Best Buy Offers Home Theater Installation Services

[Audioholics]

<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/news/pressreleases/BestBuyhometheaterinstallation.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 125px; HEIGHT: 86px" alt=[bestbuylogo] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/bestbuylogo_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>According to an article at MarketWatch, Best Buy Co. is ramping up its home theater installation for 2007. Best Buy is attempting to set itself apart from budget retailers like Wal-mart by focusing on flat panel TVs, video gaming, Geek Squad Services and - most notably - the addition of more service capabilities that will tie into the home theater market. After growing its technical support business, known as the "Geek Squad", the No. 1 U.S. home electronics retailer on Thursday said it would hire 1,000 new home theater installers, on top of the 1,500 it already employs.

[Read the Article]

 

[Sheep]

The Best Buy I worked at already offered Home Installation.

BTW, why do you guys support Best Buy? Don't they break some of your rules?

SheepStar

 

[Audioholics]

We're not supporting Best Buy. This is just news.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Hopefully their installers know more about installing than the BB salespeople know about the components.

LOL

 

[3x10^8]

It would only make sense for them to enter a market with truly outrageous profit margins, especially since they sell all the equipment necessary to create a home theater. Consumers generally perceive BB to be extremely credible, another bonus for them. They'll make a killing, no doubt.

Unfortunately, from personal experience, if their home theater install teams are anything like their car audio install teams, you can expect a bunch of unprofessional thugs. A bit, of an over-generalization, but true for the most part.

 

[Matt34]

It would only make sense for them to enter a market with truly outrageous profit margins, especially since they sell all the equipment necessary to create a home theater. Consumers generally perceive BB to be extremely credible, another bonus for them. They'll make a killing, no doubt.

Unfortunately, from personal experience, if their home theater install teams are anything like their car audio install teams, you can expect a bunch of unprofessional thugs. A bit, of an over-generalization, but true for the most part.

I know where you're coming from...I had an car alarm installed by them and after seeing who was doing the install I'm gald I live over an hour away. I could see them selling people's info who had major installs done.

 

[Matt34]

I know where you're coming from...I had an car alarm installed by them and after seeing who was doing the install I'm glad I live over an hour away. I could see them selling people's info who had major installs done.

Edit: I made it a point when I went to pick it up that my Springfield .45 was visible.

 

[3x10^8]

Edit: I made it a point when I went to pick it up that my Springfield .45 was visible.

LOL!

Funny that you mention it, but I had a car alarm installed there a few years ago (no longer own the vehicle). The darn things wasn't installed properly and had to take it back 4 times before they got it right. And, of course, each time something went wrong, it was my fault... Go figure!

 

[Sheep]

I was fired from BB for telling the truth.

Nuff said.

SheepStar

 

[soulposition]

I've actually had the Magnolia (they are owned by BB) installers out at my house for the past 4 days. If I had to do it again, I'd have hired a contractor to do all the work and just purchased the equipment from Magnolia (I got REALLY good deals, even beat some really low internet ones).

They sent 3 guys out and only one worked. The other two would just fiddle around checking thier fones or moving dropcloths and then replacing them where they just moved them from. They also only work from 10:30 - 4:30 with an hour lunch break, if they show up on time. Which they never did and they never stayed till 4:30.

They punched so many holes in my roof (I had a projector and 6 speakers run) that it looked like a drywall piece of swiss cheese. I was told they were supposed to do a rough patch, basically replace the pieces they cut out but magically all the pieces are missing so they couldn't do that.

My advice, forget the BB installers and have a certified contractor do it. Probably be cheaper in the long run.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

I was fired from BB for telling the truth.

Nuff said.

SheepStar

Lemme guess.....


You told a prospective customer that Bose sucks?

 

[Jim Robbins]

I work at my local Best Buy in the Home Theater department as a second job. I only work once a week, but the discount on DVDs and video game junk is worth it. Anyway, we have been recently making a push to sell more theater installs, but really, Best Buy is ill equipped to do in home work. The theater installer guy for our store is not really trained in A/V or construction type work. I think he kind of hacks his way through. You know, if you need a general grunt kind of worker, then he's good for that... But it isn't worth the $100 an hour that Best Buy charges. He used to sell the Home Theater stuff, so it's not like he knows nothing, but really, it always takes him longer than it should and his methods are crude. I mean, you can't expect too much from a guy $10 or $12 an hour. Also, Best Buy doesn't carry all the products needed for many home theater installs. So the customer gets stuck trying to find some items before the installer can do his work.

So, did I say "ill equipped"? Yeah, I think I did... Anyway, I think that if Best Buy will start paying guys like you and me to do real home theater, then it will work out for them. However, if they continue down the road of cheapness then they aren't going to be in this market for long.

Just for reference, I am not your average Best Buy punk. *grin* I am an audioholic all the way! Also, none of my home theater came from Best Buy... Not the Panny 900, the Oppo DVD player, not the Blue Jeans cables, not the Denon 3805 Receiver, not the Infinity kappa speakers, etc... Oh ok, I did buy a Sony HD DVR for my OTA tuner from them. Hey, it was CHEAP! (Relatively speaking

Later all!


P.S. I refuse to sell a customer Bose speakers and I haven't been fired yet. *laugh*

 

[Naves74]

Everytime I got to BB or CC I make it a point to pick up one of the pamplets on thier "services" they offer to equipement buyers. They have also had that display with reciver,dvd player, DVR, and some other component set up backwards so you can see all the cables. If this is not a fear tactic I dont know what is. The average joe blow walks in and sees all these "scary wires" hanging and he has to think "that is way to hard for me to do I could never figure it out." As sheep could tell us they are all just full of crap. I really do hope as others have stated the "installers" know more than the sales staff. Last time I went in there and asked for a 6-Channel SACD/DVDA cable and they took me to the video cable section and offered me a S-Video cable.


Also has anyone seen how much they charge for thier services. We are talking around $500 to set up a dvd/reciver/tv combination. It is a rip off just like all the rest of the stuff they sale.

 

[T2T]

They punched so many holes in my roof (I had a projector and 6 speakers run) that it looked like a drywall piece of swiss cheese. I was told they were supposed to do a rough patch, basically replace the pieces they cut out but magically all the pieces are missing so they couldn't do that.

Sounds like the Cox cable installers in Fairfax. They knocked 25 3" x 3" holes in the drywall to run some cable. Basically, they just knocked out the drywall around each stud so the cable could be threaded through. I picked up the work of performing the drywall patches. It took about 4 hours of time. However, when I was done, the walls were perfect.

Cox only promised to make 2 holes. However, due to all the drywall damage, they waived the $400 install fee, which was a good offset towards the materials and labor I charged.

 

[T2T]

Oh, while we're on the topic of Best Buy - I like how the regular BB employees stay poised outside the entrance to the internal Magnolia store. When a customer sees the $2,000 price tag on a pair of Vienna Acoustics speakers, they walk out of Magnolia - and into the hands of a BB employee, who walks them over to a pair of JBL or Klipsch speakers for $600.

 

[godfatherofsoul]

I've actually had the Magnolia (they are owned by BB) installers out at my house for the past 4 days. If I had to do it again, I'd have hired a contractor to do all the work and just purchased the equipment from Magnolia (I got REALLY good deals, even beat some really low internet ones).

They sent 3 guys out and only one worked. The other two would just fiddle around checking thier fones or moving dropcloths and then replacing them where they just moved them from. They also only work from 10:30 - 4:30 with an hour lunch break, if they show up on time. Which they never did and they never stayed till 4:30.

They punched so many holes in my roof (I had a projector and 6 speakers run) that it looked like a drywall piece of swiss cheese. I was told they were supposed to do a rough patch, basically replace the pieces they cut out but magically all the pieces are missing so they couldn't do that.

My advice, forget the BB installers and have a certified contractor do it. Probably be cheaper in the long run.

Unfortunately, most of the installers that BBY uses are third party and have no standards. They just wing it and hope for the best... When I worked for BBY (3 yrs ago) and actually sold a HT install, the installers would call the store and ask which cables plugged in where.
Tweeter installers actually do replace drywall, and are employed by Tweeter - not saying they are better but at least they have standards and you can hold them accountable by their own rules. They did a good job by me anyway...

cheers

 

[Zuke]

Unfortunately, most of the installers that BBY uses are third party and have no standards. They just wing it and hope for the best... When I worked for BBY (3 yrs ago) and actually sold a HT install, the installers would call the store and ask which cables plugged in where.
Tweeter installers actually do replace drywall, and are employed by Tweeter - not saying they are better but at least they have standards and you can hold them accountable by their own rules. They did a good job by me anyway...

cheers

Odd.. my store, and all the stores around me all have in house installers. They used 3rd party ones for the Superbowl install promo in January.

My 2 cents as a P/T HT BB employee. There are so many people that come in and have no clue on any HT stuff. They are about to drop $3k-$10K+ on pure entertainment novelty items and haven't done the research. Most of the employees at BB are 18-23 year old kids that get $7-$9 an hour to present products to the customer. They get in trouble for not offering all the "add ons" (service plan, cables, ac conditioners, screen cleaners etc..) They don't really care about the customer they just care about who they are going to get drunk with and who they are going to shag that night.

 

[paintrodsey]

There home theater install will be spotty. It will probably be like there car install: Some of the Best Buys have good installers who have been doing it for years, while others will have the 17 year old kid off the street who "put his friends stereo in". Also, I doubt you will see a Best Buy home theater install with an RTA or other measuring equipment.