Entertaining decisions

Always do your homework before buying electronic goods, writes Aryeman Raj

The electronics market is flooded with tempting offers. Yet many people fail to read the fine print. Your mind is often plagued with doubts before you take the plunge and buy a product. You may wonder whether the dealer or manufacturer will back the service contract. Not to mention warranty worries.

Friday talks to Chitaranjan Patra and Sathish Shenoy about common concerns people face when buying consumer electronic products.

Are warranties or service contracts really worth what you pay for them?
Chitaranjan Patra: Hitachi has a strong history of sound research and development, quality control and performance tests, based on which we give assurance (warranty) to customers.

The true value of an extended warranty can be felt by the customer if the product develops some trouble. It works like life insurance or medical insurance, where one feels the money proving actual gains only when one falls sick.

The need for repairs often crops up after the warranty period is over. What right does a consumer buying an entertainment product have vis-a-vis the manufacturer or distributor?
Patra: It is not true that repairs come up after a warranty period finishes. Entertainment products have no mechanical parts for wear and tear and, therefore, are unlikely to fail soon.

At Hitachi, every part is tested for its longevity. Our consumers believe in the brand by virtue of its reputation and usage of similar products by the customer or his referrals and above all, on the faith he has on the local distributor.

Some products have regional coding embedded. Does this improve their performance?
Shenoy: Regional coding was an effort by the entertainment industry to minimise the movement of products from one region to another.

This was conceived to protect intellectual property rights of the content providers. Coding did not work well and most manufacturers today offer code-free equipment.

However, the world is still divided when it comes to TV transmission standards and there is a multitude of standards, such as North American NTSC, European PAL, French and Russian Secam etc.

The electrical systems are also different, with two sets of standards: 110-115V, 60Hz and 230-240V, 50Hz. It is important to ensure the product you purchase meets your future needs if you are likely to move to another country.

What points should a consumer bear in mind when buying products made in the Far East?
Patra: The country of production or manufacturing plays an important role in the minds of customers. We believe that workmanship is likely to be better in Japan than, say, in China. Testing standards are more stringent in Japan or Europe.

Companies like Hitachi have shifted their production facilities to the Far East for some time now and have developed extremely good skills and quality consciousness among workers.

Hitachi manufactures most parts in-house. The heart of a plasma TV is the panel, which comes from a factory in Japan. Some manufacturers may compromise on key components to reduce costs. The question a customer should ask is: 'Who is the manufacturer of these key components?" (for example, the plasma or LCD panel).

There is a thin line differentiating a guarantee from a warranty. What are the most common misconceptions by consumers in regard to this?
Patra: A warranty is given against manufacturing defects. If a defect is found in a set, the (defective) part will be replaced by the manufacturer for free. There could be cases where if a manufacturing defect (under guarantee) is found the whole set is replaced by the manufacturer.

When electronic products are under guarantee, a consumer should find out whether he has to bring the set to the service centre or whether it can be checked free at his house. If an international warranty is available, the customer should ensure that it is valid in his country of residence.

Parallel imports are usually cheaper than products from major brands, but many consumers are unaware of the long-term risk of purchasing them. Your thoughts on this?
Patra: With parallel imports, one may not get a genuine product. Sometimes you may not get a new product. In most cases, after-sales service will not be available. Software and hardware upgrades will not be possible and exchange offers will not be applicable.

Parallel imports can be cheaper by (about) 10 per cent, but this marginal gain is definitely not worth it in the long run. One can possibly take a chance with goods worth Dh100, but not with high-value products such as plasma TVs and home entertainment systems.

Shenoy: Consumers must keep in mind brand trends when buying consumer electronics products, particularly if the purchase involves high-value items such as plasma, LCD or rear-projection TVs.

The global leaders (in the electronics sector) provide consumers with peace of mind by ensuring that products are better built, more reliable and less likely to break down.

If after-sales service is required, the larger brands and their local distributors are much more likely to meet the needs of consumers.

Consumers must also be aware of technology trends. For example, low-end VGA plasmas are not HD ready and will not be able to take advantage of HD content when it becomes available, when HD transmission becomes a reality or when HD DVD players and packaged movies become available. However, most of the LCD TVs sold today are HD ready.

What is the best bet for a consumer to keep up with market trends while not succumbing to cheaper alternatives?
Shenoy: There is no such thing as buying at the right time. This is true of computer equipment such as desktop PCs, laptops, printers as well as flat panel TVs, DVD players and other devices.

However, one may try to time purchases in such a way that the price paid at the time of purchase is reasonable. One should also try and keep in mind industry trends. For example, LCD TV prices when compared to plasma TVs were much higher just a year ago.

Today, the gap has narrowed considerably, thanks to huge increases in manufacturing capabilities of LCD TV manufacturers who are driving the prices down to increase the acceptance of LCD TVs.

The gap between similar sized LCD TVs and plasmas still exists but LCD TV prices are eroding faster than plasma TV prices, since the plasma TV industry is maturing and future price reductions may be marginal.

In terms of newly launched products that will eventually come down in price, what's the right time to buy?
Shenoy: A reasonably good time to buy (an electric product) is to purchase it at the middle of the product's life cycle. For example, when introduced a year ago, a 40" LCD TV cost more than Dh20,000. Today, the cost has dropped to between Dh8,000 and Dh10,000.

This is a good time to buy an LCD TV. Another product that has reached some amount of maturity (and offers) consumers value for money is the digital still camera, where price to performance ratios have increased significantly and a good quality 5 or 6 mega pixel camera with optical zoom from leading brands is now available for Dh600 to Dh800.