flyboybob

In late January my wife and I went to Ultimate Electronics to buy an HD TV. A flyer in the newspaper and my friend's recommendation helped make our decision. He had a very good buying experience with a projection HDTV.

The salesman was very helpful but ignorant. However, he sold us on the Panasonic PT-53TWD64. It had everything we wanted and a great picture. We agreed on the price and I was ready to write the check when he informed us that the TV he had worked so hard to sell us was out of stock. He expected to have a shipment from their Denver warehouse the first week in February.

Each week we called him to only be disappointed. When our patience was wearing thin we found out that our salesman had either quit or been fired. One of the young woman who takes credit information secured us a delivery date the following week. The TV was delivered and setup properly.

I read another post about Ultimate Electronics and out of stock products. Do they stock large screen televisions in their local stores or warehouses? Or, do they take your money and then give you an optomistic delivery date while collecting interest on your money until the real delivery date arrives?

I would recommend them, if you find out which products are in stock before wasting your time with one of their sales people. And make basic decision before going into the store.

az-willie

I bought my Mitsi from UE on July 7 delivered on the 11th. I thought it wasn't working well enough and had them swap it 2 weeks later and they did so with no problem.

I was completely satisfied with their service and today I discovered they didn't even charge my card for a month!!!

They had one of those zero interest financing deals so I decided to use some credit instead of paying cash in order to keep a decent credit rating. ( If you never use credit you can get a poor rating ). I was worried because I never got a statement or payment book. Today I finally managed to get a human being when calling the Mitsi number and they said the card wasn't even charged until Aug 18th!!

Can't ask for anything better than that.

netresistance

I bought my LG 44" DLP HDTV from Ultimate Electronics and was fairly pleased with the service and how I was treated.

Mind you, after dozens of years of buying gadgets, my expectations for an electronics store are already pretty low. After doing research and shopping around, I already knew what I wanted to buy and about the price I should pay for it. I still had to sit through the extended warranty lecture, and the "you have to buy this $500 Monster surge protector or your TV will explode" speech. I didn't mind so much 'cuz I know it's part of the game.

But, that having been said -- I did buy the TV on a Saturday afternoon (8/21) and it was delivered and installed the next day (they gave me a three-hour window between 11:00 and 2:00 and arrived at 11:30).

The TV looks great, y'all! I'm in the middle of an "Aliens" marathon right now.

gryphon

When I went to UE they didn't know the first thing about TV's - nothing about First Surface Mirrors or any integral parts of HDTV's. Their website says they receive over 200 hours of training. Must be in cash register use.

Just my $0.02

(This was also the one in Hurst, BTW!)

EDIT: Just to note my view of Conn's, where I ended up buying my TV: the salesman was knowledgable of IEEE, HDCP, and other HDTV-specific terminology and technology. I was pleasantly surprised with that, as well as their prices. Just don't fall for their "0%" financing, which is actually paying UP FRONT the interest and receiving a refund (according to their terms) although I was assured by the salesman that the interest was never actualy payed if the financing terms were met (which I don't trust unless it's in writing).

__________________

Hitachi 51S500
Denon AVR-484 Receiver
DCM Fronts, Rears
Snell Center
NHT Sub/Amp
Snell Crossover
Panasonic Omnivision VCR (Composite)
Samsung HD841 DVD (DVI/Coaxial)
xbox (Component/Optical)
Comcast HD (DVI/Composite)

flyboybob

Your take is probably correct. However, at the Conn's in north Dallas the salesman were clueless about anything except how much the monthly payments would total. Also, Conn's didn't carry as large a selection as UE.

Eyedox

I'll take Ultimate Electronics' well-educated staff any day of the week over Best Buy's ignorant teenagers or Wal-Mart's crap products and toothless rednecks.

gryphon

It's certainly a matter of luck over getting a knowledgable salesperson, as evidenced by netresistance visit and my own.

I don't know about selection, save for Best Buy doesn't carry Hitachi's (LAME!) and Wal-Mart... well... they don't necessarily have the best prices. I ended up just going where the lowest price was. I could have bought a refurb 51s500 from UECWeb for 1095 but the shipping would have brought it to more than the price for the new one.

Hands down I think UE is the best ELECTRONICS store, with a wonderful array of window shopping fun

__________________

Hitachi 51S500
Denon AVR-484 Receiver
DCM Fronts, Rears
Snell Center
NHT Sub/Amp
Snell Crossover
Panasonic Omnivision VCR (Composite)
Samsung HD841 DVD (DVI/Coaxial)
xbox (Component/Optical)
Comcast HD (DVI/Composite)

neo2299

I agree, I would take Ultimate Electronics sales person over not getting help at Best Buy or Circuit City any day. They are one of the few places that stills paying commission versus $8/hour monkey at best buy.

zorki1c

We were shopping for an HDTV recently and dropped by Ultimate Electronics. Their selection of models seemed pretty pitiful. Nobody seemed interested in helping us. Then I read on the WEB Ultimate apparently is in big financial trouble. Bestbuy in particular is taking their previous customers and bankruptcy isn't out of the question. That could explain the lack of models and employee motivation we experienced.