Circuit City Returns Under Systemax 134
animeking503 was one of several readers to send word that after closing its doors earlier this year, CircuitCity.com is alive and kicking once again. Systemax Inc., the company that owns TigerDirect and CompUSA, purchased the Circuit City e-commerce brand name last month, and has now re-launched the website with promises of lower prices and better service. The Consumerist points out that the new site's return policies leave something to be desired.
really (Score:5, Insightful)
Why shops at retail stores for electronics anymore?
Re:really (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong. I buy most of my electronics online. I can usually find much better deals there than in brick and mortar stores. That said, there are some times when I am very glad to have a physical store to go to.
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Actually all those reasons are the reason that I buy at amazon and others. I once had a logitech headset that broke because of flimsy build quality. Within the year I went back to the store, but they wouldn't accept it. The only time I will buy something at a brick & mortar store will be if I need it on exactly that day and precise specifications don't count so much, for example empty cds.
In defence of Circuit City, they provided the best return policy and customer service of all the brick & mortar stores I've experienced.
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Shipping costs: Well maybe but last I checked because I forgot to include a 15m Ethernet cable the online price covered it + shipping for less.
Shipping time: Yes, definately when you need it today but that's rare. I've done it for odd stuff like the missing cable and so on but...
Retrun policies: Around here, no better (Norway). And I very rarely buy stuff I want to refund, YMMV.
Seeing and trying: Yes, for some products Reviews, benchmarks, press quality preview pictures go a long way though and there's alw
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Not to mention the value in being able to see the quality and try out the product before you buy it.
With all of the consumer review and testing websites, such as CNet and TomsHardware (for PCs), available these days is that even necessary anymore? The types of equipment and testing that these companies do is well beyond the sort of rigor and precision sought by most consumers (who aren't going to spend days tweaking configurations to find out that one video card has only 2 fps more than another one costing $100 less). There is only so much personal time to be put into researching a purchase and unless it
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Not to mention the value in being able to see the quality and try out the product before you buy it.
With all of the consumer review and testing websites, such as CNet and TomsHardware (for PCs), available these days is that even necessary anymore?
If everyone adopts the "I read the reviews and buy over the net" model and there are no more brick & mortar stores, who will write the reviews?
Not to mention that (a) plenty of review outlets have started honest and later devolved into "we whore ourselves for our advertisers", and (b) just because a camera feels good in your hand doesn't mean it'll feel good in mine - in fact, the only way to see if it'll feel good in mine is to actually put it in mine.
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who will write the reviews?
The dedicated test labs which buy/acquire these things for the sole purpose of testing them to the point of failure?
Not to mention that (a) plenty of review outlets have started honest and later devolved into "we whore ourselves for our advertisers"
That is always a possibility. The real question is how much is your time worth vs the amount of the purchase? That will vary for each individual, but rarely is it possible to get perfect information for a real world purchase decision. Generally we find out as much as we can with the amount of effort we are willing to put into researching the purchase and then we make our decision. Depending up
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"Shipping costs, shipping time and return policies. Not to mention the value in being able to see the quality and try out the product before you buy it."
Shipping is cheaper for me than gas and time to visit the store, and I evaluate quality by visiting appropriate forums. I let the early adopters take the risks then I buy accordingly because I cannot duplicate user experience by a short tryout in a store.
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"Shipping is cheaper for me than gas and time to visit the store, and I evaluate quality by visiting appropriate forums."
Really? Ever price the shipping for a large TV, especially if you have to return it or get warranty work?
The best electronics/ products can still be damaged or fail. While many products are well packaged, I still wouldn't trust most delivery services.
Now for smaller/cheaper items....
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You can't necessarily "see" the quality of a product before you buy it. You can see the aesthetic attributes of it (the outer shell), not the types of components inside it.
You can see if it looks flimsy. But if it doesn't look flimsy, it could still be of very poor quality.
It's nice to have online reviews from other users of the product and detailed specs you can't get in a store to make a real determination about quality.
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Online reviews are nice, but they often fall short, and so much of what we see as product quality is subjective (ie, aesthetic). For a simple example, I would never buy a mouse that I could not try beforehand. The size, shape and weight must feel "right" and be comfortable TO ME, there must be the "right" amount of buttons in the "right" locations and requiring the "right" amount of pressure, the scroll wheel must not be mooshy and must have clearly defined stops and must feel "right". No review will tell m
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You forgot "heavy stuff" and "breakable stuff".
If it's heavy, it's expensive to ship. Monitors (especially back in the CRT days), automotive parts (I know, off topic), and anything the exact right model are important on is best left to an in person deal if possible.
(when you're a Linux user and you buy by the chip - the exact right model revisions is important sometimes)
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But see. These are reasons why you should try throw a few extra bucks at the brick and mortar store from time to time. It costs money to provide that service of being able to checkout the thing before you buy, etc.
Just something to keep conscious of. If it costs you a few bucks more, help em out.
At the same time, admittedly there have been times I've checked it out in the store and they can't match so I buy online. There was a lcd tv I was going to buy a while back that neither Best Buy or Circuit C
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I think all brother inkjets do this now. I agree that it's a HUGE waste of ink if you don't print color regularly. On the flip side, I've never had a clogged head with this printer. hmmm....
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This is similar to the reason newer printers have chips on the cartridge, and the printer rejects cartridges that can't be digitally identified as being the same manufacturer,
And why in many cases cartridges have "timebombs", i.e. after X pages, the printer will declare the cartridge empty and refuse to use (even if there's still lots of ink in it)
More revenue for the printer manufacturer who got you the printer for cheap so they could sell lots of ridiculously overpriced ink.
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If you print that little color, you should get yourself a laser printer instead. That's what I did -- I got myself a B&W Brother HL-2070N, and don't really miss color at all (most of my printing is either text or throw-away stuff li
are you paying attention? (Score:3, Informative)
Why shops at retail stores for electronics anymore?
There are no locations for the new circuit city. All their retail stores are still closed. The new circuitcity.com is online-only.
Re: No, really... (Score:5, Interesting)
I had an experience not too long ago that had me asking the same question. I first went to the website of a well-known bookseller to check the price on a particular item. They had a list price and an online price. Quite naturally, the online price was cheaper, but I was willing to fork over the list price because I still thought it was reasonable. I walk into the store to find that the shelf price was 60% over list. When I inquired as to why this was, I got the usual smattering of excuses, and an assertion that they would not be able to match the list price on their own website. After some discussion, I placed the item back on the shelf and left. A day later, I purchased the same item from an online retailer at a price that was 30% less than their list price.
So yeah, brick-and-mortars can whine about the fact that they have to charge sales tax, and that this gives online retailers an advantage, but please...when you pull this kind of crap with customers, EXPECT to lose business.
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Why shops at retail stores...?
I don't think 'why' shops at retail stores anymore which is 'why' they are re-launching the WEBSITE.
I know you are not supposed to read the story but you could at least read the summary...
They are going to re-launch the WEBSITE. The WEBSITE is not a retail store, it is a WEBSITE.
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How do people try, touch, see, smell, etc. items in person before buying them? Or nee to have them right away!
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I do, and here are two reasons why;
My entire computer died, the power supply, the motherboard and the CPU - and I needed a replacement right away. Not only was I grateful that I had a Mircocenter store close by, but while checking prices against Newegg, et. al., on my iPhone I found they were the cheapest for the CPU and Mobo combo I wanted. So online isn't always the cheapest. And no one was going to ship the product in a few hours.
A few weeks later I saw a video card on Microcenter that I thought had hit
What is wrong here? (Score:1)
I have a bad feeling about this: Smells like Same-pig-different-lipstick effect -- and it smells bad.
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Like what used to be Media Play/Sam Goody/Suncoat Picture Company...
or even now as GameStop/Electronics Boutique
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Oh? Which part of "System ax" gives you unease?
Wow, yet another site (Score:2)
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Yet another website that I won't change my buying habits for. Newegg FTW!
Wow, retailer fanboyism...
I have a buddy like this, his favorite is xoxide. If it isn't on there it's crap. You can link him the same case, fan, etc. at another site and he says, literally, it's junk.
Newegg is great, don't get me wrong - but the point of shopping online, I thought, was not to develop these 'habits' of only buying from the one retailer over and over but to shop around to the millions that are out there and get the best
Then again it's not really Circuit City (Score:4, Interesting)
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I've personally never dealt with Circuit City as I'm in Canada. the only thing close I guess was "The Source by Curcuit City" which basically was Radio Shack prior to that.
Even money says they still want your full name, address and phone number just for buying an overpriced pack of D-cell batteries.
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The other major brands HP, Compaq that kind of surprises me because you couldn't just take that fancy laptop back to HP or Compaq and get a refund.
The Consumerist is just taking advantage of Systemax's poor wording of a policy that NewEgg also has. HP, for instance, might provide that all warranty issues with their products must sent by the original purchaser to the HP technical folks. In that case, it would waste time and money if you sent it to Systemax, they sent it back to you and you then sent it to HP. Plus, in all that shipping, the package might get broken or the warranty may have run out.
Tiget Direct == Better Customer Service? (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? The Tiger Direct people are going to improve someone's customer service? I stopped buying from them nearly a decade ago. Are they any easier to work with now?
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Re:Tiget Direct == Better Customer Service? (Score:5, Informative)
Sometimes, even at the best places, you get a bad egg...
Speaking of eggs, newegg.com is the best online store that I've had the pleasure of doing business with. :)
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There's also newegg.ca. It's a little odd since they charge you a "handling" fee that covers GST/PST.
Now, I haven't lived in Canada all that long, so I haven't tried NCIX yet. I probably will in the near future, for comparison.
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mwave.com is also pretty good for online shopping.
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I expect they will improve over the old Circuitcity.com.
Not because TigerDirect has improved, but because Circuit City's customer service was so much worse.
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I got burned by them a while back. Ordered a computer as my 15th birthday present, and received the monitor about 3 months later. Didn't get that computer until I was nearly 17. They just kept saying that it was backlogged and would not give a refund or allow me to switch the order to another system. At that point I decided never to purchase from them again.
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Funny, I've received items from TigerDirect several times with two day shipping to trip over the item on my porch the next day. And a lot of people I know of, both online and in person, have experienced the same service. Never heard of a two year waiting period. Especially since there was no freaking way that PC was still available two years later... So I somewhat call bullshit on your story there. But of course things like this happen *sometimes*.
And I guess the same can be said about my account, but; "ane
Visited the site (Score:4, Interesting)
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MWave is a nice NewEgg alternative. [mwave.com]
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Somebody told me about MWave 2 years ago when I built my last computer.
I paid $1200 for my new rig (nice big monitor, new speaker system, the works) and it would have been $200 more if I bought the same exact parts from Newegg (everything was cheaper across the board).
It was a bit slower than Newegg - I was used to ordering stuff UPS ground and getting it the next day/2 days from newegg (I think it took about a week for the stuff to finally arrive from MWave).
I haven't made any large purchases since, so I'v
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A new business needs to bring a lot into the competition in order to get respect. And that's the way the world is, since many businesses have had a chance to mature. So new businesses take a lot of risk, and if you suspect Systemax to be just testing the waters, what they show may be just a shell with little willingness to back up their policies in the face of difficulties. However, customers should look for deals, and maybe there is a winner here. These days, we need to see risk takers make some gains, eve
opt out (Score:5, Informative)
Were you a customer of circuit city? Did you give your email address at the store? or Did you have an online account with them? If you do not want your personal data be transferred to systemax you need to opt out by June 9
See the following for the opt out page
http://mail.circuitcity.com/p/Circuit_City_Backup/cc_web_optout [circuitcity.com]
see the following for more information about opting out
http://www.circuitcity.com/sectors/opt-outv2.asp [circuitcity.com]
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I don't understand why we wouldn't be able to opt out at any point(after June 9).
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it has to do with your personal data. Once they have your personal data (name, address, purchase history, return history and other info), normally it becomes a permanent part of their database. After the deadline, the only thing you can opt out of is their email list.
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You sir have never attempted to opt out of TigerDirect direct marketing.
Think of them as the Typhoid Mary of spammers, they go around spreading your info to all comers but have a sophisticated system of phone call marry go rounds for thwarting all efforts to remove yourself from their claws. I had to move twice and not leave forwarding addresses with the post office before I got them off my tail.
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Once you hand over a customer's information to another company, there's no way to "undo" that. The new owners of circuitcity.com have your information at that point.
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I made an online purchase from Circuit City a couple of years ago, so I went to the link you provided and entered my email address to opt-out. It then told me the second step was to click a link that would be emailed to me immediately. I never got that email (it's been a few hours now, and I did check the spam dump). Disturbing. Anybody else have this happen?
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They already spammed me, so what's the point?
I'm setting up an email filter rule that returns all that stuff back to as many Systemax employees as I can possibly find.
what's the point? (Score:4, Informative)
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it's called marketing and has to do with name recognition. Most general users recognizes and will purchase from circuit city but not tigerdirect or compusa. Some users will purchase from tigerdirect but they will stay far away from compusa.
What the customer don't know actually increase overall sales for systemax.
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Yep. I have long had a personal policy to never do business with Tiger Direct. It's such a long-standing policy that I've forgotten the details. Perhaps it is just my mind blocking out old unpleasant experiences. I recall establishing the policy, which is all I really need to remember. And now that I know, I know to extend that policy to Circuit City.
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You might want to ask General Motors how well that worked out for them.
in other news (Score:1, Funny)
Chrysler is selling rights to the AMC Pacer and Gremlin brands, while a private equity firm is negotiating with Hollywood studios to produce "Ishtar, the Remake".
Consumer laws (Score:5, Interesting)
Having said that, companies don't lobby politicians into NOT modifying the law pushing the company / consumer balance further in their favor. Judging by many laws / regulations etc you'd think they were written BY corporations and handed to the government to act on.
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exactly, the only way to not permit returns of defective product is to prominently state AS IS when the user buys it. And not just buried in a 'return policy' document. The product must have an AS IS sticker, or there must be a large plaque next to the goods that lets the user know.
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Judging by many laws / regulations etc you'd think they were written BY corporations and handed to the government to act on.
In fact, this is not far from the truth here in the United States. Does anyone actually believe that Congressmen, Senators, and their staffs actually sit down and write out 3,000+ page bills to submit to committee? Many, if not most, of the bills that come before Congress are actually written by professional lobbyists employed by firms located in and around the Washington DC area on behalf of their corporate clients. Even if the bill is written by the Congress, the budget for example, the lobby firms still
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Does anyone actually believe that Congressmen, Senators, and their staffs actually sit down and write out 3,000+ page bills to submit to committee?
Yes, I think their staffs do exactly this.
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Whenever someone is telling you something you don't like, or flat out don't believe, ask to get that IN WRITING. It's amazing how quickly soulless fast-talkers do a complete 180 when faced with the necessity of providing hard-proof of their behavior.
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The sales st
Editor Opinion Filter (Score:2, Offtopic)
As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable advertising.
How much Karma do I need to switch off offensive and bias story tags?
Translation of return policy (Score:5, Funny)
Products in need of return for physical defects may not be returned. Products that we ship incomplete may not be returned. Products whose brand name is recognizable may not be returned.
Honestly their return policy could be greatly abbreviated as follows: "All your base are belong to us"
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Brothers in Suckitude (Score:1)
Well, since Tiger Direct sucks, and CompUSA sucked, can we expect CircuitCity.com to be any different?
Nope.
I do like the consumerist's comparison to NewEgg (for those who RTFA). Who should get our business? (Hint: the word begins with New and ends with Egg.)
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God, yet another NewEgg fanboy. Because shopping online shouldn't be about choice - it should be about worship!
Not that I have anything against NE, it's just that this thread is looking to be spammed by their employees.
Some tradenames should die (Score:2)
CircuitCity is presently the top of my list of organizations to boycott. Sam Rami has a good idea - drag them to hell.
The concise summary (Score:3, Funny)
A chain that was called "Circuit City"
Lost all of the cash in its kitty;
So they gave it some whacks
With a big System Ax
And now it will be Circut Shitty.
One a tiny positive note (Score:1, Interesting)
At least they will have just one price for a particular item now. I worked at CC and quit shortly before they declared bankruptcy, and I felt like an idiot every time I had to explain to a customer that we couldn't match the price on our own frickin website.
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I was able to get online prices at the local circuit city store without any arguments. After they looked it up, they gave it to me every time.
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Bullshit considering their website always matched the price *except* when the store was cheaper. ANd it had to be considering they did online-in-store-pickup that took stock from that store (and was always the same price). Total lie.
I think you worked at Wal-Mart who uses JIT stocking and pricing on-the-fly (where CC does not).
Stand by your guns (Score:4, Insightful)
Stay polite but firm, refuse point blank to accept less and keep moving up the command chain when the next chump sent to deal with you repeats the same as the last chump. Make sure you use a loud but calm voice to ensure that other customers hear you. Mind you, I enjoy twisting a sales person inside out with logic until they run out of excuses and agree to what the law states I'm entitled to just to get me out the door. Remember, the longer you tie these people up dealing with you, the more time they lose trying to sell stuff to other customers.
Of course this only works with a real brick and mortar store.
Re:Stand by your guns (Score:4, Informative)
Or ALWAYS pay with a credit card (not a debit card). One call to the bank, and it becomes the store's problem to prove you are wrong. Also, it costs them $25 to $50 from Visa to deal with a dispute.
Re:Stand by your guns (Score:4, Informative)
Have you actually tried this on more than one occasion, or are you just parroting something you've heard somewhere?
After returning a clearly defective product that I had spent over an hour testing (specifically, a cable from the bastards at cableclub.com, found via pricewatch), I was told the received product was NOT DEFECTIVE, and I would be given a store credit for the price of the product, minus shipping & handling... in short, less than I paid to ship the item back, and less than it would cost to buy (including shipping) ANYTHING from them again. I tried repeatedly to explain that there's no way they could be correct, and pointed out a handful of factual errors in the info they provided, and still got a steadfast refusal to even return the "defective" item.
I contacted the bank that issued my MasterCard, and explained the situation. They told me that there's no way to prove the product was, in fact, defective, and that because they have a stated policy which allows them to do this, my challenge would be declined, and suggested I just stop shopping there. It took me 5 more minutes to convince the rep I still wanted to challenge the charge, and get him to fill out the paperwork. Of course, the refund never showed up on my card, and the paperwork for me to fill out never arrived.
That's the gist of my experience with CC companies. Their "fraud" protection applies only to a very narrowly defined scenario of fraud, and you'll still probably have to take them to court...
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I bought an LP many years ago which jumped like hell on my player so I took it back. I wanted the LP so I was happy with an exchange but the new one did the same thing. I took that back and again was happy with another exchange on the proviso that the sales person tested it on the store player first. He did, it played fine so I
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Usually when I have paid cash for something and told my refund will be in the form of store credit, I ask them to point out where I paid in store credit on the receipt, and where in the statute books it states I can't be refunded in the currency I paid in.
They may instead point you to the sign that says "no refunds".
Stay polite but firm, refuse point blank to accept less and keep moving up the command chain when the next chump sent to deal with you repeats the same as the last chump. Make sure you use a loud but calm voice to ensure that other customers hear you. Mind you, I enjoy twisting a sales person inside out with logic until they run out of excuses and agree to what the law states I'm entitled to just to get me out the door.
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but if you buy something at a store that has a no-refunds, store-credit-only policy posted, you have zero rights. "The law" does not state otherwise.
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I've only seen a few small independents with signs like that, most of the large retailers I've seen don't want the public image of shiesters so wouldn't display it. If it ain't displayed clearly, though.
Why would you want the Circuit City brand name? (Score:5, Insightful)
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To me, the Circuit City brand represents high prices and bad service. I don't understand why anyone would want the Circuit City name. It's tainted.
Because it's better than the Tiger Direct brand name. For example, Dell just sued Tiger Direct for selling used and refurbished Dell laptops as "Brand New."
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I don't know why I would buy from a company that's only sketchy instead of shady, when there are plenty of reputable places that will sell me the same merchandise for a similar price.
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Because there is a lot of recognition for the brand name.
Even if 25% of the past customers are unhappy with Circuit City and will never buy again due to 'poor service' or poor experience in the past, there are still those 75% of the population (a significant number) who would still buy from Circuity City, or give them a second chance...
That 75% (of past circuit city customers) is a significant portion of the population.
Probably a much larger population than Tiger Direct's customer base.
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Because if you ask people what electronics stores they know, they'd start listing and many would remember defunct names. And many of the people that haven't been really burned, think "Maybe I should check out Circuit City too". It's actually easier to change a bad reputation than getting on that list in the first place.
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1. Close failing business
2. Sell off all stock, buildings, fire employees
3. Find sucker to buy the domain name of your failed business.
4. ***
5. Profit!!!
Who gives a shit? (Score:2)
I can still "buy from Montgomery Ward" [wards.com] - it's not like I'm actually able to buy from Montgomery Ward anymore. Snatching up a name is nothing more than that, I don't care what they name it, Circuit City is gone.
In other news (Score:2)
...sales of wooden stakes and garlic have spiked.
rj
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You are on the wrong forum... this is nerds, not playas