Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.
Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.
Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.
Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.
HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.
HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.
HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.
GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.
Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.
Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.
Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 47)
Sy said 10:41PM on 1-25-2008
Those customers were no doubt happy with being alleviated with that pain. Companies like Sprint often cause problems uncessarily.
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Richard said 1:03PM on 1-30-2008
Have avoided the problem of canceling by staying with Verizon for 10 years. The trick is to NEVER accept a new phone (or buy one) from them (or probably any service provider). No freebies, no contract. And, yes, this does anger them and they will hound you for some time about why you don't want a new phone, but it slows down after awhile. Buy used off ebay or whatever.
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Brenda said 9:01AM on 2-08-2008
I hate Sprint too. I was military and moving when renewing my contract i asked if I would have service in my new duty station they said yes. I was constantly on roaming. Then I called and they said I needed to upgrade my phone so I bought a 150 dollar phone. It didnt work..I just left them. No i didnt pay the cancellation fee..I think it was wrong of them..Got tmobile and had for the past 7 years and they are great
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Dee said 7:59AM on 3-05-2008
I had wonderful service with AT&T. Then they sold out to Cingular. I was forced to switch over or get another carrier. I made a terrible mistake and switched to Cingular. I bought a family plan with 2 phones (which came with a $200 rebate) at Sams Club. Took the phones home and 1 of them would not activate. Returned it to Sams, was told Cingular COULD NOT simply give me a new phone, I would have to purchase another phone and they would mail me refund for original phone. On my first bill they had charged me for 3 main phone lines. In the meantime I got a letter stating they would not honor my rebate on the 2 original phones. I complained and the company in charge of rebates told me Cingular made an error and should have sent rebate. At this point, Cingular owed me $300 ($200 rebate, $100 for defective phone). I made 4 trips to Sams, called customer service literally a dozen times, called the regional supervisor, and even other Cingular reps, all to no avail. They kept charging me for 3 phone plans, adding penalties, etc., until my bill was $500. They also cut the service off and I had no phone, but kept getting this ever growing bill. I kept refusing to pay, sent copies of my contract, and reiterated that they owed me $300, and were charging me for 3 phone lines instead of a family plan with 2 phones. Got nowhere. They turned bill over to collection. After 3 years of fighting this bunch of morons, I finally just started throwing their bills in the garbage. Does anyone know who we can get help from in a situation like this?? My state consumer affairs division told me the FCC regulated them--what a joke!
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Jimi said 8:19AM on 3-05-2008
NEXTEL blows!! Worst cell service, worst customer service!! I have T-Mobile and have not had a dropped call in 6 months. Have not had to call customer service once! Employees at the retail store were the best!!
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Lisa said 8:24AM on 3-05-2008
My husband & I had Sprint & got rid of it, but our contract was up so we let it go & they still tried charging us for 3 monthes after we stopped using Sprint..To me they are the biggest rip off...I agree with what was said they sure would charge you for termination yor contract early so why no charge them for the same thing..I think it is ridiculous that they are termination people for calling them with problems they are having with their service...Sprint just needs to go out of business....
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Dawne Nelson said 8:57AM on 3-05-2008
My first cell phone company was Sprint(aka Satan). The phone I purchased from an online company had a great deal but I had to use Sprint. Well long story short It took 2 days and 15 hours on the phone to get my cell on because they had no records of me even after the took my deposit. The hardest part was none of the cust svc reps spoke English! After all that, I still had problems. The bill was never right. It took 6 months to get refund for the phone after they tried to refuse payment twice. And again you could never get anybody who spoke English clearly. Thak God I finally got to switch carriers. Altell is the best. I wouldn't go back to Sprint if it was free.
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Val said 12:51PM on 3-05-2008
I had Sprint years ago and was so upset and annoyed with their service. During a tropical storm in this area I was without service for 4 days. I switched to T-Mobile almost 5 years ago and having to call customer service has never been necessary. The couple of times I did was to ser up additional lines on my account and once after my son was robbed and that was to report his phone as stolen. They spoke in clear English, were so attentive and so pleasant to deal with. And they was no waiting for a person.
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pauline said 10:48AM on 3-05-2008
i gotone after buying my daughter a sprint phone from radio shack back in 1996..and it was a nightmare back then too..i cancelled it cause thEY were charging me insane charges ..i got rid of then ..paid off..they are now tryingto bill me $127.00 bucks AFTER 12 YEARS..LOL THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN DIFICULT..I NOW GOT A GO PHONE ,,NO BILLS..NO CONTRACTS..
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Cynthia said 11:05AM on 3-05-2008
We have had nextel for 8 years since sprint took over we have to call every month to get our bill straight. They can never get anything right. Our average call length is 1-2 hours, and there always rude. When our contract is up we are moving phone company's so tired of the mess.
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BC said 12:32PM on 3-05-2008
Sprint is HORRIBLE. I just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau yesterday. It took me two pages to describe my nightmare history.
I have HORRIBLE coverage although I live in the Center of Nashville and I miss more calls than I get. Once I missed two calls IN THE Sprint store as one call never even rang but showed up on my phone.
They've double billed me for two accounts.
Finding someone that speaks English fluently is a JOKE!!! And when I graciously expressed my inability to understand and I asked for someone else to speak with, I was hung up on.
I have tried and tried to stay with them. Why I know not.
I just filed the complaint with BBB last night. I hope I get 'dumped' from Sprint.
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STEELERS GIRL said 1:23PM on 3-05-2008
SPRINT IS HORRIBLE!!I HAVE BEEN A CUSTOMER FOR ABOUT 10 YEARS AND THEY TREAT YOU WORSE THAN NEW CUSTOMERS FIRST OF ALL! SECOND, NO ONE UNDERSTANDS OR SPEAKS ENGLISH WHEN YOU CALL, THIRD, YOU ARE TOLD ONE THING ON THE PHONE....ANOTHER IN PERSON...AND YOUR BILL READS DIFFERENT ONLINE!!! I AM SWITCHING AT THE END OF THE MONTH....THEY ALWAYS ALWAYS OVERCHARGE MY BILL AND THEN WHEN YOU CALL...THEY ALWAYS JUSTIFY OR TRY TO AND NONE OF IT MAKES ANY SENSE!! I TOO, HAVE BEEN HUNG UP ON.....STAY AWAY FROM SPRINT!!
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JBYoung said 12:58PM on 3-05-2008
No one should find the nightmarish stories we're reading here surprising. Sprint,which is a cesspool of corruption, lies, and fraud, makes Enron look like Santa Claus. Oddly enough, I knew a guy who was exceptionally well versed in all things electronic, who worked for them; he filled me in on their "training" regimen for employees, which essentially demanded that they lie and cheat their customers. As for me, when I was with Sprint--paying them very good money indeed on a business account- I cannot even recall teh nubmer of times they attempted to lie and steal. I usually caught them and, after a lot of back and forth with the morons who populate their Customer Service (though in fairness, one in a hundred of them is sympathetic and competent) got my money back. For example, I called in to have my number changed. I told them that I wanted to maintain all the features I had on my account with the new number. No problem, they told me. Would this cost anything? Why, NO, they said. In fact, two of their reps told me as much. And then, next thing I know, there's a charge for $250 on my bill for changing the number. Well, that's a clear case of misrepresentation, and I demanded, and got my money back. But on another occasion I was not so lucky; I had insured my phone, and paid the monthly premium for such. But when the phone was damaged, and non-functional, they claimed it was not insured at all. Why? Well, because I had *Changed my number* --and this in spite of the fact that I instructed them, in no uncertain terms, to keep all my current features, including insurance, with my new phone number--which was, to their minds, a new account. When signal strength was weak, they wouldn't hear of a possible problem with the phone itself, instead making preposterous claims that there were no towers in the area --this in spite of the fact that they sold me service in my neighborhood by representing there were working towers there. (Turned out to be a problem with the phone itself, but convincing them of that was a nightmare). There should ABSOLUTELY be a calss action suit brought against Sprint, which in this new move to get rid of customers, has broken its contract, and should be made to pay. I'm ready to testify: are you? At least I have the advantage of having my complaints heard in the major media, in my syndicated columns and elsewhere. It's time to bring Sprint to its corporate knees, then kick it in the teeth. By the way, one more amusing story: ON one occassion I called 411, to ask for a number in New York City. The Sprint operator's response? "Where is that?" I kid you not! I have no idea where they find these morons, but they do, and reward them for towing the party line, which is all they are good for. I'm with Verizon now, which is certainly better on the customer service end.
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Luther said 7:56PM on 3-05-2008
Anyone having problems with Sprint should contact the FCC Federal Communications Commission and explain thier situation. That's what I've done, and now I'm just waiting on a response. If the FCC get enough complaints they will take actions against the communications company.
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Cara said 1:39PM on 3-05-2008
Cingular is right behind Sprint/Nextel for SUCKY Service.
About 5 years ago Cingular had a computer glitch in which they ultimately tried to force me to pay for 1200 day time minutes of calls that I never made....after becoming abusive with me I contacted the FCC and then very quickly they admitted to the error and I ended up dumping their sorry asses!! Thankfully my contract was past 2 years so they couldn't nail me for any charges for cancellation.
I have since been with Verizon and it's been awesome!!!
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GWEN BROOKS said 1:40AM on 3-06-2008
I've had sprint for three years and yes, i've had some minor problems but at least i received my rebate(i left t-mobile because i pd 250.00 for a phone expecting a 200.00 rebate that i have yet to receive). Every company has problems but lie to me and i'm gone
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Patricia said 3:57PM on 3-20-2008
Sprint is probably firing the customers who have old plans. These plans pay less for unlimited internet, unlimited texting and other features. Today they can charge much more by selling each feature separately. We had an old plan, which included four phones, for 12 years. Even though we had unlimited internet they refused to sell us phones that could access the internet. The day I left Sprint and no longer had to deal with their nasty and rude customer service, I was delivered from bondage. I now have an AT& plan with more features and I pay a little less than the useless plan I had with Sprint. I do hope Sprint goes bankrupt, they deserve the thorns that they have cultivated. You can't be too greedy in life because it comes back to haunt you.
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Dawn said 7:36PM on 3-20-2008
Sprint is HORRID!! Their billing cycles are the strangest I've ever seen. I just left them after 5 aweful years. The Customer NO service (thank you Clark Howard) is terrible...when I call for assistance, being an American living in the USA I expect to speak to someone who speaks ENGLISH...not someone over in India who 1. I can hardly understand and 2. Doesn't seem to have a freakin' clue what I need.
aweful aweful aweful! I decided to give pay-as-you-go a try...so I'm using Virgin Mobile right now and it actually works well for me...and it's nice to know that if I decide to go elsewhere I can just turn the phone off and forget about it with nothing lost...however I just learned that Sprint owns Virgin Mobile...not a comforting thought but so far so good with VM.
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Lisa said 4:22AM on 4-01-2008
In a moment of insanity, I decided to accept a job working with Sprint in their customer service area. I now know why the service is so absurdly bad. The training is confusing and disorganized, the turnover rate is crazy high and the offers and solutions to problems change so often that no one ever really knows what is going on. Think of a football field and fill it with cubicles only inches apart. Each representative is on a timer, their goal is to get you on and off as quickly as possible. Solving your problem means very little to them. God help the customer who is perceived as in any way annoying. They will be put on hold, permanently, until they finally give up and call back, thus having to start their complaint all over again. It is not at all unusual for a rep to make promises for refunds/credits/free phones and make no notations on the customers file. By the time the customer realizes that their promised fix did not happen, a month may have gone by and that rep. will never be held accountable. Honestly, to me, after seeing the inner workings it is a miracle when anyone does get any resolution. I don't know that Sprint is any worse than any other cell company, but I can say that I have used other companies with really no problems at all.
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brian said 3:03AM on 6-01-2008
I am a NEW Sprint customer of 2 weeks, and so far Sprint is as good or better than T-mobile was to me. I got the moto q9c and it has a BLAZING FAST internet connection I plan to tether to my laptop and eventually dump my Comcast home high speed internet. The SERO plan is $30 and for me, its been great. Unlimited text, data and 500 minutes a month, Not bad so far... I don't know what all of you are talking about Sprint being bad, I have been all over Colorado and when there's no Sprint service, either Alltel, Cricket, or Verizon will roam free with my moto. I guess if there are problems, I will find out about them soon...
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