the problem of shopping online

I was one of many people who sat by their computers on Christmas eve - 8pm - hoping to get in on Future Shop's Boxing Day sale. Among the items up for grabs and one that EVERYONE was talking about was the HD DVD player for $99. I was looking for a HTIB to go with the new LCD tv I purchased - so I had my eyes on either the Pioneer or Sony system. I didn't want to spend too much either.

Anyhow... 8pm arrives, and after searching the site (using previously bookmarked items that were on sale) - got to check out - and.... waiting, waiting, ...tick tock tick tock... and then from out of the blue - I was booted off the site. Too busy to access. I was p/o'ed. I wasn't the only one (judging by the comments in both Future Shops boards and RedFlagDeals forums). It was a complete f/up on Future Shop's side.

Needless to say, I did manage to get the system - and it would be sent to me via Purolator. I expected to wait a week for the deliver, but surprisingly, it arrived yesterday - in a HUGE box! Holy, it was taller than me! Hey, if I ever loose the roof over my head, I could use this box as a makeshift home :-)

I started to unpack the thing - and after wiring everything up, looked at all the connections and wires, I thought, holy shit, I can't figure this out. I get no sound - I have all kinds of connections and wires but haven't a clue how to hook the thing up. Why the hell do they make these things so hard? I have the television, the HD digital box, the HD DVD player and the receiver thingy. Making them all work properly was something else. Even the tv - trying to figure out the settings is too confusing, the picture size is never the same - prompting me to change from stretch, zoom, normal and different inputs and holy crap, I am getting fed up with it all.

As I sat last evening thinking about it all, when it comes down to the bottom line, I really don't care about resolution, size, sound - so I packed that stupid thing up and am sending it back. The HD box is going back as well - even though they shipped it out to me - and I made a big deal about having to spend a day dragging the old box to Rogers Video - and their bloody system were down by the time I arrived there. Anyhow, this whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. I am beginning to think I should have just been content with my old tv and regular cable.