Buying a Television - How Hard Can It be?
I was going to simply put "very" and leave it at that. However...
The story so far:
Sunday:
The story so far:
Sunday:
- Go to Mom's for her 96th birthday. (Birthday on the Saturday, but we wanted to take the Great-Grandson with us and his Mom & Dad were only free then).
- Get there for 15:40 (well, we had got the grandson and they were late getting to us, then we had to feed him half way up the M1. As someone said once "I feel like I've had a good day if I can get the baby and me dressed by lunchtime).
- Pull up on Mom's driveway to get accosted by a deputation from the neighbours - "She's driving us nuts ringing up every half hour sort out the TV!". Apparently they sort it out and she then fiddles with it because "the picture is dreadful" and then calls them over again. It turns out that "they" turned off the analogue signal a few weeks ago and Mom was trying to watch white noise. The FreeSat box we had fitted a while back simply wasn't being used...
- I agree to get a TV that could turn on and off with one button. It's now 16:01 and no shops are open.
- Stupidly busy at work - can't ring anyone.
- Get a phone call - "She's driving us nuts still". >click<
- Ring a bloke in Wolverhampton Town Centre next to Comets and spend a while explaining about Sunday. After his eyes must have glazed over we agreed that the Panasonic Vierra was probably the best one to buy - even though I'm p*ssed off with Panasonic because my Vierra still doesn't run iPlayer.
- I agree a price for him to install the new one and take the old one away.
- Go to pay over the phone. "Ah your card isn't registered to that address, sorry we can't deliver. Can you come over and pay by cash?" "What part of I live in Kent did you not get?"
- Have another bunch of meetings.
- Decide to go to Wolverhampton Thursday.
- Drive for 4 hours to Mom's.
- Meet Doctor as arranged. "She has a small cataract and she probably gone short-sighted, which is why she can't see the TV".
- WTF? I'm buying another bloody telly anyway now I've come this far...
- Go to Comets. Spends hours turning all the TVs on and off again to see which one comes back onto the same channel.
- They all do.
- Decide on the Samsung because it looks smaller - thereby fooling Mom into not going "humph, that's too big take it away" (c.f. fridge episode from 5 years ago. Don't ask).
- Go to pay.
- "Why do you want the Samsung? The Panasonic is the one that's right for your Mom". I don't want another bloody Panasonic out of principle!
- I buy the Panasonic.
- Go to pay.
- "Ah, we haven't got one, but it's on the van, can you come back at 3:00?"
- I come back at 3:30. The van has "just arrived". I walk into town to waste time.
- I come back 20 minutes later. The van has still "just arrived". I take a look around Comets to waste more time. "Don't worry sir, he's just getting it off the van". I walk around Comets again, this time memorising all the prices for all 3,500 stocked items.
- Eventually it arrives and it take it to Mom's.
- She suspiciously eyes up the very large box and I counter that with a "don't you dare" glare.
- "Oh that's a nice picture."
- Go up the pub.
- Go to another meeting in Milton Keynes.
- Get home for about 17:00 and turn on TV.
- "Your firmware has been updated"
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