Brick-and-Mortar Converter Box Selection Thin

The program hardly is in full gear, and won’t be until the Feb. 17, 2009, deadline for cessation of analog broadcasts looms. Few stores stock more than one converter SKU. And many suppliers ballyhooing boxes, including an EchoStar model expected to cost $40, haven’t even got product to market yet.

Nor is retail participation anywhere near peak. All top national chains are certified to sell coupon-eligible boxes. But only Best Buy, Circuit City, RadioShack and Wal-Mart actively redeem coupons, though all are doing so chainwide or soon will be. Still, when we shopped those chains in greater Indianapolis, San Diego, New York and Washington we found personnel generally informed on the product and the program, though some needed some prodding. Often, all that took was a flash of that bright red coupon, though if a clerk hadn’t seen on the result was a call to a manager or co-worker for help.

We flashed the card at a Best Buy in Huntington, N.Y., with an elaborate display of Insignia-brand boxes. Several dozen were stacked on an endcap, with brochures about the coupon program and a stack of coupon applications. Still, the card mystified the clerk we hailed. He asked his manager what to do. The manager seemed familiar with the card, but said we were his first customers to come bearing coupons. He needed to phone the home office for help.

Boxes abounded at a Wal-Mart in White Plains, N.Y. The two saleswoman on duty were aware of the program and showed us a Magnavox converter, the only brand they stocked. We said we'd prefer an RCA model with smart antenna input, advertised on Wal-Mart’s Web site, but that wasn’t available. Neither were indoor smart antennas. The saleswomen deferred to their manager when we asked if a 1983 vintage rooftop antenna would work with the Magnavox. She said it should -- if the antenna worked. If not, we could try an indoor antenna, she said. If neither worked, we could return the box for a cash refund of our out-of-pocket cost, she said. NTIA rules bar returns and cash refunds. They allow a retailer only to exchange a box for a replacement. That’s a complication because often all a buyer can do is swap the same model box for another.

Used Coupon As a Souvenir

At a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Indianapolis, we went red, telling the clerk we weren’t sure we needed a converter. Some TV sets at home are on cable, but one has an indoor antenna, we said. The clerk said she thought that set needed a box, sending us to the department supervisor, a very reassuring and matter-of-fact fellow. He asked if the TV using the antenna was an older analog model, then confirmed that a converter was needed. When we asked if a new or special antenna was needed to receive DTV, he said that if we got TV stations now, the TV’s existing antenna would be fine. At checkout, our coupon rang up as a $40 credit. Sale complete, the supervisor asked if we wanted our coupon card back as a souvenir. “You can keep it, even though it isn’t worth anything now,” he said.

Coupon-eligible boxes were more scarce in the Washington, D.C., metro area in early March. Circuit City and RadioShack both seemed to stock only the $59.99 Zenith DTT900 box, and one RadioShacks was out of those, with no idea when more would arrive. At a suburban Tysons Corner, Va., Circuit City, a salesman seemingly unaware of converter boxes eventually aimed us at a $169.99 Samsung HDTV converter. When we said there should be a $40 box, he came up with the Zenith. We mentioned $40 again. He said he thought the Zenith box will drop to $40 next February -- a story that doesn’t ring true.

A D.C. RadioShack had Zenith boxes, but no special signs or display, and the box was misidentified as the DDT900. We asked about cheaper boxes. “That’s all they sent me so far,” the manager said, indicating he had no idea when others might arrive. Another RadioShack in suburban Vienna, Va., had a display for Zenith boxes, but no boxes. The salesman said he didn’t know if different types would arrive, or when more Zeniths might hit the shelves.

At a RadioShack eight blocks from the Capitol, we asked the saleswoman who greeted us about boxes. She said she didn’t know what a converter box was. Only after we described the coupon program in detail did she point us to the Zenith DTT900 at $59.99, the only box she said she had for sale. She answered our questions authoritatively when we asked if it was easy to connect the box to the TV, but a query on analog passthrough dumbfounded her. Worse, she equated HDTV with DTV. Converters only pick up HDTV broadcasts, she said. “If they're not HD programs,” the box “probably won’t” work, she said.

Few Unscrupulous Practices Observed

We saw little of unscrupulous practices that would land a certified retailer in hot water with the NTIA. For example, no store we visited tried to upsell us on an expensive DTV set that we didn’t need. But we ran into pressure sales tactics at a RadioShack store in the Forest Hills section of Queens, N.Y. There, a manager tried to persuade us to buy the $59.99 DigitalStream DTX9900 box, the only model he claimed to have in stock. When we balked, he ratcheted up the pressure, describing a huge run days earlier on the DigitalStream when area residents all got their coupons in the mail at the same time. Before that, he had 21 DigitalStreams, but now was down to two, and when those ran out, there was no telling when he might get more, he said. If we didn’t buy, we might be out of luck, he said. We didn’t buy.

Should a RadioShack store sell out of boxes, the company has trained salespeople to offer to order the product for the customer from stock at its Fort Worth, Texas, distribution center, the chain said in February (CED Feb 14 p1). It also will ship the box to the customer at no extra charge via its “Direct-To-You” (D2U) program, it said. The Forest Hills manager never mentioned D2U.

The best box selection is online from eight e-commerce sites certified for the program with names as obscure as those on most of the boxes they sell. Amazon didn’t sign up. Best Buy, Circuit City, RadioShack and Wal-Mart all feature coupon-eligible boxes at their Internet stores, but none lets someone redeem a coupon online. Best Buy told a 2007 House Telecom Subcommittee hearing that it probably won’t offer online coupon redemption, claiming IT issues keep that from being cost-effective.

Of the eight certified e-commerce sites, four carry the Artec T3A Pro by Taiwan’s Ultima Electronics, a brand we haven’t seen at retail. It’s for sale at consumerelec.com, dtv.bsat.net, data-action.com and solidsignal.com. In fact, solidsignal.com had the widest box selection, seven, by Artec, ChannelMaster, DigitalStream, MicroGem, Philco, Sansonic and Tivax.

The Tivax box is a smart antenna model, while Philco’s has analog passthrough. The Tivax box, available from the Tivax website, also is sold by e-tailer compupartsandmore.com. Another online site, convertmy.tv, carried the Sansonic box and a MaxMedia unit with smart antenna input and analog passthrough. All the online sites feature extensive tutorials on about the DTV switch, including material on selecting an antenna and applying for NTIA coupons.

Buying a box and redeeming a coupon was as quick and simple as any online transaction at the two sites we shopped -- convertmy.tv and solidsignal.com. At checkout, you're asked to enter the coupon’s embossed number, its expiration date and the three-digit security ID code on the back of the card. The site credits you for the $40 discount and adds any shipping charge and sales tax for the final tally. Boxes we purchased arrived quickly by FedEx Ground.