I buy lots of stuff online, but until recently I never gave much thought to how my purchases got to me. After all, there wasn't much to say about FedEx, UPS, or the U.S. Postal Service.
Things changed when I bought a big flat-screen TV. As I surfed from e-tailer to e-tailer, I learned that delivery services varied widely, and that failure to check out these services could result in unpleasant surprises when the set arrives. Here's what you need to know.
First of all, most larger sets are delivered by specialized services that typically make an appointment to arrive within a window of time--say, 2 hours or so. But what they do when they show up differs considerably.
Robert Masters, senior vice president at Minnesota-based Manna Distribution Services, which specializes in delivering big-screen TVs and furniture, says his firm offers three levels of service.
The first, called threshold delivery, gets the TV set to your front door, but no farther. If you live in an apartment, threshold service will leave the set in the hallway on your floor. You want this service only if you have enough muscle power at your immediate disposal to carry the set indoors and to its intended location.
The next step up is over-the-threshold delivery, which gets the set past the front door--but again, no farther. At least it's now out of the rain, or the hallway.
The deluxe service, called White Glove, means two people will remove the TV Set from its packaging and put it exactly where you want it. And if you want setup services, Manna offers them too, also at three levels (basic, deluxe, and premium)--up to installing a wall mount you supply, and hiding the cables in your baseboard.
But you may not have access to all of those options: Manna's customers--the companies that sell flat-screen TVs--decide which services to offer us (their customers) and what to charge for them.
Abe's of Maine, for example, throws in Manna's threshold service free of charge with standard, seven-to-ten-day delivery for the plasma model I chose; White Glove service, $249, is the only other option. I bought my set from Sears.com, which charged $65 to place the box where I wanted it; unpacking and installation took several hours.
If you do pay for installation, Masters offers a few tips. First, identify a place where the shippers can deposit the big (and possibly dirty) box the set comes in without damaging carpet or flooring.
Don't disconnect entertainment-center components. Installers don't want to sort through a nest of disconnected cables to figure out which ones go where.
Visually inspect the set for obvious problems. Masters says packaging originally designed for bulk delivery to a big-box store isn't always sturdy enough to survive transfers of single sets in a van. Refuse delivery if you find damage.
If you can, hang on to the box in case you need to return the unit. And consider buying new components at the same time as the HDTV instead of later. Manna will deliver up to 50 pounds of extra gear with the set free of charge--so you might be able to get free shipping for a Blu-ray or HD DVD player when it piggybacks on the delivery of your new big-screen TV.
Yardena Arar
