CircuitCity.com Reborn As... Circuit City!
CircuitCity.com is back, and it looks eerily familiar. The zombie website is now controlled by Systemax, the same folks who own Tiger Direct. Though the new site may look similar to the old, no doubt part of Systemax's goal to keep alive a "proud brand that America has grown to count on," it isn't nearly as consumer-friendly as we would like...
Consider CircuitCity.com's new return policy, which looks like something you'd expect to see returning from a Mexican escapade:
Let's compare the policy to NewEgg's.
NewEgg generally lets you return an item for either a refund or replacement. Not Systemax. They reserve the right to refuse all returns, and if they do take back your newly orphaned product, "such returns will be for store credit or refund at CircuitCity.com's sole discretion."
NewEgg also replaces software and accepts for return unused consumables like printer cartridges. Systemax does neither.
And don't even think of returning anything from "Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson and others." Their products are "not returnable to CircuitCity.com FOR ANY REASON."
Circuit City may be a "proud brand that America has grown to count on," but this isn't Circuit City. It's Systemax. Before buying, shop around and make sure you understand all the new policies.
(And no, you can't return things from the old CircuitCity.com.)
CircuitCity.com
RETURN PROCEDURE [Circuit City]
NewEgg RMA Procedures [NewEgg]
NewEgg Return Policies [NewEgg] (Thanks to everyone who submitted to the tipline!)
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Comments:
It's the same as Tigerdirect (Basically) but with a new front-end. I haven't had problems with Tigerdirect's return policy, as they haven't refused things when I had a legit reason to return then. The policy may seem harsh, but they are not going to be total assholes about it.
Carey is just nit-picking at the return policy. In reality? Systemax is a great company which has pretty competitive prices compared to newegg.
Circus City not consumer friendly!?!
I am SHOCKED...
No really... where's everyone going...
I've heard so many horror stories with TigerDirect over the years that I'm not going to touch CircuitCity.com with a 50ft pole.
Then again, I've also heard a few positive things about TD over the last few years.... hmmmm... better check if their page at the BBB has improved from "epic fail"
And don't even think of returning anything from "Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson and others."
Basically a lazy and vague way of saying "If nothing else denies your return, we'll just say it's a brand we don't allow"
i got an email also stating linensnthings.com is alive and well. what happened to the good ole days when going out of business meant GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. this just all seems fishy to me. my opinion.
is systemax the same company that brought CompUSA back as well?
@paulrules:
" The policy may seem harsh, but they are not going to be total assholes about it." And you can guarantee this how? I guess I should stop believing my lieing eyes when I read this?! Sounds like a fair warning to any responsible consumer that values reasonable return policies to stay away. I don't like to gamble, count me out.
"... and others"? That could be any manufacturer they want to make up at the time? Looks like nothing has changed at Tigerdirect and I'll be avoiding them in the future as I have been avoiding them before.
I'm sure there will be some tempting rebate offers to tempt me, too.
Newegg is basically the bestest electronics store in the known galaxy, and I'd never waste my time with Circuit City for any reason. Just let the brand die already.
I can return bad parts to tiger direct Naperville, IL very very easy and get a good part same day.
WOW. I was happy to see someone try and fix the CC brand, I have not purchased from Systemax or their divisions before and was not aware of their HORRID return policy. Thank you for pointing this out!
If they don't accept a return for non conforming merchandise, then they will get hammered with a charge back and lose both the item, the money and a charge back fee.
Systemax = TigerDirect = Horrible
@Siegeman: I've personally never had anything less than stellar support from them. A few years ago a motherboard/cpu that I bought from them was fried. It broke only a few weeks past their standard warranty period and not only did they still honor the warranty but they replaced them with a newer product since the original was no longer available. I didn't even need to ask, they just did it. I do most of my purchasing through them for work (currently through the compUSA brand), and we get the same level of service on our corporate account.
2028: I am writing this hoping
someone will receive this message
from the future. All hope has been
lost. Most American companies have
gone bankrupt and been bought by
Systemax. Their Return Policy is
now enforceable by law. Returns
are punishable by death. All items
are shipped in giant sized boxes.
Systemax forces us all to wear
Snuggies. All products come with a
rebate which is never received
because Systemax now owns the post
office too. If you are receiving
this message don't let them buy
Circuit City. That is the beginning
of the end. I have to run now.
The resistance leader Ben Popken
is going to try one more desperate
gambit to change the timeline...
I finally got my rebate from the original CircuitCity.com. Just 5 months after they said they mailed it! I'm shocked I got it at all. I still won't believe it until the check fully clears the bank.
@ds143: yes
i don't understand why they want to support 3 different brands... we know how well that worked for Wolf Camera/Ritz/whatever else they bought
@twophrasebark: You play like a broken record. Can't someone say they like a company and disagree with your rating without you posting the same stupid "oh hey guyz. i bet this guys getting his pay from the place place he likes rofl lolz".
Why don't you sing a Systemax jingle or do a TigerDirect dance? You are so a whore for them. How much did they pay you to write that?
After reading everything it's easy to make a decision - I'm just gonna stay with Newegg and stay away from the "Circuit City Rebrand" of Systemax. It's not the old CC so why bother?
@f3rg: I'm glad Newegg FINALLY opened a .ca store, I've wanted to order from newegg for the longest time but they never used to ship to Canada.
The article implies its Systemax's policy not to accept returns of "IBM, Compaq, Epson, etc." It's not. Go to their 'Return Policy' page:
[www.circuitcity.com]
"Some manufacturers have implemented returns restrictions that prevent CircuitCity.com from being able to accept returns or offer exchanges, replacements or credits on their products. Products from manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson and others are not returnable to CircuitCity.com FOR ANY REASON. "
I guess someone didn't expect any readers would actually read CircuitCity.com's return policy. That's offensive.
It think there was a mis-spelling in the name. It should read 'Suck It City".
Ugh, Tigerdirect/Systemax...
Watch your fingers & toes. Every now and then they bite. Hard.
We ordered a notebook from them just last week. Time was short so we paid for express shipping. It was late in the day so that means it was to arrive on the 2nd day.
The 2nd day arrives. They call and state there's a problem. "The billing address and shipping address are different." No kidding. We went through this while ordering by phone. The owner's card is billed to his home and the card company has both on file. There's a load of available credit and the card company doesn't have a problem with the now common scenario. This is entirely a TD delay.
Really, I don't have a problem with them adding their own layer of security to credit card orders. I know fraud is a PITA. But waiting two days to call on an order for which we paid a significant shipping premium is completely daft.
I don't think any company is as friendly as Consumerist would like them to be.
I grew to count on Circuit City as my LAST RESORT many years ago before they even sold computers. I went there to buy my first computer. Back when Apple, Atari, and Commodore were the main choices. I figured they call themselves Circuit City, and computers are FULL of circuits.
It just never got any better . . .
The all new circuitcity.com website sucks. It's nothing like the original. Believe or not, the original circuit city.com was one of the top 20 sites visited during the holiday seasons. There are a couple problems with this new website like they do not have in store pickup option. (Try finding the product a tigerdirect store!!!). The old circuit city carried a better line of televisions with middle to higher end models. Unfortunately the "new" circuit city only carries lower end or televisions that are out of production. (exactly like tiger direct) I'm extremely disappointed that systemax did not negotiate with vendors to bring newer and middle to higher end television models. They would be taken more serious by best buy or jr.com and provided stiff competition in the online and big box realm. Other than the main page, the rest of the layout is pretty bad. I know most of you folks hated circuit city but you had to admit that the old website was considered one of the best. It was easy and simple and visually looked better(compared to any consumer electronics website look at archive.org).
Another thing thats sad is the return policy is almost nonexistent. While it is not a surprise for products like big products like televisions purchased from online only retailers but no return policy's on laptops and many accessories. Whats up with that!? One last thing is the extended warranties that systemax offers is outrageously expesive compared to the old circuit city, best buy, new egg or any other retailer. I know people think it's a rip off but it's ridiculous that you would be charging more then your competitors. I use to work at circuit city and knew that our warranties were very expensive but who knew that they can top that.
Anyways I like tigerdirect and shop in their stores to buy only pc parts. I think systemax could of done a better job in handling the branding rights to circuit city. They should make improvements to exceed the original but they seem to take a step back. The only improvement is pricing but they need to improve on getting better product line and improve return policy's. Hopefully systemax will listen and treat circuit city as a separate entity. Love or hate circuit city, their website actually made the company money. There website was really the only good thing that kept the company afloat so long. It just their brick and mortar stores are, admittedly poor(blame senior management is the culprit). Systemax needs to do a better job if they want to retain former circuitcity.com customers or bring in new customers. Copy and pasting will not get it done folks!!
@ds143: That's right. Now, why any company would want to brand itself with the brands of 2 complete failures is beyond me.
I understand buying the stock left in these stores at fire sale prices, but you don't have to wallow in the soot.
@paulrules: So, if their prices are the same as Newegg's, and their return policy is just as good as Newegg's, then why not just shop at Newegg where you know their prices are about the best you'll get, they have an extremely liberal return policy and possibly the best customer service in the industry?
No, I'm not a paid shill for Newegg. Just a loyal customer of theirs.
@NigerianScammer: Hey, that's what we call [or more accurately, how we pronounce] our (ok, not really 'ours' but the bigshots') new ball park in Queens, NY.
@legwork: I would have hoped that you'd get an email or call fairly quickly after you submit your order. Or for that matter, to not even allow the order to go through. How difficult is it for the ordering system to verify the addresses? It's not very difficult (see, I could be a good lawyer since I already knew the answer to my question).
Did they credit you the 'premium' express shipping charges?
TigerDirect has been a somewhat shady company since they were the mail-order place out of Miami back in the early 90s.
I personally have had mixed results with them. More not-so-great than good experiences. Not quite horrible, but enough that I'll pay a little extra and buy elsewhere.
I go to the tigerdirect/compusa/whatever it's called this month in Naperville, IL and have no issue with returns there. I bought an Acer Aspire One a month or so ago and within a few days, the keyboard stopped working. Returned it and they exchanged it on the spot. Took 10 minutes. (And was a refurb! Was like $230. Saved a hundred by getting it refurb one).
If you live in the chicago suburbs and want something from Tigerdirect, just go to the naperville store with the item number from the website and they can usually get it from the back. Saved on shipping and you get it same day. Can't beat that!
@paulrules: I had a number of unfortunate experiences buying from the slime at TigerDirect. NEVER NEVER NEVER again. I can't believe nobody's yet figured out that they're a bunch of scammers.
Point taken ... but there are still two problems here.
1. If the manufacturers have imposed these restrictions, do they also affect other vendors like Newegg? I'm not aware they have. Systemax may claim it's the manufacturers imposing these terms on them, but if those terms aren't imposed on other vendors, the only reasonable conclusion one can draw from it, is that Systemax made up those terms themselves, and are blaming them on the manufacturers, who in reality had nothing to do with it.
2. Did you notice the "and others" part? How exactly is this specific enough for a buyer to know if the product he buys is affected by this supposedly-manufacturer-imposed policy? If I buy a Western Digital drive or a Logitech mouse, will I be able to return it? The "and others" part doesn't tell me. But should I decide to return one of them, Systemax could easily tell me that Logitech and WD are part of the "and others" in that policy.
Interesting to see the Systemax supporters coming on this site, touting how wonderful this deficient return policy is, expecting that people won't see through it for what it really is ... a sham. (And worse than that, an outright lie, if in fact the manufacturers have not imposed a "no returns" restriction on them.)
I'll keep buying from Newegg. When you guys get around to offering a return policy that's even remotely fair to buyers, I'll reconsider. But not until then ... and certainly not until you guys can be honest about it.
Possibly not. But that doesn't mean one has to lower one's standards.
Not only that ... I suspect that using Newegg's policy as a counterexample to Systemax's, strongly suggests that they approve of Newegg's.
Boy, you know a company must be pathetic when they decide to conduct business using the name of a dead company that was itself long considered toxic.
I doubt any regular readers of this blog will be making any purchases from the reborn CC any time soon...
@Siegeman: I once bought some software from TigerDirect. The CD was loose inside of the plastic packaging and it was scratch beyond repair. I tried the CD on several computers and it just didn't work.
I contacted TigerDirect to get a replacement. They told me that they sent me the last copy they had and that they didn't have any more on order. I asked for a refund, they refused, they would only give me store credit. There was nothing else that I wanted or needed, I wanted a refund so that I could order the software from another company.
It's not like I was trying to return the software because I didn't like it. It was sold to me damaged and they kept my money.
I haven't bothered with them since. I recommend others that they stay away from them because of their customer unfriendly return policies.
Tiger Direct sold me an external hard drive stating it was brand new. Of course the sticker on the case itself said warranty void if removed. So I opened the casing and it was a refurbished drive. I hate that word...
I don't like Tiger Direct and their lies.
Dell is suing Tiger Direct for misleading advertising. I don't see how the same management can end up improving the Circuit City brand. Further information about Dell's lawsuit is at: [www.theregister.co.uk]
I don't get it, what's the difference?
@nybiker: Nope. Due to all of us being swamped, we ate it, along with our pride. OTOH, it's highly unlikely they'll see more business from us for a very long time.
It's always shitty at the city.