So, this weekend I was setting up my replacement Westinghouse HDTV. During this, I reached for my S-Video cable, went to plug it in… and ran into a snag. The “comparable replacement” SK-32H540S doesn’t have a single S-Video port. Uh oh.
Remember how I noted in Part 1 of my saga that comparable replacements aren’t all created equal. So, I went on to BestBuy.com and plugged in the specs, and added in the requirement of S-Video. The closest TV that matched the specs was the Sony Bravia KDL-32L4000.
I called the manager at Best Buy’s corporate office, and explained the situation. Not a problem he said, and come Thursday, I’ll have the TV exchanged at no cost to me. Now, that’s good customer service.
Oh, and Best Buy is mailing me a $75 gift card “for all my troubles”. That should cover the cost of the replacement Performance Service Plan (PSP). I will say though that this was in response to my blog post, which has been spread far and wide since being posted.
I should also note that Best Buy just launched (today) the Reward Zone Premier Silver program. Essentially, if you spend $2,500 in a year at Best Buy with your Reward Zone card (which is free), you get upgraded to Premier Silver status. All you need to do is log in to MyRewardZone.com and you’ll be auto-upgraded.
What does Premier Silver status give you? First, you get a special customer service phone number (gee, wouldn’t that have been nice to have a couple of weeks ago). But, you also get 45-day returns on all items… and, no restocking fees ever! Plus, as you might expect, price matches are also extended to 45 days.
As to points, Premier Silver members get more too. You get 1.25 points-per-dollar, or 1.5 points-per-dollar if you have a Best Buy MasterCard.
As the title indicates, Best Buy is coming full circle… I was hoping rival Circuit City would have implemented some form of reward program by now (since they’ve matched Best Buy on Firedog, aka Geek Squad at Circuit City), and now Best Buy has just added a top-tier for big spenders.
Chris – I gotta ask – why do you need S-Video?
Because I paid for S-Video gear, that’s why. I’m not going to put a old SDTV in my living room just when I want to play an old Sega Saturn or N64 game. On some systems, I don’t even have the composite cable anymore… I’d actually have to order a new cable just to hook up some old receivers.
oh, i see. would you ever do the “ROM” route on a modded xbox (with component cables)? I have a modded xbox that a friend hooked up for me (since I don’t know how to solder) and it works great.
While I have “jailbroken” my original Xbox (using the buffer overrun exploit), I don’t use it for emulation anymore.
Instead I use a Dell Inspiron 530n, connected to my TV via DVI. That way, I get 1366×768 (1:1 pixel lock), and the full range of emulators available on Windows (as well as Windows games, via my Xbox 360 controller).