How to Avoid the Pit Falls Of Purchasing a Home Entertainment System

September 10, 2008
by Ben K. Stevens

Sydney has seen a massive rise in the demand for home theater systems and widescreen, digital-ready TV sets. Australia is experiencing a healthy economy at the moment and continues to modernize. Many shops in the city would love nothing more than to sell you ne of these expensive home entertainment systems and will stop at almost nothing to get you the best system which they have in stock.

Don’t be fooled!

The systems which are on offer form these retailers are identical, save for the brand names on the casing. There is a limited number of manufacturers of these home theaters and wide screen TVs and there is no secret manufacturer which only one shop can get for you.

Also, these shops pay their sales personnel on a commission basis, meaning that hey are more occupied with the size of their paycheck than they are with selling you a home theater system which actually meets your needs.

Even worse, they usually won’t install the system for you either. They most likely are not terribly concerned with any idiosyncrasies of your home in regards to the installation of a home theater system, in fact and are simply focused on selling you the most expensive system in the store, or which ever system they need to reduce stock of. It is exceedingly unlikely that you will ever be asked about the wiring in your home or the physical setup of the room in which it will be placed.

The systems which they will try to sell you are also those which are the most elaborate and require the highest degree of technical skill to install and set up. The more complicated a system looks, after all. The more features it must have, right? Sales staff will play upon this in an attempt to sell more of these systems.

You will have, to say the least, a difficult time installing these systems yourself. There are a lot if wires to untangle and place in such a way that they will not constitute an eyesore, so many components to set up and configure – you’d better have packed a lunch if you intend to install your own home theater system, as it will take quite some time to do. If you damage something while doing this, your warranty probably will not cover you, so be warned.

As a result the company that sells you the system will in the kindness of their heart get you hooked up with a service provider who will come and hook up your system (assuming it can be hooked up) for an extra fee, a fee which can be substantial. This fee was not included in the price of the system because the service provider supply something completely different and independent.

It gets worse: if the setup company does something wrong, the retailer can’t help you at all. And if the system doesn’t fit in your home, the setup company can’t help you with that. If both steps go awry, you lose out big time.

You need to go to the home theatre electronics store as an informed consumer so that you don’t waste tremendous amounts of time and money while losing sleep and giving yourself migraines.

You can sit down and assess your needs with a independent electronics consultant who will work with you to figure out which system is right for your home and will set up everything for you just right. This will include a guarantee and support over the long term as well.

Don’t even think about buying a home theatre entertainment system until you meet with such a consultant.

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