[psyduck103]

I am going to replace my 3700 with a 5050UB. My son says not to go to best buy because of the 15% restocking fee if I don't like it. He says to use Amazon. What say you?

 

[bud16415]

My last two projectors were thru Amazon and they went perfect. I have never bought anything just to try it out and i have never had reason to return a projector so I can't comment on that other than I have read about many people doing it. If enough do I can see why companies have a restocking fee.

 

[b curry]

My last two projectors were thru Amazon and they went perfect. I have never bought anything just to try it out and i have never had reason to return a projector so I can't comment on that other than I have read about many people doing it. If enough do I can see why companies have a restocking fee.

I'm with you Bud.

Buying to try out keeps prices higher.

The restocking fee is there to offset lost margin as the product can't be sold as new after being returned.

Costco used to have a lifetime warranty on TV's and electronics they sold. They would pay for repair, replace a TV, or refund the money if you had a problem for life. That is until the public started buying large screen TV's for their Super Bowl parties and returning them shortly after or trading in a 2 year old model for a new one just because you could. Costco ended that privilege.

With companies like Amazon all but bringing an end to local B&M stores where one might "try out" a product in person, it seems inevitable that people will adopt the buy it, try it, send it back model. I would expect at some point in time that retailers, on line or otherwise, will end the return privilege unless the unit is defective at some point.

 

[bud16415]

I'm with you Bud.

Buying to try out keeps prices higher.

The restocking fee is there to offset lost margin as the product can't be sold as new after being returned.

Costco used to have a lifetime warranty on TV's and electronics they sold. They would pay for repair, replace a TV, or refund the money if you had a problem for life. That is until the public started buying large screen TV's for their Super Bowl parties and returning them shortly after or trading in a 2 year old model for a new one just because you could. Costco ended that privilege.

With companies like Amazon all but bringing an end to local B&M stores where one might "try out" a product in person, it seems inevitable that people will adopt the buy it, try it, send it back model. I would expect at some point in time that retailers, on line or otherwise, will end the return privilege unless the unit is defective at some point.

It is very hard to get a feel on projectors in much of rural America. When you do find a place with a projector demonstration it is ether poorly done or an over the top setup with a projector way out of the mainstream price range.

These forums can help some but it is often hard to tell much from some of the screen shots and poor room settings you see. A few sites do some good first hand reviews, but they sometimes go so deep in the weeds with measurements they loose a lot of people.

I just wish the projector companies themselves would do some demo videos that clearly try and show what you might expect in real world settings of different quality of rooms.

Of course the best is your own eyes in your own setting.

I can never figure out why so many projector ads so a animation of a room and projector and screen rather than a real photo or video.

Specs are so misleading, take the new Viewsonic LED RGBB DLP claiming 4,000,000:1 CR and then it gets measured at 250:1 Something is way off and I wouldn’t blame people for wanting to see it first. The smart companies have influencers they send machines out to and then let them test them and stir up interest on the forums.
My first projector I did zero research on, I was at SAM’s club and saw a Sharp XR-10-X for 800 bucks sitting on the shelf. I called the kid working over and said can we plug it in and see something on it? He said no but buy it take it home and don’t put over 10 hours on it and you can bring it back if you don’t like it. It only took me 10 minutes to know it wasn’t going back. I was hooked after that.