Question of the Day: Will You Miss Circuit City? [Question Of The Day]

Sur le même thème que "Question of the Day: Will You Miss Circuit City? [Question Of The Day]"

Circuit City questions Blockbuster takeover finances

Last week saw video and game rental chain Blockbuster make a public $1 billion bid for electronics retailer Circuit City. At that time, Blockbuster accused Circuit City of not providing information the suitor requested to make a definitive proposal. ... [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Firedog Charges $40 To 'Fix' Computer You Just Bought [Firedogs]

Trent 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. Trent 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? A colleague of mine recently purchased a new Acer desktop for his dad from Circuit City in Lancaster, PA. After the checkout process he noticed a $40 charge from Firedog on his receipt. When he questioned the Circuit City employee about the charge, she replied "Firedog had to fix the computer by updating the bios." He had seen an advertisement in a local newspaper for a desktop that he felt was a good buy. He knew that his dad was still using an aging desktop and thought this system would be perfect for the kind of tasks his dad uses the computer for. So he drove 30 minutes to pick up the system to give his dad later that evening. When he got to Circuit City, he quickly picked it out proceeded to an employee to purchase system. The first thing out of the sales associates mouth were, "You'll need to upgrade the system if you plan on using it for anything beyond surfing the web.". A little history about my friend, he is the new systems purchaser for the company we work for. He knows about hardware and software and what they are capable of doing. He is NOT an unexperienced buyer when it comes to computers. So he turned down the video card upgrade, the hard drive upgrade and memory upgrade that the sales associated recommended he would need. Of course all of these upgrades were services that Firedog could perform for a fee. He told the sales associate, "Look, I know what I'm buying and this is all I need.". After convincing the sales associate of this, they finally started the check out process. So he slides his credit card through and signs for the purchase. The sales associate hands him his receipt and he is on his way to his dad's with his new computer. Until, after a quick scan of the receipt, he notices a $40 charge from Firedog. He turns right around and asks the sales associate what the line item was for. The sales associate replies that Firedog needed to setup Windows Vista and flash the bios for the computer to work. What? To which he replies, "So you setup Vista, which was working just fine in order to update the bios?". Yes, says the sales associate. 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. Unfortunately, he was short on time and did not press the issue in the store. Later the next day he sent off an email to the Firedog supervisor for the store explaining his disappointment in the nickel and dime charge. Back to school shoppers beware!!! Trent, your friend shouldn't stop with the Firedog supervisor of the store. He should contact Circuit City's executive level and let them know that you specically refused any additional "help" from this Firedog associate, only to have him meddle with your purchase without your consent and then charge you for it. They owe your friend a $40 refund. [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Wastes Hours Of Your Time, Only To Sell You An Empty Box [Boxes Of Crap]

Reader Chris spend hours trying to buy God of War 2 from Circuit City, only to get stuck with an empty box. Yuck! Chris writes: I never imagined a simple videogame purchase would turn out to be such a nightmare! Two days ago I came across Circuit City's online ad, advertising God of War 2 was on sale AGAIN! for $9.99. Vowing not to miss this second chance I telephoned my local store - #0421 the Van Nuys location the following day. [redacted] said they had just sold their last copy, but according to the system the Woodland Hills ( #0419 ) store held 2 copies. I high-tailed it over there, but not before speaking with [redacted] there to confirm. I arrived at the store to find their Playstation 2 shelves in utter disarray, but after a rather quick search found God of War. The sequel was not there. I flagged down a young lady and asked her if they held any copies, citing my previous conversation with [redacted]. She mentioned sometimes the computer was inaccurate, but went to check in the back and sent another associate to browse along with me. After flipping through all their games I returned to the front whereupon she told me they had none. I politely asked if she would assist me in locating a copy. Her first result was that Van Nuys had 8! I told her I'd just spoken with someone from that store to no avail. While she called around I called back [redacted] at Van Nuys & told her I was in their Woodland Hills store without the game. She offered another location - Hollywood. After assuring me she could do nothing more than offer me their number I took down the Hollywood number and hung up. I noticed the young lady helping me seemed somewhat flustered at this point. She told me that upon inquiring at another store the associate was bold enough to tell her they were "not going to waste their time looking for a $10 game" and hung up. I called up store #0401 - Hollywood. While on hold she told me their Glendale store not only had a copy but was willing to hold it for me. She took my name & printed out directions for me. I hung up with the Hollywood store & thanked her for all her help. I arrived at store #3361 hours later after battling traffic, to find a couple of copies on the shelf and another game, Namco Museum ( PS2 ) and happily traipsed to the register to checkout. I paid and left thinking that would be the end of it. After arriving home battling a second wave of traffic I sat down to enjoy the spoils of war. I first noticed a chalky substance on the top surface of the game where the wrapping closes & then how the container seemed rather light. I shook the box and was able to hear something shifting about inside. I wrote this off realizing the game was a 2 disc set. Imagine my rage when upon tearing off the wrapper & opening the cart to find the registration card & disc 2 - the special features! No game. No manual. I'd heard the horror stories but thought surely they wouldn't apply to a brand new "sealed" game. And of course as luck would have it I'd just read your article on "What To Do When A Store Sells You Box of Crap". This experience could not have epitomized "caveat emptor" more! A Very Disgruntled Chris Wow, what a crappy day you had. We hope you bought the game with a credit card, because then you can do a chargeback and your story can have a happy ending. If not, you might want to launch an EECB on Circuit City and see if they can't help you out. After all, the game was only 10 bucks. Your continued loyalty as a customer should be worth that much? Right? For more information about launching an EECB, click here. (Photo: Mach1Power ) [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Gets A Loan, Lives To Fight Another Day [Circuit City Death Watch]

Circuit City has secured a loan from Bank of America that will pay for its operating expenses until it emerges from bankruptcy next year, says Bloomberg. This financing gives CC a new lease on life — Yes, we may yet see the bankrupt retailer rise from the ashes to continue its proud tradition of ignoring customers who are standing at the register. [Bloomberg] (Photo: tagurity ) Read More: Circuit City Liquidator Demonstrates Its Ability To Do Math, Timeline: How Circuit City Came Undone, Insider: Smart Shoppers Are Going To Circuit City Stores That Aren't Closing, Poll: Will You Shop At Bankrupt Circuit City? [lien] [EN]

Dear New Circuit City CEO: Here's How To Fix Your Stores [Circuit City]

Yesterday, we asked you to tell us how Circuit City's new CEO should fix his stores. It's been a troubled few years for Circuit City. Before the former CEO resigned last week, he'd embarked on an expensive and drastic "turn around" plan that, well, let's be honest — failed. First, he tried firing everyone who knew anything about the products that Circuit City sold (about 3,400 experienced salespeople) then, he responded to the inevitable tsunami of blood that followed... (2nd quarter losses of $62.8 million, and 3rd quarter losses of $207.3 million) by unveiling a retention program that would reward each top executive with $1 million. Meanwhile, Circuit City's human resources department was wading through their own entrails and trying to hire their own fired employees back. Finally, Blockbuster tried to move in and take over Circuit City — hoping to "differentiate products in both Blockbuster and Circuit City stores by offering exclusive content and content-enabled devices." Whatever that means. After taking a good hard look at Circuit City's books, Blockbuster decided that whatever Circuit City had, they didn't want to catch it, and called the deal off. It's clear that Circuit City's new CEO, James "Tourniquet" Marcum, has his work cut out for him, but here at Consumerist we're pro-success. In the spirit of a new beginning, we've decided to share your suggestions with Mr. Marcum. These comments were all written by you, the shopper. If Marcum wants to turn it around, he'd better listen up. How To Fix Circuit City by The Customers of Circuit City · CC lost their best employees, which in turn meant they lost their best trainers for new employees. How would I fix it? Hire arsonists and collect the insurance money. You're going down in flames, you may as well get paid. · Firing competent, experienced staff so they can hire incompetent inexperienced staff at a lower hourly rate is only one step above off-shoring (which is kind of difficult to do if you want your store staffed with live people on-site!). Scumbags, that's what Circuit City's upper management are: Scumbags. And honestly, I'm insulting scumbags by making the comparison. · When spending at least $2,000 on a HDTV or Plasma TV, I don't think that I can trust the expertise of a 17 year old high school dropout to guide me into choosing which one might be best for me. · Fix the damn CD and DVD sections. Seriously, can anyone find one thing they're looking for?... Highlight the gadgets! I hear people like little handheld things these days. Maybe make them easier to find, easier to fondle etc... Blow everyone away with friendly returns/customer service. Unlike Best Buy where they like to accuse you of committing a crime when returning something. · Stop selling Monster Cable! They would sell exponentially more cables if they didn't want $103 for 6' of HDMI cable. If I see a retailer selling Monster Cable, I will usually look for an excuse not to buy something from them. · The only *good* thing about Circuit City customer service is that it's SO bad, they usually just ignore you. And ironically, I count that as a plus, as there's no faster way to turning me off in a store than to be pestered by incompetent customer service. At least when I walk into a Circuit City, I know that the reps are all going to be huddled together in the part of the store farthest away from me, so I'll be left alone to browse at my leisure. · Make the executives work for a month at random Circuit City stores, with no power or authority to make changes. Spend one week at each in the "Customer Service Booth", and require them to provide responses to each and every inquiry. · What do I find wrong with Circuit City? They have higher prices than their competitors, and most of the time they don't have what I want. How do you fix that? Cheaper prices. Better selection. Aggressively letting people know that they have both. · Reduce the size of the stores and aim for the higher end customers. Make sure everyone selling an item is an expert on that item, or at least on that category. Spend money on wages, benefits and training to attract and retain those people.In other words, become the opposite of what Circuit City is now, because you're not the best at that and you probably never will be. · Integrate the CircuitCity stores with the CircuitCity website, with the goal of making shopping easier and less stressful. · Does anyone get that good feeling that they get in BB when they walk into Circuit City? No. The stores look ancient, the cust. service is just piss poor, there are never any cash registers open at any store. · Most of these kinds of stores put a bunch of cheap ass computers on display, then hire a moron to help customers. Real computer experts only go to CC or Best Buy because they are in a pinch- not because they want to. I could go to Target and get the same stuff they sell at CC, but it is cheaper. · Stop selling the same thing as Best Buy. Switch to high-end computer parts and systems only. At least then you'd have something different... as it is, there is nothing different between Circuit City and Best Buy. · I would love it if I could feel like when I go in and need to ask a question, it's not being answered by someone who just picks up the box and reads what I just read. Since CEOs are super busy, we'll summarize: Hire people who know what they're doing. Offer a better selection of products that will interest high-end cash-heavy consumers, and staff your store with people who know at least as much as they do. Clean your stores. Hire enough people so that you can have a register open at all times. Concentrate on the products that people actually want to buy, like handheld devices, cameras, consoles, and other gadgets. Mop the floor and tidy up. Don't let your employees huddle in the back of the store. Make shopping through the website easy. Lower the prices on your accessories to compete with Best Buy. Find friendly people and put them to work behind the customer service desk. Good luck. Read More: Circuit City Is Hemorrhaging Money: How Would You Fix It?, Is This Computer Water Damaged? Circuit City Says Yes, Circuit City CEO Resigns, Can't Afford A Soda? Get A Circuit City Credit Card! [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Lies About Guitar Hero Release Date To Get You To Go Away [Circuit City Death Watch]

David went to Circuit City yesterday to buy a copy of the new Guitar Hero game, which, according to our extensive research, is currently on sale at Circuit City. Unfortunately, the employees at this particular store refused to sell him the game, then lied about its release date, so that they wouldn't have to correct an error in their computer system. Why were they so reluctant to fix the mistake? Because the game was priced at $10,000 in the system, and to mark it down to its actual price would "look bad." David launched an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) on Circuit City and CC'd us. Let's listen in: I came to Circuit City hoping to purchase Guitar Hero: World Tour Complete Band Set for my wife's birthday. I had tried several other stores before coming to Circuit City, but all were sold out. When I arrived and asked an associate if they had the complete band set in stock, I was pleased to learn that they had one left. However, when they attempted to ring the item up, instead of the $189.99 list price, the item rang up at $10,000.00. We all had a good laugh at this as the associate went for a manager to clear up the error. The manager looked at the price and told me that that normally happens when an item is marked unavailable because the item was not yet at its release date. Of course, this game was released last Tuesday, Oct. 28, and the manager and various sales associates told me that they had already sold a ton of them. After speaking to his supervisor on the phone (I believe it was a district manager), I was told that they could do a price adjustment to the correct price, but since that would throw off some numbers, would it be all right with me if they set the item available online, where the price is correct, and just pay for it on the web with immediate "in-store" pickup? I was happy to do whatever was needed, and did not mind helping, so I said sure. Unfortunately, for the next 45 minutes I waited as the employee trying to make this happen ran back and forth from computer to computer trying to get the inventory and the website to match up. Finally, as I had been in the store over an hour at that point, I asked that the manager just do the price adjustment and let me buy the game. He got back on the phone with the district or regional manager, and I was the told that the Guitar Hero: World Tour Complete Band Set was not supposed to be released until NEXT Tuesday, so they could not sell it to me. This is untrue. Multiple CC employees told me that they had sold many of the sets earlier in the week. Also, here is a small list of stores and sites selling the set as of RIGHT NOW: —WalMart —Best Buy —Target —Amazon —CIRCUIT CITY (At multiple stores, according to the website) When I told the manager this was not true and that the manager had in fact earlier offered to simply price adjust the price, the truth emerged. The district manager told the store manager that a price adjustment that large would make their numbers look really bad, so they could not do it. The "It hasn't been released yet" line was just that, a lie to tell me so I would leave. This is unacceptable. This is what I would like from Circuit City: 1. An explanation why Circuit City's internal variance numbers are more important than a customer trying to spend several hundred dollars at your store, and why I was lied to. 2. An acknowledgment that the item I was trying to buy was in fact available, and that I should have been allowed to purchase it. 3. A phone call from the District Manager, Regional Manager, or higher up at corporate to explain 1. and 2. to me. Finally, one personal observation...perhaps it is customer service like this that is forcing you to close 155 of your stores? Sincerely, David UPDATE: David has an update and a happy ending! David says: I wanted to give you an update for my Circuit City issue. This morning I got a phone call from the District Manager for the Memphis stores and surrounding areas, Michael. He was "mortified" and had investigated the issue with the store in question as well as the asset manager that the store called. He went over what happened with me and addressed all my points. Apparently, there was a company-wide glitch that goofed up the price for my item. He apologized profusely during our 15 minute conversation, and though I did not ask for it, he gave me the complete band set for free. I just got back from Circuit City, and the game was waiting for me there. So, Circuit City, or at least Michael, really went over and above to address my issue. Read More: Rumors: Circuit City's "Unbeatable Price Guarantee" No Longer Unbeatable? [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Gets a New Lease on Life (Literally) [Circuit City]

Circuit City might yet outdo Best Buy on Black Friday deals for another year. Bank of America has given Circuit City a $1.1 billion loan that'll help cover its operating expenses until it's expected to come out of bankruptcy next year, giving it a second chance. Still, I don't see how even a billion dollars will cover all the money they owe people like Samsung and HP. I mean, I'd be busting some kneecaps if I were them. Circuit City is over $2.3 billion in debt. It owes $119 million to HP and over $116 million to Samsung—it's not a stretch to imagine they owe double digit millions to Sony and LG too. Still, will Circuit City use this second chance to make amends like near-death experience survivors normally do, or will it simply relapse into another black hole suckage, so we'll get to do this dance all over again next year? I hope they pull it out, personally—their new releases are always at least a buck or two cheaper than Best Buy, and I can stand being ignored for five minutes to save a dollar. [Bloomberg via Consumerist] Read More: Question of the Day: Will You Miss Circuit City?, Circuit City Goes Bankrupt, Files for Chapter 11 Protection, Massive Losses in Bloody Job Massacre at Circuit City Corporate, How to Buy a Liquidation Sale HDTV at Circuit City and Not Get Screwed (Hint: It's Hard) [lien] [EN]

Swap HD DVD Players for Blu-ray Players at Circuit City

If there’s one thing HD DVD players are good for these days, it’s promoting creativity. Finding something to do with your now-a-big-hunk-of-doorstop is great for exercising your cerebrum, but not so great for watching new HD movies. If you’d like to try the latter, watch some new HD movies that is, then Circuit City may be your friend. You won’t find this program advertised anywhere, but there is a bit of solace for Circuit City customers who have purchased an HD DVD player within the past three months. Take your box-O-useless back over to your local Circuit City store and you will be given a credit for the entire purchase price of the unit. The credit can then be applied towards the purchase of a new Blu-ray player. You can also opt for a Circuit City gift card if Blu-ray isn’t your thing. What does Circuit City plan to do with all of those HD DVD players? Hold open a hell of a lot of doors we would imagine… Read [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Will Access A Secret Panel In Your TV For $104.74 [Firedog]

I bought a new 46" Sony Bravia TV in January of this year from Circuit City in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City (Store#3350 801-463-4600). Being a pretty technical guy, I tweaked the brightness, contrast, color temperature and other settings to my content. The picture looks great, but I was told from friends that it's good to have the TV calibrated from a professional as they have access to a service panel that your normal everyday consumer can't get to. They're supposed to tweak the settings according to ambient light in the room, and an end result is they also reduce power consumption making the TV last longer. So I went back to Circuit City on January 28 and asked about calibration. I specifically said "are you going to do more than just tweak the brightness and contrast settings? I heard that you have access to a panel that I can't get to" The guy in the TV department said "yes, they'll tweak settings that you don't have access to, and they'll use a DVD to help calibrate the TV." So I said great, sign me up. I paid $104.74 and he told me Firedog would call to set up a time to come to my house. The technician came to my house that week. I was surprised that he only walked in with a clipboard. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I waited to see what he was going to do. He picked up the remote and tweaked the brightness and contrast settings. About 5 minutes later he was done. I said "wait, is that all you're going to do?" He said he can use his eyes to calibrate the TV and my picture looked fine. So I told him the story about my conversation with the sales guy at CC and he said they only use the DVD if the picture doesn't look right. So I tell the technician to make note of my disappointment on my records and that I would be calling for a refund. He sympathized and said no problem. I waited a few days to call as I wanted to make sure that the technician had time to notate the experience. I called the Sugarhouse location and spoke to someone in the TV department about my experience. He said he had to research it with Firedog and he would call me within 2 days. I never heard from him so I called back about 2 weeks later and that same employee wasn't available. Sugarhouse is a little bit of a drive for me, so after a couple more weeks, I drove back out to the store location and spoke to Jared, a manager, about the problem. He tried for about 5 minutes to figure out the problem and ended up saying he would have to call me back. I told him about the last time someone at Circuit City said they would call me back, and he said he would absolutely call me back within about a day. Here it is 5 days later with no call from Jared or anyone at Circuit City so I call back to speak to Jared or another manager. I'm told that they are both busy and one of them will call me back. Again, I reminded the employee about my experiences being called back and he said he'd deliver the note "right now." So now, 2 days later, I still haven't had anyone call me back, and all I want is my $104.74 refunded. It's very clear why Circuit City stock is in the tank and Best Buy's stock is up. I guess I have to drive back up to Salt Lake City again this weekend and be very loud about my problem. Brandon Well, good news Brandon. Professional calibration does exist, but it isn't what Circuit City sold you. We're actually not sure what Circuit City sold you. If you bought the service with a credit card, feel free to do a chargeback. If you're actually looking to get your TV professionally calibrated (whether you should or not is another debate for another blog) you should look for a technician in your area who has sophisticated color sensing equipment. It'll probably cost you a few hundred bucks to have the tech over to your house, but he or she will do more than look at your TV and mess with the contrast. After it's all over, they should be able to give you a print out that shows what they did to your TV. You can also buy a DVD that will help you do it yourself for about $30. Personally, if our picture already looked great we'd save ourselves the money and just tell our friends "Oh, yeah we had that done. Totally." As for prolonging the life of your TV, ESPN said this about calibration in 2004: TV sets are usually calibrated in the factory to look good on a showroom floor. In order to stand out on a showroom floor the most important factor is a bright picture. In a bright store setting, TVs are competing with both the ambient light in the room and all of the other TVs on display. The best way to draw attention to a TV is by having a bright picture. When you take your TV home though, you are not competing with other TVs (unless you have a really cool TV room) and you can control the ambient light. If you are installing your TV in a home theater setting you will probably find it blaringly bright. And, when dealing with Plasma and Rear Projection TV's, these settings can reduce the life of the set and increase the risk of "burn in." In short, turn the brightness down, buddy. Calibrating your TV [ESPN] ISF Calibration ISFForum (Photo:garavondik) [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Designates Handicapped Parking Spots "Web Order Pickup" Zone [Parking]

Ever wanted to park in the handicapped spots but didn't because of pesky laws and social norms? Well, if you place your online Circuit City order for pickup at the Cantonsville, Maryland store, you can! Reader Andy discovered that the store is flagrantly violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by using the handicapped spots as the special web order pickup zone. Andy then went inside and discovered that Circuit City ignores all kinds of policies, including their own price match guarantee. I went by my local Circuit City in Catonsville, MD today trying to get a birthday gift for my dad and noticed something interesting in the parking lot. They had the sign telling people to park for online pickup in front of the row of handicap spots. They have the deal of your order being ready in 24 minutes or you get a $24 gift card. I guess that $24 gift card would come in handy after you pay the $98 fine posted for illegally parking in the handicap spot itself. I looked around, this was the only sign they had for online pickup. Anyway, thought you might find this interesting. By the way, along with this disregard of the ADA, I also had a nice experience of Circuit City failing to follow their own 110% price match "guarantee". They were selling an external hard drive for $70 more than I had seen 15 minutes earlier, less than a mile away, but they would only offer to match the price and not give the extra 10% because 1) the price difference was "too much" (170 vs. 100) and 2) I had "seen the other price first". According to the manager, if I had bought the drive at CC first, then seen the other price, he'd give me the 10%. Unfortunately he refused to even look at the CC price match policy even though I had pulled it up for him on one of their laptops 2 feet away from him. For the record, their policy is "Find a lower advertised price from another local store with the same item in stock, and we'll gladly beat their price by 10% of the difference." Well, they didn't "gladly" do that at all. And in fact, if I had purchased it at CC first, I would have been ineligible for the extra 10% because "Plus, if you see a lower advertised price within 30 days of your purchase with us, we'll refund 100% of the difference." It became a matter of principle and it would have been a measly $7 that could have kept a customer. It also would have earned them over $200, because not only did they lose one sale on the hard drive (since I decided to give my business to the other store), but they lost a second sale on my father's gift too. Who is training these managers? Keep up the good work. -Andy p.s. For the record, I'm not leaving my dad hanging. I got his gift somewhere else. :)Don't hesitate to call the corporate office when a store refuses to honor its price match policy. In this case, you could have also threatened to call the police to report the asinine web order pickup zones if they didn't honor the price match policy, only to call anyway because it's the right thing to do. [lien] [EN]

11 More Confessions Of A Circuit City Firedog Tech [Insiders]

Yet another valiant former Firedog writes in to share insider info that will help you successfully navigate the rough waters of big box computer repair. The most important takeaway—Don't let them "preinstall" anything on your new computer. According to our tipster, it's both expensive and pointless. Lots of good stuff inside. 1. Every Saturday night we would be forced to "preinstall" half of our laptop inventory for Sunday, which would be the beginning of our new sales week. We would have to preinstall maybe 20-30 laptops in one night. When customer come in on Sunday looking for a laptop, the sales associate is trained to only offer "preinstall" laptops even though we have new ones still in the box. This is what consists of preinstall. 1. Open up the laptop box, power up the laptop, and go through the Windows installation screens, once the desktop loads, install all the critical windows updates, and your done. Firedog charges $100 for this service on top of the cost of the laptop. They say that the laptop has been "optimized and ready to go". And i'd say half the customers fall for this tactic. 2. We would have to help the sales associates put out new price tags for laptops and desktops every Saturday night, the price that is listed online and in the flier gets hidden behind "B Tags". "B Tags" are the same as the original price tags, but the price is jacked way up. The laptop is offered with an Full In Home Installation option. For example if a laptop costs $800, the $800 would get you the laptop and your out the door, no firedog installations, no warranty, no nothing. The "B Tag" would list the same laptop for $1149 with the "everything installed firedog package", and it would be covering the original price tag. Consumers who did not research the laptop or did not look in flier are tricked into paying more. If consumer did not want any Firedog installation, the sales associate would tell them that Circuit City was all out of stock. 3. Firedog techs are deprived of the correct tools to get the job done, we do not get supplied with soldering irons, screwdrivers, glue guns, we get nothing, we would have to bring all the tools from home, as far as software tools, you may be fired because it is against policy to use any kind of software that is not provided by Circuit City directly. All they supplied us with was a trail version of Spyware Doctor and CCleaner. If you were caught by a District Manager using different tools you were fired. I personally used my own arsenal of tools, but the other guys that I worked with used the ones supplied by the Circuit City, all I can say is we had alot of customers come back for re-work because their computer still did not work. We are not provided with any data recovery tools incase your harddrive is malfunctioning, our store had to use a BestBuy Diagnostic CD that we found in a customers computer. How sad it that? 5. Once the customer signs the Firedog work order, they sign their computer away, on the back of the work order are the legal terms, basically telling the consumer that if Firedog lose or damage your laptop or desktop, Firedog is not responsible, if any data gets lost, Firedog is also not responsible. 6. If a computer is left at Circuit City for more than 60 days, it is considered abandoned and by the legal terms, it becomes Circuit City property, the firedog technicians do not keep their promises when they tell consumers that the computer will be ready by such and such a time. 8. Average turn around time for a computer is 1-2 weeks, 2 weeks especially if the Firedog technician does not know how to fix the problem, maybe even more. Firedog had computers from 6 months ago. 7. Circuit City will hire anyone to be a Firedog Technician, the Hiring Managers dont know anything about building/repairing computer hardware or software, if a person of the street came in and made stuff up and sounded like they knew what they were doing, they would be hired by the clueless hiring manager. 8. 95% of the work done by Firedog Technicians is Windows Operating System reinstalls, HP supplies us quarterly with recovery disks for every laptop/desktop system that we sell. If a consumer comes in with a simple problem, the computer is reformatted. Firedog offers data backup for $100, plus another $100 for the reformat. What is so hard about putting factory supplied restore disks in a computer? If a consumer does not have a recovery disk available, Firedog will install a retail copy of Windows thus resulting in the loss of all OEM software. 9. Firedog works strictly on Windows platforms, no Mac or Linux 10. Warranty work is done though a third party. If consumers buy a Circuit City warranty, their best bet is to take care of it themselves by calling the Circuit City repair service. If a customer brings in a laptop for hardware warranty repair, Firedog is not authorized to fix it, it must be fixed by the third party, even if a key fell off a keyboard, if the customer wants us to send it out for them, we have to put a claim with the service provider, the warranty company would have to review it, send us a prepaid box, we recieve the box, ship it back to the warranty service and then we get it back supposedly fixed, Firedog had a couple that came back still broken, customers are looking at a minimum wait time of atleast 4 weeks for laptop warranty repair. 11. Firedog services are not refundable, if a consumer brought their computer in for a diagnostic, and the Firedog technician told the consumer what they already know, they will not get a refund. For more Firedog confessions, click here. Wanna play Firedog tech for free? You can download CCleaner here. It's a nice little program, and the new version is thumb drive portable so you can take it over to grandma's house and delete her cookies while you're eating her cookies. (Photo:wingless girl) [lien] [EN]

Insiders: Circuit City's In-Home TV Calibration Is A Total Scam [Ripoffs]

According to a Circuit City employee, their in-home tv calibration service is a complete ripoff. Basically they give the employees glasses like you might get at a 3D movie and they're then supposed adjust the balance and contrast and brightness with the remote control. When he complained to his manager, his boss said to just, "make believe you're changing some settings. When you're done, tell them how much better their TV looks. Besides, once you perform the calibration, they can't get a refund." Will we soon see Circuit City in-home calibration kits being hawked in the back pages of Boy's Life? Full letter, inside... I've worked for Circuit City's Firedog for the last 11 months. Since the day I started performing in-home installations I knew that the company was not truly concerned with the service their customer received, but only with the money the customer has in his/her wallet. The point: Purchasing a TV calibration from Circuit City Firedog is a complete waste of money. I knew a lot about installation and repair when I started Firedog, but one of the things I had never done was calibrate a TV. When I checked my appointments for the day and saw that I had to go perform a calibration, I approached one of the managers and said "How do we perform calibrations? Do we have a calibration unit or something?" The manager replied "Come over here and I'll show you." So I followed him to the TV department and he handed me an old Circuit City Advantage TV Care Kit. (These are the pamphlets/packets we USED TO hand out to customers when they purchase an extended warranty.) He pulls out a DVD and "calibration glasses" which were nothing more than those cardboard 3-D glasses you get at the movie theater except there's blue film for both eyes instead of red for one and blue for the other. He says "Put this DVD in their DVD player and follow the instructions." At this point I was bothered by the fact that I had to go to someone's house to perform a task that I'm not even trained to do. Unlike these "bonus-driven" managers, I actually have a conscience. I told the manager that I didn't feel comfortable going to do the job and that he should reschedule it to another installer. His response was "It's not hard, just goto their house, pop in the DVD, look at the test patterns with the glasses, and make believe you're changing some settings. When you're done, tell them how much better their TV looks. Besides, once you perform the calibration, they can't get a refund." At this point I straight out refused to do that, and my manager threatened my job. I was told that if I didn't goto the customer's house and perform a service that I did not know how to perform, that I would be terminated. For fear of losing my job, I went to the customer's home to calibrate his TV. I put in the disc and skipped to the calibration "test patterns". While the patterns were displayed I looked through the glorified 3-D glasses I was given, and made small adjustments to the brightness, tint, sharpness, etc. By the time I was done, I noticed that the levels I ended up with were no different from the levels that were set from the factory. After I was done, the TV looked no better than when I had started, but in following my managers instructions I told the customer how much of a difference I saw in the TV. I left the house after about 10 minutes, and had a horrible feeling in my stomach. Since then I've been arguing with store management about calibrations, and how we should stop selling this service unless we use an actual professional calibration unit. I always get the same answer though, and end up going to the customer's home and playing with their remote control for a few minutes, and then lie to them about how much better I made their TV look. I'm writing this because I can't refuse to perform the job once you pay for it...hopefully you'll read this and think twice before you purchase the service. PREVIOUSLY: Circuit City Will Access A Secret Panel In Your TV For $104.74 [lien] [EN]

Circuit City Finally Refunds $169 Fraudulent Charge [Pr]

The lady whom Circuit City charged an extra $169 for an HDTV installation will finally get her money back. The fee was because it was over a fireplace and fireplaces are usually made of brick. However, this fireplace was fake and the wall was drywall. When a local TV news investigation team started asking questions, Circuit City Spokeswoman Jackie Foreman just kept chirping, "It's resolved." Two days after the report aired, Jackie told the reporters, "Byrd's installation was not standard…due to a miscommunication; Ms. Byrd will receive a refund." Woman gets refund of Firedog's extra fee [WRAL] (Thanks to Cheryl!) PREVIOUSLY: Circuit City Will Not Refund Your $169 Even If The Local News Calls On Your Behalf [lien] [EN]

Rumor: Circuit City restocking Wii, Wii Fit

Filed under: Rumors Reader Shawn, hailing from sunny and fabulous State College, PA (hey, we're practically neighbors!), wrote in to inform us that his local Circuit City had restocked Wii consoles and Wii Fit bundles. He received an email from the retail giant (he's likely signed up for some waiting list thing) and headed on down to his store to check. Sure enough, he found both in stock and ready to be liberated from the confines of the dusty retail shelf it sat upon. We did our own fact-checking, calling up the local Circuit City in our own town, as well as checked their site online. Online, we had no luck, but the young lady that answered the phone at our local Circuit City store said that they did indeed have consoles in stock, but they were holding them until Sunday. Then, they plan to hand out vouchers and sell the consoles like it was launch day. When asked about Wii Fit, she assumed the store would do the same thing, but had no official word to give. So, for those of you still in the market for either a console or Wii Fit, we'd suggest calling up your local retailers (it might be other retailers than just Circuit City) to see what the deal is. Because this isn't something confirmed by corporate (or a Sunday circular scan), we're going to keep it in the rumor pile. Gallery: Unwrapping Wii Fit [Thanks, Shawn!] Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments Ads by Google [lien] [EN]