this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
472 points (98.6% liked)
Technology
58173 readers
5038 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
A lot of the deals on Black Friday are actually cheaper quality products. A TV specially made to be cheaper than the regular model. Less HDMI ports, lower quality parts. And the item/model number is slightly different.
That’s why I love deal communities like Slickdeals, if the deal sucks someone will be calling it out
I also like tools like Honey or CamelCamelCamel, which show you the actual price changes over time, and you can decide when the right time to buy is. Obviously, you never know when something will go on sale in the future, but it at least helps you see how good the current price is compared to the past month or year.
Keepa makes Camel x 3 obsolete, it shows far more information
when you pay.. which costs more than prime itself does.
I think even the free version of Keepa is better to use. I see that for free accounts there are restrictions, but I haven't noticed any at least with the Firefox addon.
This is very noticeable on Amazon especially. So many “deals” from budget brands or one-off Chinese brands that nobody has never heard of. This is especially noticeable on Prime Day too.
When I buy (PRODUCT) I always buy UTUING!
I have worked with buyers at Best Buy that negotiate these “deals”. The manufacturers will create a near identical version of a higher quality product, but the model number will be a sub-model (like -a). When uninformed consumers are bargain shopping for a deal they will see that the “same” model is more expensive elsewhere and think they are getting a deal. This sub-model product will have cheaper components and fewer features and a higher product margin.
Some of these products would have very high failure rates but the companies still keep doing this because it helps to push their extended warranties. Then people buy them even when they buy higher quality products because they remember the failure on the other one.
Long story short, don’t shop on Black Friday for deals in electronics.
Or know what you're getting.
Micro Center is just epic every way. I love those guys.
Wouldn't it be noticeable because this new "-a" model would have no ratings/reviews?
This practice is most common with in-store "doorbuster" type deals.
Generally an observant person will notice this, especially if they actually read the box. The model number extensions will vary though, some are 6 characters for example.
I got a smart TV about 10 years ago on Black Friday. It was fine until a few years the screen "bruised". Everything now has a purple hue and that is the "guest" tv. No other lcd tv I've had has had the same issues.
I had a TV do that. The LED backlight was dying. It cost me £10 and an hour or 2 to fix.
Some are more of a pain than others to fix, but it's worth checking out.