OT: Where to order a DTV converter

[letterman]

Since the local stations made the transition to DTV last Tuesday, I can not find a Zenith or Insignia converter anywhere locally, and Best Buy does not mail order them. Kmart does not have them in stock at all, and Radio Shack is also out. Those are the only 3 stores to offer them around here. The coupons have a few weeks left, but I cant wait for these stores to get them, and Best Buy said they will not be getting any more.

I am not a mail order person, in fact I hate doing it because it faster to drive to a store than wait for websites to load (on dialup), and I do not care to give out personal info online either. And when my items do arrive, I stilll have to drive 5 miles to the Post Office and 5 miles back, because they wont come to the door. Thus mail order is not time or cost effective for me. But I need to use these coupons before they expire.

Don;t bother to tell me about ebay or amazon, or similar. In other words, I will not order from stores, not these "link to seller" places like ebay and amazon. So, this leaves out both Ebay and Amazon. In fact I read several articles on the web stating the nightmares people have had trying to use the DTV coupons at Amazon.

Does anyone know of a direct store that may have these converters for mail ordering? They have to accept the $40 coupons, and payment by credit card, or I can mail a check. (NO Paupal). I'll likely order by phone, not website, because thats safer.

I hate to bother this newsgroup, with this, but some of you must be more familiar with mail ordering and know who has these converters. I dont want any other brands.

Thanks

LM

[Cheri]

Have you checked out Radio Shack online? Sometimes, if they don't have an item in the store, I will order in online and have it sent to the local store for pickup. Just a thought. Good luck.

Cheri

[G. Morgan]

You can get one from Dish Network of all places (does not have anything to do with their satellite TV service).

[Andy]

Andy comments:

Just google " DTV Converter Sales" and you will be deluged with stores offering many brands at a wide variety of prices.

The coupon that the government gives out usually lists many types. If you google them individually, you will find many mail order houses that sell them.

The shipping fees are usually around 6 or 7 dollars.......

Andy in Eureka, Texas

[Robert Neville]

Have you called your nearest Radio Shack ("You've got money, we want it") and see what their stock is?

[ransley]

There are better boxes for picture quality, Tivax, has a top picture but the best products are mail order only

[mm]

The DVDR listed there looks pretty good but there is no price and they're out of them. It has two tuners, so you can record two digital programs at the same time, or record one and watch one.

It seems to be made by echostar, but going to the echhostar website, and then to Products, all I find is one page that lists the kind of things they make.

Do they sell echostar products somewhere.

[Phisherman]

I'd be against buying a DTV converter online, makes it easier to return it. Many converter boxes purchased are not needed, expect to see them in garage sales/Craigslist.

[dpb]

Why, precisely, would that be???

--

[aemeijers]

I'd keep one, and dig up a set of rabbit ears, just for giggles. Satt locals seldom include all the secondary feeds the OTA broadcast has (like realtime radar, vs. the 15-minute old signal you can get online), and when (not if) the satt goes flaky, you still have SOME TV.

Always have a backup plan. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

-- aem sends...

[Scott]

The government is giving me $80 of my tax money back, but I can only spend it on DTV tuners -- so I'll buy two, even though I only have one TV and it already runs on a satellite receiver. Perhaps I can resell the tuners and recoup some or all of my $80 to use as I see fit. I like the idea of using it to buy some books.

[Scott]

I do have a backup plan -- when the sat receiver conks out, I turn the TV off and do something else. Isn't that weird?

[aemeijers]

Yep- keep telling yourself than when there is heavy weather coming in, and you'd really like to know just when it is going to hit. Or when some historic event is going on, and you'd really like to see the realtime video feed. Don't get me wrong- the majority of stuff on the box is indeed crap- right now mine is muted, and I'm just using it as a fireplace (Some History channel show about trains that started out interesting, but the yapping announcer quickly got too annoying). But now that newspapers are shutting down right and left, and most 'news' magazines are morphing into who knows what, TV and internet (and maybe shortwave radio) will soon be about the only sources of news left. Broadcast radio in this country hasn't had real news in 10 years, at least.

-- aem sends...