Company Will Program Your Universal Remote For $250
When I was in college, an older woman I worked with paid me $25 to come over and program her VCR, and that is not a euphemism. Clearly I missed a valid business opportunity when I didn't think to package that skill and resell it as an in-home service for idiots everywhere. You know, sort of like what InstallerNet offers with universal remotes for the low low actually-sort-of-high price of $250.
Here's what you get, according to the product listing on the Newegg.com page:
With this e-InstallCard a professional installer will program the primary commands of up to 8 devices into your pre-programmed or PC programmable universal remote control, program up to 4 advanced macro commands that enable 1 button, multi function operation, document user names and passwords that may be built into some of today's newer remote controls, make sure all components are working properly with the remote control codes and show you how to use your new system.
Joshua, who sent us the link, would like everyone to know that he's running a Fall Special for only $99—"That's a savings of $150!!!" I will do it for $98.
(Photo: CarbonNYC)
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Comments:
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): My parents live in a retirement community, and my dad has become the community tech support person.
It's funny, but the reality is, some people would much rather pay somone to spend the time doing this then doing it them selves.
We have clients that have paid for our techs (we do small business IT support) to come to their house to move their electronics when they are moving, and one who paid for one of our guys to go shopping for a new tv with him (he came and picked up the guy and they went shopping).
These are also clients who bill their clients at several hundred dollars an hour, so their time is worth it. So it may be funny to you, but if you work in a high paid job (partner in a law firm for example)and work 15 hour days, and are bringing home a 6 figure salary, why would you waste an hour or 2 of your little free time to learn to program a remote, when you can pay someone to come do it quickly.
All of my electronic devices have a blinking "12:00". It's nice that they're all synchronized.
On the plus side, there is free shipping.
In this economy?
Newegg reinvents (a hopefully more competent) Geek Squad. I wonder who at Newegg thought they'd actually sell any of these e-InstallCards, given the assumed technological prowess of the typical Newegg customer.
Either that, or I've slept for six months, and it's already April 1st, 2010...
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): When I was in middle/high school, my mom was a manager at her office, and she had to have meetings, and make signs for such meetings. I was at the age where I was doing my own laundry and whatnot, and we would trade loads of laundry for 3 minutes of typing and adding a clipart. It was amazing.
@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: My father in law is a CFO. He paid someone an ungodly amount of money to program his remote. I think it's crazy, but then again, I make my own universal remotes at home.
I bought a TV at Best Buy last weekend and in the course of turning down all of the ridiculous "service" offerings I had to stop and clarify. I honestly thought I was going insane when I heard the gentleman in a blue polo offer to install the new TV on my universal remote for me for only $100. I know the vast majority of people are just as likely to try and make toast in their blu-ray player as they are likely to set it up correctly, but I never would have guessed you could charge that much for so little.
Newegg is SELLING the service.
Wanna bet Newegg makes a buck or two off of selling the service of InstallerNet. InstallerNet is making a few bucks off of "providing" the service, except InstallerNet is contracting with semi-computer-stereo-geeks to actually perform the service. I bet in most towns the contractor is a Another Business rather than the individual who will actually perform the service. The contracting company also makes a few bucks off of RE-selling the service. Then Bob, Dick or Harry are hired to actually do the service.
Bob, Dick or Harry will be paid a flat fee for the service. If B,D or H can find customers in close physical proximity then B,D or H might actually make a decent wage. Gotta travel 3 hours between service calls? Hope B,D or H have a backup career.
If you could hire B,D or H directly to perform the serice I bet they would do if for $25. I damn well would pay $25 to have my remotes pre-programmed for me.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Been there and done that however I did not have the heart to charge for the 24/7 service that alot of people want. No joke 10:45 pm ring ring Hello John the tiles on my majong game just dont look right can you come over and check my pc( when I went the next day it was fine). I took a fun hobby and ruined it trying to make a little money on the side.
@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: I'm fortunate enough to have a good job with a great salary during a time of woe. However, what I'm about to say I came up with for a few years back, *before* I acquired a little bit of wealth.
Time is money. And money is time. Completely interchangeable.
(Go ahead, write it down! :-).
No, seriously folks. Find out your take-home pay. Amortize that according to the hours in your day. Get your "take home hourly worth."
Then realize just what an hour of your time costs. And realize that if you're doing something that costs less to pay for than it does in the time it takes you to do it yourself, you're wasting your time, and thus money.
Now, that doesn't mean you don't waste your time-money. I, for one, happen to enjoy programming electronics, it's like a little puzzle for me, and it doesn't take me a lot of frustration to do so. Also, to be fair, I don't make $99, let alone $250, an hour, so it *is* cost-effective for me to do this by myself.
But there are a lot of other things that sure aren't cost-effective for me to do anymore. Biggest one: laundry. I spend a lot of money on dry cleaning, but still less than the cost of the hours I would spend doing it myself. I exchange money for time-- I *buy* free time for myself to do something I enjoy more than ironing dress shirts (something, BTW, I really suck at).
Fair warning: once you start looking at life this way, you're liable to get REALLY upset at your taxes. You'll begin to realize that the government isn't taking your money away-- it's taking your *time* away, and thus for all intents and purposes, your freedom. You *are* working for The Man. The only question is, for all that time you labor, are you getting freshly-pressed shirts from Uncle Sam, or a pile of smelly clothes?
@Daveinva: Exactly. I can change my own oil, but it means taking the 30-45 minutes to go to the store, buy oil, buy a filter, buy a disposal box, come home, get out tools, change oil, clean up, dispose of oil, thats like 3 hours of work. Or I can drop my car the the place accross the street from where i work, pick it up when I leave for the day and give them 30 dollars.
Option 2 is much better for me.
I do however doing other things at home that are unrealted to my profession, like building stuff (shevles etc) so I could pay somone to do that for me, or I can go outside and enjoy my self while doing it. So option 2 isnt more cost effective, but I get more joy out of it and is worth it.
It must be a trick, if you cant program a remote like a logitech harmony which basically does all of the setup work for you, then you wont know how much of a ripoff the setup fee is.
I did some freelance IT work in the past at $50/hr for things like setting up new PCs and printers at a company. Considering that their billable rates were $100+/hr in their business, it was better for them to pay me than to attempt it themselves with no real tech skills.
i really thought this was going to be Best Buy
Pretty sad, since many universal remotes are programmed simply by pushing two or three buttons.
But it is amusing to see what people are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!):
My daughter will be 11 next month and I will always know more about computers and electronics than she ever will. I've been a computer tech since 1989 and even as I grow older I still keep up with the times.
I would never let anyone come into my home and touch any of my electronics and never will. I remember when I had my first cable modem installed and the cable guy reached for my keyboard. I told him do not even think about touching it. I felt as if he was touching my wife without my permission.
I don't care how old I get. Don't mess with my electronics. I will always figure them out. I can RTFM and if that doesn't work I will figure it out myself in due time.
Keep your hands off my electronics young little punks that think you know more because you don't.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): No, this is why you build a robot in your youth that will kill you on your 30th birthday.
Chris, any chance the woman was just hitting on you?
@NotYou007: I personally refrain from talking or thinking like that because one day... you won't. Or you'll end up with the cable company denying liability for anything that goes wrong because you didn't let the tech do the setup.
@Daveinva: Don't you just love working eight months of the year (or four, depending on how you measure) for the government? Life is limited but the government will never stop spending. 'Death and taxes', indeed.
@Laura Northrup: My grandfather is 90, a former chemical engineer, a HAM radio enthusiast, and fully capable of programming his own technology. We used to go to his place to play video games because he had pong. He also knew that electrical appliances leeched electricity well before the 1970s and built a shut-off switch that killed power to his television and leeching electronics. THAT is why his VCR flashed 12:00. Not because he couldn't program it. They didn't use it to record, just watch, and rarely at that.
@StanTheManDean: Okay, but will you trust any B, D, or, H posting their service on Craigslist to come over and mess with your electronic gadgets?
Flipping the coin to the aspiring B, D, or H posting such a service. Sure, $25 for 10 minutes work (Theoretical earning rate $150/hr) sounds nice initially. But your time with the customer isn't just the 10 minutes you're actually there programming a remote.
Add in the time and possible expense spent advertising your services, calling/emailing with client to explain service, set-up appointment, coordinating appointments, so as not to have 5 minutes to drive across town, or 6 hours dead time, driving to/from said client, accepting payment (cash if your lucky), possibly providing a receipt, haggling over customer's request for piggybacked freebie services ("Could you figure out why the volume is so low on my cordless phone really quick?"), bookkeeping, collections, missed/cancelled appointments, etc.
Odds are you'd be doing very well to average a minimum wage income one you accounted for your overhead at $25 per programmed remote.
If you do something yourself even if it requires extra time and reading a manual you would be better off. If something goes wrong or you need to update something later you have a clue what to do or where you left the manual.
When we changed cable providers the cable guy programmed all the universal remotes they send with the boxes and offered to update any other remotes we had with the TV set up. As far as our computers go? Just make sure there is proper signal to the cable modem. Your not touching our computer network at the house.
@Daveinva: Well, you are getting pretty much all the trappings of a modern society (you know roads and covered sewers and such) from your government.
And, hey, it's a free world, there are certainly lower tax countries available to live in. I hear Sudan is lovely this time of year.
My universal remote? My sister's 3 kids. You do the math.
@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: When I taught nighttime MS Excel course at a local high school for adults, the most asked question during the first week of class was,,,,TA-DA,,,drum roll please,,,,,"where's the ON button for the computer?". I am not joking folks, so there is a market.
@Razor512: Of course it's a rip-off. That's the point. This service is for people who: 1. Don't know any better. 2. Too lazy to learn and do it for themselves. 3. Don't care. 4. Would rather pay YOU to do it for them.
Having tried to program a universal remote myself, if I had money to burn, I'd probably take them up on the offer. Those things need a USB port and a configurator app.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I think that is true now, but will become less true over time. I'm 24, which means I got my first family computer when I was 7 and have basically grown up around technology. Because my parents were in their 40s before they were ever surrounded by technology (especially technology that changes so quickly) it was so new to them and they couldn't keep up.
My point is, that because people my age(and older, and of course, younger) grew up around technology and know the basics, they will be able to keep up with it as it changes, where parents of the boomer generation didn't, and weren't.
BTW,,,here is another cool idea. You can get paid immediately upon doing the work in their homes. How? Use a phone that has a cc swiper attached to it and you can swipe the customer's cc and transmit the payables to your account before leaving their homes. I read in the WSJ back in 2004 that some high school kid was doing to get paid for delivering newspapers to his clients. lol. Instead of collecting checks or cash, he had them pay using a cc. I think it was a Nextel phone too.
Great idea. For people who don't have the time to spend a few hours trying to configure their Logitech remote, totally worth it. Sure it can take just a few button clicks, but if you are trying to configure multiple things (TV with receiver, tv without receiver, xbox with receiver, xbox without receiver, dvd, wii, htpc, etc) it can take a long time trying to configure everything (I think I spent over 2 hours trying to do the basic setup above).
If I could afford to pay someone to do it, and my time was worth more, I absolutely would.
I need to get into this business. Program remotes and hook up peoples tv systems. I enjoy it and I'd make some cash on the side...
Depending on the type of remote, this fee is in line with what a professional installer would charge.
An RF remote like an RTi or "Universal Remote" (the brand name is Universal Remote) often requires several days of training to learn how to program properly. The programmer often makes custom buttons and themes for the client as well.
Many times a CEDIA certified installer will charge much much more than 250 dollars to program these types of remotes. And then we get into Crestron and the sky is the limit.
@sammy_b: Perhaps, but the technology will keep changing. and as it changes, the ones most comfortable with the new stuff, on average, are going to be the ones raised with it.
@Daveinva: That's pretty much how I approach my time. However, I can't build roads or airwaves or medical assistance programs, so I don't really mind the taxes.
@sammy_b: i used to think the same, but eventually you'll get to an age where you don't feel like spending the time anymore. i was an avid computer nerd through the 80s and 90s but about 5 years ago i decided there were better things to do with my time. the evolution never stops and eventually it can get tiring to keep up. for me i lost my love of computers with the release of Windows 95 and never got it back.
@sammy_b: The big difference is fear and lack of familiarity. My husband and I wrote a book called Digitally Daunted--it tries to help those who are the target audience for these services and encourages them to try to learn a bit themselves. As lots of the posters who have supported Digitally Daunted users will agree, even basic communication of what the problem is can create frustration all around.
I can handle Win95-WinXP pretty well. I haven't used Vista at all (I switched to a Mac in fall of 2007, but am still using XP on the side and at work). I'm learning Linux on my netbook. I feel like I should get Win 7 simply because down the road businesses will be using that version when they replace XP, and I (being 26) won't be up to date. Even helping people who have XP set up differently than I do causes a problem, as I have to figure out what they've done.
@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: I think knowing how difficult something is should be part of the equation though. Having Best Buy 'upgrade' your XBox shouldn't ever be paid for, setting up a secure home network and connecting all of the wireless devices, maybe. Pay someone $30 to change your oil might make sense, but would you pay someone $15 to pump your gas?
Guys, this is why you must spawn. So eventually you have teenagers. Who can fix your technology when you're too old to do it yourself.
(But no, home visit computer repair in a retirement community = gold!)