I am not sure the content of this week’s column empowers customers, as we like to say each week at the bottom of the piece. But it’s certainly an exploration into why we might be making the same mistakes over and over despite knowing better/swearing earlier never to make the same mistake – buy the same brand – again.

I have to eat my words, which were: “Even if I have to buy a store brand, I will, but never that brand again!” I did – I bought the same brand again. But first, let me begin at the beginning: Our top-of-the-range Big Brand TV gave us Trouble for the third time in three years. It displayed some paranormal activity – about 20 minutes into the show, the screen would start flickering, the brightness would diminish and ghosts of all the characters on it would emerge, linger on the next scene and melt a scene or two later, clashing with ghosts from the next scene playing out their bit of the soap opera.

We investigated, and were told the panel had to be replaced, for a price of almost ₹17,000. This was the second time we were having the same kind of Trouble, so we decided to replace the entire TV instead of the panel. I am usually all for repair and not replacement, because I imagine I add less to e-waste that way. This time, though, I had reached the end of my tether, having gotten there after aforesaid two instances of Trouble and considerable expense, not to mention month-long and weeks-long waits each time. A frisson of triumph snaked up my spine when the customer service agent called back and I rather curtly told her they need not put us down for a new panel; we would buy a new TV altogether. (I have to add, she did not seem in the least bit put out.)

We set out enthusiastically enough to scout for a new TV. My friend had vetoed a brand I had suggested, so that was out of the reckoning, the spouse’s friend had recommended the same brand we used, and I was hoping to explore a few more.

But our zeal was soon sacrificed at the altar of availability. A 32-inch screen, Full HD? Well, only X and Y brands (one of them ours) are available, was the refrain in every store we visited. Either the store did not deal in more brands or the salespersons did not give us the full picture, but we came away feeling we had very little choice.

Of the two, the newer brand we considered looked clunky. And the salesman was pushing it hard, which immediately made him – and the brand – suspect in our eyes. (He claimed he wasn’t placed there by the brand, but who knew?) By now, we did not have the energy to investigate matters on the Internet so we threw in the towel and settled for Big Brand again.

Then, the debate shifted to which store to buy the TV from – depending on how much they gave us for the old TV. No store would give us more than ₹150 as discount anyway!

As I see it, our choice was a function of these factors:

b A mixture of fatigue and cynicism (Really, can the other brand be really that much better than the old one?)

b Fatalism (Oh well, whatever’s written in the stars is bound to happen!)

b Realism and rationalising (It is a good brand, didn’t our very first TV work so well? We just weren’t lucky this time.)

b Hope (Maybe it will work this time around.)

b Unholy hurry (But I can’t miss Downton Abbey! )

b Lack of choice (For reasons explained above)

b Price (It’s some ₹20,000 cheaper than the same-sized TV we bought four years ago, but then flat panel TV prices have fallen.)

So there we were, old TV dispatched for a 20th of the price we paid three years earlier, and new TV installed in minutes – no swivelling panel, and definitely an image of inferior quality in the non-HD channels compared with the old one.

“You should have bought the Smart Internet model in the same size, Ma’am,” said the technician who came to set up the new TV, “the quality is much superior. It was only ₹5,000 more, no?”

But I am not very disappointed – our new TV will grow on us, as will its images.

And we know better now, we will take an extended warranty for it this week. So this time, hopefully, there will only be the waiting and no bleeding rupees.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW