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Best Buy Offers Bogus "3D Sync" Service

Posted by timothy on from the this-way-to-the-egress dept.

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.

14 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Poor choice of verb. by LostCluster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Poor choice of verb. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Erm, so you're saying that actually they're not doing anything wrong, because this is a legitimate service they're offering - i.e. charging $150 to tell people they need a clear view of the TV to use their glasses to... watch the TV. I'm pretty sure that people will already figure out they need to see the TV to watch it, 3D or not, is your post sponsored by BestBuy or are you hoping to cash in by offering a $99 service?

    2. Re:Poor choice of verb. by twidarkling · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Syncronization doesn't simply mean making things have the same time. It also means to make things *happen* at the same time. In this case, I'd assumed their "syncing" service to be making sure your glasses are properly shuttering in "sync" with how the player is broadcasting. Something that should happen automatically, and apparently does. And since the glasses are tied to the TV, they're paired automatically as well. It's not a case of "incorrect verb," it's a case of "falsely reporting what the service offers."

      They don't need to pair the glasses, they don't need to make sure the glasses are operating at the correct timings. It's a rip off.

      --
      Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
    3. Re:Poor choice of verb. by 0racle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, I think it was a deliberate attempt to mislead. Best Buy already offers installation services on devices they sell, and by Best Buys response pretty much states that is exactly what this, just under a different name. 3d TV's are new, but TV's in general are not. Honestly any idiot can install a TV and home theater in a box and more people are realizing this and as such Best Buy is probably worrying that they are going to have a harder and harder time selling the essentially free money installation services. So they rename an existing service to make it sound like they are doing something special, that a trained professional is required for, that is essential for the enjoyment of the TV.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    4. Re:Poor choice of verb. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think this was a deliberate attempt to defraud customers as much as it was a poor choice of verb.

      Best Buy is a multi-billion dollar corporation that can well afford copywriters. You can bet they don't make "poor choice(s) of words" when they're writing the fine print on their overpriced extended warranties.

      To suggest that this was just a "whoopsie" is absurd. Funny that the "poor choice of words" costs the customer an additional $150. How often do you think they made a "poor choice of words" that was in favor of the customer. And believe me, if that ever happens, there's going to be one out-of-work employee.

      Plus, this roll-out of the "3D" televisions is supposed to be one of the most anticipated product category introductions for them. Retailers like Best Buy are betting on a huge wave of "trade-ups" to 3D and they're counting on it saving their bottom line for years to come.

      The notion that they'd make an "innocent" mistake that happens to mislead customers to pay an additional $150 stretches the imagination.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Poor choice of verb. by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is clearly an intent to mislead. Using the term "sync" rather than "unpack it and make sure it works" is clearly intended to make it sound like something you can't do yourself because you're not a 3D TV geek. The idea is to inflate the perceived value of the unpacking and turning on service.

    6. Re:Poor choice of verb. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They made something up to scare people into buying their service. If someone already knows how to install an HDTV, they won't buy the $150 installation service.

      But if you tell them that their new 3D TV needs to be 'synced' by the Geek Squad, they may think that something fundamentally different is needed and they better buy the service.

      It's fraud, plain and simple. Seeing as the blogger called up three different Best Buys and got three different incorrect answers as to what the syncing was, I feel comfortable sticking by the original fraud allegation.

      Oh no no. It's not like a normal TV installation at all. You have to *SYNC* your 3D glasses! That will be $150...

  2. Re:I've got enough social problems... by magnusrex1280 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  3. lol by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Insightful

    3D TV = Laser disc. 10 years from now we'll see these things sitting in goodwill and laugh our asses off.

  4. Poor choice of koolaid. by fyngyrz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
  5. .. this isn't even news. by drunkennewfiemidget · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously -- you have to be on glue to buy shit from that big box store in the first place.

  6. Re:It's not going to take off by dangitman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  7. Re:Worst Buy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:Worst Buy by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If he persists you say "You are now harassing me and I will call the police if you do not stop."

    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...