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Best Buy Offers Bogus "3D Sync" Service
Token_Internet_Girl writes "Fewer than two weeks after Best Buy offered the first Full 3D HDTVs for sale in the US, its latest Sunday circular (3/21/10) promotes a Samsung 3D TV deal consisting of a 55" 3D TV, 3D capable Blu-ray player, 2 pairs of glasses, a Blu-ray movie and Geek Squad delivery and installation. The ad states the service includes TV and Blu-ray player set-up, connection to your wireless network and 'sync your 3D glasses for an amazing experience.' The package price lists the 'geek' services as a $150 value. The offer's only problem is that there is no such thing as syncing 3D glasses. They sync automatically." Here's Best Buy Corporate's response to this hilarity.
I don't think this was a deliberate attempt to defraud customers as much as it was a poor choice of verb. People use the term "sync" when it has nothing to do with synchronization. When you "sync" your smartphone you're not doing anything that relates to time, you're just copying data to be the same in both places. When you "sync" your Bluetooth headset, you're actually "pairing" it to tell it which phone it belongs to. When you press the "sync" button on your keyboard, you're actually "pairing" it again.
While you don't need to set a clock on the 3D glasses, you do need to ensure that the glasses can see the IR emitter, with a clear path between the emitter and wherever the user will be sitting. That's the actual service they're offering as part of the larger setup package. I'm sure the advertising people will hear this brushback and correct future mentions of the service, but they're only technically wrong, and using words that better communicate to the people who would buy a Best Buy home install than the technically correct ones... even if technically correct is the best kind of correct.
Seems pretty plausible to me. Has the poster read the links the presented in the article?
The LAST thing on my list of "stuff I really care about" is what people who walk into my house think of how I look when using 3D glasses. If this is something you're really that worked up about, I would suggest that your priorities are a little off. It's your own house, do what you want. Stop caring so much about what other people think.
If a pair is available. How many pairs do you get with the TV? If you have roommates who generally watch their own TVs, or friends who only come over infrequently, will you have enough glasses for them? Can you be sure someone won't misplace one or more pairs of them? I'm certain pretty much every time we used them one of them would go missing (my wife seems to like finding new places to hide things (completely unconsciously of course)) so I'll probably never get one myself, though I'd like one.
This type of thing has been going on for months, try walking into a best buy and buying an "on sale" notebook that doesnt have a $39 Geek Squad "optimized" sticker on it. I tried a couple months back when an Acer was on sale that I wanted for my son, after arguing with the sales guy who told me they were basically unusable without it I left. Instead of a notebook I walked out with frustration and a determination to never step foot in a best buy again.
Oh man. You really blew the top off of that sinister conspiracy. And to think that the vile "neglecting to update your CMS's generic footer so that you end up claiming a copyright two years shorter than the one you actually get" cartel was about to really cash in...
Time for new competition.
Hopefully best buy will learn and have someone who is technically savvy review things in the future.
Do you REALLY believe that Best Buy, a company with revenues of 45 BILLION dollars in 2008, and a company who makes most of its money selling 'technology related goods', isn't having a technically savvy TEAM review things? I'm afraid you're overly simplifying things here...
Did they screw up? Yes. Should we give them the benefit of the doubt? Maybe. Their past fumblings do indeed show a pattern, so my inclination to give them the benefit of the doubt becomes smaller and smaller each time I read stories like these. And right now, my inclination is quite small.
3D TV = Laser disc. 10 years from now we'll see these things sitting in goodwill and laugh our asses off.
Inasmuch as these aren't actual 3d displays such as this or this, but simply stereo displays, very limited single-perspective (same as 2d) "flat-image-per-eye" technology from about 1900 or so, it seems somewhat beside the point to complain about entities marketing installation with the word "sync."
The market has already looked at the jug, poured the koolaid in its mouth, and swallowed it entirely on its own. There's little point in claiming they didn't want any koolaid.
It's 3D if the display offers more than one viewing angle, composite or not. Or to put it in a way that even the most uninformed consumer can grasp, if a one-eyed person (or a person with one eye closed) can view the object in the perspectives we expect from the real world, it's actually there to perceive. That's something worth characterizing as 3D display.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Seriously -- you have to be on glue to buy shit from that big box store in the first place.
A 3D movie is intended to be an immersive experience. Not background entertainment. If you want to use it that way, just turn the 3D off.
I, for one, am sick of people treating movies this way. If you're not going to commit to the screening, then fuck the hell off, and don't disturb the people who are watching the movie.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Best Buy Responds To “3D Glasses Syncing Service” (March 23, 2010) We asked Best Buy’s media relations department last week why Best Buy’s Geek Squad offers a fictional 3D glasses syncing service? (link to our original story). Below is the corporate response. “I wanted to address any lingering confusion about the characterization of services support in the Best Buy Samsung 3DTV offer that was advertised in yesterday’s (March 21) insert. We by no means intended to confuse our customers or offer fraudulent services. The offer is new to our stores, and our own employees were trained on it just this past week.;
The problem with a message like this is they want to use this as a 'sorry we goofed and now here's a fix'. Thing is, the message is still out in the public and will not be changed for the public eye. Thats great that the techie's that already knew this wasn't true got Best Buy to admit that its wrong, but Average Joe on the other hand still only see's that the fliers still state this function still happens, Best Buy's employee's will still state that this function is done, and the in store fliers will still state that its a selling point and the in store fliers will not be corrected nor be given a re-print of this 'confusing error'. In the end, Best Buy wins and is using this to look like the good guys.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
Threats don't generally work as well as you'd think. A threat to call the police may invite you a quick exit from the store.
I'm just satisfied that I bought their loss leader without any upsells, which means they lost money on the sale. :)
The one I got didn't come with Bluetooth, and they wanted something like $60 for a USB bluetooth receiver. I went over to CompUSA when I was done, and spent $20 on one. :) (and yes, I'm in one of the markets where CompUSA still has stores)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I, for one, am sick of people treating movies this way. If you're not going to commit to the screening, then fuck the hell off, and don't disturb the people who are watching the movie.
I'm with you.
It is entirely reasonable to throw on some movie in the background, I guess. I probably wouldn't do that, I don't like having distracting narratives running in the background while I'm trying to do things, I prefer music, but whatever, plenty of people seem to be okay with that.
If you do that, you, duh, wouldn't turn on the 3D.
The 3D is when you dedicate 2 hours of your life watching a movie. You turn the lights down, you get a snack and a drink, you get comfortable, and, oh yeah, you put on the glasses and push the 3D button. That's how I watch movies, minus the 3-D part. Hell, that's how I watch TV shows.
If you gain more people during that time than glasses, well, you probably paused the movie anyway, and you push the 3D button while it's paused and take off the glasses. It's not rocket surgery.
That said, I'm probably not buying 3D anytime soon. I watch maybe three movies a month on my TV, the rest is TV shows. And even the movies tend to be old-ish ones.
There's a rather idiotic break-even point on 3D TVs. I mean, if, every time you wanted to watch a 3D movie, you instead went to a theater and saw it in 3D, it would take years to break even....and that's assuming the experience is equal and you get your blue-rays for free.
Of course, the same thing can be said about any early-adopters of home theaters...but at least those had the advantages of at least having a bigger pictures, even if you were watching analog broadcast. But a 3D TV isn't going to show 99.99% of the stuff out there even slightly different than normal, and stuff isn't going to be remastered off original film into 3D.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
What is this, the assburgers guide to annoying retail workers? I expect you people to be dorks but holy shit, at least pretend you've heard of society when you choose to enter into it.
Honestly, I don't. To me its funny because I know better. It reminds me of the "egress" trick PT Barnum played on customers, granted in his circumstance it was more to get people to leave an overcrowded museum. Honestly what ever happened to caveat emptor? Its an optional service. Do some damn research and for god sake don't pay for it. If you've done the research to get such high end equipment go the extra mile to see what is necessary to configure it. What ever happened to informed decision making? If I'm laying out that kind of cash you can be damn well sure that I'm going to know every single piece of equipment down to whether or not the individual ports are gold plated. Bravo Best Buy, while its scheister-iffic, I applaud your idiot tax.
Go on, then, and when the police arrive tell them what lead to you calling. You'll be lucky if YOU aren't charged with wasting police time. "Officer, I entered these private premises to buy a product for them, but they attempted to sell me more than I was looking for. Rather than leaving the store, I called 911."
Sounds like a Social Adjustment Disorder...