Kogan's Kevin37 high-def TV - do you need to try before you buy?
Shopping online from your couch is convenient but, when it comes to the Kogan's $900 Kevin37 television, Adam Turner wonders if you should buy sight unseen.
I'm happy to shop online for items that are a known quantity, such as music, movies and books. There's no real need to see such items before you buy them - as you can preview them online just as thoroughly as you can in a physical store. I know they'll be exactly the same product wherever I buy them.
I'm also content to buy basic computer parts online after reading a few reviews, for example a power supply or RAM, because even if I held them in a shop I still wouldn't know if they were any good until I got them home and tried them out.
Some people extend this to buying entire PCs online, such as thise from Dell, but now Kogan Technologies wants me to go a step further and buy high-def televisions sight unseen. Having reviewed more than my share of dud televisions, I think that's where I have to draw the line.
I had a chat with Kogan Technologies founder Ruslan Kogan at a tech conference recently and he's an interesting guy. He vows he'll never have a shop front, even though he sells gear such as televisions and Blu-ray players which people traditionally buy off the shelf at discount electrical stores. When quizzed on this issue, he made some good points:
"What we do is similar to the Dell business model, I think they've got a very good business model but they've taken it back a few steps in the last few months by putting their products into Officeworks," Ruslan said.
"They're cannibalising their own business and what made them successful and gave them a price advantage. It's a similar business model - from manufacturer direct to the consumer, cut out the middleman and save lots of money."
When pushed as to why someone would buy a product such as a television online from Kogan without seeing it in action first, Ruslan emphasised his seven day money back guarantee and the fact that potential buyers can read what other customers thought of the television, as well as what they thought of Kogan's service and support.
When pushed on the fact that people might prefer to see a television in action, Ruslan didn't hold back and I've censored a few company names lest someone call out the lawyers:
"Go to a [major retail chain] and their televisions are tuned based on whoever is paying them the biggest kickbacks at that time. Go to a big retail store and there'll be months when the [Brand A] looks better and there will be times when the [Brand B] looks better. There are other influences going on in the background and unless you know how to calibrate a television and compare them side by side, I don't think you're getting that much extra value to justify spending double or triple the price."
Having seen how badly some televisions are a set up in the major retail stores, particularly the cheap and nasty ones (that's both televisions and stores), I think Ruslan's got a point. If you know what to look for, the wheat does stand out from the chaff in a wall of the televisions - but most people are blinded by the size of a television and how high the brightness is cranked.
If you're going to buy the biggest, brightest, cheapest hunk of junk you can find - because you wouldn't know picture quality if it bit you on the arse - you may as well save yourself some money and buy a television online from the likes of Kogan Technologies.
I haven't seen Kogan's televisions, so I can't tell you if they're any good, but in terms of bang for your buck they're unlikely to be worse than some of the junk I've seen on the shelves selling for a lot more.
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