Watch Out For Firmware Shenanigans At Best Buy
Reader Erin writes in to warn readers that Best Buy is offering a thirty-dollar firmware update to certain Blu-Ray players, and warning that without the update, some newer titles might not work. Erin checked the manufacturer's website and found no announced firmware updates, and the newer titles play just fine.
Erin writes:
Wanted to tip everyone off: Best Buy sells a sweet Blu Ray player made by
Insignia for $169. I picked one up & spotted the "Geek Squad" can upgrade the firmware for $29.99. Meh. I'll do it myself.On checking out, the young lady pointed out that I'd need the firmware upgrade, and they could do it. Without it, I'd not be able to watch the latest Blu Ray titles, such as the Dark Knight. I told her I'd take care of it.
I got home, and took a peek. There is no phone jack or ethernet port on the unit, only an SD Card slot on the front. Hmm. Went to Insignia website, no firmware update notice anywhere. I call Insignia, and guess what? All of their CS is now handled by Best Buy. Awesome.
The Dark Knight plays fine.
Tell everyone you know- if you buy the Insignia KM- BRDVD player, it's FINE. NO FIRMWARE update needed. I wonder how many people they sucker into this.
To those shoppers confused about the difference between hardware and software, "firmware" is probably scary enough to get them to shell out $30. Thanks for the heads up, Erin!
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Comments:
This is extremely ballsy, even for best buy. There has to be more to the story than this.
Best Buy strikes again with shitty ways/scams to make money, In 2002 I refused to get MSN internet with my Sony Vaio home PC and they signed me up without my knowledge after telling them 15 times I didn't want it. I noticed MSN billing me 2 months later for un used internet service. Earlier they sold beer making kits and got in trouble for selling them to minors, magazine subscriptions, food items and now this?
I really hate Best Buy, this past Christmas, I didn't set foot in one of their stores at all, I went to Target *I'd rather pay a couple of bucks more* than to patronize such crappy store.
"Pre-updated units available" - for $30 more?....
30 dollars for a few mb update. Ya I dont think so. Btw Insignia is Bestbuys branded product, you figure they would support their own product best.
@albear:
more like a copple bucks LESS
Best Buy has a 30% mark up from MSRP ;)
corce if i really want cheep electronics i order from newegg larger selection and cheeper :D
no matter what all Blu-ray movies must play on every player. The firmware updates only activate special features like picture in picture and online functions. A 1.0 Blu-ray player will play the actual movie on a 2.0 disc just fine.
It's things like these that raises the temptation of printing up labels that say "THIS IS A SCAM!!!" with a link to some web page that describes what's going on and placing them on every, single box with that sticker. But since that is vandalism to some degree, I can only pray that people are more well-informed and that people don't pull this ****.
@killest: There needs to be some kind of law disallowing this. When the "free market" behaves like this, it deserves to be regulated.
This is just plain wrong, I bet the firmware update is nothing, they just take the player in the back, open the box, masturbate for 5 minutes, and then hand it back to you with nothing changed whatsoever. I bet this is a total scam.
@logicalnoise: think that if a certain BluRay player gets compromised, newer BluRay Discs will contain code to block being played on such compromised machines until a firmware update is available...
though this probably wont happen seeing that its easier to hack a BluRay program like WinDVD on a windows machine
The premise of their serivce is correct; some players (depending on model and current firmware) might need an update to play newer titles. Their fee of $30 for someone who can do it themselves is expensive and not needed. Let's remember that not everyone has a fast internet connection at home nor the technical knowledge to do the update themselves. Downloading firmware or OS updates over a modem might be such a pain that those people might find this service worthwhile.
The scam is the price, not necessarily the firm ware itself. The Dark Knight may play fine, but as the studios continue to update BD+, the player will need to be flashed with new firmware. If it's not, the titles simply won't play. I had a title that wouldn't play in my player (A Memorex), but a quick download from the website an a new firmware later, it would.
If Best Buy is going to charge for these updates, I wouldn't touch the player. You are going to need updates, and $30 a pop is crazy.
@killest: Also keep in mind that, if firmware were really a problem, the players wouldn't play many discs. As such, the player would be nearly worthless.
Also, if it's the outdated encryption schemes that the employee is referring to, updated versions of those are shipped on newer discs and would load upon first play, anyway. No network, card, or other loading required.
Leave it to BBY to try and monetize something that's normally free by scaring people that don't know any better.
Shouldn't there be laws against stuff like this? If McDonald's is required to put a label on the coffee cups to warn customers that "Contents may be hot", why aren't we doing something about this?
About 7 years ago, I went to Best Buy. While I was going through the check out line I grabbed a free AOL disc. I just wanted the disc so that it would set up my dial up connection, not to have AOL.
The cashier grabs the disc and scans it, which rings up to $20 or $30!?!?
I told her it's supposed to be free. She says that's the cost of the subscription and actually tells me she doesn't think you can activate your subscription at home?!?!?
I assured her that's the way EVERYONE does it. She did remove it from the sale... but damn, how stupid would I have to be think I couldn't somehow activate AOL dial-up from home!!!!
Please keep in mind, this was 7 years ago, hence the dial up and AOL.
BB doesn't charge for the update. They charge to do the update for you. If you can do it yourself at home there is no fee.
I can't understand why BB would expect anyone to buy an item that needs service before it gets out of the store. I wouldn't pay for something and then pay to have it fixed in the same transaction.
@killest: I'm shocked to think there isn't a law for this kind of carry on already.
Class Action Lawsuit I say. Best Buy too often makes blatant lies to its customers in order to solicit (in particular) its geek squad services.
Insignia is Best Buy's brand. They own it, just like Kenmore is owned by Sears.
@FDCPAGuy: Except in the case of Blu-ray players, the firmware updates are a matter of going to the system menu and selecting the update firmware option. As long as the player has an internet connection, that's all there is to it. They are basically hoping that people hear "firmware update", have their eyes glaze over, and fork over $30 because they could never figure out how to stop the VCR from blinking "12:00".
I should start advertising "Blu-ray firmware updates" on my local craig's list for $20.
Insignia is Best Buy's house brand, so there's no surprise in the fact that "all of their CS is now handled by Best Buy."
The rest of the story still makes BB and Geek Squad look as scammy as ever.
Is anyone out there less lazy than I who can get an official comment from the BB-that-be? I'd love to know what they have to say about this.
@larrymac808: beat me to the in-house thing.
I wonder if BBY is going to hire someone to monitor consumerist soon?
OK, time to clarify a few things.
1) Insignia is a Best Buy BRAND. Similar to Sam's Choice at Wal-Mart, Insignia, Dynex, Init, and Rocketfish are ALL Best Buy "exclusive" brands, made for Best Buy. So that's why Insignia's customer service is handled by Best Buy. It IS Best Buy.
2) There are such things as firmware upgrades, and there has been confusion about blu-ray movies not playing on certain players. The Dark Knight was one of them. It wouldn't play on my PS3, but it would play in my PC. So the firmware claim is warranted, but however, I think $30 to do it, is a bit much.
Not everyone knows how to upgrade their firmware on ANYTHING much less use a TV remote, so some people, out of sheer ignorance or laziness will get good use out of this "service".
No matter what, this will help put the nails in Blu-Ray's coffin faster than ever.
If you buy a Blu-Ray player (the latest and greatest disc tech) that can't play the latest-and-greatest Hollywood drek...
Well, the story writes itself.
Let me clarify... I mean that Best Buy is advertising the firmware as being able to play the latest and greatest films... not that it's actually the case.
Still... discs are a dying format.
@LordSkippy: The original post clearly states that the player does not have an Internet connection. As such it might be like my DVD player (that plays DIVX and had firmware to enable new features) where I have to download a file and burn it to CD.
$30 for a one off might be fair, that's about right for finding the firmware on the manufactures web site, burning to a disk, connecting the unit and turning it on.
Since all they have to do is connect the unit and turn it on, walk away and fix someones computer and come back in 15, they could make a healthy profit at $15.
@FDCPAGuy: OP said the firmware update was not available from the Insignia website and not available from phone support, so the big question is, is there really no fw update for this unit or is the only way to get it by giving BB $30...
@LordSkippy: Keep in mind not everyone has a computer at home, much less an Internet connection. Some of my coworkers are in that category; they see a home computer as a needless hassle. I realize this is a pretty foreign mindset to Consumerist readers but it's still not terribly uncommon.
There has to be a lawsuit for this, this is a lying scam through and through. As people who are knowledgeable about Blu-ray players know, if it has an Ethernet port (or in the case of the PS3, built in Wi-fi) it updates itself, free of charge like it's supposed to. I can't believe this.
@Overheal: The problem with a class action lawsuit is that the end result would be, like always in these things, about $30 million to the law firm that brings the suit and a $4.99 coupon good for toward a Geek Squad charge for each of the million people in the class.
They are selling a service to make a DVD player fully functional? I can't wait for a few eager state attorney generals to latch onto this one.
If they told me that "it might not work with the latest titles", the thing is going back on the shelf.
@kylo4iskyle4:
I don't see how there can't be a law suit in this.
You can't sell a service that doesn't do anything... at all... ever.
Even the article I recently read about the fake TV calibration did *something*.
@logicalnoise: You don't know what you're talking about. There have been firmware updates to dozens of players that were required in order to even play certain discs.
I apologize for my bluntness, but there's enough misinformation on the internet without logicalnoise spreading more.
@Sunny Yeung: How is this a scam? Firmware updates exist...they're not misrepresenting the service because firmware updates do what the label says.
You may be able to do your own firmware update, but many people can't even update Windows without paying someone to do it for them.
There is NOTHING wrong with charging for a valuable service. For some people, applying a firmware update is a valuable service.
Best buy Canada goon here, on some models yes, there is no firmware update, and we refund them, hell its done at the geek Squad desk which the customer can watch us do it. in the last 2 weeks I have had to do about 10 firmware updates because the units from Samsung cant play The Dark Knight because of bad firm ware.
@LordSkippy: You think the "12:00 flashing on the VCR" crowd can figure out a firmware update, activate the proper settings, etc? You need a reality check.
@logicalnoise: actually, i think the opposite has already proven to be true. take this article from 10.2007, for example: "Fox's new Blu-ray titles with BD+ won't play in all players" [www.engadgethd.com]
supposedly a firmware update fixes the problem, but until your manufacturer writes, programs & releases the update, you're SOL.
@dialing_wand: I completely agree with you and am surprised that someone doesn't call BB on this in the store: "You mean you are selling players that are incapable out-of-the-box of playing the newest movies? What kind of junk are you selling here? I'm taking my business to [electronics retailer]." After enough comments like these from customers, they may want to rethink the approach of "we sell already broken players." (Yes, I know they aren't "broken" but to the average non-technical consumer, they might as well be).
There is an opportunity for BB here to make their customers happy by promising free updates on all players bought in-store - if BB provides service while the customer waits (e.g. 20 minute turn-around, which shouldn't be difficult given how easy these updates typically are), the customer might even impulse buy while wandering the store. Win-win, and this may even be a selling point versus BB's competitors. If the customer doesn't buy, the worst-case for BB is they end up with happy customers. Of course, this assumes that the legendary BB service experience doesn't kick in ("sorry, we have no record of you dropping off your player 20 minutes ago; can we interest you in a new one?")
I bought a new home theater system and checked the web site (philips.com) when registering my system. There was a firmware update, which I downloaded, copied to my mp3 player, and attached it to my system. The system recognized that there was an upgrade on the player, asked me if I wanted to install it, and finished in about 3 minutes.
Simple as pie.
@mmcnary: Let's be clear...
Simple as pie for you
There are people to whom this service will be valuable. You are not that person.
hahaha, this is a good one. as far as i've ever known, when you have a device with firmware updates, they're are 100% free. PSP, Xbox360, PS3, Zune, Ipod, I've owned every single one of these, and software updates have always been free. Nice friggin try, best buy.
The easiest thing to do is not shop at Best Buy and tell everyone you know not to.
@racermd:
"why aren't we doing something about this? "
Because for the most part, Americans are technologically retarded.
Consumerist, I expect better.
Let's review the facts.
- Best Buy offers an optional service which updates firmware on a Blu-ray Player.
- This service costs $29.00.
- Firmware updates for BD players exist, and in fact, are sometimes necessary for proper disc playback
- Firmware updates often enable new features and functions in a BD player.
So...
- Customer writes in complaining about Best Buy
- Customer claims that since The Dark Knight plays well, and there's no Ethernet or USB jack, no firmware update could possibly be required.
- Customer calls it a ripoff, Consumerist posts, frothing Anti-BB masses freak out.
This is a clearly defined service, offered by Best Buy, for a legitimate purpose. Some people may find value in this service.
What, exactly, did Best Buy do wrong here?!?
@blkhrt1:
It wouldn't play on my PS3, but it would play in my PC.
How much does Best Buy charge to update the firmware on a new PS3 before you get to take it home?
IS there no shame in lying? Bestbuy?
I already don't like going to best buy, but this further cements it.
they oughta be sued for their blatant lying, OVER AND OVER.