Proscan Company Background

If you're like I was and wondering what the story behind the Proscan electronics name is, I'll attempt to give a bit of a background. First of all what sparked my interest in this brand name was the 40" 1080p Proscan tv that Best Buy currently is selling for $499. I almost had an accident when I saw this price for a 40 inch full high definition tv.

So a-searchin I went. Here is what I found at the wikipedia.org site for the ProScan name: "The Proscan brand superseded the RCA Dimensia line in the early 1990s after the purchase of RCA by General Electric and lasted into the early 2000s until it was dropped for the current RCA Scenium brand. Thomson SA has never manufactured or distributed televisions in the United States labeled Thomson. In 2006, Thomson Consumer Electronics licensed the Proscan name to ON Corporation, although they retain actual ownership of the name and logotype. The company's website is now http://www.oncorpus.com/ ." - information supplied courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProScan

ON Corporation sounds like it is a small company that is just trying to get it's feet wet. I believe that they outsource their work to multiple places throughout the world. There main office is located in Indianapolis. Do to their small size and probably small overhead I think they are attempting to get their name out through low priced HDTV's. I have owned the 40" Proscan model since this past Sunday and have been thoroughly impressed with the quality at this price point. I did, however, purchase the 4 year Geek Squad black tie warranty just in case this low price came at the expense of a lack of reliability. But so far so good. I suggest going to Best Buy and checking one out next to higher priced models. This of course is assuming your local Best Buy has one on display.

Also, here is the link to Best Buy's website page for the Proscan 40" TV: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9329381&st=proscan+40%22&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218086176467. Be sure to check out the reviews, they are overwhelmingly positive for the most part. P.S. almost all HDTVs have some sort of failure rate in the first year or so, of course this is true for pretty much all electronics in general.

Proscan 40" 1080p DirecTV Remote Code

For anyone wondering what the DirecTV remote code for the 40" 1080p Proscan LCD TV that's $499 at Best Buy right now, I found it on an AVS Forum. The code is 10030. Happy boob tube watching!

Best Buy Shenanigans

This past Sunday started out relatively normal, my wife and I woke up at around 8 AM by way of our 14 month old baby girl alarm clock. Nothing special was planned for the day, so we just went about our business getting ourselves somewhat presentable and feeding the baby. The only thing on the agenda at this point of note was to check out my wife's parents new 37" LCD HDTV, simply for the fact that we were itching to get one ourselves.

So once we got gussied up and the baby fed so that she was off of E we headed out the door for the approximately 2 mile trek to her parents house. We arrived and checked out the new addition to the family and promptly decided we should get one ourselves. So we quickly headed back home and planned on leaving to head to one of three Best Buy's within an hour and a half of our home. We decided to call these three Best Buy's and check on the availability of a 40" Proscan 1080p LCD TV. Only one had this particular model in stock, and this one also happened to be the farthest of the three away. But at this point we had gone all in and had to stick to our guns. It was a date.

The plan of action was to wait till we had fed the baby lunch and then to leave at a time when we could expect the baby to take her first nap on the way over there. We did and she didn't. However, she was surprisingly happy for an impossibly not to be tired stinker. She just sang and played her way to this strange electronics mecca. We arrived at Best Buy with the expectation of spending at least $499 in order to qualify for what was apparently the previous weeks offer of no interest for 12 or 18 months (I can't remember which). Little did we know this offer was doneski and the other offer we considered of $799 or more for 36 months no interest had now been upped to $999 or more. Zoinks. We'd been suckered. This I can't fault Best Buy for, however.

So spend $999 or more it was. We found the 40" Proscan and decided on it rather quickly, although I did look around at the other TVs to see if there would be a last minute change of heart. We then struggled for what seemed like an endless amount of time about what else to get to add up to the required purchase amount. After chasing the baby around, who squealed and hammed it up all the while, we finally settled on a 26" Dynex TV for the bedroom and a Samsung home theater system with a 1080p up converting DVD player. These items combined with the Geek Squad 4 year black tie warranty added up to over the $999 hot spot.

However, once we had applied for the credit card, received our credit limit, and finished checking out; or so we thought, the real problem arose. Our purchase was showing up as having only a 6 month no interest period. Apparently the black tie warranty was not part of the promotional purchase offer. This was not clear in the Best Buy ads. It simply stated on home theater and geek squad purchases over $999 36 months no interest.

One of the supervisors agreed to call in a payment plan change request to the credit card headquarters. After what seemed to be a surprisingly unproductive and disconcerting conversation with the operator the Best Buy supervisor told us that he would send in a faxed copy of the Best Buy promotional ad as well as let us know when he heard back from the credit card company. So off we were with a beautiful breeze of uncertainty and anxiety in the air. Not sure if we were going to get hit with a bombshell of interest in 6 months. Heading home with an exhausted 14 month old baby girl, who didn't sleep on the way back by the way, and feeling hungover from the ride through the vague land of creditville.

So in closing, Best Buy I beg you to work on learning what your current promotions are and then conveying them to the customer. And please Mr. Supervisor don't leave us hanging in credit limbo for long, either lower the hammer or ease the anxiety.