Circuit City's "Free Shipping Day" Promise Turns Out To Be Worthless
Circuit City promised that if you ordered from them on December 18th, you'd get free shipping and a guarantee that your order would arrive before Christmas. It turns out that promise was worthless, at least for Brandon—or rather, it's worth exactly $5 in company scrip from Circuit City. (We love apologies that force you to shop at the company that screwed up.) Circuit City's CSR even says that the December 18th offer doesn't exist, despite the fact that their logo is still up on the freeshippingday.com website as of today.
Brandon writes,
After seeing your post on the Free Shipping Day promotion, and found myself interested, but wary that I would not receive my order in time for Christmas. Ultimately, I decided to give it a shot anyway, comforted by the fact that all orders were guaranteed to be delivered my December 24. So, I waited until 12:01 AM December 18th to place an order with Circuit City, one of the partners for this promotion, and later received a confirmation e-mail stating that my order would arrive on December 24 at the latest.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. While I did receive one item from my order a few days before Christmas, the other three items did not arrive until December 28th. Normally, a delay like this wouldn't bother me, but seeing as these items were supposed to be gifts for my friends and family, I got to endure the embarrassment of not having gifts for three people, while they got shorted on presents.
After e-mailing Circuit City, I was offered a paltry $5 gift card, which I refused on the basis of being insufficient. Instead, I asked for two $15 gift cards which I could provide to my two young nieces (who were two of the present-less people) on behalf of myself and Circuit City to help us both save face. Circuit City refused.
We'll leave the negotiations over appropriate compensation between Brandon and Circuit City. What bothers us, and this is why we're posting this, is that the company failed to honor its shipping guarantee—a guarantee they made in an attempt to lure shoppers to their online store. Here's what "Daschelle" from Circuit City wrote to Brandon when he pointed out the freeshippingday guarantee:
Thank you for your reply. While we certainly understand how this must have been frustrating for you, the shipping timeframes were listed on our website and in order to receive your items by Christmas you would have needed to order on or before 12/12/08. We can not honor your request for two $15 gift cards. The $5 offer is still available if you would like to take advantage of it.
Brandon also contacted the man behind the freeshippingday.com website to ask for his help, but he said he could do nothing, adding, "There doesn't seem to be much you can do other than return your item and get your money back. I do know that they were advertising free shipping with delivery by December 24th for orders placed up to December 19."
Brandon, you might want to try escalating the matter past the frontline CSRs (NB: skip Schoonover's address) since they don't seem to be aware of their own freeshippingday guarantee. We also think if they won't budge on the $5 offer, you should seriously consider asking for a full refund and find another place to buy your gifts if at all possible. Why give your business to a company that doesn't stand behind its promises?
We also think behavior like this should earn them a big ban from next year's freeshippingday.com group, but c'mon, it's Circuit City—does anyone really think they'll still be here next December anyway?
(Photo: qnr)
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Comments:
...He left his gift-buying to December 18th? I'm calling shenanigans. Common sense says you're not getting those packages before Christmas. Still got them in under 2 weeks, which is bloody AMAZING considering the time of year.
Whiner.
@Quilt: While you do raise a good point about the late shopping, are you saying it is OK for a company to not honor their promises when it is a little hard even if the purpose of the promise is to beat the odds?
Hey CC, take a lesson from Crutchfield...
I ordered a pair of iPods on the 18th and had them in hand on the 20th. And they were even the ones I ordered.
The fact of the matter is that he was denied a guarantee. Then instead of admitting to error, the company tried to push him aside with a $5 gift card. Ridiculous. I don't care how long he waited (and don't insult people who wait to buy gifts, I did...sometimes you just don't have the money for gifts early, especially if you're travelling), he should have gotten his gifts in the guaranteed time. End of story.
FACT: Circuit City sucks anyways.
@Quilt: I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon on December 16 with free shipping. It all arrived by December 22, and some as early as the 18th.
Of course, Amazon is not Circuit City, and Amazon will still be in business next Christmas, unlike CC.
While I do not know the specifics of this separate web site, but was this promise actually on a CC web site. Third parties can do anything they want, and he could possibly just put the CC logo on his site and collected his commission for the sale. I would also question what the guarantee was. Delivery can not be guaranteed, since a plane could crash, it could be lost by a third party etc etc. If having gifts on Xmas day was that important I would suggestyou start earlier or go to the store
A promise is a promise, though my general rule of thumb is, past 12/10 if you need to get a gift, get it at a bricks and mortar store.
That said, shouldn't we all have stopped shopping at Circuit City two years ago?
Part of this could be the shipper. I work CSR for an internet clothing company. We use UPS, and I got an angry call Dec 27th from a woman who bought something and had it overnighted on the Sunday before Xmas. We got it to UPS on time, they got it to her town on time, but it never got on the truck for local delivery. The CSR told me that they simply didn't have room on the local truck. We ended up having to refund the lady the 30 bucks she spent on overnight shipping, even though we did nothing wrong, because we're that sort of company and it wasn't our customer's fault either.
While this doesn't relate here since the items didn't show up until Dec 28th, when I called to investigate with UPs I was politely told that the company has a clause in it's service that they do not guarantee packages between Dec 22-Dec 26. The CSR I spoke with wouldn't come right out and say it, but eluded to UPS basically having too many packages, and you're SOL if you pay for something and it doesn't show up on time.
This also had nothing to do with the adverse weather conditions. I had a bunch of calls dealing with that too, but this one stuck out as it was going to a southern state with no such troubles. The tracking number had something like "PACKAGE AT WAREHOUSE BUT NOT ON TRUCK FOR DELIVERY" which I'd never seen before.
Oh, but as I.GitEmSteveDave always likes to point out - this is just one example. Others have have fine experiences with Circuit City. Lay off.
Actually, I'm just being snarky. Circuit City got no business from me this winter because of this untrustworthiness.
@sicknick:
It is so frustrating that they offer next day shipping and yet, they don't follow through. If they can't handle it during the holidays, then they shouldn't offer it.
Kudos to your company for taking care of your customer!
I wonder if OP is certain all the items are ordered were in-stock. Typically a shipping guarantee only applies to in-stock items. Backordered items can still be purchased but can't be subject to a guarantee because the retailer doesn't know for certain when they will get restocked.
Not saying that's necessarily what happened here, just offering up a scenario.
I guess I have to ask...CC guarantees delivery by Christmas or what? You get your shipping refunded? You get a gift card? You get an apology from someone at a call center in Mumbai? As someone pointed out, things happen (delivery truck wrecks, etc.) so what does the guarantee actually say the compensation is in the case of the missed deadline?
@lefty_redhead:Seconded - I ordered several items from both Amazon and Thinkgeek in the early afternoon on the 18th, received both by the 23 with free shipping.
Here's a weird question: In what timezone did you order the item at 12:01? Amazon, woot, and lots of other online retailers usually use Pacific time. So you may have, ironically, been too early for the shipping guarantee.
Mountain Time Zone, and that's something I hadn't thought of. Honestly, though, if I order it earlier, it should arrive earlier (hypothetically speaking - obviously, an hour shouldn't make much of a difference in overall delivery time).
@Canino: You get a $5 gift card! A $5 gift card which probably can't be used on 75% of the items in the store.
@Quilt: I admit, it was a stupid gamble. But silly me, being reassured by a GUARANTEE. At least now I know what a CC guarantee is worth!
@Quilt: I ordered from NewEgg on the evening of Dec 18th and, as promised, received my deliveries on Dec 24th. NewEgg orders have always arrived for me on the promised day.
" but c'mon, it's Circuit City-does anyone really think they'll still be here next December anyway?"
WHOA! You can point this obvious point out but WE get warned for "blaming the victim?"
I unfortunately own stock in this company and if they don't start doing something right soon my money will be down the sewer.And they lost a golden opportunity this christmas to make a good impression and gain market share.
I'm convinced that my Amex number was lifted by a Circuit City employee and sold to someone who then used the number to buy $4,000 worth of industrial equipment. Amex did a fraud investigation and it took a month to get it straightented out and to get the charge removed from my balance. I will never ever shop there again.
This entire story stinks. First we're talking about some post from a third party website that is nothing more than a bunch of affiliate links. Kudos to Consumerist for being an unwitting shill for this "freeshippingday.com". Strangely enough the CC link on that site is now coming up blank for me.
Before the "victim" put his incredibly fragile ego on the line by relying upon Circuit City he should have checked the details of the guarantee. He's so ashamed now. He should be. He's lazy and irresponsible. I'd love to blame Circuit City here, I really would, but there are a lot of question marks surrounding the situation. Most notably that we don't have the tracking details of the packages (he received one but not the others?).
There are posts here that UPS can't always handle the demand put on them on the last few days before Christmas. This is certainly not the retailers fault unless you want to fault them for using UPS (not that it's different for any other company).
The "victim" here put himself into a risky situation where the odds of something going wrong were increased. Apparently this was a big deal for him and if it really is that big of a deal then my suggestion is don't put yourself in that situation.
@sleze69: How is the blaming the victim? Chris was referring to them not being around because of their financial situation, which negates having to be banned from freeshippingday.com. I'm not sure how you came up with blaming the victim on this one.
The part that we consumers get sucked into is, we hear the word "guarantee" and think that means something.
A guarantee is a promise to provide or perform in a certain way, with an alternative put forth as part of the guarantee. For instance, a product performance guarantee might say "This product will heat your coffee to 104 degrees *or* we'll replace it free". So the part that comes after the guarantee is part of the guarantee, it's the redress if they don't meet their committment.
One thing I noticed about the Free Shipping Day promotion website was, there was no promised redress, i.e. no "We'll get it there by December 24th, or you'll get X". That's not a guarantee.
If we want guarantees, we have to demand them, and if retailers don't provide them up front, then we need to not do business with them.
The first mistake was waiting until December 18th to do the Christmas shopping ONLINE. The second mistake was doing that business with Circuit City, which is notoriously BAD when it comes to just about everything short of closing the store on time.
I agree that CC should honor their guarantee, but in the long run the guy should either get his shopping done earlier and elsewhere, taking this as a lesson learned.
@DoubleEcho: How many times have people been warned for pointing out that victims shouldn't shop at different places (like Best Buy/Circuit City)?
@thrid001: Not to mention the fact that freeshippingday.com was dubiously reliable from the beginning - listing Amazon, for example, which Amazon reps immediately denied...
@Quilt: Well the article says that he waited until Dec 18 at 12:01 so that he could get free shipping. While still late in the month, he probably planned on doing this at least a couple days prior.
I agree with some of the sentiments above. I think this guy was just looking for Consumerist publicity. Who waits to order guaranteed shipping until 12:01AM on... which day? He didn't fully specify. Was that December 18th at night, which is really the 19th, or was that December 17th at night?
And yeah, why were you shopping at Circuit City anyway, they suck.
The only reason you could've been upset is if they DID charge you shipping.
And lastly, once a company ships a product out, its UPS' responsibility. He didn't mention anything about that either. Maybe they shipped all the packages on time, and UPS failed to deliver them on time.
Lot of loopholes in his story. Still don't see why he was shopping at circuit city, especially for female nieces. Lots of places sell iPods.
@Quilt: Good for you that you did your shopping early, I'm truly happy for you. But this isn't an article about procrastination, or early Christmas shopping. This is about false advertising really. It doesn't matter if the OP ordered at 11:59 December 24th, if the company guarantees orders placed before that date will be delivered in time, it should be delivered. If they fail to do so proper reparations should be made. It's that simple, I see no reason to blame the op here.
@sleze69: The Consumerist never said he shouldn't shop there. They said that Circuit City should be banned from participating in the next free shipping day, but then admitted that it was unlikely that CC would last that long.
I waited until December 18th to do any shopping at all, because of the free shipping guarantee. Okay... I was recovering from surgery... and not in the mood to shop, but still....
Guarantee is a very strong word with serious legal implications in the advertising world.
However, what were the terms of the guarantee? Did the fine print say, "guaranteed delivery by X date or you will receive a $5 gift card."?
To counter with a happy shipping story, I ordered an American Girl doll for my daughter on the 18th and even though they couldn't guarantee delivery before the 30th (the date we were scheduled to fly back home from the in-laws) it arrived well in advance of Christmas Day.
Kudos were deserved.
@sicknick: I had this exact issue with UPS when shipping my parents' Christmas gifts. I waited till Monday (dumb, I know, but that's how it worked out) and when I went to UPS to ship them they gave me an estimated arrival date of Wednesday if I shipped ground, but it wasn't guaranteed. I said "OK, then let's do overnight shipping." "That's an estimated delivery of Wednesday but it's not guaranteed." Apparently Tuesday doesn't exist. They confirmed that I had gotten there more than early enough for the package to go out that day.
Everything got there in time, but next time I'm mailing USPS. I've had better luck with them then either UPS or FedEx, which is scary in itself.
@sicknick: Hopefully UPS refunds what you paid them for the shipping! I would push for it. Clause or no, you requested and paid for a certain level of shipping that you did not receive. It's not like the high volume of packages at Christmas is a surprise to them.
As people have said, the freeshippingday.com website was of dubious credibility. Did any of the listed participants actually have information about freeshippingday.com on their own websites? Anybody can make a website that says, "Company X will give you 90% off if you shop there on this day." Does that mean the merchant has to comply? I see no credible links on the freeshippingday.com website. Even the "press" section appears to be made up articles, there's no source listed.
@YNinja: Maybe the guarantee was, "Delivered before Christmas or you get this shiny new $5 gift card!"
In which case, they kept their end of the bargain.
That's BS. snapfish.com changed their Christmas shipping guarantee at the last minute on me, and I complained bigtime. It turned out to be a pretty big problem for them, and they offered 50% back on everyone's order who got screwed. That amounted to $70 for me (I bought a bunch of custom calendars). Companies screw up, but they really need to make right by the customer.
@wcnghj: That's doing it right, but if they didn't get it to you in time, what was the recourse? I mean, do you get a free camera? An insincere apology? I think the last time there was a guarantee that a company worried about keeping was when Domino's had to give you your pizza for nothing. A guarantee with no consequence for failure is nothing.
@Preyfar: Stop blaming the victim. It's his money and his choice to spend it at whichever store he wants. Just like it's his right to complain if the store refuses to honor its guarantees.
@Sean Tapscott: Still don't see why people think the suckier the store, the more excusable it is when it screws customers.
I always find it questionable, these shipping guarantees, I mean, if they cared about losing the customer in the first place, they'd do their jobs right and not promise what they couldn't deliver. Failing their word means nothing because the consequences mean nothing. A store with a low price guarantee "or you can kick the manager in the crotch" would get alllllllllll my business.