A warm friendly greetings to all the members of this prestigious forum,
In my search to find one of the best 42" LCD/LED TV's, I visited Reliance Electronics at Ambience Mall, Gurgaon and requested the salesman to convince me into buying any LCD/LED/Plasma (thought this plasma tech would be soon phased out, until Panasonic introduced their "Neo-plasma" tech) on display.
I was blown away by the direct comparison between this panel versus all the latest and greatest panels in the LCD/LED/Plasma HDTV line up (about 20 panels on display). The VIERA TH-P42V20D out shone the competition and stood out with its natural looking, realistic color rendered, PQ. Requested the salesmen to play different media (DVD, BlueRay, USB DivX format Videos, except Std. Def. DTH signals, etc), I had found my 42" HDTV.
Price quoted? Rs 65,000 with 1 YR warranty. I requested 2 Yrs extended warranty, price? Rs 69,950. Visited Reliance Electronics, Ambience Mall, DLF Promenade New Delhi, Panel out of stock. Took them 1 week to tell me that all panels were sold out and the only panel on sale was the display unit they showed to me in Gurgaon. It seems there is an Octroi Sales Tax involved if a Delhi resident purchases such an item from a Gurgaon reseller. Jumbo Electronics were poor in responding to my request & advised me to go to Panasonic directly. Dropped the idea of buying it from any of the mentioned chain stores.
Randomly, called Panasonic Brand Shops in Delhi and got quoted prices of Rs 60,000 - 62,000 inclusive of 3 YR warranty, Stand + Wall mount bracket + Free Installation + Onsite Demo. I am confident considering this panel is a 2010 release, we should be able to hard bargain the PBS's into a better price. Lets see how it goes.
A heads up and cautionary note - avoid buying any items from so called giants like Reliance Electronics and Jumbo Electronics without checking prices with atleast 2 other resellers/shops before making your purchase. Imagine, they would have ripped Rs 7,000 - 8,000 off with their intentional/unintentional misleading information and pricing. If any member in Delhi gets a better price, please share your findings with us.
Thank you all.