I have always thought of Circuit City as a nice little place to shop and an alternative to the other big name retailers such as Best Buy. I know now that I was wrong and I feel sorry for the people who I have ever recommended Circuit City as a good place to shop. Do you like to be lied to? what about broke? Have you ever walked into Circuit City and purchased a $600 PC but walked out with a $1400 bill. This is what Circuit City thrives on and I am going to explain to you how they screw you over.
I worked at Circuit City as a PC Technician with their Geek Squad competition known as Fire Dog. Our goal was to sell as much C.A. (City Advantage) that we could. This consists of extended service plans which are offered on everything in the store, CD's, DVD's, Boom boxes, PC's and TV's. The average price for an extended service plan for a desktop computer is $300. That?s half the price of their basic desktop systems (for their basic plan) they also have an accidental plan that?s closer to $400, and this does not even cover the monitor. You have to purchase the plan on monitor separate or for $15 off, you can get them both. This plan covers hardware defects or drops and spills depending on that plan you get it is a good idea but any rep at Circuit City will shove it down your throat until you feel so alienated that you want to leave and never come back . Why would anyone pay half of what a PC costs so they can have a return policy? They do give you 14 days right? WRONG!
The average return policy is 14 days for PC desktops and laptops, that is if you don?t send in for your mail in rebate within that 14 day period. If you purchase a PC or anything for that matter, you will have 14 days to return the item however if you send in the mail in rebate within the 14 days then you will get a big fat NO when you try to return your item. Circuit City's policy says you need the bar code and UPC to return your item but if you have sent in your mail in rebate, then you are screwed and can only get an exchange for the same item. What if that item altogether is poor of quality and is not performing like advertised? well that means you have officially been cheated and will be told to contact the manufacturer. This is what I have experienced on a laptop that had a wireless chipset that kept freezing up the system. I had already sent in the MIB so was forced to get the same one or contact the manufacturer. This just plain stinks and they don?t tell you this until it?s too late, this should be illegal. What about all the software they offer for a discounted price ?such as the Norton IS2007, Spy Sweeper, Optimizer, Restore Discs?
STICK WITH YOUR 1 YEAR LIMITED PLAN FOR YOUR COMPUTER. YOU MAY HAVE TO TALK TO AN INDIAN BUT YOU WILL GET BETTER SERVICE!
When I worked at Circuit City in Florence Kentucky, I was their PC TECH and my job was to give advice and try to sell as much services I could, this would include the packages of software I mentioned. Computers do not come with recovery discs any more so I always threw that at the customer, $29.99 for restore discs was the asking price if they did not want the package that included them. What we would do is use the PC that we have sold the customer and open up its recovery CD burning software, burn the CD-R and then slap our own label on it (Inkjet). There still is a company that includes these discs and that company is Toshiba. Tech's at Circuit City will still sell you the recovery discs with your Toshiba Satellite Notebook but instead of burning CDR's they will just take the CD's out of the box and slap their labels on em. Thus you have payed $30 for absolutely nothing. What about Optimize? All they will do to optimize your PC is double click on a file that will do everything manually; it does very little so it?s definitely not worth the $29.99 price tag if purchased by itself. Norton Internet Security is the worst all in one virus remover out there and is heavily frowned upon among PC Technicians plus they charge you more than what it is actually worth, you pay for a retail copy but you get a bench copy which is discounted for them, NOT YOU. Spy sweeper is virtually useless with Norton Internet Security since it will do essentially the same job. WHAT DID YOU JUST PAY $200 FOR, well not really anything, so that?s $300 or $400 depending on what Advantage Plan you have got plus the useless software. Your better off to download AVG for Free (free virus scanner) and say GO TO HELL as loud as you can to the persistent underpayed 17 year old employee.
Mail in rebates (MIR's) has been a disaster in retailing for the customers. Whenever you buy goods with MIB's Circuit City will tell you to expect them within 4-6 weeks. I have sent in at least 7 if them and have never gotten them in that time frame. 2-6 months is the actual time frame for most people. Some rebates never come at all. Its best to stick with instant rebates because MIB's aren?t a promise, a lot of places (this included Circuit Shitty) will have in small print somewhere that they are not responsible if the rebate gets lost in mail however you will never be contacted if you check is lost in the mail, because that would be just more money in the pockets of fat cat executives. Bottom line is MIR's stink and should not be promised to the customer if they are not guarantee
During the Christmas season there was a huge PS3 rush on black friday, people instantly went nuts and formed a line at the door before the place opened. Customer were able to get their PS3 and get to the cash registers in a matter of seconds however they did not like what they were about to hear. All of a sudden after selling out of PS3's the manager comes out and starts asking the customers for their PS3's back, of course people got angry and had to be escorted out, I don?t blame them. At least 10 PS3's were taken away from honest customers in line. According to the manager We sold out of PS3's because they became available on our website before hand and were already sold out so what that means is they made a mistake and now are telling people who have wasted their entire morning waiting at the door to screw off. Circuit City did not offer any kind of compensation for the customer?s time or offer rain checks, the customers were simply told to leave or the cops would be called.
At Circuit Shitty I made $9.75 an hour as a tech (NON COMMISION) most of the other non tech savvy employees made under $8 and consisted mostly of 15-18 year old kids. Honestly I am reminded of how grocery store chains rely on child labor to run its business; it?s the same deal at Circuit City. No one can live on $7.25 an hour! And if you are an honest person you will find it hard to motivate yourself to rip off people just so you can keep your pathetic job.
This has been my experience as an employee and customer of Circuit City.