Please Kill me, I'm an idiot. (1 Viewer)

I bought a 57inch tv. It's too big to fit in my apt. OneCall has a no return policy. KILL ME PLEASE, KILL ME.

there are ways around this Mike. what specifically is the problem? doors? or bends in hallways and such?

If it is a door try takign it off the hinges, i have a 36" direct view and those are usually deeper than most RPTV's and it fit in fine.

If maneouverability is th eproblem have you tried gettign and old blanket placing the tv on it and one person drag the blanket while the other stands behind it to keep it from tipping, this prevents the additional space for people on the sides of it holding it.

or maybe get a 65" that breaks down into two pieces? Mitsubishi and hitachi do this, don't know about others.

It's too tall for the staircase, and they won't let me exchange or return it. The only possabilities I have are removing the banister (which I don't think the landlord will like), or hiring a rigger and putting it through the window, or selling it at a loss and buying a smaller tv. I still am looking for people to put me out of my misery. The best part is I travel 4 days a week for work, and I have 2 days to figure this out, my landlord will not be cool with the tv sitting in the hall downstairs. I'm on the second story.

As for your predicament, I'd remove the bannister and hire a carpenter/handy man to put it back on (if you're unable to do it yourself without causing too much damage.) Or I'd go with the rigging option although it might be more expensive and difficult. In the long run it won't be "that" expensive because you won't have to sell your TV at a lost and you'll get the TV that you really want.

Keep us posted as to what you decided to do.


(I bought a 61 inch RPTV from a local superstore and when the FOUR delivery guys came to deliver it, they told me that there was NO WAY it could go upstairs around a winding staircase. (Even though I had measured it out and built a fake cardboard RPTV and tested it out to make sure that it would fit.) They took it back to the store and the next day I went to see the salesperson about getting a smaller set. I really wanted the bigger set so I showed him my calculations and he agreed to send the 61 inch back to my house for a second try. The next day, TWO guys were able to get the TV upstairs--it was a tight squeeze and there was some very gentle turning of the TV on its side several times--but it got to where I wanted it and the TV worked great. (When I moved a couple of years later, some terrific moving men had no problem getting it down the stairs and into my next place.)

(Sorry for the long post...just wanted to let other posters to know that there is hope for people who may be in a similar situation...)

If it was my banister that would be my call too, but it's not my house, it's an apartment. I think the landlord will hate me. The rigging is so expensive. I will probably move within 5 years so the rigging would cost $1100 round trip if you think about it, more than half the cost of the tv. This is the worst situation ever, and I only have 2 days to figure it out, as I will be out of town once again like I am every week.

I can TOTALLY sympathize with you. My wife and I bought an armoire for our upstairs bedroom that would not fit up the staircase. We ended up disassembling the wooden banister of our staircase and bbbaaarrreeelly squeezing it through the hallway. It had an inch to spare on each side. Then se reassembled the banister and I put a new coat of paint on it. You'd never know by looking now, and we didn't damage anything.

Good luck!!!!

P.S. If and when we sell the house, an armoire will come with it.

I would remove the bannister.

Not too terribly difficult to reassemble, I bet the landlord wont even notice if you do it all the same day.

Remember, its easier to get forgiveness than permission

I'll trade you my 27" Sony for it. I wish I could have this type of "problem".

I don't want to ask him, I got a mover to agree to $300 to hoist it up! It totally blows the deal I got on the TV, but it's better than selling it or than the $650 the piano movers were trying to charge. Another question, while trying to get it up the stairs we had to come back down when we found out it wouldn't fit, I had my end on the ground, but the other guy dropped his end, it fell about half a step or a step. Should I be worried that anything is damaged? It didn't sound too bad, but I don't know how delicate these things are.

Dropping it about a step "shouldn't" damage your set. (Yes, they're delicate, but they can withstand some moving and dropping. Remember, these things sometimes travel great distances and aren't handled with "kid gloves" by shipping people.) You might want to turn it on and make sure it's working, just in case, before getting it upstairs and discovering that there's a problem.

Since you haven't paid the $300 hundred to the mover yet, I'd investigate how much it would cost to remove and reinstall the banister. That option seems simpler, cheaper, and would probably cause less headaches than hoisting it up two stories on a pulley. I wouldn't tell the landlord. Sure "Honesty Is The Best Policy" and all that, but you're restoring the apartment to its original conditions before you eventually move out so it shouldn't be a problem. Sounds like the less your landlord knows, the calmer he will remain.

Does your landlord live in the building? If he does, I can see why you're sweating this so much. Sorry you have that time limitation. It can't be easy trying to solve this problem with the time pressure element, but it sounds like you have the "Hoisting Option" all set up if nothing else works.

Keep us posted as to your progress.

Landlord lives in the building, 1st floor, and I used to date his daughter. Ok, put me on ricky lake now. Lucky I came out on top and she was in the wrong, so landlord loves me, and is wicked nice to me, but I don't want to test our friendship. Covert dismantle will not work, I would have to ask him, he's home everyday, and I'm only home fri, sat, sun. Thanks for the advice, hopefully if anything is broken toshiba will fix it if I claim the delivery people did it. Might as well get it hoisted up, no way to test it in the hall, and I don't want to know if it's broken, I can't store it in the hall.

Well, now I have a NEW perspective on this problem

Even if this TV WASN'T dropped, I'd plug it in just to make sure everything was working properly before hoisting it up to its final destination. Why? Well, maybe something went wrong in transit to your house and the TV is damaged internally and you can't see that damage. Even though it's under warranty to be repaired, I don't think the company that's going to fix it is going to pay for the charge of hoisting it down from the second floor, thus, you'll end up paying $300 dollars again and again for a grand total of $900. (Two ups and one down.) (Not trying to be pessimistic--just rational and practical.) Can you wire an extension cord from somebody else's or your apartment to the hall just to test the set out?

From the sound of it, it seems like the landlord is already in your corner. I'd explain what I was attempting to do as regards to the hoisting and might add, "...that's the only way I can get this TV into my apartment. It's going to cost me a lot, but what can I do? I thought about removing the banister and then having a professional contractor reinstall it so that there would be ABSOLUTELY NO DAMAGE because I wouldn't want anything to lessen the value of my wonderful apartment. What are your thoughts on this, Mr. Landlord? Do you think the banister removal might be a better option?"

Maybe let him come to your rescue if he's so inclined. (In this case it seems like "Honesty Reall IS The Best Policy.") Your landlord sounds like he might even help you to remove and reattach the banister. And it sounds like he might allow you to store the TV in his ground floor apartment until you can return from your work week and can deal with this problem on a calmer level.

Once you get your TV into your apartment I see a MUCH bigger problem on your horizon--your neighbors in the apartment complex yelling at you to turn down your 5.1 Surround System with the booming Sub Woofer (Or them wanting to watch your TV at all hours of the day and night!)

(You ARE getting that megawatt Dolby Digital/DTS surround sound system, aren't you? :p)

another thing to consider with your set that if you ever have problems(HOPEFULLY YOU WON"T) and it requires the set to be taken out of your home to be repaired, what will you do than. i would take that # down, and set some money aside just in case. How about a 46 inch sony . I love it but will make the sacrifice for you .

Why don't you give it to the landlord if it will fit in his Apt. & try working something out on the rent, I know nice try But just a thought. I hope your planning on staying there for a while or "BANG" YOUR DEAD!

just a dumb thought from me, do you have a back door? Rear flights usually have a straighter run.

$300 is hardly chump change but it is not a lot of money for hoisting a 57" television. Even if the banister could be torn down and reinstalled for half that I would go for the hoist. First off even after paying someone $150 for the banister you'd still have to worry about carrying the television up a flight of stairs and if the banister reinstall is anything less than perfect i'd expect the landlord to charge you $150+ in repair charges against your security deposit. Take the route of least resistance and be done with it.

Disassemble the TV. I'd bet it's screwed together with brackets, if it's glued, you're screwed!

Bill

The thing is glued, it can't be diassembled. This one russian moving company says they can get it through the bedroom window from atop the garage. They want $200 cash. That's the best deal yet, so hopefully all is well. And if it doesn't work, Toshiba better darn right send a repair technician TO MY HOUSE to fix it or I will destroy their headquarters. I don't even want to see if it works, because if it doesn't that's a problem I don't want to deal with right now. I have no back door to the apt. The landlord is always very nice to me so I try to be as easy to him as I can. He thought about removing the banister (he's a carpenter) but he said it would be a huge job and cost more than $200 (my dad agreed, said the banister was one of the most expensive things when building his house). He told me I could keep it down in his basement if we can't get it into my apt, and that it could stay there till I figured out what to do with it. He really is the greatest landlord ever, another reason why just moving to a different place wasn't an option ;-). I'll keep everyone posted tonight about if I get it into the house sucessfully or not. I feel like the biggest dope, and am getting made fun of a lot by all my friends :-P. I think I should apply for the darwin award.

Good luck with the move, Mike. (Or should I say, "Good Luck" to the moving men.)

Another feasible option would be to exchange apartments with your landlord so that you would then have the TV in YOUR basement and you then could set up a really cool home theater there. (Well, maybe not so feasible...)

We'll be awaiting your next post...