Looks like my town will be losing it's Circuit City. Hopefully they have some nice sales before they close down.

This is the good part - "The company has hired the same lawfirm that took Kmart through bankruptcy, but is trying to avoid that option because of (fairly reasonable) concerns that consumers will not trust warranties from a company that is currently bankrupt."

This means that CC isn't making money on merchandise, but on the extended warranties they sell (and smart people refuse to buy). If the company is likely to not be around much longer, it only makes the uselessness of these extended warranties more obvious.

Perhaps your town, like mine, will lose its Circuit City and be blessed with its bastard-child, "The City."

I had an option to extend my warranty on my wide screen, but the CC deathwatch caused me to roundfile it. That is $350 CC won't be getting.

@chumleyex: You must not be familiar with Circuit City "going out of business" sales. They don't actually start discounting stuff until there's nothing but crap left.

@chumleyex:
Naw If they go out of sale Gordon Brothers Retail Partners , who were responsible for the liquidation of CompUsa, Sharper Image and Tweeter will almost certiantly buy whats left or at least get hired to run the "Clearence".

Which means the prices will actually be ioncreased and all the good stuff shipped out before the clearance sales even begin.

Thats why I wasnt circuit city to hang in there. Not because they offer great service but they do at least put pressure on bestbuys prices, so they do serve some purpose.

I'll LOL if I find the US ends up with "The Source by Circuit City".

I work at Best Buy, and I suppose most readers would assume that we are dancing on their graves... Not so...

I don't think there's anything "just" or humorous about thousands of people losing their jobs. It's never a good sign. The glee that Cosumerist readers sometimes show is really sad. What if your neighbour works for CC and has to foreclose on his home now, bringing your home value down? Is it funny then?

Good riddance. Circuit Shitty sucks. Overpriced, poorly organized, and full of "semi-honest" offers. (WOW - only 40 bucks to "install" my new USB keyboard? jerks)

goodbye!

Less competition is NEVER good for consumers.

I actually used my CC warranty thing. My 1 year old panasonic crapped out so I called, they sent out a tech from a local company (who didnt give a poop) and wrote down that it was busted despite the tv working for him. so CC issued me a 1050.00 credit which i used 5 months later to upgrade. when i bought the upgrade, i got another 2 year warranty

I agree with wellfleet. except I work at Circuit City. Its a college job for me, but there are people I know that really do work their hardest, and people that really do care about their jobs. They have families to support, bills to pay.

Don't bash Circuit City. You can pick on them for making bad choices, and make fun of their executive team, but remember, they do still employ 40,000 people, most of which rely on it as a single source of income. It is a company made up of good people, not the rotten people this website sometimes makes them out to be.

@wellfleet: I work at Best Buy...

You lost me after that. :)

Having worked for these schmucks many years ago, all I can say is that they've lasted longer than I thought they would.

So...this time they won't be rehiring everyone on the condition that they work for half as much?

I guess one upside to the trouble they're having is that I had no problem finding the DVD's I wanted this past weekend. I had shopped first at Best Buy, but thanks to their reorganization (downsizing) of the DVD department, they were out of what I wanted..

Luckily, CC was just across the street...

This isn't good for Best Buy. With a crappy competitor, then Best Buy looks good. With no competitor, then people may just shift to online or smaller competitors.

@wellfleet: Your neighbor works at CC and his house gets foreclosed on......well then he probably should not have bought the house with an assumed subprime loan.

If he had a marketable skill then he should have problems finding another job. Hell, even an entry level IT professional can find a job within a day or two.

The problem with the brick and mortar electronics retail model is that you have to push margins real thin to compete with the internet. Unless you are able to sell extended warranties with a high percentage of items, your labor, overhead and G&A costs make many stores unprofitable.

Businesses failing and people losing their jobs is just a part of how capitalism works. Alhough it is sad to see that a lot of people will lose their jobs and may have trouble finding another retail job with unemployment creeping higher.

@swissdietcoke:

"It is a company made up of good people, not the rotten people this website sometimes makes them out to be"

Couldn't let that pass...

No, it's not a company made up of good people,it's a crappy company with a failed business model that is shafting what good people that there are working in it's stores. It's no coincidence that lots of people have the same complaints with this company - They've made a conscious decison to stop being screwed when they walk in the door and that pretty much means the end of CC as we know it. I hate that you or any of your co-workers might lose their jobs,but the people that you should be mad at are not the posters that have a grievance,but the assclowns that put in the policies that have wrecked this company.Why do they get a pass ? If CC tried to do everything on the up and up,they might have some semblance of customer loyalty. They made the decision that every transaction is a win/lose tug of war and now the day of reckoning is here and people like you don't like what it will do to your good life.If you are a crackerjack employee that does the right thing by the customer,get out and work for a company that does same.

@Shark1998:

What if you are boned by a system that doesn't allow you to get a marketable skill? What then?

F U, see you in the streets asking for chump change?

While I agree that we should feel bad for those who may get fired, it is Circuit City that put themselves in a possition where they will have to let go their employees.

I may feel bad for someone who spent years at Circuit City getting canned, that doesn't mean I'm going to spend $20 for a USB cable I can buy online for $5.

There's nothing in the damn stores anyway.

@SecureLocation: Nothing of value. Other than the hard working employees, anyway.

@chumleyex: Pity. The CC in my area provides far better customer service than Best Buy. Unlike BB, I can expect CC to have in stock what they advertise . . . and what BB advertises.

Circuit Shitty?

kp

@AlteredBeast: More like $3 if you include shipping. $0.94 before shipping. Gotta love monoprice.com

I do not shop at CC, its not the prices. It has to do with rebates. I see something with a price of say $100 and think ok, then find out its really $250 with a $100 rebate and a $50 rebate. Being I am the king of never getting my rebates (yes I do follow the rules). I ten to look at the out the door cost of any item I buy.

@johnfrombrooklyn: We have a CC and BB right next to each other here in SE WI. It's your theory in action. In the past, people would go from one store to the other, comparison shopping. Now, it seems they are just skipping the CC all together.

@wdnobile: I am a current employee at CC, and while I do agree with the fact that some of the services are totally useless, not all of them are. Would I pay $100 for a guy to come to my house and set up my wireless router? Not a chance in hell. Would those older customers who barely know how to use a computer? Quite possibly, and if they don't want the service, they just say no.

Best Buy has the exact same services, only they do them worse (and yes, I used to work for BB).

@AlteredBeast: Agreed. My sympathies go out to the few hard workers in those stores. My uncle is one of them. Before he was hired, Best Buy was courting him heavily, but I believe CC offered better pay or benefits. Looks like CC wasn't the better option after all...

Still, I hope CC dies a swift death. Less competition and the loss of jobs will be bad, yes, but it would be like Sears going to dust. There still is competition in the marketplace, and no one will miss what few decent products they carry in their filthy, empty, unorganized stores populated by pimply, know-nothing teens.

@shepd: The Source by Circuit City happened when Circuit City bought out the Radio Shack brand in Canada. This brand name was actually leased to a Canadian company, Radio Shack itself did not actually run the Canadian operations. Of course once Circuit City bought out the Canadian rights, Radio Shack freaked out and voided their contract. Thus in Canada, literally overnight, all the Radio Shacks had to convert to "The Source by Circuit City". Radio Shack is trying to make a come back in Canada though.

@Ben_Q2: same, I kinda feel like i would be shafted, having bought an item with a mail in rebate, because CC usually places the mail-in rebate text in tiny print.

I've gotten my hopes up glancing at an ad, just to end up looking down and seeing 200 dollars worth of mail-in rebates.

Personally I think the main problem with Circuit City was the way it was laid out. Everything other than the outer perimeter stuff (TV's and car) seemed to be laid out in a very hap hazard manner. I always found it difficult to find new release DVDs at Circuit City. Their pricing wasn't very competitive with Best Buy either.

@satoru: Regardless, no one shops there. i have 3 in my town that are completely deserted. just waiting for someone to pull the plug and let them die.

And so it begins....

While national news will report on the closing of Circuit City stores as a sign of the economic crisis, we all know this is a situation that was completely brought on by the lousy management and customer service at CC. This company would have eventually gome away even in a good economy.

CC deathwatch clock estimate - early 2009.

I consider CC to be the K-Mart of Electronics "Superstores". I haven't been in one in over a year and any time I have been in one there are fewer than five customers in the store. They're general lack of good advertising, competitive pricing, selection and, in my opinion, a really shitty planogram made for a really bad person to person experience. Coupled with a generally rotten record for "Customer Service" I can't say I'm surprised to hear about this.

If your corporate office isn't paying attention to customer service and/or outsourcing to a company in india employed by people who don't understand american culture (and how offended most of us probably are when were speaking to a rep supposedly named "John." Whose been fooled by that?) you're probably not going to have many repeat customers in the electronics market (where everything tends to break eventually). Shame Shame Shame CC...

@failurate:

Exactly correct. I also live in SE Wisconsin. I needed something last week that I had to have that day, and couldn't wait for overnight delivery.
I went to the So. 76th St. store in Greenfield. Best Buy was busy. Circuit City, directly across the street was deserted. My sympathy to the CC employees, buy your company can only screw and overcharge people for so long before they wise up and stop shopping there. Best Buy isn't much better, but compared to Circuit City, at least here, there's a huge difference.

"Circuit City's investors have homed in on those leases as a threat to the company's health."

Really? I'd say that you have more problems than that, but what do I know?

Serves them alright. I always thought those uniformed, poorly trained and bored employees in their store were going to face this some day. The service I got at CC was always pathetic! Good riddance.

@Tmoney02:
Hopefully they don't get the same company that bailed out Mervyns Dept Stores last year. The company financed the purchase by taking all real estate assets and then leasing them back to Mervyns. Mervyns had all the expenses & liabilities & no assets. Mervyns announced last week that their remaining 150 stores are closing for good.

its amazing its limped along this long.
cc's around the bay area have had the stench of death for years now. walking around inside you could feel it was off.

I would normally say I'm shocked at such childish behavior, but I've come to expect it from Consumerist comments.

Because you've had a bad experience with one employee, or let's exaggerate; and entire store of 30, you now wish 40,000 people to be unemployed? Such childish, childish behavior. But that's what I've come to expect from consumerist comments. If you're curious, the typical response by most people who actually work in customer service is: "Love consumerist, absolutely hate the idiots who comment"

Perhaps now we know why you've gotten such poor service from different places; you're self-righteous, childish people.

Please, doesnt anyone remember when the store was in sections? You used to be able to look at car stereo in a "unit" and it was easy to find what you wanted. Home Theater was in a glassed in room for the loud listeners. They had appliances and other useful items.

Now its wide open and you cant hear yourself think sometimes in there. Everything is jumbled. Have you been locked at the raod install shop? I did when a friend called me about getting overcharged on her install. I had to go and explain to them what she wanted and why it was not "custom work". On the way back the friggin doors were locked ON BOTH SIDES! Nice.

Why did they go open air flea market? Why did they get rid of employees that could answer questions? What possessed them to stop selling appliances?

Goodbye Circuit City my only question is if you go before Sears.

That what happens when you fire your best employees and sales staff. Leftovers : untrained employees could ruin anyone's experience as a customer.

Now I just hope that Best Buy follows. I really hate their ads ''no commission, no pressure'', which is bull@#$% !

@TorrentFreak: "What if you are boned by a system that doesn't allow you to get a marketable skill?"

Ummm, this is "America." You *acquire* marketable skills in this country.

CC is going to die because of bad executive decisions. Any good executive knows that experienced works trump new hires. That is why people get raises. When CC laid off full time employes and hired newbies this was bound to happen.

IMHO both CC and BestBuy are the worst place to buy any electronics. I won't get into my personal experiences, but lets say I have many. I currently would walk into a BestBuy over a CC any day of week, but they are both garbage. Nothing pisses me off more then seeing people sold things they don't need. Every one of these places is the same though.

CC is the only chain store in my town that I've been able to walk into and see no one. No customers, no employees. No one anywhere. I started to think I had walked into the middle of a robbery and everyone was being tied up in the back. I looked around a few minutes and left, never having seen another person.

@wellfleet:

Damn right we gotta keep CC. If for no other reason than to keep BB on their toes.