Best Buy's new "Beta" program

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If they gave a year long return period I would get this, otherwise I'll just buy the best buy protection plan wherever I see appropriate.

I mean ffs I was able to get a "2-year accidental geek squad protection" for my PS5 for $70. Maybe I'm wrong, but if anything happens to it within that 2 year period, I can just return it for a new PS5 or get that amount on a gift card (unless I'm confusing this with another best buy plan).
 
customer service, now for the low-low price of 200 bucks per year

this might literally be best buy's attempt at "maybe the customer has so many subscriptions they dont cancel that they wont notice another one"

 
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Pay the $200 and then create a YouTube show where you call in daily with ridiculous and outlandish tech support questions. #Profit
 
Nothing- said:
but they will answer the phones for you now, or web chat with you, through "Concierge team" service if you're a member.
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I have never needed tech help.

And my most recent laptop purchases have been through Costco who include concierge service. And a Costco membership is only $60, plus you can usually get the laptop cheaper there.

 
So, $200 a year to not get an unhelpful call center every time I contact them?

Yeah, I made the right choice to stop shopping at Best Buy.

 
I'm not sure who buys enough tech but still needs that amount of hand-holding to justify $200 a year.  Sure there are some people that will need installation and delivery as well as tech support, and $200 for a year might be cheaper than paying individually.  But as an ongoing charge?  Nah.

They want to put it as their version of Amazon Prime.  But, Amazon Prime gives you a good quality streaming service along with free shipping and some other things.

However, I see something a bit more sinister under the surface.  They point out no minimum free shipping, extended return periods which you already get with My Best Buy Elite.  Might this be the first step towards taking those away or downgrading them for Elite?  Maybe this new service is a way for people to straight up buy the Elite benefits without spending $1500 a year.  Or it might be the first step in trying to get people to pay for them (beyond just spending a certain amount).  I'm sure they will put the hard sell on it in store if you buy a laptop or TV.

 
Pay to get all the things BestBuy used to do, at no additional charge.

Pay to get what other businesses already have included.

Pay to get ripped off.

Pay to not have a streaming service.

Pay to get 0% off games.

defpally said:
They want to put it as their version of Amazon Prime. But, Amazon Prime gives you a good quality streaming service along with free shipping and some other things.

However, I see something a bit more sinister under the surface. They point out no minimum free shipping, extended return periods which you already get with My Best Buy Elite. Might this be the first step towards taking those away or downgrading them for Elite? Maybe this new service is a way for people to straight up buy the Elite benefits without spending $1500 a year. Or it might be the first step in trying to get people to pay for them (beyond just spending a certain amount). I'm sure they will put the hard sell on it in store if you buy a laptop or TV.
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I agree.

I wouldn't mind if it was a way to "straight up buy the Elite benefits". This would work if they completely remove the $1500 requirement to gain elite.

Let's just put the standard back in play: 30-day returns, free s&h at $30ish, quality customer service for phone and online, concierge tech support as long as the warranty (the manufacture and extended) is valid.

This seems to be like when MS attempted to double the price of gold: only increasing the cost with zero benefit to us, the consumer.

Does anyone feel like this is when a website "needs" to charge you to remove something from the site because of bandwidth costs?

 
defpally said:
I'm not sure who buys enough tech but still needs that amount of hand-holding to justify $200 a year. Sure there are some people that will need installation and delivery as well as tech support, and $200 for a year might be cheaper than paying individually. But as an ongoing charge? Nah.

They want to put it as their version of Amazon Prime. But, Amazon Prime gives you a good quality streaming service along with free shipping and some other things.

However, I see something a bit more sinister under the surface. They point out no minimum free shipping, extended return periods which you already get with My Best Buy Elite. Might this be the first step towards taking those away or downgrading them for Elite? Maybe this new service is a way for people to straight up buy the Elite benefits without spending $1500 a year. Or it might be the first step in trying to get people to pay for them (beyond just spending a certain amount). I'm sure they will put the hard sell on it in store if you buy a laptop or TV.
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Pretty much. It's worse than it actually is; it's paying for benefits(regular customer service) that used to be obtainable for free. That would be horrible if they took away those benefits from Elite and Elite Plus status.

Most importantly the thing about this model is: Sell subs to people --> Figure out what the membership entails later.

It's just like the Activision / EA model for making video games; design a revenue model and then put out serialized games + DLC to support it (that succeed simply due to the brand name, its following, and sometimes paid exclusivity).

 
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Seems they might be aggressive about this. I watched an old man get a speech about it at the cash register, then he was sent to a laptop aisle and before I got helped, the cashier radio'd her staff telling them how far she'd gotten with the beta pitch and to push for it. Probably quite a decent commission on a sign up. Luckily it wasn't even brought up to me, who was just buying a game.

What a weird program. If they brought back GCU around $120 I'd consider it but this, this ain't it chief.

 
I think the only people who sign up for this will be people who crack under pressure sales and people who are going to buy a service that this covers (installation, etc) anyway and this winds up being cheaper. 100% rip-off otherwise. I’m usually a Best Buy defender too. There’s no defending this pile of chit.
 
shosaisyu said:
Since when is this a news forum? This has nothing to do with video game deals.
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This is applicable info for those familiar with Best Buy's axed GCU program, which is very well known in this community. It applies to CAG immensely.

 
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How is Best Buy even doing with COVID affecting them? The ones near me pretty much axed their movie selection and there hours haven’t changed (still closed at 7pm) with things opening up more in the past month.
 
Moses144 said:
Seems they might be aggressive about this. I watched an old man get a speech about it at the cash register, then he was sent to a laptop aisle and before I got helped, the cashier radio'd her staff telling them how far she'd gotten with the beta pitch and to push for it. Probably quite a decent commission on a sign up. Luckily it wasn't even brought up to me, who was just buying a game.

What a weird program. If they brought back GCU around $120 I'd consider it but this, this ain't it chief.
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That's entirely who's going to buy it, too. Technically inept old people who still think Best Buy has good deals will buy into the service, thinking it'll pay off in the long run; in reality, both this service and Geek Squad are predominantly run by teens who may have pirated an Adobe suite at some point in their lives and know how to connect phones to wifi. There is no way Best Buy pays well enough to retain staff with a high level of expertise. This program only takes advantage of people who know less about computers than the average high schooler.

 
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Looks like Best Buy is milking all the boomers before they all die off and BB finally closes shop for good. This is a strategy that I'm very familiar with as it's pretty much the same thing I do after I've nearly finished a box of wine and I rip out the little pouch inside the box and squeeze out every last drop of wine before I finally black out. In other words, this is Best Buy blacking out, folks.

 
DiaperDandee said:
How is Best Buy even doing with COVID affecting them? The ones near me pretty much axed their movie selection and there hours haven’t changed (still closed at 7pm) with things opening up more in the past month.
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They're doing fine since everybody is buying tech stuff during the pandemic, but expected to slow down when people start going out and doing other stuff again. Their online sales exploded while they've been laying off store employees.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/best-buy-bby-earnings-q4-2021.html

 
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BreadNiblets said:
Looks like Best Buy is milking all the boomers before they all die off and BB finally closes shop for good. This is a strategy that I'm very familiar with as it's pretty much the same thing I do after I've nearly finished a box of wine and I rip out the little pouch inside the box and squeeze out every last drop of wine before I finally black out. In other words, this is Best Buy blacking out, folks.
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Why wouldn't you just take some scissors, cut the bladder, transfer it to some other vessel, fill the box with junk you need to be rid of and then toss the pouch and box? You know, the Toy R US method.

 
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BreadNiblets said:
Looks like Best Buy is milking all the boomers before they all die off and BB finally closes shop for good. This is a strategy that I'm very familiar with as it's pretty much the same thing I do after I've nearly finished a box of wine and I rip out the little pouch inside the box and squeeze out every last drop of wine before I finally black out. In other words, this is Best Buy blacking out, folks.
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All their rewards programs are crap right now. Purchased a dryer from them and plan on a TV this year, figure id finally hit elite status for their rewards program. Nope sorry sir your dryer purchase doesnt count since you got a financing deal with the best buy card. Im totally fine not getting reward points for that purchase but to not have it at least count towards money spent there is a joke. 

 
TheGame2K5 said:
All their rewards programs are crap right now. Purchased a dryer from them and plan on a TV this year, figure id finally hit elite status for their rewards program. Nope sorry sir your dryer purchase doesnt count since you got a financing deal with the best buy card. Im totally fine not getting reward points for that purchase but to not have it at least count towards money spent there is a joke.
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I'm not 100% sure but I don't think they need any type of rewards programs to make those types of sales- pretty sure there was plenty of spending on things for the home during the pandemic so they prob said, why bother?

 
TheGame2K5 said:
All their rewards programs are crap right now. Purchased a dryer from them and plan on a TV this year, figure id finally hit elite status for their rewards program. Nope sorry sir your dryer purchase doesnt count since you got a financing deal with the best buy card. Im totally fine not getting reward points for that purchase but to not have it at least count towards money spent there is a joke.
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Money spent outside Best Buy using your Best Buy Credit Card also counts towards the Elite status requirement, if you need some extra help getting to Elite status.

 
God, remember just a few years back when we'd all religiously gather here at one in the morning on Sunday to see all the neat gaming deals Best Buy would serve up? I haven't bought squat in general since the death of GCU...which has been great for my wallet, but it's been kinda a bummer waiting until Black Friday for them and other retailers to throw us a bone. I miss ol' Hubert.
 
Hypebeast69 said:
U can use the card outside bestbuy? That’s nice
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Esp with GCU dead that's how I get Elite+. Not that it really matters much anymore, no head start on sales. It's mostly good for reward points for buying groceries.

I don't remember if I said it before, if they calibrate tvs the service can be worth it too.
 
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I know people are trashing it, but it more likely targeting the older generation who are not tech savy. This bluebrint follows the office stores more than Amazon... 

 
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