10 Worst Tech Rip-Offs and How to Avoid Them
Pricey Cables
All the major connections on your computer, phone and home theater use digital cables; there’s no tangible difference between one brand and another. So why does a 4-foot Monster HDMI cable cost $39.99 at Best Buy while Monoprice.com charges $2.96 for one of its 4-foot HDMI cables, which will do the same job? The cable gougers are hoping you won’t notice.
Solution: Don’t fall for marketing gimmicks by purchasing expensive name-brand cables. Online retailers like NewEgg, Amazon and Monoprice have great prices on cables from lesser-known brands.
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February 14th, 2013 at 5:58 pm
You sound incredibly cheap.
February 14th, 2013 at 10:57 pm
this, is a horrible article. Poor tips such as, “do not buy warranties”. There also is a HUGE difference in HDMI cords. My tv came with one of the cheapo’s the author suggests. I upgraded to a Monster cable much like what he said to avoid. The difference is WOW! You can’t compare the two. Also if you plan to watch 3D, cheapo’s won’t cut it. You need a high speed 3D capable HDMI.
February 14th, 2013 at 11:38 pm
How happen iPhone and MacBook(Pro specifically) are not in the list? Those are probably the most overpriced products to ever see the market!
Also I don’t see how the Surface Pro is overpriced since it is actually an Ultrabook and offers much more than MacBook Air for pretty much the same price.
Yes, I bought the Surface Pro, and for a developer like me its probably the most versatile product on the market by far, and I didn’t felt ripped off.
February 15th, 2013 at 10:03 am
Why on god’s green earth do all these idiot writers compare the Surface Pro to a bottom feeding level $499 iFad? It’s like comparing a Seiko to a Timex. If the writer can write this same drivel when comparing the new glorious 128GB iFad ($799 with it’s iPhone based OS, no connectivity or expansion options), to the 128GB Surface Pro ($999 with a full desktop OS, 64GB micro SDXC expansion slot, active pen digitizer, USB 3.0, display port) they are still lying through their teeth if they claim there is more “value” in the $200 less iFad.
February 15th, 2013 at 11:39 am
Why does everybody hate on these articles? They are there to help.
Also, go with the cheapest HDMI you can find, seriously.
February 15th, 2013 at 5:45 pm
This article is not only idiotic, it’s BS! On what planet does the iPad get 12 hours of battery life. It doesn’t get close. It gets between 9-10 hours of battery life. Secondly, how in the hell is the Surface Pro a ripoff? What nonsense!
March 6th, 2013 at 5:32 pm
Monster Cable’s marketing has led to one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the American public, and I see there are some idiots here still wanting to defend their ignorance. Sure, there are bad, poorly made cables, but the specs, principles, and claims of Monster and its ilk are simply ridiculous. My favorite is “acoustic winding,” or Monster Cable’s claim that high and low frequencies travel on different parts of a speaker cable at different speeds and that this phenomenon induces a noticeable distortion of sound. Right. You can tell when two signals traveling for 10 to 20 feet at nearly the speed of light arrive with a 5% disparity.
But if you spend 2000% of what LAMPCORD costs, you can correct this and here sound as it should be. Oh wait, performers don’t use acoustically wound cable in live shows, so you’ve never heard the “correct” sound anyway. Oh wait, those frequencies would travel at different speeds in THE AIR. So it’s Monster that’s inducing an artificial distortion. Hey David, want to buy a bridge?
March 20th, 2013 at 6:27 am
I bought the extended warranty for my unibody Macbook back 2008 and it was well worth the $400 dollars. I’ve had my screen replaced twice, new hard-drive and what not. Right before the warranty ran out I took it in and made sure they fixed everything and a year and half later it’s still ticking!
March 22nd, 2013 at 3:31 pm
David says “You need a high speed 3D capable HDMI [cable].”
So David, you’re saying 3D is in the wiring? Not the display device’s software. Gold-plated, diamond-encrusted, platinum-named, stored-under-a-palladium-pyramid cables. As opposed to copper wires with the correct connectors that follow the industry spec.
Monster is glad for customers like you.
March 31st, 2013 at 8:31 am
Hey why did you not mention the biggest ripoff that best buy offered that so called buyback program that you the customer had to pay for as the years went by they paid less and less for your item
April 7th, 2013 at 8:30 pm
All ways get warrenty on your phone, I replaced my driod X 3 times, once it got stolen and twice took a crap. For $6 a month Verizon just next days another one. Not sure where they got there info on this atricle from ???
April 8th, 2013 at 11:40 am
Read the article! It says don’t buy INSURANCE, not warranties. They are not the same. And insurance is a complete ripoff.
April 8th, 2013 at 12:15 pm
I would really think about going with no insurance on your cell phone. You may never need it it, but when your phone dies are you going to have the $600 (roughly) to replace it, or the time to take to find a good used one? My daughter’s current phone has been replaced twice, and my previous phone had was replaced once. Neither has been abused, in fact mine was a known problem with the display dying on the phone.
April 8th, 2013 at 3:18 pm
Certainly Monster makes some nice products, but when it comes to cables that carry a digital signal, they’re selling a whole lot of voodoo. Digital signal looks like a sawtooth – with two states – on or off. A $3 optical or HDMI cable carries that signal as well as a $50 cable. The content that’s being transmitted – be it 3D video, dts, or whatever – makes no difference.
April 9th, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Actually the higher the frequency a cable is called upon to carry, the greater the loss due to capacitance within the wire. Cheaper cables often use poorer quality dielectrics as well, so there is loss possible there. I know little about HDMI, but if it is being called upon to carry very fast changing states (1 to 0 and back in the digital signal), higher quality cable could well carry information necessary to properly render fast changing digital information such as is undoubtedly present in 3D video signals. Of course, those of us who sit in front of a TV with a beer or two under our belts hardly notice anything anyway, so who cares, really?
April 10th, 2013 at 8:02 pm
Monster cables are overpriced but don’t buy the cheapest. There are differences! Best Buy is Worst Buy. They sell what they need to move out of stock. Their employees are forced to do this. Their Geek Squad is overpriced and generally run by idiots. They lie and tell people their PC is dead so they will buy something new there. Warranties are always a great idea for non tech people who screw up their machine thinking its all so easy to fix.
May 24th, 2013 at 4:05 pm
How about EVERYONE stop buying $500 or $600 phones that you need to worry about “losing’ or “breaking”? You want High Def or 3D? How about GO OUTSIDE AND EXPERIENCE NATURE? Don’t need any HDMI cord for that!!!!
Does everyone seriously need to own/be on a tablet, smartphone, yadda-yadda-yadda all of the time? You can spend A LOT LESS MONEY if you have a PHONE that is used for calls and use your computer for being on-line!!!!! Do you REALLY need to watch that latest episode of TV on your phone (I honestly wish I was an Optometrist for all of the vision problems people are going to be having with their eyes in about 5 years!) or take photos/videos with it???
90% of technology is a ripoff because ALL OF THE MANUFACURERS/CARRIERS, etc. don’t care about anything but their bottom line and profit, and society has bought into each and every single thing because they tell you you need to have it!!!! Sorry – I use my cell phone (yes, a FLIP PHONE) to make calls WHEN NECESSARY. I still READ BOOKS, write letters to friends and try to be CULTURED!!!!!!! I go to actual concerts and I DON’T VIDEO THEM AND POST TO YOU TUBE (you want to see the concert, pay for it like I did!). I still look at my Grandmother’s recipies, I don’t need a tablet computer in the kitchen so that I can watch a video on how to cook. I still use road maps/atlases to get from point A to B – because I don’t need GPS sending me off of a cliff! I don’t do SOcial Media because I value my privacy, and don’t need 3000 “friends” I have never met!!!!
Seriosuly, if you want to save money – how about you lay off of having the newest, latest gadgets every year or 2?
FOR THE RECORD – I am a 40 year old female employed by local government and surprisingly, after that rant, am one of the most technology-smart people you would meet. I can do pretty much anything on any OS/Platform, can use software back to 1992 to current, and am the go-to for my entire Agency on any tech issue you can imagine. I know the tech, but I hate the tech and refuse to personally buy into having all of these trackable devices that are overpriced, make you anti-face to face social and take away from human interaction!
May 24th, 2013 at 6:57 pm
I questioned the need for phone insurance until my SGS-II slid out of my pocket and into my cat’s water bowl. Asurion tried to fob me off with newer but technologically inferior phones. I called them and let them know my displeasure. It took three weeks but I got a new SGS-II for $130 – much less than the used and refurbs were going for at the time.
May 24th, 2013 at 7:23 pm
If you DO want to buy a warranty, check 3rd party vendors, like Square Trade. Sign up for their e-mails, and they will send you 30% off codes on a regular basis, plus they allow you to put an extended warranty on a new device within 30 days of purchase. So if they don’t have a 30% off code this week, they likely will next week, and those codes make their “already cheaper than the big box store” warranties even cheaper! $300 to extend the warranty an extra 2 years on your laptop? I extended mine, through Square Trade, for <$75. Oh, and before anyone whines about how slow they are, they GUARANTEE a 5-day turnaround on repairs, or you get a full refund. Try getting that from the big box store warranties!
Cheap HDMI cables can be pretty cheap, but you CAN buy inexpensive HDMI cables that will handle your 3D video for far cheaper than your Monster cables cost. Buy Monster, you're paying a 300% premium for their NAME.
May 24th, 2013 at 8:56 pm
I bought a 3 yr extended warranty from Best Buy on my Panasonic Viera 42 inch Plasma TV in 2007, and 13 months later(1 month after the manufacturers warranty expired) , I had pixel die off occur on the TV. Called up Best Buy, they came out, saw what I was talking about, and called up a store and they immediately brought out a brand new Panasonic Viera 42 inch(but a 2008 model), which was actually better than the one that had issues(like 3 HDMI and the original had 2). In 2010, about 3 months before the 3 yr warranty was to expire, one of the HDMI inputs quit working, called them up, they came out, looked at it, called the store and shortly after I had a 50 inch Panasonic TV with 4 HDMI inputs. So in 3 yrs, I got two TV’s out of the $100 3 yr extended warranty.
Its stupid to say that they are not needed, pixel die off is something that can happen easily, and HDMI inputs can quit working if they get unplugged/plugged into alot(like I found out), but because of that extra cash handed over in 2007, I got both issues repaired for free. And the reason I got the 50 inch TV as a replacement, it cost the same amount as what the TV that had issues cost brand new, so they gave me an upgrade. And that TV still has not had any issues either
May 25th, 2013 at 12:39 am
Funny how he recommends getting a cheap tablet so you can then pay too much for an ultrabook. While i agree about buying something like the Kindle Fire unless you are one of the people that live out of hotels the crazy prices for the ultrabooks simply aren’t worth it, not when you can buy a nice quad core laptop for less than $500. Or if size is a factor there are still places selling the last of the Asus AMD netbooks, I have one and it gets over 4 hours even after 3 years of use on the battery and is able to play 1080P over HDMI so when i’m not out and about I can easily use it as an HTPC.
I also disagree about cheap cables, while monster cables are overpriced the ultra cheap cables have then wires and thin shielding makes for a worse picture and quicker failure. A better choice would be one of the premium cables from Monoprice, they aren’t much more than the cheapies but are well made.
May 25th, 2013 at 6:29 pm
To David, who wrote the second comment, I must say, you are quite a sucker, my friend. Paying $60 to Monster for a cable of worse quality than the same cable you can get from Monoprice for $4 is just wanting to throw your money away. I’ve had a few Monster cables and after a year or two they became useless, while the only cable that I bought from Monoprice that didn’t last was because my dog chewed it. I have all kinds of HDMI cables from Monoprice of different lengths all the way up to 15 feet and they are excellent. The only cheapo HDMI cables that are bad are the ones that usually come with TV sets or Blu-ray players, the ones that are really thin. If you pay Monster $60 for a cable that costs them $1 to make, you are a sucker.
May 26th, 2013 at 10:33 am
I don’t agree with much this author says. His approach is way too simplistic & he seems to lack the technical sophistication necessary to discuss the issues properly. I won’t rip apart each of his claims but will discuss 2 as examples of his failings.
First. You can’t compare an ipad to the Surface. It’s like comparing a motorcycle to a car. The ipad is for someone who doesn’t need all the functionality of a computer while the surface for all intensive purposes is a laptop. As an IT professional I can appreciate a tablet running a full version of Windows, capable of running the same software as my desktops & laptops. But for off hours and for entertainment purposes I can also appreciate a lightweight, nimble tablet like the ipad. They’re two separate things, for different needs. Both are valuable devices with overlapping functions but they’re not the same thing. To call the Surface a ripoff is ridiculous.
As for cables, this author and most of the readers also miss the mark. Different signals, require different quality cables (there are standards for these things). If you have a 100 Megabit Ethernet network you can use a Cat5 cable, but if you have a gigabit network you need a cat 5e cable and maybe want cat6. Different standards for different speeds. The difference is in the shielding (insolation). The same is true of HDMI cables. There are different grades for different uses. See http://dealnews.com/features/How-to-Choose-the-Right-HDMI-Cable/475907.html . Do you ever need a $79.99 HDMI cable? No. But you do need the right cable for your needs.
Most people aren’t educated consumers and the help at most of the stores that sell the electronics aren’t knowledgeable enough to give customers the correct guidance. It would be my hope that these types of columns would fill in the gaps. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be the case.