Query About Best Buy Professional (ahem...) Installation
 

I plan to finally buy a Sony Grand Wega SXDR KDS-50A2000 tomorrow from Best Buy; their "No Interest Until 2010" offer has at last made this expenditure possible. Here's my pickle--like many people here, I think Best Buy employees are the single most useless form of life on the planet; the hydra seems capable of more complex reasoning skills. Should I allow them to perform a "professional" installation when they deliver my new set--can these installers actually be trusted to know what they're doing, unlike their floor-walker brethren--or should I just shoo them away the moment they drop off the set and take on the challenge all by my wittle lonesome?

If it's free, let them do their stuff as you watch, then you fix it.

If they charge for this - screw that and shoo them off.

Do not let them touch it!!!!

Naw, I mean if its free, sure why not. If they do it wrong, you can go back and fix it. Only thing is, if you have alot of shit, it might just be better to not let them touch and you can just do it right the first time.

lets put it this way, would you like to have $2000 down the drain. The Tv is heavy and putting stud in the wrong spot would result in fallen tv that would a.damage your floor. b. break, andc. damage everything else around it.

You don't hang SXRDs on the wall.

I don't see what they can hurt unless you have a lot of high end equipment you're worried about. The worst thing that could happen is something isn't hooked up quite right and you can either fix it, or complain and make them come back and do it again. I got a new TV recently and if I could have had free installation I'd have taken it, just to make someone else put the damn stand together.

Also, I'd hope their installation employees are better trained and more intelligent than the poorly paid high school kids who work the floor.

the guys they'll send out are frpm magnolia ht, so they are high-end experts. take a look at the magnolia sites and google them to see customer geedback

Not sure if the entire crew that works on the installations is that way, but a
friend who worked the TV dept and knew practically nothing other than absolute
basics (match color to color on cords type stuff) went out on installations.

See my previous post.
He worked in the Magnolia area of the TV dept and was FAR from a high end
expert. I'd hope that they'd send at least one expert out with the crew though.

They'll probably hook up your HD or Blu-Ray player with an RF modulator ;)

Well, anyone who might have cared, forget the whole deal. Even with my wife and I having a combined annual income of $75,000 and our only outstanding debt (beyond the standard house and car payment, which are auto-debited every month and are, therefore, never past due) being her approx. $5,000 credit card (which is also auto-debited, thus never late) and a $2,500 student loan in my name that is, admittedly, past due, Best Buy would only give us a $400 credit card. $400! What a joke...and an embarrassment. I feel like this whole week has been a monumental waste of time and energy, not only researching the TV of choice, but the furniture to house it in. I'm so fucking sick of working my fingers to the bone, paying my taxes, playing by all the societal rules and what do I get to show for it? A pity card for $400--the exact same amount Circuit City gave me back in the early '90s when I had nearly zero credit history. If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty pissed and melancholy right now.

Not sure what your credit score is, but having an account that's currently past due probably did that to you. Student loans that are late look even worse than a credit card that's late if a human is the one that approves/denies it. You could get it current, wait a few months for your credit reports to show that, and try again. Or, if you can/did accept the $400 card, you could try immediately or wait a few months and call them and see if they will raise the limit... and threaten to close the card if they don't. Worth a shot.

That sucks my friend, sounds like you did a lot of work. Plus, that's my exact TV you were trying to buy and I love it. The same thing happened to my wife when she was trying to buy an appliance at Best Buy, but we called an explained some of her credit and they bumped it up to right around $2k (what we needed) from $500. If you call the corporate line and get a favorable credit officer, you might still have a shot if you feel up to it. I can't remember exactly what we said, but it didn't take too much explanation to get her to help out.

If anyone else is questioning the quality of Best Buy installers, I'll throw in another 2 cents worth.

My buddy bought a new Samsung 50-something inch tv recently. Best Buy delivered it just fine, but hooked up his components incorrectly. All he had was a dvd player, vcr, and a receiver. He had to redo it after they left.

Call the credit department and ask for the amount you need. If they don't grant it, ask why.

Have you reviewed you credit report lately to make sure there's nothing on there that doesn't belong to you?

Or just put your money in the bank until you have enough to pay in cash. Then you get the benefit of a much better tv, and with the way tv prices are dropping you'll probably pay substantially less for it.