Reader Sue saw this sign at Circuit City and snapped a picture of it for us.
ELECTRONICS
Ex-Best Buy Employee Regrets Selling Warranties Now That He's A Customer
By 9.15.08
We just got an email from reader Mike, who claims to be a former Best Buy employee who regrets selling all those extended warranties now that he’s actually trying to use the one that he purchased.
Circuit City Says Rogue Firedog Was Wrong, Refunds $40 'Repair' Fee
By 8.28.08
Last week we wrote about a Circuit City customer who was charged $40 without warning for “repairs” to a brand new computer. We received several explanations from Circuit City insiders, both in the comments and through email, that the repair was mandatory—Acer and Circuit City had agreed that instead of pulling the PCs, the retailer’s Firedog techs would flash the BIOS in-store upon purchase. What was unclear was how or why this would fall under the Firedog “Quickstart” service, which is optional and includes things like removing shortcuts from your desktop and setting up your background. (Seriously, check it out here.) Yesterday we received the following interesting email from Circuit City HQ.
Circuit City Firedog Charges $40 To 'Fix' Computer You Just Bought
By 8.22.08
Update: Circuit City says the repair should have been free. Here’s their response. Travis writes that a friend of his just bought a new computer from Circuit City, and after turning down all of the Firedog’s “it won’t work unless you also buy this” offers, he noticed a $40 fee on his receipt. Turns out the associate claims he had to flash the computer’s BIOS or Vista wouldn’t work. Travis writes, “Regardless of the fact that Vista booted up just fine with out the update, he was more disturbed with the fact that Circuit City would sell him a computer that they knew didn’t work, or so they say.” So does Circuit City sell computers that don’t work without a preliminary repair, or do they lie in order to generate extra fees?
Homeland Security: We Can Detain Your Laptop Indefinitely Without Cause
By 8.2.08
The Orwellian Department of Homeland Security claims that it can indefinitely confiscate laptops and iPods from law abiding citizens without any provocation or justification. The Department “clarified” their policies after several business travelers started asking the press why Homeland Security was fiddling with their laptops and PDAs for months on end.
Bear Breaks Into Circuit City, Has As Much Luck Locating An Employee As You Do
By 7.16.08
Colorado Springs police say that the vandal who broke into a closed Circuit City wasn’t trying to steal electronics — it was a confused black bear.
Want Safe Skies? Strap This Remote-Controlled Stun Device To Yourself!
By 7.7.08
Make of this what you will, as the story comes from the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s church-owned Washington Times and may be more fiction than fact, but “a senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser.” Yes, the EMD Safety Bracelet from Lamperd Less Lethal is designed to make flying a fun experience once again. Just check out everything it can do:
- Take the place of an airline boarding pass.
- Contain personal information about the traveler.
- Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage.
- Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes.
Circuit City Loses Even More Money: $164.8 Million
By 6.20.08
Circuit City reported yesterday that they’ve managed to lose $164.8 million in the first quarter, which is even more money than they managed to lose in the previous disastrous quarter. In fact, this will be their 5th straight losing quarter. Same-store sales, considered the most important indicator of the health of a retailer, dropped 11.3 percent. Ow!
RESOLVED: Circuit City 24 Minute Guarantee Means Whatever Rob, The Supervisor, Says It Means
By 6.19.08
Dustin wrote back to let us know that Circuit City corporate had contacted him about his difficulty with their “24 minute guarantee.” It seems that the general manger of the store had misunderstood the guarantee completely. Apologies were given and gift cards were received.
Best Buy Trained MePossibly Trained Other Employees I Heard About To Commit Credit Card Fraud, And 4 More Bad Things
By 5.13.08
A commenter to our Worst Company in America nominations picked Best Buy, his employer of six years, to win it all. His reasons, including the credit card fraud, phony bundling scams, and other schemes they made him do to keep his job he heard rumors about happening at other Best Buys, inside. UPDATE: The original commenter has contacted us to say that these things did not actually happen to him and he was not trained to do them by Best Buy. Rather, he heard about them happening at other Best Buys or read about them in other Consumerist articles, and, in a pique of anger, wrote a long comment that remixed all this information together and framed it as if it happened to him. Consumerist regrets the error, and the commenter has been banned.
By 5.12.08
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Blu-ray players just aren’t selling that well, says Business Week. Maybe that’s because Sony has said that prices for players “likely won’t fall below $200 until the end of next year—at the earliest.” [Business Week]
"Free Engraving" For Electronics Really Means "Ha, Ha, You Can't Return This Unless It's Defective"
By 5.8.08
Certain electronics retailers such as Apple and Sony offer engraving for laptops, cameras and MP3 players. It may seem like a nice service, but it really saves them lots of money. Why? Engraved products can’t be returned just because you couldn’t figure out how to use the product or because you realized that you spent too much on it and now have to eat peanut butter and corn tortilla sandwiches for a month to avoid defaulting on your student loan.
Circuit City Sells Employee Busted Floor Model TV, Refuses To Accept Return
By 5.4.08
Anthony paid Circuit City $1,271 for a new 40″ Samsung LN40A550, but what he received was a “scratched up, dinged to hell, beaten and abused FLOOR MODEL OPEN BOX” LN40A330. As a Circuit City employee, Anthony thought exchanging the TV or receiving a refund would be a cinch. Boy, was he wrong.
Best Buy: Only $1700 For This Awesome Broken Computer
By 4.14.08
I was wandering around Best Buy yesterday here in Missouri when we came across this. Essentially, the back of this “open box” tagged computer was completely broken off. I realize that this may indeed be the nature of “open box” product, but seriously… 1700 dollars for a computer with this kind of blatant damage?
7 Confessions Of A Sears Electronics Salesperson
By 4.9.08
A Sears electronics salesperson has generously offered to share some insider knowledge of how the game is played at Sears.
Best Buy Provides Excellent Customer Service!
By 4.1.08
You don’t become the number one retailer of electronics to American consumers without getting a few things right awesome, as Daniel shows us in this letter of compliment he sent The Conglomerist about a recent experience at Best Buy:
I stopped in the other night because my old HD DVD player died so I went in hoping to get a deal. On the shelf I found 2 open box Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD players. Looking around I found the department head Derrik and we went back over to the DVD player aisle.
