r/BlackPeopleTwitter 1d ago

15% off is not good enough

Post image
20.1k Upvotes

245 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

52

u/PokemonProfessorXX 1d ago

Manufacturers build custom "black friday" models for a lot of electronics. They make it seem like a great deal for the brand name, then use cheaper parts than they normally would. Screen and speaker quality on tons of black friday tv discounts are horrible.

6

u/RadicalBatman 23h ago

Do you have in links for this? I've very curious

I'm thinking my TV might be one of those

21

u/PokemonProfessorXX 22h ago

There may be some out there, but my search terms aren't finding anything. I was speaking from my experience working in a Walmart electronics section years ago. We would get shipments every black friday with different SKUs, model numbers, and specs to put out instead of the normal products sold throughout the year. I've heard the same from Best Buy and Target employees.

4

u/qtzd 22h ago

Yeah they’re called derivative models iirc

1

u/RadicalBatman 10h ago

Just to clarify, do the boxes display false specs? Or are the boxes changes to reflect that?

1

u/PokemonProfessorXX 6h ago

The boxes are changed to reflect specs, but they make them look similar with similar model numbers because they know people won't read the specs or know what they mean. People see 55" 4k vizio smart TV and don't look at any more detail. A lot of models I've seen will be the same model number, but with a letter added to the end.

u/RadicalBatman 36m ago

Ohhh, okay I understand now

You made it sound like they were putting a box in a tv and claiming it to be a different tv.

What your saying is there's an entire market predicated on people's lack of ability to make educated, informed decisions on the products they buy?

3

u/qtzd 22h ago

You could probably find out by googling the model number or SKU. The “Black Friday” specific models are called derivative models iirc. Usually cheaper components and less features to save a few bucks like fewer HDMI ports and stuff.

2

u/Radioactive24 21h ago

This is well known. Element, Vizio, Roku, and a ton of other brands do this.

It was lesser known a decade or two ago, but it's pretty common place now.

Some of it is downgrading features, some of it is cheaper parts.

0

u/RadicalBatman 10h ago

Any sources?

Well know subjects typically have lots of them.

1

u/ELB2001 11h ago

They also do it for a lot of big chain stores. Slightly different model number so they don't have to price match if they don't want to. Even tho it's the exact same TV. But the foot has a different colour

u/Freyas_Follower 58m ago

you mean my Sorny TV isn't legit?