Best Buy is a big box retailer that's so far not gone under (so far). That's surprising when you consider how much they piss off shoppers.
For seven months now, we've been hearing from readers who've purchased some version of an Insignia TV at Best Buy.
We finally decided to try it out ourselves and last week tested Insignia in San Francisco, Boston, the DC area and Connecticut.
The piece of crap TV doesn't work.
It works great as a monitor, it's lousy as a TV.
That's if you have cable or satellite or if you're just trying to pick up channels through the air.
Forget it, because this piece of crap doesn't work.
Why do people buy it?
Reader Cedro was the first to write and complain so he was the first one we contacted.
"Best Buy," he explained. "I bought it because it's Best Buy. It was cheap but they had another brand cheaper. Best Buy carried it so I thought it worked. And it insisted on the package that it was green so I thought I was getting something good for the environment. It is an energy saver, alright, I never turn it on because it doesn't pick up any channels."
Compared to Cedro, Amanda is living the high life. She can pick up her local Fox station in New Mexico. And?
That's it. She has cable. If she connects cable to the Insignia, she can't even pick up the Fox channel.
She offers, "I never thought that, in Albuquerque, I'd have trouble picking up stations. But that's what's happening. With Insignia, anyway. I got a Samsung a few months later and no problems. But with the Insignia, I wasted money on a TV that only plays one channel."
As this community forum and this community forum and this community forum (we could keep going) make clear, this is neither a new nor novel problem.
Insignia makes TV that are pieces of crap. That Best Buy carries a product that is so problematic and so faulty doesn't speak well of them either.
Save your money or spend an extra $20 for a TV. Or go to Wal-Mart which, for all its other problems, at least doesn't carry Insignia. (Insignia is a Best Buy exclusive, a home brand.)