LG introduces Wirewize remote pay home theater tech support

Best Buy must get some huge margins from its Geek Squad tech support service, because it seems like everyone wants to copy that model of overcharging noobs for help with tech installations and troubleshooting. Circuit City has Firedog, and Office Depot has Tech Depot Services. Now LG Electronics is trying something similar, but offering paid home theater support over the phone with its Wirewize service.

LG promotes the service on the home theater pages of its Web site, though I use the term loosely since that promotion primarily consists of a small graphics on the left-hand side of the page amid a number of similar graphics. You're taken to the Wirewize site, where you first have to register in order to do anything else. You can then enter in the components of your home theater setup, and the site will recommend the proper cables to connect everything together. (For pretty much all new components, that connection will be HDMI.) If you say you have the cables, it will tell you how to hook the devices up—pretty much what the manual will already do. If you don't have the cables, you can click on "Buy Now," which takes you to Circuit City's Web site. Of course, the HDMI cable it recommends costs $74.99, when a garden variety one for $10 or cheaper from elsewhere on the Web will do the same job.

Total neophytes might click on "Want Live Help Now?", which takes users to the Wirewize store, where you're offered a variety of paid support packages, ranging from the $24.99 option for a 24-hour window of support up to the $119.99 year-long option. That support takes the form of 24/7 phone-based help. Those hours and the fact that it will help you with any manufacturer's products would seem to be the biggest selling point for this service.

Still, if you're paying for Wirewize, you've decided not to use Geek Squad or Firedog's in-person services and/or you've not figured out the manual and/or not received help from the free phone support you can probably get from the manufacturers. Considering that the in-home services are more expensive, some people are manual-phobic, and manufacturers can point fingers at one another when setup problems occur, that does actually leave a potential market. On the other hand, why do you need a year's worth of support when Wirewize should be getting you set up properly the first time(s) you call? And really, isn't it a better all-around experience if you just invite your HD-obsessed friend/neighbor/relative over for some pizza and beer and have him/her figure out the problem and set your home theater up instead?