]

By the way that discussion starting with cmsajith's post was about salesmen spreading misinformation either by purpose or due to a complete lack of knowledge.

Finally guys I bought my Panny P42c10D . :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:
It costed me Rs 32940 , n yes it has 3 years warranty . I Just brought it myself .

thevortex,
Looks like the misinformation of salesmen is driving the hordes to lcd, reducing the prices of plasma. Let them do that what they are doing, they are benefitting the informed like us. :clapping: :clapping:

There are things i want to change in this world, but correcting the salesman and causing a price rise in plasma...naaahhhh ! hyeah: hyeah:

ani, thats a good deal. glad you did your research.

 

[BLASTO]

1. why the prices are this much high in Thrissur compared to other parts of the country? is it coz of high transportation cost or lack of competition or higher taxes? or whether the dealers are just earning high profits standing together?

Coimbatore/Trivandraun must have better prices. Some dealers will be willing to do home delivery.

Or checkout eBay India: Panasoiic Plasma VIERA TH-P42C10 (item 310222571689 end time 02-Jun-2010 09:00:00 IST)

Panasonic C10 for 32.9k, Just create an ebay account and order. Ask for warrenty details before that.

2. i think the reason for getting good response from LG shoppe is that the owner himself was my point of contact there

IMO, You can wait for and demo the 2010 models. If it is the PQ60, I would recomend the Panasonic C10 in its place.

 

[iaudio]

Just like anoop, i too went to nandilath cochin outlet, pana c10 quote i got was 55k! Can u believe that? G10 they said they have not yet received and will cost 80k. Sam 42b430 quote was 60k i think. Now thinking of picking up the tv from chennai or b lore!

Coimbatore/Trivandraun must have better prices. Some dealers will be willing to do home delivery.

Or checkout eBay India: Panasoiic Plasma VIERA TH-P42C10 (item 310222571689 end time 02-Jun-2010 09:00:00 IST)

Panasonic C10 for 32.9k, Just create an ebay account and order. Ask for warrenty details before that.



IMO, You can wait for and demo the 2010 models. If it is the PQ60, I would recomend the Panasonic C10 in its place.

 

[anoopes]

Just like anoop, i too went to nandilath cochin outlet, pana c10 quote i got was 55k! Can u believe that? G10 they said they have not yet received and will cost 80k. Sam 42b430 quote was 60k i think. Now thinking of picking up the tv from chennai or b lore!

if there is any Panasonic exclusive showroom in cochin, just check there...

i'm still waiting for the call from LG shoppe. he told that he will call me by tomorrow. i'll wait maximum till Wednesday for the PJ560. otherwise i'll settle with PQ70...

 

[gadgetcrazy]

Just like anoop, i too went to nandilath cochin outlet, pana c10 quote i got was 55k! Can u believe that? G10 they said they have not yet received and will cost 80k. Sam 42b430 quote was 60k i think. Now thinking of picking up the tv from chennai or b lore!

That is ridiculous.

 

[Nikhilkerala]

Hi,

I just bought an LG 42PJ560 plasma tv here in chennai alwarpet ezone.

43800rs
they gave a wall mount for free.

It was ready stock.

It's 25kg . I am taking it to Kerala on train after a couple of weeks.

Regards
Nikhil