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Zip Express charges small fortune for DTV rescue service
We've long since known that professional installation services were, at least in large part, another form of highway robbery, but this is just absurd. Zip Express is looking to prey on the confused, unsuspecting geriatric set by promising to completely save one's TV from death and destruction by taking care of all of their DTV cutover needs. The price? Just $199, which includes a presumably well dressed individual connecting two wires on a $50 DTV converter box and promptly leaving. Oh, and for another Benjamin, you can get an undisclosed (but likely low-end) Logitech Harmony universal remote "installed and programmed." Shameful, yet clever. But mostly just shameful.
Target to offer in-home installation on home theater gear
Target -- the big box retailer best known 'round these parts for its preferential Blu-ray treatment (back in the day, of course) and its infatuation with releasing new Xbox 360s early -- is finally diving head first into the home installation realm. Not content to just let competitors rake in all that extra cash for simply following a customer home and plugging in a few wires, the outfit has teamed up with Zip Express Installation to offer home install packages anytime a consumer makes a "large CE purchase." Furthermore, Target.com shoppers will soon be graced with a notification that their shiny new HDTV can be delivered and installed by professionals should they so choose, with services starting at $129 and ranging from TV setup, wall mounting, home theater arrangement, computer networking and furniture assembly. We have all ideas most of you will just brush this off, but don't be alarmed to hear that your grandmother just threw down some extra cash for a nice young man in a bulls eye-emblazoned uniform to setup her new gear.[Image courtesy of JSOnline]
