fuck video only. fuck it hard.

we decided to take advantage of the impending financial apocalypse by buying a new telly to go in our new house that we plan to buy soon. the deals right after xmas were supposed to be insanely good, so we stopped on our way back from canada. it took us half an hour to drive the approximately 200 meters off the freeway and into the video only parking lot.

the telly they had advertised that I wanted was sold out, but they offered me instead a 50" samsung that was very nice, for only a hundred dollars more. we figured what the hell, and bought it. unfortunately, it wouldn't fit in our car, being a Very Large Television. we scheduled delivery for the following day, and all was good.

ten minutes after leaving the parking lot, video only calls to tell me tomorrow's delivery is a no-go, they're booked up. that's fine, we'll reschedule for thursday, a holiday when we know we'll be home from work.

tuesday rolls around, and video only calls to tell me that my telly is gone. they don't have it in stock. something about them sucking a LOT of ass, not having a computer system that keeps track of their inventory. when the jackass sold me the tv on saturday, he thought he had it in stock, because his little printout he received that morning said he did. why it took him THREE DAYS to realise he didn't is beyond me. but if I'd like, I could just take a lesser panasonic model instead? it's the same size, but the contrast isn't as good and it's not as nice looking. all I need to do is come back into the store and change my paperwork and he'll get it taken care of. and did he mention this is a great deal, because he'll match the original price?

so we drive up to lynnwood. it takes AN HOUR to get there in rush hour traffic. only I'd done some research.

the model we bought, a samsung PN50A550, is not "exactly the same" as the panasonic TH50PN80U, as I was assured. in fact, a comparison shop of several other retailers showed the panasonic to cost anywhere from $200 to $500 less than the samsung I wanted. but video only had the panasonic on sale for $1399, down from their list of $1499. the samsung was on sale for $1299, from $1499. if they're both 50" and both $1499, they must be the same telly, right?

after taxes, my cost was $1415. fry's offered the panasonic for $1199, but I was assured I couldn't find it there. when I pointed out I could buy it from newegg for $1349 with free shipping and no tax, he assured me they wouldn't have stock, even tho he had no idea what newegg was.

I took in with me a stack of specifications and reviews, as well as pricing from best buy, buy.com, newegg, amazon and fry's, all showing the price discrepancy. I was fully prepared to take the lesser panasonic telly, once he marked it down a couple hundred bucks for my trouble. times are tough, right? no retailer wants to lose a sale.

well, this asshole did. guy's name is ron something, he took his business card back from me (it had previously been folded and possibly stapled, he can probably only give his cards out to people who actually buy shit). when I told him I didn't think the two sets were comparable, and that the pricing was cheaper elsewhere, he simply snatched my paperwork back from me and started processing the credit. didn't try to convince me to take another set, didn't offer any discounts, nothing. I was ready to drive a hard bargain, and ended up thrown out the door within five minutes instead.

worst part of all this is, we paid for it on mastercard, because they don't take american express. and since we were planning to get a mortgage next week, I paid off the mastercard already, since I wanted our balances to be as close to zero as possible. every little bit helps your credit score when you're pulling a $300k+ loan.

now I'm going to have a $1000 credit on a card I rarely use. it doesn't offer any rewards or points, unlike my amex, so I only use it when places don't take amex. we spend less than $200 a month on that card, it's going to take months to burn through that credit.

all because ron at the lynnwood video only is an asshole.

and I still don't have a nice telly.