Why would Best Buy do a half-a**ed job?
In the great US of A companies are motivated by profit over everything else, especially publicly traded companies. The corporate office probably pushes a "do the right thing, follow the rules, blah blah blah mantra", but when it comes down to the store level all it takes is for a manager pressuring an hourly wage employee to finish a job quickly to have corners cut that shouldn't be.
They're currently charging $60 USD for a front camera install and $130 USD for a rear camera install. Looking at GlassDoor it seems they pay Auto Techs $13 - $20. It could be higher or lower based on geographical location in the US and cost of living. To break even on the service just from a labor hours perspective, they would have to install the front dash cam in 3 - 4.6 hours for the front cam and 6.5 - 10 hours for a rear cam.
The front camera is pretty easy especially if you're not hardwiring it. My main concern here would be how they're routing the cable from the dash cam to the cigarette lighter or to the fuse box. Are they just tucking the wire behind the "A" pillar trim without removing it and without any regard for the side curtain air bags that may be installed or are they taking the time to remove the trim and run it so it doesn't interfere with air bag deployment? If you're hardwiring it, are they installing a fuse that is rated appropriately for the cable or are they slapping in whatever fuse they have.
The only way to know this is to inspect their work after they installed it or you just have to trust that they did it right. You may get a tech who takes pride in their work, knows what they're doing, and does the right thing no matter what. However, you may get someone who doesn't know what they're doing, it's their first time doing it ever (or for your car model), or might be pressured by management to do a quick job no matter how sloppy the work.
I could be wrong about all of this and they might be willing to take a loss on the installation as a part of being able to offer the service and use it as a type of loss leader to get people into the store. Edit: After reading reviews on Glassdoor, it seems like the auto techs may work in other parts of the store when not doing auto stuff, so I guess it's not really a loss if they take longer than expected on a particular install. They could also have detailed work guides for all models of vehicles which show techs exactly how to install a dash cam for each vehicle model, but I would flip a coin on whether that is the case or not.
The rear camera gets a little trickier. You have to start taking a part a lot of trim, potentially undoing seat cushions, going through grommets that are already full of cables if it's a hatchback, etc. Again, if you've already done it once for a particular model of car and have all the tools and know how, then it's pretty easy. However, if not then you might end up with a dash cam install where they took some short cuts and a lot of the same concerns as the front camera.
Ultimately. my main hesitations with Best Buy was:
- Would I get an experienced tech or someone who just started that morning?
- Would they route the cables properly to avoid interference with air bag deployment or just tuck it behind the trim?
- Would they use a fuse sized properly for the cable?
- Possible damage to trim mounting points. It's one thing if I break them, but another thing if I pay someone to install the dash cam and they break it.
- Possible damage to other wires inside cable grommet if they're excessively rough routing it. It's one thing if I break it, but another thing if they break it.
- Most likely they make you sign something indemnifying them from any damage they cause and/or limiting any claim to the amount you paid them. It might not be enforceable, but you would have to sue them in small claims court to find out.
I decided that there were more things that could go wrong, than could go right and did it myself. I've never worked for Best Buy and have no idea if any of this is accurate. However, in my employment history I've seen shady things done by companies that makes me a little leery of companies doing the right thing or doing right by the customer.
