August 20, 2008

Mystery Shopper: DTV Details Still Fuzzy

Despite countless DTV transition news conferences, workshops, press statements, studies, Websites and so forth, misinformation is still trickling out to consumers. With much of Washington enjoying the last couple weeks of summer vacation and the FCC just announcing plans to hyper-target 81 markets with DTV education efforts, Cfaxdecided it was probably a good time to dust off its mystery shopper guise and hit our neighborhood Best Buy. The scenario we presented was simple: We were an antenna-only home unsure about what exactly we needed to do to prepare for the digital transition. A salesman at the Rockville, MD, store approached us immediately and when we explained our problem, he ushered us over to a display of Insignia digital-to-analog converter boxes. Best Buy also has a few Apex boxes in stock, but we had to ask to learn about them. Both boxes retail for about $60, and the sales associate told us we could get a $40 coupon for the boxes if we visited the Website printed on the box. Could we get more than one coupon? "Yes, I think so," he said. "Could we get 3? Because we have 3 TVs," we pushed. "I think so," he wrongly informed us, since the government has limited the number to 2 per HH. Still, he hedged the incorrect information and told us we'd have to check the Website to be sure. What was a glaring error—and something that should grab cable operators' attention—was his response to whether subscribing to cable would solve our DTV woes. He told us we would have to subscribe to digital cable. We checked with him twice to make sure we heard him correctly. Yup, it had to be digital, he said. The moral of the story mirrors what the FCC and industry players have been saying for months: people know about the Feb 17 transition, but they don't have all the details down pat. While our salesman did a good job explaining to us the difference between digital and analog signals and the Feb cutoff, it surprised us that Best Buy—or at least this particular sales associate—didn't have any sort of handout that we could take with us (especially something with the DTV coupon application Website/phone number on it).