Best Buy Charging $30 Extra for "Updated" Xbox 360
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
They also try to rope customers into a cleaning service when you buy a computer.
They claim that they will rip out all the ads and shit in the computer and then update it for you. When I asked the clerk why I would pay someone to do that when I can do it. The clerk looked to see no one was looking and pointed at the cash register.
They claim that they will rip out all the ads and shit in the computer and then update it for you. When I asked the clerk why I would pay someone to do that when I can do it. The clerk looked to see no one was looking and pointed at the cash register.
Makes me wonder how long it'll take for BB to slap a $5 markup on games that have the latest firmware version.
I'm still infinitely pissed at them for advertising they had BlazBlue and when I went in the same day the flier came out I asked a dude and they said it hadn't been in the system for weeks....
That and half the employees know nothing about what their selling.
Like when I asked for information about a TV, the guy just read the label next to it which I had just read, and when I asked for more information he flipped it over and read out the features for a different TV.
I hate that store so much, but the next closest electronics store is a 40 min drive from where I live.
I'm still infinitely pissed at them for advertising they had BlazBlue and when I went in the same day the flier came out I asked a dude and they said it hadn't been in the system for weeks....
That and half the employees know nothing about what their selling.
Like when I asked for information about a TV, the guy just read the label next to it which I had just read, and when I asked for more information he flipped it over and read out the features for a different TV.
I hate that store so much, but the next closest electronics store is a 40 min drive from where I live.
Yes, actually, it is that bad, considering:Break said:
1) you can download updates from an internet-capable PC and burn them to a CD or USB stick,
OR,
2) updates are distributed on new games (Microsoft reserves some disc space on all 360 games for this purpose -- developers don't get the full 9GB of a DVD for their game), so if you buy new releases, you'll get your console updated eventually anyway.
If you're not connected to the internet, then, honestly, the latest and greatest dashboard probably isn't going to do you that much good anyway.
About the only thing it would have served you for offline use is back-compat updates, but considering that hasn't been updated in -- what, over a year now? -- the console out of the factory is going to have the latest version of that out of the box already.
This is still not as bad as the massive price they were charging to "hook up" your PS3. By hook up, I mean plug in the cables and leave, something I learned to do when I was six.
Yes, Best Buy should be ashamed of trying to steal that much money from stupid people.Break said:
I'll do it for $15, and I'll throw in a complimentary hard drive cache cleaning.
I wonder if there's a Best Buy near me?
I have a strange urge to fake buying a 360 up to the point where they ask if I want the "update service" and then say, very loudly.
"What? spend a ridiculous sum of money, money I could spend on a game for my newly acquired console so that you can take my brand spanking new purchase out of the box, touch it with your HANDS, whilst robbing me of the experience of turning it on for the first time so that you could go online and update my system, a service which is provided for free and is as simple as leaving it be and making a sandwich?"
Pausing for enough time for people to take notice.
"No, I don't think I want that."
I have a strange urge to fake buying a 360 up to the point where they ask if I want the "update service" and then say, very loudly.
"What? spend a ridiculous sum of money, money I could spend on a game for my newly acquired console so that you can take my brand spanking new purchase out of the box, touch it with your HANDS, whilst robbing me of the experience of turning it on for the first time so that you could go online and update my system, a service which is provided for free and is as simple as leaving it be and making a sandwich?"
Pausing for enough time for people to take notice.
"No, I don't think I want that."
Just know that the employees there don't necessarily agree with the practice.Radeonx said:
Some of us just need a job because college debt has swallowed us alive.
Not that I'm justifying it.
But look at Optimizations for PCs...it is...yeah...
Yeah. BEcause the person offering it WANTs to. It isn't because their job depends on it...no not at all...they are out to fuck with you.Archemetis said:
Perhaps you could try and not be a **** to employees and actually badger the assholes who invent these sort of scams. It would make retail less of a nightmare for employees in general.
Egg freaking zactly.SomeUnregPunk said:
These aren't people out to get you, they are people who can't currently get a job that pays as well anywhere near them. I'm the only one of any of my friends to finish college recently that has a job...at all.
I like when folks don't take it out on the employees because it changes nothing. It just ruins some innocent persons day because they were doing their job. Not everyone wants to shovel shit but far be it for me to go around heckling them because that is their job.
I hate it SO much. When I try to sell a laptop to someone, it is exactly what they want, and we flip it around to see pre done work on it.George Palmer said:
Not that you'll shop there again but generally if you complain they'll penny out the services. I tell folks just to raise a fit so I don't get in trouble and they get what they want. It is ridiculous that people have to do that but I get to sleep with a clean conscious for being honest at least
.Generally speaking I'm appauled at the business practices, but unfortunately as I stated above people really shouldn't blame the employees. Some of them are suckers and others have no alternative that'll keep them paying the rent. If I could get a job repairing PCs (something I know how to do) I'd grab it in a heart beat, but for now I'm stuck with this.
Plus considering the run around they gave to my in laws to get out of fixing their laptop kind of killed my trust of the company.
I do think as the general public gets more informed this sort of shit will end but I really hope the people they take their anger out on are not the peons (myself included) in the stores but the actual assholes who are nickel and diming people and then calling it a service.
I got told a week ago that everyone has money to burn. I thought that was a bit cold (ok really cold). The weird part was they believe it, the power of propaganda I guess.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure that not every Best Buy is full of idiots. Myself and at least two other folks in my department are far more PC literate than even the people in Geek Squad. I don't bullshit people, if I don't know I tell them, but as it stands nobody has asked me a question harder than "What is a router?" But then again I've been dealing with PCs for about a Decade. I will admit that I've worked with tons of really ignorant people in any department (and admittedly you put me in the wrong place and I am one of those people).Altorin said:
What I would like to see at Best Buy, as a challenge, is for them to do all their services in front of the person who needs the work done. This would prove if they really think their services are worth the money.
As it stands most work is done behind a curtain, which says something to me.
I'm not one for suggesting things that help massive companies I don't like, but if this isn't on Microsoft's list of things to start a lawsuit over they don't have a very good list.
I hope to hear more about this in the future, preferably in this future Microsoft will be receiving lots of money from bestbuy.
I hope to hear more about this in the future, preferably in this future Microsoft will be receiving lots of money from bestbuy.
I agree with you on shopping smart by looking around online.galaxygamer said:
But as for going to other video game stores, particularly those independently owned...well they just aren't as convenient.
Mega-chains like Gamestop have the advantage that they are in numerous different locations. There aren't any independents near by. Shame the "Gamecrazy" near my house got closed down. (and by near, I mean 20 minutes)...
It sucks because the Best Buy I've been going to has many things that are cheaper than Walmart, but seeing this makes me want to keep away from them. I can see offering the service upon checkout, but to just do it anyway, therefore putting their fingerprints all over the product, would make me feel dirty. If I am buying a new console, I want it fingerprint free. And I was just about to go ahead and get a 360, too. Thank you Andy!
Word, dude..Word.George Palmer said:
As a Best Buy employee, people really are that dumb. Not a damn thing that the Geek Squad guys do cannot be done by a guy who knows next to nothing about computers (like me.)Bigeyez said:
It is worth mentioning, though, that they can't make you buy it. If they did a pre set up on a laptop and that one happens to be the last one in the store, you get the set up for free.
You know they are not magicked to the stores right? sometimes they would sit in a warehouse for weeks, eventually get shipped to a store, and then possibly sit on the shelves for some time. There is no telling if that box you got was six days or six months old. Do you want Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony to put freshness stickers on your boxes?Gariom said:
I actually agree with this take on it. It would be nice of them to offer it, but then that would mean they have to keep records of who is eligible to basically bring their box in and jack it into a wall and a monitor so they can patch all their games. It would be something I could see a smaller chain doing, but not a huge store like Best Buy. As well, everyone and their mother at least knows someone with an internet connection, and if you are going to take your box somewhere might as well take it over to your friends house. Hell I live in a tiny rural town and I still have multiple choices of affordable high speed providers. Seriously a 40Mb/s fiber connection is $34.99.Geoffrey42 said:
I don't mind the price, (well it is quite annoying), but the worst part is that they just wrote on the box with a permanent marker.