I ordered a Sony KD-34XBR960 using the group buy from ABTelectronics. It arrived today not between 1 and 4 pm as I was informed but at 4:20 pm but here is the kicker no White glove service. One truck driver who was just going to drop it at the curb!!! When I asked about him putting it in he said is that they did not provide that service. The tv is on its way back as I refused delivery there are scams like this where they deliver it late and pretend not to know anything about your order so BEWARE the group buy is a scam!!!!!
claudio Moderator Premium Member Rank: Ultimate Sony Reviewer
Joined: Aug 30, 2001
Posts: 2355
From: Rockville, MD
Posted: 2004-09-03 20:37
Hi vafbtony,
I have sent you an email regarding this. I will paste it here, just in case you read this posting first. I just want to say that I'm very surprised and shocked that this has happened. We have never had this before. I will get to the bottom of this.
I have forwarded this email to Mike Abt and Neil Kaufman of ABTelectronnics.
I will get to the bottom of this. We have had over 200 television deliveries and they have all had their television delivered to the customer’s Home entertianment room and removal of packaging materials.
Was the company Berkins? Also, I'm surprised that they only had one person. They usually have 2 or 3 people.
Please be assured that I will get to the bottom and figure out what happened. This is the first time we have had an issue with delivery.
The final update on the TV that never was: After rejecting the KD-34xbr980 on 9/3/04 since no white glove service was provided the TV was returned to the Los Angeles airport. Since then I have communicated with Mike Abt, Neil Kaufman, and Rebecca of Abt Electronics and Team Air Express. The final answer that I was given is that Abt Electronics does not provide white glove service to California. Abt Electronics offered to take an extra $100 off but with curb service only. I have deceided to cancal my order altogether and am very unhappy with the false information about the white glove service. If this outfit can't get anyone to install a TV and all they do is just put it in with no hook up service than I don't want to try and lift or ever try to move a 200lb tv either. In the future I will buy a HDTV that I can lift such as an LCD or DLP. I will also most likely buy from a local outfit such as Circuit City or Costco. The couple of hundred dollars in savings is just not worth the headaches.
I can understand your headaches, but for $100 off, I would most certainly take the TV. The picture that it provides is probably the best available.
Whatever happened to people being understanding and willing to deal with adversity? $100 is a lot of money, and I would take it any day, if all I had to do was lug a 200 lb tv into my house from the curb. Geez, I can see why our nation is filed with 2/3 of the population being obese. (I am sure you are not obese, or even the least bit fat, but getting an old friend and giving him a few beers or something to help you move in a tv isn't the worst thing in the world.)
I had the white glove service for my 34XBR960, but would gladly trade it for $100. Granted, I am 23 and I can actually lift 200 lbs no problem, if it weren't for the awkward shape of the tv.
I had a very similar experience I'd like to share. After debating with my wife for a couple months and finally reconciling the quality (KD-34XBR960) versus quantity (anything larger) dilemma, we decided the tube TV was our best option. I had been following the agoraquest groupbuy forums for some time so I knew I wanted to come here to get a good deal.
The price was terrific. Got the groupbuy price and an additional 3% off for using by discovercard through a special promotion (that's still going on by the way). All I did was ask and Neil was like "sure, no problem." Very cool! The ABTelectronics guys were terrific (Mike Abt and Neil Kaufman) although the other sales folks there dubious. The others tried to give me the runaround about the 3% when I called back after they lost my credit card number. But once I talked to Neil again, everything was ok. Overall not so bad. Not the lowest price I found (found lower prices elsewhere) but the white glove delivery had me hooked.
So I waited 10 days (they only ship out on Fridays) and counted the hours for it to arrive. I live in Baltimore and TeamAir only has an affiliate out here (East Coast Handling or something like that). At 5pm I get the call and sit like an anxious dog by the doorway. 530pm the truck pulls up and there is ONLY ONE GUY in the cab! He has grimey hands and looks like he's pushing 60! Doesn't look like he's going to be able to lift that 200lb tv by himself.
He walks up with a smile (a heck of a nice guy) and says he has a delivery. By this point I'm already blue in the face. I ask "where's your second man?" He says "what second man?" So we get into this 5min discussion about white glove delivery. He knows all about it because they DO INDEED have the service, it just wasn't listed for this delivery.
So after several calls to Team Air and East Coast Handling the driver gets the approval to go ahead with the in-home delivery (no doing the connections or true white glove). He's obviously not going to do it all himself so I say "to hell with it!" and decide to lug the tv in with him, his greasy paws and muddy shoes and all. At this point I don't want to wait another week and risk getting the tv damaged. I just wipe down the tv after, tip the guy 10 bucks, and vacuum the areas we walked on. Had a small smudge of mud on our beige carpet that's still there a little. I was pretty pissed off.
Long story short, overall I'm happy with the TV and with ABT and even with the delivery. Somewhere they screwed up though. Whether it was ABT or Team Air or East Coast Handling, I don't know I don't have the patience to track it down. If I had another chance, I WOULD NOT go with a groupbuy again and I would not recommend it to my friends. The ONLY thing that made me go with the groupbuy and ABTelectronics was the price TOGETHER with the white glove. I wouldn't go as far to say the White Glove is false advertisement, but my frustration level that day didn't keep me from getting a little peeved. And like I said, if I knew the delivery would be like this, I could have gotten a better price elsewhere and been prepared for walking on the carpet with muddy shoes.
So goes it for my first foray in to HDTV and the groupbuy experience. I hope yours isn't as messed up as mine.
[ This message was edited by: pwc2a on 2004-09-16 11:07 ]
I''m getting ready to buy the Sony KD-34XBR060 within a week or two and at first I was really set on going with the group buy instant quote price of $1979 from abt electronics and since they are authorized sony dealer and it come with no tax and free white glove delivery.But after reading this thread and some other thread on avs fourm.I've become a little weary and am leaning towards spending about $100 more due to tax and white glove delivery service which is $50 through the good guys.I was at my local good guys store here in San Diego if anyone cares and lives in SD it was the La Jolla the good guys store and their everyday low price for the XBR960 was $2099.So I was just checking out the TV and man everytime I see the TV I just cant wait to get the set.So as I was paying for the Star Wars Trilogy DVD box set I just mentioned to the sales guy that I could get the TV for $1979 through abt.I didnt mention it was a group buy price and the guy was really pressing hard to try and get me buy the TV right at that moment and he was saying that they could match the group buy price.So right now I'am really leaning towards buying the TV locally through the good guys and spending a few hundred more.First because the TV is locally right here, dont have to wait for delivery and setup a time for the truck service to come out and deliver the TV.Second because of the fact the good guys offer financing for 12 month intrest free.Which is major plus since I am going to be using my credit card.So as it stands now I'm probably going to spend a few hundred more and buy the TV locally rather than go with the instant group buy price through abt.
claudio Moderator Premium Member Rank: Ultimate Sony Reviewer
Joined: Aug 30, 2001
Posts: 2355
From: Rockville, MD
Posted: 2004-09-25 03:53
It's unfortunately to have these two situations happen. We have had over 250 successfully deliveries and had so far only 7 deliveries with problems. That is 7 too many. All of them have been the same problems with Team Air. During the 7 deliveries, they didn’t list the delivery as White Glove as they should have. The other company that delivers for Abtelectronics is Berkins who has always delivered flawlessly.
Out of the 7, Abtelectronics worked it out with some of them by compensating them financially for the inconvienence. Customer support means a great deal to ABTelectronics and customer support is the priority for our groupbuy consumers.
The main reason that we choose ABTelectronics is that they have been in business since 1936 and are one of the first Sony authorized dealers. Also, they have a 95% customer satisfaction rating in bizrate.com from over 25,000 customers.
Also in some cases, groupbuy members have spoken to Abtelectronics consumer representative other than Neil Kaufman or Mike Abt. Those two are the ones who deal with the Agoraquest Groupbuy since it's a special rate.
To increase customer support, I will include their email addresses and phone numbers in the groupbuy reservation confirmation email. I wil also include my direct email. This should help faciliate in answering any questions, problems or other items that come up.
Customer support with a great price is ABTelectronics and Agoraquest #1 priority.
I just want to make clear that I think mine was one of only a few isolated incidents. I am loving the TV (still tweaking the brightness settings to get good day/night performance) and Neil and Mike were great (just make sure you talk to them only like Claudio said) I just hated going through this unexpected inconvenience since if the situation were even a little different, it couldve ended a lot more miserably. If I ever find another groupbuy from ABT for a smaller (less heavy) item, I'd probably jump at the chance.
Joined: Sep 21, 2004
Posts: 19
From: burbs of Chicago
Posted: 2004-10-04 23:56
Well, we will see. I placed my order for a GW3 with Mike at ABT today. Delivery is on Friday and he said it would either be done by Berkins, or their own guys. (I'm about 35 miles away from the store itself........but I had never heard of it until I found this board). We'll see how nice the white glove service really is.....or is not.
The group buy price was nice, and I got a little extra off since I have to pay sales tax. I was tempted to order through Crutchfield, but I would like to have a local store if something goes wrong with the unit. read: bulb problem
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Posted: 2004-09-03 20:12
Posted: 2004-09-03 20:37
Posted: 2004-09-03 22:20
The ABTelectronics guys were terrific (Mike Abt and Neil Kaufman) although the other sales folks there dubious. The others tried to give me the runaround about the 3% when I called back after they lost my credit card number. 
But once I talked to Neil again, everything was ok. 
Overall not so bad. Not the lowest price I found (found lower prices elsewhere) but the white glove delivery had me hooked.
He has grimey hands and looks like he's pushing 60! 
and with ABT and even with the delivery. Somewhere they screwed up though. Whether it was ABT or Team Air or East Coast Handling, I don't know I don't have the patience to track it down. If I had another chance, I WOULD NOT go with a groupbuy again and I would not recommend it to my friends. The ONLY thing that made me go with the groupbuy and ABTelectronics was the price TOGETHER with the white glove. I wouldn't go as far to say the White Glove is false advertisement, but my frustration level that day didn't keep me from getting a little peeved. And like I said, if I knew the delivery would be like this, I could have gotten a better price elsewhere and been prepared for walking on the carpet with muddy shoes. 
Posted: 2004-09-23 19:58
