If you were confused about why Circuit City might close 150 stores, this customer complaint sent in by William O’Donnell makes it pretty clear: Circuit City sucks. They try to get out of price-matching with a nearby B&H, out of the 3 hard drives he went through, one was missing parts and one wasn’t even the right drive, and they try to tell him that it’s supposed to come missing parts. Basically, when they don’t know what they’re talking about, they just make some shit up to make their lives easier. That’s what happens when you cut costs by firing anyone who knows what they’re doing. Here’s Will’s tale:
This is more to vent than anything else, but I had an unforgettable experience at Circuit City the other day. I didn’t go there specifically, I just wandered in…
The Price Match
I’d been thinking about getting a new 1TB internal hard drive for movie storage, so I thought that I’d see what they had on offer. What they had on offer was outrageously overpriced, so, after some online browsing from my phone, I decided to see if they would price match. It took the girl about 10 minutes to let me know that they wouldn’t price match B&H. She couldn’t tell me why, just that they wouldn’t. I asked to see their written price match policy. She said that they didn’t have any copies on hand despite the huge sign behind her that indicated otherwise. I ended up looking it up online, with my phone, at which point I spoke with a manager. They tried insisting that B&H wasn’t a “local” store, until I pointed out that B&H was less than 10 miles away and about 4 stops on the Q train. After about 20 minutes of waiting and talking, they finally gave in – I saved $80.The Repack
When I got home, I opened the box only to realize that the box contained a used, 800 GB, IDE hard drive, NOT a shiny, new 1TB SATA hard drive. I immediately went back to exchange the drive. The exchange was pretty painless, until…Drive #2, Manufacturing Defect
I opened the new box while still in the store, to ensure that it wasn’t another repack. The model number was correct, but I something was wrong… I realized, much to my amusement, that the entire PCB (printed circuit board – and thus, power/data connections) was missing from the bottom of the drive. Not CC’s fault, obviously, but they didn’t handle it well…The Non-Tech-Savvy Tech
Exasperated, I brought the drive back to the front counter to notify the cashier of the defect. Some manager-type nearby, wearing a “FireDog” (their tech support division) t-shirt, jumped in – “that drive do not include connectors! If you have a problem with that, you have to take it up with Western Digital (the manufacturer). We are not going to open another box just because it don’t meet your wants. Also, where in the manual do it say that it includes the connectors?”I was infuriated. “IT’S A SATA DRIVE! Have you ever SEEN an internal hard drive?! How can a SATA drive not include SATA connections?!” Turning, and shouting to the store in general, “GET SOMEONE OVER HERE THAT ACTUALLY BUILDS COMPUTERS!”
Mr. FireDog Manager-Type, “I build computers, sir!”
“Oh really?” Reaching in to the box, I grabbed the red SATA cable included with the drive. “We can agree that this is a SATA cable, right?! Why don’t you show me where this SATA cable connects to this SATA drive?”
He actually looked at the thing for about 30 seconds, which is along time to look at something that’s hardly bigger than a wallet. He finally went to the shelves to get another box in hopes of showing me an identical drive, missing PCB and all.
Box #3
Upon opening the box, he saw a blue SATA cable with an extra little dongle that Western Digital likes to put on their cables – he thought that it was a completely different type of cable… he hands me the cable and says, “sorry sir, your box was missing this cable, you should be all set now.”I exploded. “THIS IS THE SAME FUCKIN’ CABLE! Why don’t you show me where THIS cable connects to the drive?!?!” He actually started to reexamine the drive, blue cable in hand… I shouted “look at the other damn drive!!! Look at that – it’s got a damn PCB!!! And look – SATA connectors!!! Whodathunkit?!?!”
Head down, he finally gave in, gave me the third and final box, and I was on my way. My 1TB drive only cost me $150… and about 4 hours of my life, about 30 minutes of which consisted of shouting, my heart hammering in rage.
No, I’m not going to be wandering back any time soon.
Retail Nightmares – What’s Your Worst? [Brooklynian]
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I work in a CC in downtown Miami and I can say is that I’m sorry you wondered in to one the crappy stores that will be on the top of the “To Go” list. Seriously, if it had happened in my store, you would have not been there fore more than 40 minutes in total, instead of 4 hours.
I’m the lead tech in my store and I can say that if you brought me an internal SATA HDD that was missing its PCB, I wouldn’t have argued at you, I would have probably looked at it, laughed my ass off at Western Digital, and gave you the new one without questions. Hell, even if you had taken it to my store and just pointed it out at one of the air headed cashiers, they still would’ve returned it. When a Cst says it’s defective, we don’t argue, we just grab a new one and send you on our way. Oh well, sorry you had a bad time sir.
This is why I buy hard drives through Newegg
“When I got home, I opened the box only to realize that the box contained a used, 800 GB, IDE hard drive, NOT a shiny, new 1TB SATA hard drive. I immediately went back to exchange the drive. The exchange was pretty painless, until…”
Not to be a dick, but has anyone ever seen a 800GB IDE drive? I was only able to find one 750BG IDE on Newegg – everything else IDE was 500 or less.
Did the OP mean 80 ?
)
All that said, I have also had the “pleasure” of losing my sh*t at CC – in my case it was what we used to call “dumb insolence”. Never going back, though soon it won’t even be an option.
All I can speak for is my store, and we have great techs and I know more about cameras and computers than around 98% of you. We recently opened a hard drive to replace a customers bad one, and it was the wrong drive. My guess is some moron at customer service took it back because they had no idea what it was.
I agree CC has a lot of problems and sucks in many areas; and this is going to be their downfall. But don’t lump all of the employees together as untrained and unknowledgeable.
And, the lay-offs at my store did not get rid of any good employees. They were all lazy and the least knowledgeable of anybody. What kills me is the restructuring of stores so that the sections changed. At my store now there is TVs, and not TVs. That means I am supposed to know about computers, cameras, games, MP3 players, movies, music and car audio, when I was hired on to do computers, cameras and MP3 players. Luckily I am a nerd and know about most of it, but I literally cannot help in Road Shop. So, if i were the only one there to help, the customer experience would suck, in all honesty.
My techs are pretty good too.
And I’m a CSA who always checks model numbers with the one on the box.
The only thing I know anything about is video games, and I know it well. Any other department I will tell you I don’t know anything about it (except for basic questions).
I also would have price matched B&H no problem, as long as they had the drive in stock and my assumption is correct that it is a retail store, since I’ve never heard of it. xD
Do not buy WD drives. Never had any good experience with them. Get Seagate. Surprise that CC is selling WD junk? No…
@Trencher93: WD junk? Guess I am lucky for having TWO WD drives for over 3 years and nothing has happened to them. One is a 400GB drive and the other is the 36GB Raptor. No issues WHATSOEVER. On the flipside, my Seagate Barracuda 750GB just crashed and burned. Got it warrantied, but that does not rescue my data.
Classic, i love the implied accent on the firedog tech, as soon as i hear “where in the manual do it say” I start seeing red.
It isn’t the employee’s fault that he hasn’t been trained properly.
Remember, the only person you can control, it is yourself.
You somehow think that your belittling the employee was justified. I don’t. You could have accomplished the same thing without resorting to yelling and swearing, probably faster, and certainly without the personal attacks.
In my mind, this post should be retitled asshole consumer ruins everyone’s day fixing a small mistake.
I just wanted to add. Though I typically do not advise going off on an employee in a store and belittling them. However, if a “Tech” does not understand the technology then admit it, investigate and resolve the customer’s issue. I hate when people that do not understand (SATA Drive = SATA Connectors) try to bullshit you. Just say Geez… sir I am not sure why the connectors are missing lets check another box…..not hard…..don’t have to be an expert…be helpful……just give people the benefit if the doubt
I will literally cry if CC goes out of business. No one wants to see a 27 year old man crying, but it’ll happen. Where I live the only consumer electronics brick and mortar stores are circuit city and best buy and I’ve been screwed by best buy too many times to even consider them. I guess no more instant gratification for me as I’ll be doing all my electronics shopping online.
How recent is this story? I have been to Circuit City in the last month and my experience was better than ever. This man should have asked to speak with the Manager if he was having trouble. They took care of me and my mp3 player worked great. I agree that they have not been great in the past but it seems like they have changed based on my last experience. I hope they survive. They have been around as long as I can remember.
We had an interesting adventure with a car stereo and their “extended service plan.” Sales rep told us the plan covered immediate replacement of a failed unit, instead of waiting for a repair. As others have noted this was a lie. Things got more interesting from there, because the stereo was not only installed incorrectly, but failed twice.
When I called CC customer service, the phone menu was a pain to navigate. No obvious choice for car audio. Picked the wrong option, and got transfered around a bit. Finally spoke to a rep who wasn’t very nice about either being lied to or the PITA phone menu. Bottom line is that this was all our tough luck.
Went to our local CC to speak to the manager about the situation. He listened as I told our story, but obviously didn’t really care. Minimal customer service skills. Didn’t introduce himself, and was very brusque in his manner.
At this point we also found out that the advertised “free” installation involves some creative bookkeeping and is not really free. Consequently, if you seek a refund you don’t get all your money back.
Finally got the second dead stereo replaced, but we don’t shop at CC any longer. Such a shame. I first shopped there 25+ years ago, and it used to be a great outfit to deal with. Not any more…
I got an idea. Right now, CC stock is at $0.21 a share. If we buy a majority control of it, we can really change things around!
Who’s with me?!
I lost faith in them when they stopped doing their “no excuses needed” exchange program. My mom got me the full screen copy of Superman Returns for Christmas, but I only buy widescreen (an honest mistake, she said she just grabbed it in a hurry as the store was crowded, which is completely understandable). Sadly she didn’t have a receipt, nor could she recall which store she got it from.
I’ve had this happen before, and usually Circuit City just took the DVD and gave me a store credit or something.
Little did I know that this year, stores apparently had their own UPC code for movies they sold, so now they could tell if it was sold at their store or not.
“Sorry sir, we didn’t sell this DVD, you’ll have to take it elsewhere.”
“But I thought you guys had a no hassle, no excuses needed return policy, and that I’d just get a store credit or something instead of cash?”
“Yeah, we don’t do that anymore.”
Finally found out it was Target, but still, I was really sad when they got rid of that policy, as it was a rather good policy IMO.
@ModernTenshi04: I understand what you mean. I think, though, enough people took advantage of the system to make a profit. For example, if you bought the movie from Target at $10, and it was $20 at Circuit City, you could take the game there and “return it” for $20 and then buy something at Circuit City.
I can understand if you didn’t have a receipt and they were able to look it up (which they do now) and offered you credit.
Circuit is the worst. It was always lagging behind Best Buy, but about 4 years ago, it just nose dived. No checkout lines, no organization to their media selection, overpriced garbage. Any knowledgeable employees were shown the door a long time ago, replaced with just above minimium wage folks who look like they are ready to kill you. My favorite is the fact that Verizon must have paid Circuit to basically take over about 1/4 of their store and so if you a want a cell phone accessory, you have to deal with Verizon employees, who are no doubt trying to sign up some sucker to a 5 year contract something or trying to fix somebody’s billing problems. Turns a 2 minute checkout into an hour wait. Ridicolous. I’m all for more competition, but competition is what kill stores like Circuit Chitty.
I agree this would be very frustrating, but isn’t there a conflict when you purchase from only those retailers that can give you the lowest price, AND also expect quality?
We’ve done this to ourselves folks. We complain about poor service and then shop solely on price. Would you buy your gear from a retailer that said “great service, knowledgeable staff, all prices 5% more!”?
And we wonder why wal-mart continues to grow. You get what you pay for most of the time.
The same thing has happened in airline customer service. Anyone that had enough experience to be useful has been laid off, fired, job outsourced, etc. This is one big reason why airline c/s has gone down the tubes. Most of the people on the front lines these days are drones like the CC people.
Yeah I think after the Firedog guy says they don’t have connectors on them, I would go off.
My wife always called them Suck-it City and its so true!
The first 2 items will be repackaged and sold to someone else. The correct procedure is as follows:
1. Pay with a credit card.
2. Make one good faith attempt to return the item.
3. Dispute the charge with your credit card company.
Circuit City will get hit with a charge back fee in addition having the payment reversed. The defective item is taken out of circulation and you have saved yourself a few hours of aggravation.
I made the mistake of buying a video card from them after mine fried.
They had the best AGP 8x card I could get to hold me over until I built a new computer.
I got it home and opened it, the anti-static bag looked like someone had used it for stuffing. I didn’t think much of it. I installed it, it didn’t work.
The next day I boxed it back up and brought it back. The girl opened it and looked puzzled. She went and got the guy from Firedog and a “Floor Manager” to look at it. He told me they cant take it back because it wasn’t the same card. Completely dumbfounded, I look at the card and it was a 2600 model or something similar, not the 2400 that was stated on the box and that I bought.
They wouldn’t take back the card that cost $100 more, and brand new, that was erroneously boxed. I asked to talk to someone else, and this kid who was probably in his 20′s told me that the manager would say the same thing as him.
The manager came over, I explained it to him, and he told the kid to refund my money. I could have easily just put this in eBay and turned a profit, but since I was there and didn’t even know the issue until I got there, why not be an honest customer.
I like to think that out there a CC employee or perhaps a customer has swapped a 750GB drive for a 1TB and if people complain that the drive has less space on it than expected, CC will just tell them that “the formatted capacity of a drive is usually less than what is says on the box”. That and the 1048k thingy.
I want to feel bad for Circuit City but frankly I am sick and tired of the spreadsheet manager style that is destroying American business.
Been in the trenches, been there done that managers needs to be the spine of any corporation that wants to succeed but instead they are just a bunch of college grads who read books and love reports that are making decisions.
In the trenches managers would have known what an utter disaster firing your experienced people would be. Those that bury there nose in reports only know what numbers would go up and what numbers would go down and don’t compare the consquences of their decisions as that goes on a seperate report.
If CC wants to repair itself, a) they need to recongnize that you get what you pay for. You want better people, you have to pay more and b) if their managers don’t have real world experience to back up their decisions, then they need to be replaced with those that do.
CC is a prime example of why companies shouldn’t never have stopped the practice of promoting from within.
i went to CC once. it was around when you couldn’t find a wii fit anywhere, and the guy at the toys r us (where they were sold out) told me he thought there might be some at CC a couple of miles up the street. i went there and i swear i thought the place was closed down. zero cars in the parking lot. i ran in to check, and there were like 3 sales guys huddled around a register screen watching a baseball game.
to shorten a sort of long story, the manager made some small talk with me, and after telling me they didn’t carry such things, whipped out his cell phone and called an inner city game store to tell them to save the last wii fit they had for his “customer.” they did, and i got one before anyone i know.
i bought nothing, but i sure am glad i went to CC. =)
Newegg has a 1TB WD drive for $125. Next time, shop smarter and complain less.
Can’t be surprised. They expanded to Canada under “The Source”.
I used their store ONCE. Then I boycotted them due to an egregious violation of their customer satisfaction policy that was posted *directly in front of their cash register*.
Needless to say, a few weeks later passing by… I went back in and the sign was mysteriously missing (and as far as I know, gone completely.)
I miss RadioShack.
I bought a Wii bundle online from them about a year ago. It took two months for it to arrive in the mail. Phoned customer support in India and the rep couldnt understand me. Protested the charges on CC and miraculously it showed up in the mail a few days after that. This was one of those overpriced $500 bundles too. I have had bad experience with them and BB for about 5 years now. Occasionally I think I will give them a chance for redemption but it has never happened. So I no longer shop at either store. I hope BB is next!