According to a Circuit City employee, their in-home tv calibration service is a complete ripoff. Basically they give the employees glasses like you might get at a 3D movie and they’re then supposed adjust the balance and contrast and brightness with the remote control. When he complained to his manager, his boss said to just, “make believe you’re changing some settings. When you’re done, tell them how much better their TV looks. Besides, once you perform the calibration, they can’t get a refund.” Will we soon see Circuit City in-home calibration kits being hawked in the back pages of Boy’s Life? Full letter, inside…
I’ve worked for Circuit City’s Firedog for the last 11 months. Since the day I started performing in-home installations I knew that the company was not truly concerned with the service their customer received, but only with the money the customer has in his/her wallet. The point: Purchasing a TV calibration from Circuit City Firedog is a complete waste of money.I knew a lot about installation and repair when I started Firedog, but one of the things I had never done was calibrate a TV. When I checked my appointments for the day and saw that I had to go perform a calibration, I approached one of the managers and said “How do we perform calibrations? Do we have a calibration unit or something?” The manager replied “Come over here and I’ll show you.” So I followed him to the TV department and he handed me an old Circuit City Advantage TV Care Kit. (These are the pamphlets/packets we USED TO hand out to customers when they purchase an extended warranty.) He pulls out a DVD and “calibration glasses” which were nothing more than those cardboard 3-D glasses you get at the movie theater except there’s blue film for both eyes instead of red for one and blue for the other. He says “Put this DVD in their DVD player and follow the instructions.” At this point I was bothered by the fact that I had to go to someone’s house to perform a task that I’m not even trained to do. Unlike these “bonus-driven” managers, I actually have a conscience. I told the manager that I didn’t feel comfortable going to do the job and that he should reschedule it to another installer. His response was “It’s not hard, just goto their house, pop in the DVD, look at the test patterns with the glasses, and make believe you’re changing some settings. When you’re done, tell them how much better their TV looks. Besides, once you perform the calibration, they can’t get a refund.”
At this point I straight out refused to do that, and my manager threatened my job. I was told that if I didn’t goto the customer’s house and perform a service that I did not know how to perform, that I would be terminated. For fear of losing my job, I went to the customer’s home to calibrate his TV. I put in the disc and skipped to the calibration “test patterns”. While the patterns were displayed I looked through the glorified 3-D glasses I was given, and made small adjustments to the brightness, tint, sharpness, etc. By the time I was done, I noticed that the levels I ended up with were no different from the levels that were set from the factory. After I was done, the TV looked no better than when I had started, but in following my managers instructions I told the customer how much of a difference I saw in the TV. I left the house after about 10 minutes, and had a horrible feeling in my stomach.
Since then I’ve been arguing with store management about calibrations, and how we should stop selling this service unless we use an actual professional calibration unit. I always get the same answer though, and end up going to the customer’s home and playing with their remote control for a few minutes, and then lie to them about how much better I made their TV look. I’m writing this because I can’t refuse to perform the job once you pay for it…hopefully you’ll read this and think twice before you purchase the service.
PREVIOUSLY: Circuit City Will Access A Secret Panel In Your TV For $104.74
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oh geez, i was in a hurry and made a mistake. please excuse my improper nomenclature.
color is also “chroma” and hue/tint is also known as “phase.” color bars are commonly used for matching signals as well but there are calibrations to be considered for the individual levels of red, green and blue within the monitor but these are generally set at the factory. it’s common to find grey scale calibrations in computers that can be performed by the user such as those offered by apple for higher res signals.
thanks.
@irfan: Not every store has the technician, but each district has a technician thats certified to perform the calibration, so you can get buy the service at any Best Buy.
Actually I use a similar dvd text pattern thing for my hdtv. I used to use it religiously with my CRT TV, I found out a lot of interesting things like the CRT “Gun” in my TV was weak, the lines bended if my brightness was too high, it was quite fascinating to see.
I had a friend who had a “professional” calibration thingy and he pretty much came to the same settings that I used with my $4 calibration DVD + colored lenses to look though.
If you want to offer your customers more value, learn to work with what you have. If you go in with more knowledge than what your customers have, and it turns out their settings are ok, well at least they know it’s OK now.
It’s hard to lie to a customer, it downright sucks, and is probably why brick and mortar retail are loosing the fight to stay competitive now a days, but look at this as an opportunity to improve your skill set. Do some google searches. I know Best Buy pays their employees to learn new stuff, I don’t know about CC though.
Those glasses you get have a particular color of blue in them that is used to help tune the color on the TV by filtering out certain wavelengths. When used with the correct test patterns (which the writer admits to skipping completely), it can indeed improve your picture.
By skipping the test patterns (that anyone can actually DO), this writer was complicit in the shoddy service scam.
I have a calibration dvd (DVD Essentials, I think) at home that I use every time I move my TV. It works wonders IF YOU DO ALL THE STEPS. It includes the filter glasses and the test patterns.
I know this thread is kind of dead, but as a lawyer I have to respond to the people who say that this is legal or illegal and the people who recommend taking one’s case to an “unemployment department” or something of the sort.
Most people who tell you that something is or isn’t legal don’t know what they’re talking about. That includes lawyers who speak off the top of their heads without actually doing the research. Particularly when it comes to something like a business or advertising practice like this one, the legal/illegal line is often very hazy and debatable.
As to advising people to refuse to do their job, get terminated, and then fight, those fights aren’t for the faint of heart and there’s never any guarantee of how they’ll turn out. Unless the advice comes from a labor lawyer or someone else who has genuine expertise and knowledge, don’t trust it. And even then, always remember that the person giving the advice isn’t the one who has to live with the consequences.
as the previous poster stated, this thread seems dead but i figured id put my 2 cents in on it as well.. i have worked for best buy, circuit city, hh gregg, and sears..i currently am at circuit city, but do my shopping wherever as i can not be scammed because i know what im talking about..
now, the tv calibration that seems to have upset everyone is for the most part not done this way any longer.. each district has at least 2 firedog techs available, currently our district has 5,and my store ( niles ohio and our neighbor boardman) each have a firedog tech due to our high volume and wide area we both cover.. both of our techs had to be trained, and as a a few previos posters have said, we do have a number of tv’s hooked up to the calibration equipment( spyder 3 to be exact) and calibrated, one during a demonstration to a customer of mine. and we all in the entertainment dept have or are in the process of having our tv’s done as well. the glasses served a purpose but are ultimately a joke. the only reason ccity charges 150 for a calibration is because the tech has to use his own laptop. otherwise they would charge more to the customer for the tools to do a job.
it is a service we offer for the customer..if you dont like it dont buy it. nobody is twisting your arm into buying it. i really get sick of people that complain about everything. we dont set prices and it is our JOB to offer you things. im not on commision so i dont care if you buy nothing, or the whole dept. im at my job because i like dealing with televisions and i try and get my customers as excited about it as i am when i come to work everyday. and for the people who come in and say they know it all or have no questions…save yourself the gas money and your breath and just stay home and use the internet. its my job to greet you when you come to my dept. its my home for 5-8 hours a day and im welcoming you to it. dont jump down my throat about it.. got a lil off topic there but ive been meaing to say all that for the 6 years ive been in retail.
ps, i am just a 25 hour a week part time employee, not a manager or a lifetime employee of the company, so if anyone thinks im being biased im sorry to disappoint you
I work for a home theater company. Calibration is a real thing, and is absolutely beneficial to your set. BUT it is only worth paying a real calibration expert. if your “Expert” pulls out a DVD and says he is going to calibrate your set, throw him out. Calibration Equipment costs Thousands of dollars and takes time and training to get right. DON’T GET RIPPED OFF!!!! Calibration is worth the cost, but only if done right!!!!!
I am a professional ISF calibrator working for and trained by Best Buy Inc. I was sent away for a week to obtain the rigorous theory and hands on skills needed to get me going. The company gave me the Sencore SD/HD video generator, colorpro sensor and software needed to properly calibrate any tv. I have 6 years of home audio and video experience varying from basic set ups to very complicated complete home audio video applications working with key pads and rack set ups. When a customer purchases a TV calibration from any Best Buy retail location the customer is getting an experienced, knowledgeable and certified technician to fine tune their tv according to the customer’s components and room layout. An average calibration takes anywhere from 90-120 minutes to complete. A calibration can on occasion take longer depending on the make and age of the set. Please do not listen to any negative posts about Best Buy’s calibration team. It is a legitimate service offered at a very reasonable price. Go to [www.imagingscience.com] to look for a ISF trained tech in your area. Chances are you see “Best Buy Geek Squad” in your location!
I was area manager of the real Firedog installation team in the rocky mountain team. I have NEVER herd of this 3D glasses garbage. We used Spider3 calibration tools along with a lap top computer. This was ISF certified and makes a HUGE difference in the quality. Snake oil? I say customers who don’t like to pay but rather complain!