Best Buy sells PS3 firmware upgrades


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In what can only be described as a new low, Best Buy has decided to take advantage of uneducated PS3 consumers. They are now in the business of selling firmware upgrades to their clients, which unless something changed, are free for anyone with a wifi connection and take little to no effort.

Here is a shot of what the Best Buy in Staten Island NYC is promoting:

Best-Buy-Firmware-Scam01-1024x768.jpg

In case it is unclear I will break it down for you. Best Buy has the audacity to charge $329.98 for a 120 gb PS3 Slim, which normally will cost you $299.99. So what are you paying an extra $30 for? A firmware upgrade! A free one that is as simple to do as turning your PS3 on.

Best Buy actually advertises it as ?Eliminates Bugs and Glitches? and ?Play All Blu-Ray Movies and Games.? This is beyond misleading to anyone who does not realize that is totally an unnecessary service.

What do you think? I can?t believe they are getting away with this, I guess the old saying is true? there is a sucker born every second and Best Buy is inspecting their wallets.

http://dualshockers.com/2010/10/01/best-buy-sells-free-ps3-upgrades/

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Man, I'm glad that I only worked there for a few years when I was younger. It was just around the time when we were told/required to sell GeekSquad add-ons.. At least they weren't that bad and were only PC-related add-ons..

I'd be fired for telling customers to NOT buy the "package deal". :\

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Reminds me of when I used to work for PC World.

If you didn't sell insurance or a service, you got in trouble for it. They just made so many weird ones that there was always a reason to sell one to EVERY customer, apparently. Really annoying place to work.

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**** it, good for them. they make absolutely no money on the consoles and especially now because they include HDMI cables, gotta get something out of it somehow.

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**** it, good for them. they make absolutely no money on the consoles and especially now because they include HDMI cables, gotta get something out of it somehow.

If they actually provided a service that was worth it, it wouldn't be so bad, but this is conning people out of money for something that is not only completely and utterly free otherwise, but is something that most of the time will be on PS3 models as they come out, unknown to less tech savey customers.

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A good service for a PS3 would be for example, sending out an engineer to set up the Media Streaming aspects of the console.

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I thought they had reached their low when they were charging $130 for setting up the console (because plugging in an HDMI cable is hard work!), but they've managed to best (worst?) themselves once again.

And I completely disagree with the notion that this is somehow okay. To be fair, people should be well informed before they spent money on anything, but to capitalize on the ignorance of their customers like this is absolutely despicable. I have already hated Best Buy due to their ridiculous service plans where they basically tell you go to **** yourself if you're not willing to put up a fight, but this is just one more reason on an increasingly long checklist.

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honestly the kind of people who shop at best buy are not the kind of people who are going to be able to hook up their ps3's wifi very easily, and will likely pay for that kind of service too, if they even have internet, and if best buy or w/e big box store offers it.

although i'm pretty sure ps3 games themselves will update ps3 firmware to w/e version they need if the ps3 is not online. dunno if that affects newer blu rays or not.although i was under the possibly ignorant impression that blu ray players themselves needed to be online to get firmware for new movies.

i wonder if this service has some kind of warranty attached, or if you get a new blu ray that needs newer firmware within say 30 days they expect you to pay again.

for people who research their purchases, they often buy from better places than big box stores, with better services overall and no nickel and diming and aggressive sales techniques. everything about the full range of products big box stores like best buy sell scream ignorant customers. unless you are just buying games or movies. though again there are better place to shop for that kind of stuff anyway.

vaguely reminds me of when iw as buying a lot of games from ebgames here in canada, and they kept trying to sell me 30 day disk protection insurance on pc games in case the game came scratched i could get a new box instantly. i was like lolwhat, the law says you have to replace something like that anyway so wtf are you selling me a warranty for it for? ofc then again i could've paid the $10, took the game home used the cd key for myself, then scratched the disk and gotten it replaced with a new key for my room mate or w/e.

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For what it's worth, updating on PS3s, while extremely simple is boring, tedious, and somewhat slow. Borderline criminal though this service is, I'd pay the $30 out of laziness to have my PS3 come with all the crap you have to download, already downloaded. Off the top of my head, in addition to firmware update(s);

Photogallery

Video Editor/Uploader

Playstation Life

None of them are hard to download (just try and use the feature and it will prompt to download), but it's irritating they don't ship as installed by default, and none of these will download in the background, blocking use of the console. If you're on 56k, or other crap/nonexistent internet, without access to a mate's connection or something, this isn't the worst idea. And $30 isn't *too* bad. Blame Sony for a crap update service (slow, multiple updates etc).

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if i buy a new ps3 today.. do i have to install all firmware updates in order up to 3.5?

or do you just install 3.5 ?

if it's the former then perhaps this is actually a fairly decent service... but $30 is a bit rich

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As I recall, it's just 3.5, but the update splits into a few updates (they're all done automatically). The problem is that PSN (on some ISPs & in some areas) is quite slow, and the update process will not complete in the background, blocking use of the console until it's fully complete. Added to the other stuff you have to download (Photo Gallery, Video Editor/Uploader, PS Life and PS Home), which aren't installed by default and have to be downloaded (also blocking use of console as they don't download in the background, and this isn't the worst idea, even if it seems awful at first glance.

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hmm i was under the impression that every new-in-box ps3 is already updated to the latest firmware...

maybe i am too used to working with PC components...

When it leaves the factory, sure, it leaves with the latest firmware. But it could have been sitting in a warehouse and been on a fun logistics trip before it gets to an actual store. Depending on local demand, it can be a big enough time from leaving the factory to hitting a brick and mortar shelf that a PS3 (or any device) is behind at least one version on firmware.

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When it leaves the factory, sure, it leaves with the latest firmware. But it could have been sitting in a warehouse and been on a fun logistics trip before it gets to an actual store. Depending on local demand, it can be a big enough time from leaving the factory to hitting a brick and mortar shelf that a PS3 (or any device) is behind at least one version on firmware.

indeed, i would have thought this to be quite obvious..

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