Is Harvey Norman Misleading Customers About HDMI Monster Cables?


We’ve all been there — you’re buying a television/console, you’ve agreed to buy your brand new plasma/LCD/PS3/360 and within seconds the Old Gill-esque salesman is trying the old ‘spend $200 on a ridiculously overpriced HDMI cable’ trick. Looks like Harvey Norman has taken that trick to all new levels, cleverly attempting to compare Monster HDMI cables with regular composite cables in store.

Trog for Ausgamers spotted the above, completely unfair comparison in Indooroopilly, QLD.

The first thing I saw was the two screens and the Monster cable sign, so I immediately was interested to see the “Monster difference”.

The second thing I saw was that the difference between the two images was simply staggering. The one on the left – with the Monster cable – was crystal clear and looked fantastic. The one on the right was blurry and terrible. You can’t tell the difference in the photo (from my mobile phone) but it was immediately obvious, even from a distance.

However, the bad one on the right was way, way, way too bad to be anything other than non-digital. Anyone that has ever compared a monitor plugged in via DVI to one plugged in via VGA would know exactly what I mean – the difference is amazing – and completely unsurprising.

I could not believe that they would do a display like this with such a cheap “trick”, but looking behind the screens, sure enough I saw a composite cable plugged in.

This is crazy. I’d love Harvey Norman to plug in its cheapest HDMI cable for a comparison between that and the Monster cable, and see how many poor folks it could rope into spending a ludicrous amount of money then.

As far as I’m concerned this is pretty shady. As Nick Broughall over at Gizmodo Australia so aptly put it: friends don’t let friends waste buckets of money on Monster cables…

Monster Cable Display at Harvey Norman Indooroopilly [Ausgamers — Thanks Gizmodo!]


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


113 responses to “Is Harvey Norman Misleading Customers About HDMI Monster Cables?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *