Circuit City = Suckit City
I bought my mom some headphones for Christmas last year from CircuitCity.com. It’s the first time I’ve ever purchased anything from a Circuit City, online or offline. As I always do when I register with a site, I opted out of any marketing emails circuitcity.com might send me. So you can imagine my surprise when I received the following email from circuitcity.com last week (emphasis is mine):
Dear None,
We would like to invite you to join our growing list of customers who receive occasional e-mails from us about sales, special promotions, and information about new technology.
We won’t bury you in e-mails, and if you don’t think they are worthwhile you can easily opt out of future mailings at any time. Our goal is to keep you posted on things that you’d like to know about. Sometimes it’s a new product or technology we’re excited about; other times it’s a sale that can save you real money.
Also, we’re very proud of the fact that circuitcity.com is able to offer you things other sites can’t.
* Shop online and pick it up at your local Circuit City store, or have it delivered to your home.
* Return purchases at any Circuit City store nationwide.
* Make informed buying decisions with side-by-side product comparisons.
* Shop with confidence knowing you’re protected by secure online ordering.
* We now offer over 300,000 movies, music, and game titles.
If you would like to hear from us when we have something interesting to tell you, we’d appreciate the chance to keep you informed. If you’d rather not receive e-mail messages from us, simply send an email from your email address to
mkt_unsubscribe@circuitcity.com
and your email address will be removed from our list as quickly as possible.
Whether you choose to receive messages from us or not, we appreciate your business and look forward to being able to serve you again soon.
Sincerely,
The Staff of Circuit City
I just sent Circuit City this email in response to their “invitation”.
Dear Circuit City,
First of all, I’d like to thank you for rewarding my purchase with you this past Christmas by spamming me, especially after I asked you not to. Of course, you might not have realized that you were spamming me since you seem to have forgotten my name. Hint: it’s not “None”, geniuses.
While we’re clearing things up, why don’t we review the meaning of the word “invite”. Dictionary.com lists the definition as “To ASK for the presence or participation of”. Just so we’re clear, you are not asking me to join your email list. You are TELLING me that I have been put on your email list and that if I want off of it is up to me to do something about it.
I already told you back in December that I didn’t want you to contact me, yet you chose to ignore me. Consider this e-mail my second invitation for you to take me off of your spam list. And when I say “invitation” I mean your style of invitation, not the one the rest of the English-speaking world uses. I’m telling you to do it. Take me off. Now, not “as quickly as possible”.
My $140 purchase last Christmas was my first from CircuitCity.com, and thanks to this “invitation” from you it will be my last. Though you’ve lost a customer, I hope you have gained some knowledge about how people like to be treated. I am a real live person who trusted your business with my personal information and asked you to respect my privacy wishes, not some database record with a null first name value that you had the e-commerce guys export into an Excel table so you marketing gurus could feed it to your spam software.
Maybe one day big stupid companies like yours will learn to stop taking your customers for granted and actually listen to us when we tell you something. It’s a two-way street these days, you know. I’d tell you more about it, but I’m too busy conversing with your competitors right now. They actually listen. They actually know my first name.
Sincerely,
None
Circuit City sucks. Circuit City lies. Pass it on.
Awesome! Well done - you tell ‘em!
I agree. This guy is VERY witty.
Ya know, you take e-mails way to seriously. Is it a crime to try to get more business by sending you one e-mail? I dont think so. By the way, you know your a true GEEK when you qoute the dictionary.com version of the dictionary instead of the ol Websters version. Get a life buddy…
P.S. - Your mom LOVES Suckit City. I know from experience.
Circuit City treats their customers like idiots. I spent $2000 on a stinking laptop (my fault) at their store. It came with no disk drive and my laser printer could not be connected to the laptop. So basically I had a worthless piece of machinery . When I went in to ask if they had an adapter for the $2000 laptop (that I could not get a rebate on) they told me there was no such thing and that I needed to replace my printer. Needless to say this still makes me quite angry. We left, swearing to never do business there again, went over to Best Buy, where the employee showed me the $15 adapter I needed.
I’m still not happy with them and make sure I tell anyone who will listen.
I love how people will judge a whole company and the people who work for it based off of one experience and one associate. I’m sorry, but if you think Best Buy will provide you with great customer service everytime you go in, you are completley out of touch. The people who work there are Human and bound to make mistakes and some them can be complete assholes, but they are still human and that does not change no matter where you go. For the most part, everyone could avoid the problems they have when shopping by doing a little research on there own and not being completely blind when going in a store. I know I would before I spent $2000 on a laptop. Work at a Circuit or Best Buy and then see how many stones you can throw. By the way, Great comment CC REP.
Good point "Common Sense". Everyone needs to work at one of these electronic retail stores for a year just to see how unbelievably stupid most people in America can be. Plus, when most people complain about things they tend to stretch the truth in their favor. I’d bet good money that these guys that are complaining brought it on themselves, like the guy who got emails from C.C. You probably checked the "receive emails" box and just think you didn’t. Next time that happens, just click spam, its pretty simple.
Classy post, CC Rep. Or was that Common Sense? Or was that RH? I guess it doesn’t matter since you are all the same person anyway.
Are things so boring in Kernersville that you have nothing better to do than write blog comments to agree with your prior blog comments glorifying Circuit City?
And I’m the one who needs to get a life?
Pathetic.
Pathetic? Pathetic is thinking that 1 electronic store is different when they are really exactly same just different names. No one is glorifying C.C., we just wish people would have some common sense and stop complaining about things you could have helped in the 1st place. Pathetic is the geek squad taking 4 hrs to run scan-disk on a laptop just to tell the customer they had a bad hard drive and charge $400 to do so. Look in to it and you’ll find many example of things just like this from best buy, as well as any big electronics retail chain.
P.S. Is it supposed to impress me that you know we are from Kernersville, and I did say we, it is two different people. By the way your mom and girlfriend came to Suckit City today and I gave them excellent customer "service"!
Dear Jamie,
First let me apologize for my son Reggie. Our neighbor in the trailer next door just stole a laptop from the Salvation Army and he has been using it all week.
He is a good boy and means well, so please don’t hold this against him. He is just having a hard time lately since his sister caught him making out with a picture of Ashlee Simpson.
And Reggie works at Sears, not Circuit City. I think he is defending them because a girl he really likes works there. He likes to visit her after closing when she is unloading her truck.
Regards,
Jolene, Reggie’s Mom
P.S. - I have my own blog at http://www.jolenestrailerpark.com/. Please visit when you get a chance.
I had my own trouble with them this holiday season. On Black Friday, my wife and I decided to go Circuit City for the $249 AR 19? Sony LCD monitor they had as a door buster. We got there when the doors opened and were able to score one.
We got it home and hooked it up. We were a little dismayed to find out it wasn’t the same quality Sony monitor we’ve been accustomed to. The picture was decent, but it lacked a DVI port. The screen didn’t have the the nice shiny, high-contrast coating of the other models either. No problem, our fault for not looking when we purchased it. We didn’t consider it a deal-breaker. However, when we started it up we noticed a burnt out pixel.
We thought we’d just opt to return it instead of getting a new one and look around for one that suited our taste better. I went to Circuit Shitty the next day to return it. They asked if I’d like a replacement, but I declined and said I’d probably like to look for another one (besides, the only reason I bought it was for the deal. Who the hell would want to pay normal retail prices for a LCD monitor?!). They then told me there would be a 15% restocking fee (~$75, the restocking fee for the original price of $500, not the $249 AR price, of course).
I was very polite and told them that I didn’t think I should have to pay a restocking fee on a defective unit. The CS rep told me it was company policy and pointed to a sign (of which made no mention of restocking fees on monitors). I told her it was a lousy policy, since it was my understanding that most restocking fees were for items people would "rent and return" like camcorders and laptops. Regardless, this was a DEFECTIVE UNIT. She said all she could do was to replace it, put the price towards a new one, or charge the 15% restocking fee for a return.
Once I agreed to a replacement, she had the gall to try to sell me a service plan for it! I told her the monitor would be the last thing I ever buy there. She asked why I felt that way, and I basically told her they were using a policy that was meant to prevent fraud to defraud their own honest customers. Perhaps she never heard of the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." She then offered to allow me to speak to a manager.
The manager (whom I believe was more of a department head than a manager) agreed that the scope and spirit of restocking fees was to prevent abuse by "rent and return," but said that the policy extended beyond that. I told him I was disappointed that I was not made aware of the restocking fee when I purchased the unit, but I suppose it was my own fault for not reading every sign in the store on the busiest shopping day of the year.
He even said that the purpose for the restocking fee was to recoup some of their losses for open items that are returned and thus are worth less to resell. I basically told him, "you’re damn right it’s ‘worth less,’ it’s defective!" That made the lady next to me chuckle. I thought it was amazing they would even try to resell a monitor with a defect, but lesson learned.
I had little choice but to request a replacement, but the ETA was unknown since it was a door-buster item and the whole Milky Way galaxy was likely sold out for awhile. Nice. According to their web site, not even Best Buy charges a restocking fee for monitors. Who would have thought Best Buy would have a more liberal policy than anyone else. Meanwhile, I have $250 of rebates that need a UPC code. Hopefully that will work out.
So apparently, Circuit Shitty charges restocking fees on many more things than the typical "rent and return" items you’d expect, and still charge the fee when they sell you defective shit. I’m sure as HELL glad I didn’t buy my recent 50? HDTV purchase from them. I almost did because they had the lowest price, but I found it lower somewhere else with a far cheaper service plan (they wanted $449 for the service plan!). The Circuit Shitty rep was far too aggressive with the overpriced service plan, anyway.
In the end, I’ll probably be fine. I’ll get the new monitor, send in the rebates, pray that I receive them sometime between now and the time of my death, and then hopefull resell it on eBay for more than the AR price. Instead of something they could have taken care of in 2 minutes, I’ll have to spend 2 months messing around with rebates, resale, and shipment to get my money back. Hopefully the new one won’t have a dead pixel *fingers crossed*.
Amusingly, it appears Circuit City owns the domain circuitshitty.com. Perhaps they’re working on a new image. It appears to me they’re well on their way!
hey they screwed me over i hate circuit city
ok here is the deal. i was a previous employee for circuit city, and while i was still working there i brought in my toshiba satellite a75 to repair the power button. they did repair this to my satisfaction but once i returned home and tried to start it up it comes on but there is a white verticel line off centered on the screen. when i touch the trim piece at the top of the screen it goes away and the cd drive starts to act up and eventually goes out. we take it up there and low and behold its not "there" fault the tech manager decides we dropped it and damaged it, the opps manager says its not her problem and the store manager only cares about his bottom line. thanks alot guys. i really appreciate it oh and on a final not noone from corperate will return my calls. we are taking it up with toshiba they will look at the computer and decide if it is a manufacturer defect or if it is CC’s fault and they will handle it from there!
i’ve worked at best buy and i’ve worked at circuit city each for at least 1 year at both and circuit city is a far superior place to work at and buy from. seeing as no one from best buy knows what they are talking about in regards to the products they sell. also with the restocking fee, defective products dont have a restocking fee because it cant be resold. and the restocking fee is waved if you buy something equal or greater value. and on computer related because there is no retail mark-up on those, they do have to cover there losses and if you couldnt read a giant sign, even on Black Friday, then you are an idiot
The knowledge Best Buy employees have outweighs CC employees tremedously. That is why CC is a failing business.
That email reply is stupid considering that it’s common knowledge that bulk emails sent from a company like that are sent from an email server which doesn’t process incoming emails. Also I’ve yet to see a POS that allows you to opt out of marketing. Had you been bright enough you wouldn’t have given them your email address in first place. If they already had it then you could have updated it with a phony email address. Stupidity is it’s own punishment.
Your name is quite fitting, dumbass. Did you even read the post?
After knowing that Circuit City sucks, I dared to buy at CC, and now I’m paying the price.
I liked a laptop deal; ordered it thru their website. They sent me a different model. When I first called, the rep told me that they both are same. I was agitated, and questioned her how both could be same, when one has a Intel processor, and other has a AMD.
When I called again, I was told that a re-shipping order has been placed, and someone will call within “72 business hours”. Nobody called; I called again; this time, I was told that they would not be shipping until I return the wrong item. Come on Dammit, I want as hell to resend it….No! I can only resend it after the supervisor calls me back….and the SUPER will call me 72 hours from the now!!! NOT from the time I first called! Since I opened the box, if I return it, I’ll be charged 15% restocking, for no fault of mine! Now, I’m desperately waiting for someone to call. I covet for the day when CC goes for liquidation. CC SUCKS….and BIG TIME!
Ah, add me to the list of people who despise this store.
I bought an Asus notebook last spring after my Dell (another shitty company) one broke down and they were assholes about it. When I bought it, I specifically asked, “now what if something goes wrong with it, how long will it take to be shipped and returned, fixed?” “Not more then a week.” Okay. Fine and dandy. Fast forward a year later, and yup, you guessed it, I need repairs done, and a lot of them. Some that have been acting up for months now. They are minor things (arrow keys and FN key on keyboard won’t work, webcam won’t work, hinges lose on monitor). I call up The Source /CC, and they tell me “oh, 1-2 weeks.” Ok, even though they originally said 1 week, fine. I’ll let that slide. Ask them if I can take out my Hard Drive because I am a college student who is taking online courses at the moment and I need my HD. Yes, no problem they say.
So I go in. Not only do they tell me it will take 3 weeks, minimum, and they can’t even promise me that, but if I take out the HD, my warranty becomes null and void. Yup. Even though I just spoke to you about 50 minutes ago and you told me completely different. Complete and utter assholes. Then he tries to tell me if I try and get it fixed somewhere else, CC will void my warranty. Wow. I told him to shove it, and that he lost a bunch of customers from that.
It’s a no wonder Best Buy is outselling their ass.
One day, people might just learn how to put things together for themselves. Maybe you might have a friend that can put a computer together….Try that befor ya’ll go to the store to get a bottom of the barrel computer that is severly out dated even befor you take it off the shelf…And maybe just maybe, Just because it’s on sale, dosn’t mean you have to rush out and get that item…They only put out items on sale for the fact that they are of lesser quality…Live and learn….
I work at Circuit City and it does suck. Most of the crap that they pressure us to sell is worthless. The Protection plan sucks. Personally if I spent 60 or 80 dollars on a protection plan i should be able to bring my produc back to the store and they should replace it. Instead we make our customers ship there product back to a service station for them to ” look it over” and send it back up to THREE times before we replace it. Then they pay there customer service employee 8 dollars an hour to get yelled at!!!! All day!!
i agree… i am a cc employee… i get paid crap for the crap tht i have deal with on a daily basis… most of our employees are idiots… and our management sucks too…. cc IS honestly more focused on selling the protection plans than their products… now i do see both sides of the spectrum… SOME of the customers that do come in are pretty stupid… i get people who ask me if i even work there!… i mean, come on… am i not wearing the shirt?!?… but i actually did have this one customer come in 3 times yesterday because the sales associate kept giving him the wrong product for his needs!… i am happy that im leaving the company in about a week and a half… i will never be working at another retail sotre EVER!… however i will also not be buying from cc again either…
I used to work at both circuit city and best buy. Actually I worked at 2 different CC stores. Circuit City is complete crap. Everything that is not a big ticket item or not advertised is extremely overpriced. ie. a 20 pack of blank cd’s for 15.99 LOL
The service plan is absolute shit and almost twice the price of a comparable service plan at any other electronics retailer. Not to mention the dipshit employees who work there are forced to shove it down every customers throat even when there clearly is no value in purchasing it. IE. a 15.00 portable cd player with a 25.00 dollar 3 year service plan. LOL
And why do these morons push these warranties? FUCK! CC stopped paying commision back in 2002. There is no reason to push that garbage other than your sand nigger manager jumping down your back. Fuck him and his measly bonus.
Then there is the management. OHHHHH where do I start. Forget it, I won’t even go there since if you are a CC manager you are probably a low life dim whit who couldn’t pass a G.E.D. test if your life depended on it. Thats why you dedicated your life to a company that is destined to go bankrupt in the next 5 years. CC can suck the dingleberries off my ass for all I care. I wouldn’t buy a battery from those fuckwhits.
Sincerely,
Your mama.
i work in ccity in costumer service. if all you morons would buy the CA on your lap tops and tv and cameras you would not have any issues with out return policy and restocking fee’s. ALSO if u come up to me with a shitty attitude i will do nothing for you. DUH. most of the people that shop here have jobs and have bad days, and would not like helping anyone that is annoying and bitchy. so if u need costumer assistance we could help you. SO STOP BEING rude.
Wish I read this before my purchas
On 8-20-07 I purchased on line 4 items from Circuit City to be shipped to my son in Wilson, NC as a gift. The system would only ship the Notebook PC but required that the other three items be picked up at their Rocky Mount store. On the 21st my son called the store before he drove there to see what he needed in order to pick up the merchandise. At that time he talked to the Manager Oscar who informed him that he would need me and my credit card so they could swipe my credit card in order to complete the transaction and my son could then pick up the order. I live in Iowa there is no way I could personally be there with my credit card. I had trouble believing this so I called and talked to Oscar the Rocky Mount customer service manager and received the same answer as my son and was told that they had to guard against fraud. That same day on the 21st I canceled the 3 items that were to be picked up at the store and the customer service line called the store and canceled the 3 items and gave me a ref # of 12963317. The notebook computer had already been shipped from the warehouse and he received it fine.
I waited for my refund which never came, so on 10-5-07 I called Jason and after he talking to the store several times and me waiting a long time he said he was going to transfer me to Oscar at the Rocky Mount Store. Oscar then put me on hold and kept asking if he could call me back. I ask if he would call me back that day. Yes he said he would. Five hours later no call. I also again confirmed with Oscar that the store would require my credit card to be swiped to pick up this part of the order.
I called again on 10-6-07 and talked to customer service Anita, ref # 13458767 who called the Rocky Mount store but was told the manager was not in yet. While I was at work Oscar called and left a message that he still was researching this problem.
Again I called Roy in customer service and expressed my concern about the fact that I had not received my credit and was starting to question if that stores paper works was that messed up or if they just have employees that are unscrupulous enough to pocket merchandise that people have paid for and don’t get picked up. Roy tried to call the store but didn’t get an answer so I would have to call back the next day.
I work retail and they tell us a happy customer tells one person about their sales experience , an unhappy customer tells 10 and those 10 tell 10 others and so you all are my 10 people now you can continue my story to your friends.
update: Well they finally said they would give me a credit but not before my blood pressure boiling out my ears. At one point they didn’t realize I could hear them and I heard one girl say she was going wait 5 minutes and then hang up. What great customer service. I still am of the opinion that this is a scam they play on people. They say they have all these rules in place for to prevent fraud but it looks they need to look not at me but at their employees. They did eveything to get me go away and just pay the bill. No matter I will never shop there every again because of my treatment. Circuit City must think they are the only electronic store on the block.
Wow. Ok. I work at CCity and it’s really not that bad.
Just like any other place, it has its ups and downs. It’s true that some people might not know everything the customer asks about the produt but I do know that any (ok, most) of the people I work with will do anything to find the answer. Today I had a customer that wanted to hang a projector upside down. I know that some can be hung that way but I wasn’t sure about the one he was inquiring about. I went as far as calling the manufacturer on my cell phone because our store phones cannot dial out long distance without a manager’s code and they didn’t have an 800 number.
Just like any other store, we have customer issues but we also do whatever we can to fix them. I’m sorry if you went to a store that didn’t treat you well but that doesn’t mean that all of us are bad.
You guys remind me of the people that come in to the store to buy a laptop and tell me that you are totally against Toshiba because your friend’s cousin’s brother-in-law had a bad experience with one and said that THEY are pieces of crap. Did they get a defective computer? Did they download something onto it that had a virus embedded in it? No! That just CAN’T be true. It has to be All Toshiba computers!
If you’ve had a bad experience, please come to Vegas and you’ll change your mind about CCity.
Now on to the topic of CCity as a place to work.
Again, it has its ups and downs. Yes, they push you to sell attachments, solutions and protection plans. Do you get anything out of it? Yes and no.
I get the satisfaction of knowing that if I sell a $799 laptop with a $299 protection plan and the customer accidentally drops the computer, it will be replaced. If you think about it, you’re paying $299 for a $799 laptop. But no. That’s not worth it, right?
Now the down side.
I don’t get money or a prize of any sort for selling it to you.
That’s right. I don’t work on commission and I don’t have a bet going with co-workers that I can sell it.
Well. I think that’s all for now. I hope I didn’t piss anyone off because that wasn’t my goal. I just wanted to let all of you know that not all of us are bad people.
For those of you who think you’re going to get a better experience at Best Buy, I wish you the best of luck. You may and you may not, but just so you know, Best Buy gets complaints too.
A few things for your reading pleasure:
http://www.benstanfield.com/thrash/2006/04/best_buy_sucks.html
http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/1486/best-buy-worst-customer-service
You can do a search for just about any company and find complaints about them. Isn’t that amazing?
Before any of you flame me for what I’m about to say, and surely end up ranting about. If you get heated, I suggest you not read what I have to say. So if you reply with an attitude against me for my personal experience with C.C. than it only shows your pure ignorance. With that being said, here’s my current problem with CircuitCity. Let me rephrase that, not my problem, theirs. I’m looking to buy a desktop computer, I’ve thorougly done my homework and found the computer I’m looking to purchase. It’s a high end Desktop with all the bells and whistles in a matter of speaking. I know everything about it, that I was able to find out from various websites and searches. However they don’t explain it all. There were two computers that were very similiar, both the same Make, one was just a newer model than the other. Needless to say when I asked an in store associate to reassure me I’m making the right decision, he could hardly tell me anything about this top of the line expensive computer except what he could read from the display. Grant it, he could have been new or new to the department. So I gave him that much, however he seemed more concerned on trying to jump ahead and sell me the protection plan than trying to answer my question/s. Not the first time I’ve been drilled by C.C. to buy a ”protection/warranty plan”. They’re good in moderation. I mean if I’m spending a few hundred to thousands on a product, surely it could pay off. However if I’m buying a cheaper ($150 or less) product, doesn’t add up to spend almost as much as the product itself to ”protect” it. Maybe if Circuit City spent as much time on getting their sales associates constantly educated on products as they did on selling protection plans, they might see a difference. I’m not saying everyone in the store should know about everything. However if you work with computers, you should have some product knowledge. If you work with tv’s, keep them up to date with tv’s. So forth and so on. Sure they’re ”only human”, but if I’m selling you a car, and you ask me what size engine it has or what kind of MPG it gets, and I don’t know, you’re going to look at my like im stupid, turn around and leave. Period. Retail is no difference. I don’t expect them to know it all, but lets put more effort into product knowledge than trying to sell some protection package. Which in my personal experience, has never payed off. In other words, I’ve never used it. I’m sure if I did, it’s like a car dealer warranty. Never covers bumper to bumper. Only covers whatever isn’t wrong.
Now onto my present situation. Like I said, I’m looking to buy a high end desktop and widescreen LCD monitor. Costing over $1600.00 combined. I go into the store after doing my homework. The store did not carry that model in store. Fair enough, I’d like to order one please. So he attempts to have one ordered, only to tell me that model can’t be ordered. However he lets me know I can order one online. I said okay, I’ll order it online and do the ”in store pick up” as commonly advertised. Again I was told I could not do an in store pick up. So tell me, does that make any sense to any of you. I, the customer can order a computer, however the company/store who carries the product can’t have one ordered? That’s outlandish. If I can order one, surely the very company who carries it can. It’s called customer service, not customer self service. I pay you and your company (speaking in general) to do a service, only to have you tell me no, you can’t help me. That’s simply unacceptable. I don’t care if you (again speaking to no specific person) have to call up the f*cking CEO of circuitcity to have a computer ordered for a customer with cash in hand. So I’ve sent an email to C.C. and I was very nice yet direct. I await a response. As I told them, it’s a sad day in customer service when a company/store turns down cold hard cash because they’re simply to complacent and or lazy to get off their ass to get something done. I won’t go into my past experiences with CC. Needless to say, if they don’t fix the glitch. I’m taking my money , family and business elsewhere. I’m not asking to send a monkey into outter space. I just want to suprise someone in my household with a gift without her seeing a huge box that’s unmistakably a computer. Just want to order a computer and monitor Circuit lists and claims to sale.
Again, I know what it’s like on the other end. I worked at walmart for over 3 years, I know how it is. However you have to remember no matter how bitter you might grow to customers. It’s not called customer service for nothing. We the customers sign your check, don’t forgot that. So you can tell me all about how sales associates are just human and blah blah blah. Just remember, the customers not there for you, you’re here for us, the customers. Would you pay someone at Burger, if they told you to get the food yourself. No, why, because you pay them to do that for you. Retail is no different! Period. I pay you to give me a computer you claim to carry, if you dont, you’ll be claiming chapter 13 soon. Customers won’t put up with that sh*t for long. Ever heard of Kmart…sure there’s still a few around, but they’ll never rebound. don’t think it can’t happen to CC….
I’m outraged at Circuit City’s customer service for on-line orders. They’re the worst I’ve ever seen, hands DOWN! I’d purchased several items on-line on 11/27/07, and received an email that my order has been shipped with a FedEx tracking number. When I clicked on the tracking #, it said that the package was delivered on 3/19/07 to a different state. I’ve called Circuit City’s customer service 4 times and each time routes you to their India or Philippines department, who can’t do much except to say “someone will get back to you in 7 to 14 business daysâ€.
After my 5th time calling and 35 minutes later, I finally got a rep named Steven in their Richmond VA office “Escalation Deptâ€. Rep Steven tells me that it’s a problem with FedEx and requested that I call FedEx to clear up the issue. After my pushback, Steven reluctantly called FedEx and discovered that there is no package destined to my address on record. He goes on saying that I need to wait another 10 days to make sure that my order does not arrive before they can issue a reship order. Then, I would need to waste another 35 minutes of mine time to go through their international dept to request a reship.
My question to the rep Steven “If Circuit City’s record show that my order was shipped on 11/27/07 by FedEx, but FedEx does not have a record anywhere in their system of Circuit City’s package to my address, is it not logical to assume that the shipment is lost?â€. Steven’s response was “well, our records show it was shipped and FedEx is the carrierâ€. This seems like someone can’t follow basic logic. What’s more amazing is that Steven claims to be the highest level of escalation in Circuit City’s Customer Service department. What an idiot!!
I will NEVER buy from Circuit City again, and recommend EVERYONE to stay far away!
In the process of trying to return a defective Laptop not only did they refuse to return the anti virus software that they initialy promised me was necessary if I was going to use the computer online they refused to discuss their return policy with me stating that it was clearly posted at the registers. I told them that their return policy was BS and they instructed me that if I was going to use foul language that they would call the police on me. Needless to say, This whole event ended up with me being calmly escorted out of the store by police.
I am suprised by some of the under the table practices this company does. I work for them so I have some insight as not only how they treat customers but how they treat associates. If you haven’t read there have been numerous articles on the laying off of a large number of employees for making too much over their pay grade, well who gave them the raises?… the company. They also layed off numerous management staff to make way for their new management structure, which consists of regular paid associates performing managers duties. Both of these mass layoffs lead me to believe that this company considers the profits more then their associates. Recently we have also started a new training to cross trian associates on other departments. This is good for associates to help customers, but what has happened is that hours are being cut as well and ther are only two associates in the same areas there were once ten. This makes them overwhelmed with customers and makes the customers leave the store. They are supposed to be training to help customer service but it is just hindering it. My biggest arguement is that Circuit City only looks out for themselves, not customers, not associates. Their biggest idea for customer service is to upsell a customer. Sell them a tv, sell them a better tv, and sell something with it. If you take and personalize with the customer and sell a tv with out anything, because the customer doesn’t need the accesories you are looked down upon. I was demoted recently to loading tvs for not selling the instalations on the televisions, because a majority of my customers do not need this service. It doesn’t take $169.99 to hook up a tv in the majority of the time. They completly overlooked the fact that 90% of my customers return and comment how great of a person I am and how much help I was. I’m sorry the past retail jobs I had were more about customer service then Circuit City. Circuit City wants me to make the customer believe they want the product instead of getting the customer what they need. The fact that my manager doesn’t want to work with my availability for school and constantly changes my schedule on no notice, is just a side note. My overall question is where are the ethics Circuit City?
Circuit City will not stand behind their sales & Toshiba will do everything but be helpful – I say this after spending 7 MONTHS trying to resolve persistent blue screen & other crashes on a laptop purchased at CC. Marilyn_Pando actually responded (TOO BAD, TOSHIBA PROBLEM, NOTHING I CAN DO), John_Milliron & Philip_Schoonover just ignored me (all @circuitcity.com in case you are interested). This after the “expert” at CC recommended that rather than return it under their 14 day retun policy I should drop it off at their authorized service center a couple of town over. Like a dolt I did & there went the remainder of the 14 day grace period - Nice sales practices.
Talk about some idiots…. you have no clue what it’s like to work in the electronics industry…1. most customers are idiots and do not know what they are talking about most of the time….2. the truth is always exaggerated by the customer…3. talking about service plans you guys are the idiots who complain when your products break down after a year and claim the associate never told you about it.4. customers always want something for nothing and yet you complain when you cant get any help because there are not enough associates there but yet you want the best price…..idiots…. in this economy it is competitive and when margins are slashed where do you think that hits??????? the biggest controllable….LABOR…. if any of you had any smarts you would realize this……
I have been reading some of these post and see that some people don’t get it. Yes, all it takes is one employee or bad experience for people to talk bad about a place thats what we call Word of Mouth which is the strongest form of advertising for any business and has the means of either crippling or helping any business. It all starts with the customers experience. One thing I have learned is that not Circuit City, Best Buy, Staples,CompUSA, or any of them will ever give you a straight answer on what you need to make an electronic device such as a laptop function correctly. Take for example the HP Compaq laptop. HP bought out Compaq years ago so they own them now. This is the stupidest company I have ever seen. I had purchased a new laptop and went and also purchased a video camera which required me to have Firewire. Well needless to say HP laptops COmpaq Presario does not come with one. There is a card you have to purchase to make it all work and not just any universal card a special one that is L shaped to fit in its slot which they call an express card. Now none of the stores carry it in the Orlando area so why would you sell the computer and the camcorders ? I ended up calling HP and they where even worse then the stores. HP really has their heads screwed on backwards. I did my online research and found it through New Egg. A hassle that these stores could have taken care of from the begining.
I also have a friend that applied to Circuit City but was refused employment due to his credit. Um call me crazy but isn’t Circuit City in bankruptcy themselves? Ever heard of practice what you preach?
Hey NONE.
You’re pretty dumb anyway if you spent 140.00 on a headphone..Geez you are a blazing idiot.
Personally, I think you need to realize why you got email from Circuit City. They figured if a fool like you would blow 140 on a pair of headphones…anything goes my man!!
Ghandi - Guru for hire (GRIN)
Circuit City has taken a turn for the worse. I used to be a sales person for them but due to poor sales numbers- (5 hours a week) I was moved to a new position of pft or stock. My manager and I almost came to blows after he botched 2 calibrations in one day and decided he would make it up during my sale. So he pushed service on a consumer that the consumer did not want, which I’m not okay with, because I believe in zero pressure sales. Also I take it very personal when somebody even a manager decides he or she is going to disrespect one of my customers. The manager went on to basically tear into me for about five minutes trying to get me to tell the customer that a delivery was $100 more than it really was. I refused. My damn manager didn’t even notice my customer standing 2 feet away. Also one of the damn Fire Dog employees lost my customers credit info and and gave it to somebody else because my one and only customers service associate was taking a 20 min smoke break. Somehow this all gets back too me and I have to make the store look good. I told the gentleman the truth of what happened and he smiled and shook my hand and told me I was to good to work there.
It’s not the product that costs ya’ it’s all of the damn extras they constantly try to shove down your throat! I recently went to Circuit City to purchase an open box LCD TV I saw there for $759.99. When I told the sales associate I wanted the TV he went to ring it up and the price on his register jumped to $849.99! I told him there was a mistake and that the tag said $759 and he went to check it with his manager. He came back and said, yes, they would give it to me for $759, but that his manager told him I’d have to purchase the extended service plan on it. I told him I would NOT and that in the state of California it is the law that a retailer must sell an item for the price they have it listed as. He then went back to his manager and came back saying, okay we’ll sell it to you for $759 and my manager wants me to offer you a deal on our calibration service which usually costs $300, but he’ll “give” it to me for $150. When I said No I just want the TV suddenly the price of the calibration dropped to $75! I told him I think the TV looked fine and I don’t want the calibration and then he said, ” just watch and let me give you the sales pitch because I’m under a lot of pressure to sell you some extras and my manager is watching me”. He then went through a big song and dance about the warranty benefits, the calibration benefits, how I should purchase their overpriced HDMI cables, how I needed a blu-ray disc player yadda, yadda, yadda. After 5 minutes of this I finally said, “HEY, I JUST WANT THE TV. NOTHING ELSE.” So he finally gave in and sold me the TV, but I tell you it was like I was being interrogated for 15 minutes. This type of customer coercion blows.
I bought a camcardor HDR-HC5 but it got packaged with HDR-SR5 manual, software, docking station etc. I never had to use the accessories till now however on checking with the store manager at Glen Allen, VA, she bluntly refused to listen to me saying I was perhaps making it up…..The salesman had goofed up but she was not ready to accept that fact..and was said ‘nothing doing’
Is there anyway to take this up ? This is BS in name of customer service.
Yeah to the idiot above me you are one of the dumbest people I’ve ever heard of. Yes Circuit City sucks but blame the associate because a camcorder came with the wrong accessories. Since when did “sales” associates become assembly line workers that pack the camcorders. You really are going to say the salesman goofed!? So stupid. And I used to work in retail, (no not Circuit City), and I can see how clearly almost all of you are exaggerating your stories too much. And why are you all against a company making money?! They try and sell calibrations, and cables, and ESP’s because it makes them money! Just say no you idiots don’t complain because if you owned a big box retailer you’d want to push the same items. Boo companies shouldn’t make money, that’s what all you morons are saying!
Circuit City screwed with me about 10 years ago. I haven’t been back since. I see today they’re filing for bankruptcy. Big surprise there. On the day the company refused my check to purchase a camcorder (the check was good by the way), I left the store and immediately went to another big box store and made the purchase without a hitch. I was so irritated that I sent the manager of Circuit City a letter explaining what happened and included the purchase receipt from the “other” store so that he would see how much money he lost. After spending about an hour in the Circuit City store going over each available feature on camcorders, they didn’t get the sale because of some check acceptance system that was a part of the check out process. I do understand that there are precautions to take when accepting checks, but this was one experience that left a horrible taste in my mouth for over 10 years. Not only did they not reap the sale that day, but future sales from me as well. Glad to see them go.