Quote: Original post by laztrezort
a while ago some other electronics store tried to tell me that their special (expensive) optical cables were shielded better from interference (wah?!)

Gotta keep those signals clear from thetans and dark matter obviously!

Quote: Original post by kevtimc

Quote: Original post by capn_midnight
I had some douchehorse in one of these stores tell me that the more expensive version of the fiber optic cables for digital audio was necessary to "prevent interference." Another one tried to tell me that AMD processors were better than Intel processors because they "meshed with applications better". I'm not kidding, this completely absurd bullshit came out of these peoples' mouths.

"Geeksquad" or regular worker? If he/she is from "Geeksquad" then they /really/ should know better. If ihe/she was a regular worker then that's not at all unique to BB. I knew kids that admitted knowing shit all about TVs that sold TVs in their department; yes, people consulted THEM about their $2000+ purchases.

The problem is, most people who "know better" in the Geeksquad use Geeksquad as a first job and get better jobs in the IT. The majority of Geeksquadees are people who were promoted from the sales floor for good salemenship, rather than computer knowledge.

YMMV, since not all BB are run the same, but the majority of the Geeksquad are not knowledgeable as the advertisements would like you to believe.

Most of us are computer savvy, and could build a complete new rig eyes closed under 30 minutes with just a flat screw driver and bits of gaffa' tape. Most of their regular punter are pretty uneducated. My mum would be helpless at that sort of setup. I had to tell her by phone how to install the printer drivers that I forgot. And tell her how to reset the modem when 'the internet stopped working'.

Easy prey, but $100 bucks for peace of mind is awfully tempting.

Quote:
Seriously. This Should Be Illegal.

I hope you weren't serious when you said 'seriously' :)

Would you prefer the government or someone else dictated what the cost should be? I hope not!

Im sure a mechanic on some automotive forum somewhere has started a similar thread about the price of a car tune-up, or a chef has started a similar thread about the price of a nice meal at a local restaurant.

The point is, nobody has to pay for that installation service. And if someone does, then good for Best Buy I guess...

Quote: Original post by AndreTheGiant

Quote:
Seriously. This Should Be Illegal.

I hope you weren't serious when you said 'seriously' :)

Would you prefer the government or someone else dictated what the cost should be? I hope not!

Im sure a mechanic on some automotive forum somewhere has started a similar thread about the price of a car tune-up, or a chef has started a similar thread about the price of a nice meal at a local restaurant.

The point is, nobody has to pay for that installation service. And if someone does, then good for Best Buy I guess...

People, mechanics, afficionados, or otherwise, regularly complain about the cost of labor in car repairs and tune-ups, so I don't really see a parallel.

As for chefs, I can't say I've heard that one. The cost of a good meal is really dependent more on the food than on the quality of... uhh... cheffage? I just ate at a mongolian BBQ over here, and had one of the best meals in years for 8 dollars. That's not bad at all.

Here's the problem: setting up a PS3 takes a few minutes for an "expert" (a position fairly easy to reach). food prep takes up to 30 minutes (or, for more exotic dishes, longer) plus the cost of materials, which makes up the bulk of the price anyway. Some of the rest is used to pay the other restaurant staff on top of that. On top of that, it takes substantially more training to be a competent chef than it does to be a competent PS3-setter-upper.

Best Buy is clearly taking advantage of consumer ignorance and fear of technology. My cable internet provider charged $20 for setup, which included plugging in the modem and enabling the service, as well as drilling and wiring the actual coaxial through the house. That's substantially more work than BB's PS3 service (though still not that much) and includes a hell of a lot more liability, due to the house drilling.

Then again, I don't think it's something that should be illegal. If they want to take advantage of people unwilling to do their own research, whatever. I just won't shop there.

Quote: Original post by SeraphLance
Then again, I don't think it's something that should be illegal. If they want to take advantage of people unwilling to do their own research, whatever. I just won't shop there.

Ding. That's it there. It's the cost of convenience isn't it? If you know zero about the device and want to just get straight into the games without faffing about and you can afford the cost to get someone else in to do it then why not?

Everywhere you go you can see overpriced services for such trivial things that you could figure out in under an hour, but then not everyone cares or has the time, they just want it done now.

As for the price, well it's set by the customers really isn't it? If people weren't paying that much then either the price would come down or the service wouldn't exist. It's not an essential service and no ones holding any guns to anyones heads.

Quote: Original post by SeraphLance
...

I'm glad you had a nice meal for 8 dollars but I dont think you got my point. Thats probably my fault though.

I could go to a local restaurant and have a tasty salmon dinner for about 15 bucks, or I could go to a fancy-shmancy French restaurant and get the exact same salmon dinner, with basically the same ingredients and the same amount of work to prepare it, and pay 200 dollars for it. I guess you could say your paying for the atmosphere or something, so possibly it was a bad example.

But anyway the point is still this: As long as there are people willing to spend a stupid amount of money on something, there are going to be people more than happy to take it. So good for that French restaurant and good for Best Buy.

Personally I think its a pretty dirty trick on Best Buy's part to be charging that much, but hey I guess I would do the same if I could get away with it. Anyway I think were in agreement that making it illegal is certainly a bad idea.

Also, this is just ONE dirty trick in a long list of dirty tricks from Best Buy. They have quite a reputation actually.

Quote: Original post by AndreTheGiant

Quote: Original post by SeraphLance
...

I'm glad you had a nice meal for 8 dollars but I dont think you got my point. Thats probably my fault though.

I could go to a local restaurant and have a tasty salmon dinner for about 15 bucks, or I could go to a fancy-shmancy French restaurant and get the exact same salmon dinner, with basically the same ingredients and the same amount of work to prepare it, and pay 200 dollars for it. I guess you could say your paying for the atmosphere or something, so possibly it was a bad example.

But anyway the point is still this: As long as there are people willing to spend a stupid amount of money on something, there are going to be people more than happy to take it. So good for that French restaurant and good for Best Buy.

Personally I think its a pretty dirty trick on Best Buy's part to be charging that much, but hey I guess I would do the same if I could get away with it. Anyway I think were in agreement that making it illegal is certainly a bad idea.

Also, this is just ONE dirty trick in a long list of dirty tricks from Best Buy. They have quite a reputation actually.

If you really think that the meal you get at a local dive is the same you can get at a 'fancy-shmancy' expensive French Restaurant, you either have zero tastes, went to a horrible French Restaurant, or at the luckiest man alive to live near such an amazing cheap restaurant.

Any idea why there are exclusive culinary schools and international awards in cooking? Because it isn't easy.


As for the setup fees in question, and someone else comparing them to installation fees for their cable. Do you honestly think that $20 covered all the costs of that guy coming to your house to install it? No, you spend the rest of the year paying that off as they chip a little money from your bill to pay the accounts for their installation and maintenance crews.


Yeah, the cost is a little steep, but consider this: They have to pay someone to DRIVE to the house, pay for the fuel and related vehicle expenses, general store overhead takes its cut for arranging the service, and then they pay for the employee to drive back to the store.

Not to mention they also have to pay the guy to stand around doing nothing when no one has hired him for a few hours.

In cases like this you're not just paying for the service YOU get, you're paying to ENABLE you to pay for the service.



Still anyone that pays for it is a fool and we should feel bad for them.

I dont know why I'm still beating this dead horse but here goes.

For the restaurant example, at the end of the day you have the same thing - a full belly of fish. At the fancy restaurant you get better atmosphere and possibly better taste, and possibly other improvements. For some folks, this upgrade is well worth it. Its obviously worth it to you since you cant even see the similarity between the 2 restaurants, they are that different in your mind. For others, like me, its not worth it and I would tend to see the fancy restaurant as a ripoff.

Its the exact same thing with the PS3 setup fee. You either set it up yourself for free (actually a small cost if you convert your time to money). For some people the setup fee is worth it, and for some it isnt. For some people, the setup fee is worth it. For example if you are not technically savvy, it could save you a lot of time. All of us here are technically savvy so we have a hard time understanding that price. Which is why I tried the restaurant example because its a different domain.

Quote: Original post by SeraphLance

Quote: Original post by AndreTheGiant

Quote:
Seriously. This Should Be Illegal.

I hope you weren't serious when you said 'seriously' :)

Would you prefer the government or someone else dictated what the cost should be? I hope not!

Im sure a mechanic on some automotive forum somewhere has started a similar thread about the price of a car tune-up, or a chef has started a similar thread about the price of a nice meal at a local restaurant.

The point is, nobody has to pay for that installation service. And if someone does, then good for Best Buy I guess...

People, mechanics, afficionados, or otherwise, regularly complain about the cost of labor in car repairs and tune-ups, so I don't really see a parallel.

As for chefs, I can't say I've heard that one. The cost of a good meal is really dependent more on the food than on the quality of... uhh... cheffage? I just ate at a mongolian BBQ over here, and had one of the best meals in years for 8 dollars. That's not bad at all.

Here's the problem: setting up a PS3 takes a few minutes for an "expert" (a position fairly easy to reach). food prep takes up to 30 minutes (or, for more exotic dishes, longer) plus the cost of materials, which makes up the bulk of the price anyway. Some of the rest is used to pay the other restaurant staff on top of that. On top of that, it takes substantially more training to be a competent chef than it does to be a competent PS3-setter-upper.

Best Buy is clearly taking advantage of consumer ignorance and fear of technology. My cable internet provider charged $20 for setup, which included plugging in the modem and enabling the service, as well as drilling and wiring the actual coaxial through the house. That's substantially more work than BB's PS3 service (though still not that much) and includes a hell of a lot more liability, due to the house drilling.

Then again, I don't think it's something that should be illegal. If they want to take advantage of people unwilling to do their own research, whatever. I just won't shop there.

But there is also to consider the alternative uses of the Geeksquad employee's time. Setting up a person's PS3 in their home involves not the 5 minutes it takes to plug everything in, but the 20 minutes to drive to the house in the GeeksquadMobile, the 10 minutes to get the person's dog off of their leg, the 5 minutes of plugging everything in, the 10 minutes of the customer arguing about whether or not it's in the right place, and the 20 minutes of driving back to the store. Whatever X number of dollars they charge may be the price at which it is worth it for them to set their foot out the door. They probably don't get too many people taking the service, which is all the better for them, because door to door service is inefficient and expensive to render.

Another example, it would be ludicrous for anyone to pay $500 for a basic, personal website. But that would be what I would charge for it, because otherwise it would be a waste of my time. Someone else might charge $100, which is a much more reasonable price, but their time isn't worth as much as mine, nor do they hate making personal sites as much as I do. I don't expect people to pay that much, neither do I even want to do it, but if they really, really WANT me specifically to do it, then it's going to take $500 to get my ass out of bed.

Prices are not value, prices are a communication of relative value between individuals. Geeksquad clearly values staying in the office more than (InstallationPrice - 1) dollars. A person clearly values having a Geeksquad employee install their PS3 more than (InstallationPrice) dollars. Trade fundamentally requires two parties who value a good or service differently; trade is not possible if everyone values everything exactly the same. If I'm selling boxes of cookies for $5 each, that means I value boxes of cookies at less than $5, that I would prefer to have $5 than I would to have a box of cookies. If you buy this box of cookies, it means you value the box of cookies MORE than $5, that you would prefer to have the box of cookies than you would to have the $5. Even in the simplest of trade arrangements, someone is paying more in dollars for an item than other person would, given the circumstances. The fact that we are both not forced into this transaction is what makes it absolutely fair, and why trade is always a win-win proposition. At the end of the transaction, we both got something we valued more than what we had before. Some people may even be competent enough to do it and STILL take the service, just because they are busy individuals who value their time more than X dollar bills.