Best Buy Unapologetic About Charging For PS3 Firmware Updates 454
donniebaseball23 writes "After discovering that electronics retailer Best Buy was charging ignorant customers $30 for the 'service' of installing updated firmware on PS3s, IndustryGamers got word from the company on its policy. Best Buy sees no problem with charging for this convenience, even though it's something Sony provides to PS3 owners completely free. 'While many gamers can handle firmware upgrades easily on their own, those customers who do want help can get it from Geek Squad, and we continue to evaluate this offering to ensure it meets their needs. The service goes beyond a firmware updates, and includes user account setup, parental control setup and other components,' a representative said."
A fool and his money... (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone who paid for this deserves to lose their money. They can think of it as a teaching moment, and will ultimately be better off for it. The worst thing we can do for people like this is have some nanny-state government agency force Best Buy to refund them. This will ensure they learn nothing and continue making stupid idiotic decisions.
Seriously, if you own an electronic product and can't even handle installing simple updates just take it back to the store and be done with it. It's 2010 already: no more excuses.
but best buy is pre doing and forcing you to buy (Score:5, Informative)
but best buy is pre loading it and forcing you to buy it with work done and non pre loading ones are out of stock.
and then when you try to buy they push a $50-$80 monster HDMI cable on you.
Re:Wow (Score:2, Informative)
People are getting dumber and dumber (Score:5, Informative)
As someone who has worked for Geek Squad in the past, I have to say that we do not enjoy charging people for this kind of nonsense, but you would not believe how many people come into the store wanting a firmware update on their Blu-Ray player, XBox, or even their iPod. Since it is a business obviously we are not going to step away from a paying customer to set up a machine and download a firmware update for free, so we charge them our lowest service cost, $29.99 for a 1/2 hour labor. Best Buy eventually realized this was a service we were performing on a regular basis and created a "Firmware Update" service for that $29.99 cost.
I really have to stress how many people come in requesting a service like this. I tried to convince people many times just to go home, plug in their device and simply head to the 'download updates' section, but I would constantly get responses like "I don't have internet", "Its just too confusing" and "I don't want to do it myself". Its idiots like this that create a market for a simple service downloading updates, and Best Buy would be even dumber to turn away potential revenue from customers that are willing to pay for something this simple.
Wasn't there an article on here about how Denon only carried $15 HDMI cables at one time, but then created a $150 HDMI cable when their high end customers were demanding a better cable just because they wanted to spend more? I think its kind of the same principle. You cater to your clients and Best Buy's are just one step above Wal-Mart's.
Re:Wow (Score:3, Informative)
Overpaying for a fancy High end HDMI = retarded. The HDMI cables are transmitting data not converted to an analog signal, therefore they are much less prone to interference than normal audo/video cables. Therefore, they are also less prone to outside interference, and thus buying a cheap ass HDMI cable is going to net you about the same quality as buying a high end cable, no matter what the fuck nuts over at Best Buy told you.
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:1, Informative)
We, but he raised a more interesting point than GP.
You order pizza instead of cooking it yourself for EXACTLY the same reason. Cooking pizza is extremely easy. So is installing the PS3's updates.
Bad analogy. This is more like ordering a pizza even though you have a personal chef sitting in the kitchen ready to make the pizza for you, and who will clean up the kitchen and turn everything off when he's done. They both take the same amount of time to cook, but you have to wait for the delivery, and chances are the kids making/delivering your pizza are going to mess up your order and forget to include the bread sticks, and show up an hour late.
And also you need to keep in mind that best buy can't setup the network settings for your router/wireless router unless they come to your house, and that'll cost you around $100 on top of the $30. So you'll get it home and still have to deal with the headache of setting it up all over again.
Re:but best buy is pre doing and forcing you to bu (Score:2, Informative)
Games that need a newer firmware install that firmware automatically.
No, they don't. On the PS3, they give you an error, and then tell you to use the System Update function, which requires you to either connect to the internet, or have the update on some kind of physical media. The game disc doesn't contain the firmware update.
Re:Wow (Score:3, Informative)
monoprice.com is where I go for my cables.
For HDMI cables, pay the extra for the cables with 24AWG wires. The ultracheap ones use 28AWG wires. Even the 24AWG ones are only a few bucks for a 6 foot cable.