Got my Panasonic 50g15 today

I got a Panasonic tcp-50g15 from East Coast TVs today. It looks fantastic. The delivery wasn't really white glove delivery. The delivery people plug in the tv and if it turns on, they're done and want to be paid.

The price was fantastic. They charged me less than most place charge for the G10.

Dealing with them is like dealing with Mo from the Simpsons. They cut straight to the chase. This is our price, do you want it or not?

All in all, I'm glad I took the risk and got the TV from them. I think they're legit. I have a sense that they're very busy. The deliver guys came to my house late in the afternoon and they still had about 10 TVs to deliver. They told me they deliver about 80 TVs a week to the Washington DC area. I guess for the prices they charge, they have to do a lot of volume.

They originally delivered on Tuesday. I thought they would hook it up and let me see it before giving it the OK. The guy at ECTV told me that's what would be done. The delivery guy told me they don't do that. They just plug it in. We went back and forth about how easy it would be to plug in an HDMI cable. They said I could upgrade to white glove delivery for $99 and they would set everything up for me. They said it takes too long to get a real picture. I told them the ECTV site claims free white glove delivery. They stood firm. I stood firm. They ended up taking the TV back.

I called ECTV and explained what happened. After several phone calls, they sold me the TV for $1299 cash instead of $1399 less 2% for cash. So I got the same TV two days later for about $75 less.

In hindsight, the delivery guys were right about how long it would take. I thought it would take a minute. I didn't realize the stand takes eight screws. It's sold metal with a plastic shell. I'm used to stands that snap into place. Plus it took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to switch to HDMI input. It defaults to antenna. Plus, when turning on the TV, you get a system menu and it gives you a pretty good picture to look at for the purpose of looking for glaring defects.

There was a snafu with delivery and I think ECTV exagerrated their white glove delivery, but they made ammends by taking money off the price IMO. I don't feel they were trying to deceive me by not having real white glove delivery. It's kind of in between what you would get from UPS and what you would expect if you paid $99. If the TV is cracked or the picture looks awful, you can reject it without hassle. Their delivery people seem to be better than UPS or FedEX in that they deliver only TVs and have everything shipped upright and well secured. Fortunately, my TV looks awsome.

The TV looks brand new. It came in a nice panasonic box and had all the stickers and packaging. It has that new TV smell and when I turned it on it prompted me for language and time. The remote and documents came in a plastic bag and the batteries for the remote were tightly wrapped in that brittle plastic that they typically come in.

If it's not new, they did a great job of fooling me.