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Digital TV Converter Boxes Hard To Find
TV viewers who depend on over-the-air broadcasts are eligible to receive $40 coupons toward the purchase of digital converter boxes ahead of the switchover to digital TV next year, but the boxes are proving hard to find and the coupons have a limited shelf life.
Reporter: By Adam Fox Email Address: adam.fox@kwtx.com |
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2 Comments 
(June 16, 2008)--J. T. Mack at the Best Buy store in Waco is having a hard time keeping digital TV converter boxes in stock.
"They're selling quite fast, just about every day we get them in. Literally they go that day if not the day after immediately just from the leftovers," Mack said.
Two months ago, that wasn't a problem, but now Mack says he can’t keep the converters on the shelf.
"Normally those three shelves are stacked the two at the bottom get stacked to the top and the top one is usually about here," Mack said.
Viewers with analog sets who don’t have cable or satellite service and rely on over-the-air broadcasts are eligible to apply for $40 coupons for the purchase of the converter boxes they’ll need to watch TV after the switchover to digital TV on Feb. 17, 2009.
The coupons, however, are only good for 90 days of issue and that could put pressure on consumers to find stores with the converter boxes in stock.
But Mack says people are buying them whether they have the coupons or not.
"I'd have some people not even just care about the coupons. Just because they're worried and they're like they'll use two to buy the coupons and then they'll say well let me get a third or fourth," Mack said.
Mack thinks there could be some confusion about who actually needs the converter box and who doesn't.
"I would be willing to bet, that a bunch of people are getting them just to have or to give them to somebody else like a you know parent or someone of an older generation," Mack says.
Analog TVs that use rabbit ears or roof antennas are the only TVs that will need the converters.
Consumers who have satellite TV or cable TV service will not need the box, and the same goes for those with digital receivers already built into their TVs.
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Latest Comments
So where on earth are we supposed to find these boxes? Last night's news story was the most unhelpful story! Those of us who need the boxes because we have rabbit ears, and we have the coupon and it's about to expire, have no box to purchase! So where are we supposed to find one? Is there a single retailer who is not sold out or even one who knows when a new shipment might come in? Everybody I've spoken to have said they just don't know. Whose bright idea was this anyway?
Too bad people with no home mailbox and only a post office box are refused coupons! I get food and medicine in the mail and it can't sit in the sun all day, therefore I pay for a mailbox that the government refuses to acknowledge. I've been trying since midnight on the very first day to get the coupons. I don't have cable or satellite. I have applied/emailed/corresponded over 100 times!! They force us to abide by their rulings, but refuse to supply the necessary materials to do so! Jerks! Thank you for the vent!
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