Premier Silver Membership

[skeelo58]

Had the Geek Squad come over and do an in-home consultation the other night, basically just so I could get the $100 off coupon for a future home theater purchase.  

We actually did discuss a bunch of various options, mostly just speaker stands for my rear speakers, and some new surround speakers.   He said I would be receiving an email in a couple days with their proposal/estimate.  

Well I got the proposal today (along with the coupon at the bottom!)  And here is what they "propose"  my jaw dropped to the floor.  

ADD ON IN WALL POWER EXTENSION  49.99

WIREMOLD-FLAT PANEL TV CORD AND POWER CABLE KIT99.99

KLIPSCH ICON DUAL 4" 2-WAY BOOKSHELF SPEAKER (PAIR)279.98

SANUS HOVER FOUNDATIONS ADJUSTABLE FLOOR SPEAKER STANDS (PAIR)84.99

ROCKETFISH109.99

ROCKETFISH 89.99

LOGITECH HARMONY ONE 15 DEVICE UNIVERSAL REMOTE199.99

LOGITECH HARMONY ADAPTER FOR SONY PLAYSTATION 359.99

$100 CUSTOM LABOR100.00

TV CALIBRATION249.99

WHOLE ROOM SETUP 46" & LARGER169.99

ADD ON TV MOUNTING99.99

ADD ON REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAMMING49.99

GRAND TOTAL1644.87

First of all, HA!  That price is straight up ridiculous.  I do all my own home theater setup, as it's a big hobby of mine.  

2nd, I will disect the charges:

ADD ON IN WALL POWER EXTENSION:  Eh, not a bad idea actually, and one of the only things I might have trouble doing myself.

WIREMOLD FLAT PANEL TV CORD AND POWER CABLE KIT:  For what?  I  already have a power cable.  Do you need an in wall rated power cable?  Last I checked, they don't run anywhere near $100.  

KLIPSCH ICON DUAL 4" 2-WAY BOOKSHELF SPEAKER (PAID):  OK, fair enough. Good suggestion.  I might get these...

SANUS HOVER FOUNDATIONS ADJUSTABLE FLOOR SPEAKER STANDS (PAIR):  Again, good suggestion.  I need some.

ROCKETFISH: Not sure what this is for, but I'm assuming HDMI cables?  I have a million of em, don't need anymore. 

LOGITECH HARMONY ONE:  Already have a Logitech 880, don't need another one, but thanks for the offer!

LOGITECH HARMONY ADAPTER FOR SONY PLAYSTATION 3:  No thanks, I'm just fine using my PS3 controller.  

TV CALIBRATION:  Already done (not by Geek Squad either), next please.

WHOLE ROOM SETUP 46" & LARGER:  For what?  What could you possibly set up?

ADD ON TV MOUNTING:  Again, I will do this myself.  Done it a million times before.

ADD ON REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAMMING:  You gotta be kidding me?  First of all, my Harmony is already programmed.  2nd, who in the blue he|| would pay someone 50 bucks to program their remote for them?!?!  It takes 10 minutes tops.

So after my calculations, there's really only 2 things on there that I would seriously consider buying, and that's the 2 Klipsch speakers, and the Sanus stands.  

The other things on there are basically garbage, and are probably meant for people that have no idea whatsoever about home theater stuff

I mean, cmon, 50 bucks to program a remote?

I guess the moral of my story is, they can give you some good ideas, even suggest some stuff you may not have thought of, or give a different take on speaker placement, TV placement, etc.  But in the end, it seems like they like to suggest darn near every option they currently offer, even if you have no need for it.  

I will enjoy my $100 coupon though  

[shaunm82]

How long were they there for?

[skeelo58]

I would say they were here for about 20-25 minutes.  Most of that time was us talking about different speakers I could buy for my rear surrounds, and wire management (I have speaker wire everywhere!).  It's kind of impossible to run speaker wire under the carpet being that I live in an apartment.....

[shaunm82]

Man, thats it??!  Def worth the 100$ off coupon then!

I think I'm going to do this.  I was thinking of getting the TV calibrated, did you just use another local source to get yours done?  Might just go through the Geek Squad

[Kelly-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hey skeelo58, 

Thanks for the feedback you have shared!  I apologize that the proposals from the in-home consultation were outside of your expectations.  

I appreciate the details you have shared so I may be able to share these details with our Geek Squad team to ensure they are aware of the concerns.

I am glad that you were able to receive the $100 coupon and wish you happy shopping!

Cheers,

[skeelo58]

Well I wouldn't say that it was outside of my expectations.  I knew they would recommend all sorts of unnecessary things, I just didn't realize they would try recommend things I already had (Harmony remote, calibration, etc).

 The service was in line with what I was expecting.  It's a great perk for Premier Silver members.  

[skeelo58]

So I went to Best Buy a little bit ago to buy a 51" Samsung.  Got to the checkout counter, and gave them the coupon for the $100 dollars off.  He tried scanning the bar code, but it was too small, so he asked a co-worker about it, and the co-worker tried telling me that it was only valid for Geek Squad services!  So at this point, both employees were against letting me use the coupon, because they thought it was only for "services".  

I had to point out on the coupon that it explicitly states  "Good for $100 off a future home theater purchase of $499 and up".  And that it said nothing about "services only".  

They had to have a manager come over and verify that it was legit.  Amazing that there is so much mis-information spread by the employees.  

In the end, I was able to use my coupon.  So all is well  

[mstng87gt Trusted Contributor]

The $100 cable and power management is just that its the enclosed track system that hides the cables and is usually paintable. I know it does get quite expensive but $100 would be a lot of it.

[Jimmienomam]

We had a person when I worked for Vz phone tech that wanted their remote programmed. I walked them through a simple step by step guide and they kept getting really frustrated. To dispatch a tech costs $150 base.

She agreed to pay it.

To dispatch a tech in this kind of instance (in other words that the customer WAS going to have to pay) I needed a manager approval. My manager carefully explained what the charges were and that they accepted it.

She agreed again...

Almost as good as when I worked at Papa Johns and a woman called up wanting a medium Ham and Bacon specialty pizza. We had the large of the Ham and bacon on sale for $10.99. A medium cost $11.99. I explained twice that if she ordered a large she would get more pizza for less money than she would spend on a medium. The second time she replied and I quote "Yes, but the large pizza box is too big to fit in my fridge". Dumbfounded I processed the order.

Repeating those stories today still makes my brain hurt.

[skeelo58]

Ha, nice. Apparently she hasn't heard of the concept of putting leftover pizza on a plate and wrapping it in tinfoil/seran wrap.