So our tax rebate landed in our checking account yesterday. We were excited to stash it away and use it to pick up all the items we need for little Kaeden. Oh, don't worry, those plans quickly changed.....
When Jeff and I moved into this house we invested in a really nice TV (read expensive). We put it on a credit card with 3 years no interest, and had a payment plan of $100 a month to pay it off in time. We've been fortunate enough to shave a year off our payment schedule, and we have had the TV paid off for a few months now. Of course when we were buying it, they hit us up for the $450 4-year extended warranty. They told us that these type of TV's have a lamp in them that have about a 4-year life, and are about $400 to replace. We thought about it, and decided that we were willing to take the risk that our lamp didn't go out in 4 years. Besides, we'd be out $400 either way, and knowing our luck, the lamp would go out in 4 years and 1 day (yes...I'm a pessimist about these things).
Anyway...we've had some problems with the TV for about a year now. The pixels in the corner of the TV had turned to a green hue, and we were told it was probably because our surround sound speakers didn't have the magnetic shield on them. We took the speakers down a long time ago, but the problem has progressively gotten worse. Now our entire TV has a green hue to it. In the picture below, the screen should be a vibrant royal blue color (I know, not even close!). We've also had problems with images somewhat burning into the screen for a moment (which isn't supposed to happen to LCD's). During a basketball game it was as if some of the players had a green ghost following them.
Deciding to protect our investment, (Jeff hates when I use this word because he likes to point out that investments involve returns. Buying a big item doesn't necessarily equate to an investment. Semantics!) we called out a repairman today. He was kind enough to make a house call for $30. Lehi falls on the very north end of Utah County, so no one from Orem or Provo likes to service it, and it falls right on the south end of Salt Lake County, thus the same problem. I felt like $30 was a deal. I had prepared myself for about a $500 fix. I thought I was giving myself some lee-way for the bid to possibly come in lower.
Apparently we need 2 parts for the TV (I'm thrilled since it's only 2 years old, and apparently they are very common parts to go out on these TV's--read sarcastically). The first is around $700 cost, and the other around $115. Add on the labor, etc., and I figure our tax rebate is just about gone. It makes us sick to put that much back into the TV, but we also couldn't go buy another one for that price. What would you do?
The guy is calling us back with a firm bid once he looks up the exact parts. I seriously want to cry. I don't know what the guarantee is that this will be the fix, and unfortunately our new friend can't guarantee that our little lamp won't go out in the next 2 years as well. He told us that on these big flat screen TV's everyone is buying nowadays he recommends always buying the extended warranty since parts for any problem are generally a couple hundred dollars. He also recommends that you put a small $10 fan behind your TV to blow on it when it is running. He apparently had the same problems with his TV, and since buying his fan hasn't had a problem. Hope you all can learn from our mistakes.....
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