11/03/2007

Circuit City 24 Minute Pledge

If I had a rocket luancher,
If I had a rocket launcher,
Some son-of-a-bitch would die.


Its time to lock and load.
Deck the halls and ho ho ho and mistletoe and all that.
Well, during the Christmas season I was compelled to go shopping for my wife and son. I decided to begin by logging onto Circuit City for some DVD's, Cd's, and X-Box games. I see the big ad splashed across the website,....


(Details: 24 Minute Pickup Guarantee applies from time stamp on order confirmation email until the time order is ready for customer pickup. Guarantee excludes customer wait time in store lines. Offer valid on orders placed at circuitcity.com or by phone during pickup store's normal operating hours up to 30 minutes prior to closing. Guarantee not valid the day after Thanksgiving, 12/26 or 12/27. $25 minimum purchase. One $24 gift card offered per qualifying in-store pickup ticket, which must be claimed at time of pickup and is good for future purchases.)

So hell, yea, I'll shop online and pick it all up in a half hour. This would be great. I had about 20 items I needed. First item up for bid, a DVD movie that I cannot reveal for my wife and son read this blog constantly. And guess what, it wasn't available for customer pickup at the store. I went to the next selection, and the next, and the first four were not available for pickup. I had to have them shipped and have to pay a shipping charge. Only several of the 20 items needed were available to be picked up at the store.

So, damn man, off to Circuit City for some cold shopping. I arrive and happily the store is not very crowded as I easily find a parking spot. Into the store I go with my list of items. I head straight for the DVD section. A young girl, a Circuit City sales clerk asks if I needed any help. I asked if she really meant it for I had a list. (Not a lisp, a list) She said she would be happy to help.

So, I said I need so and so DVD. Off she ran to get it. From several rows over she called out, "Found it, whats next?" I yelled out the next title. This went on for about 15 titles. Then we moved on to several other items that I cannot divulge and she found them quickly. I thanked her profusely and she smiled and said I was welcome and i proceeded to the checkout.

What luck, no one in line. The cashier scanned my items, took the theft stuff off, and bagged my items. My credit card completed the transaction. I then asked why none of these items were available through the website promotion with the ready in 24 minute offer? She said they all were. Since there was no one else in line, I asked if she could look on the Internet and show me. She said they weren't connected to the Internet and couldn't look. I said the computer department had to have at least one computer hooked up to the Internet. I could see that she was ready to become hostile so being in the Christmas spirit, I said thank you and left.

Well, get the Fucking Rocket Launcher out, its damn false advertising on Circuit Cities side. What pissed me off was when I got home, the first thing on the TV is that freakin ad hyping the 24 minute shopping promotion.

The Grassy Knoll Institute politely says bunk......its a lie, a scam, a way to make you pay shipping charges.



LURKING ON THE GRASSY KNOLL

6 comments:

  1. I have seen a good collection of CDs, DVDs of movies, music and video game at Circuit-City store through Couponalbum.com.......!

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  2. a circuit city employee2/08/2008 7:57 PM

    Hey, I just happened to spot your post here. I can see that you are a little upset. I can understand why. I thought I would give an explanation as to why things happened the way they did.
    WIth CDs and DVDs: They are inventoried differently than other electronics in the store. Therefor most of them would not be available for in store pick up when bought online. SOMETIMES new releases are available for instore pick up but quite rarely. There are thousands of DVDs bought off the Circuit City web site everyday. If you think about it, how many employees would circuit city have to hire just to go and find each dvd with in 24 min of it being bought online? The particular associate you worked with may not have known that. (CC also hires thousands of new employees around the holidays to take care of all off the increased traffic in the store. Therefore odds are that the person you worked with was a new hire) Also, during the holidays, many of the smaller items that would normally be available for instore pick up are switched to non-instore pick up (again due to the increased online traffic flow) They may be available in the store but not always for instore pick up when bought online. Also, The online store has about 10 times the amount of items available for purchase than the stores normally do so seeing the "not available for instore pickup" phrase when buying online is quite common. But my main point is that the person you worked with may not have known that CDs and DVDs are not NORMALLY available for instore pick up. There is no false advertising that has been done. CC is very careful about that stuff. Anyway, I am sorry you had a bad experience. Although it sounds like you actually had a great experience at CC, but you found something to complain about. I am sorry about that too.

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  3. Circuit City employee,
    First of all, thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.
    With that out of the way,....
    The fact of the matter is that Circuit City could not fulfill what they were advertising. Some would call it a scam. Some would call it false advertising. I call it a PR nightmare.
    Perhaps Circuit City when running ads should have a disclaimer stating that CD's, DVD's, video games, computer games, computer software, computer hardware, and camcorders are not part of the 24 minute program because those are the items I was buying that day.

    Circuit City, by using this ruse, caused a PR nightmare as plenty of bad press has circulated not only concerning the 24 minute fiasco but other nightmares as well. Perhaps that is why CC is on the brink of bankruptcy. Or maybe it is employee's with an attitude who try to explain away the shortcomings of the company they work for offering excuse after excuse instead of trying to help the customer as much as possible.

    Now you know why I thanked you at the beginning of this reply....

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  4. It's not Circuit City but recently on sf-redbook a guy posted how he had $10k in the bank in cash and wanted to buy a $5000 big screen set and was denied the ability to do so at the bank because he was over his spending limit for the day.

    This was at Best Buy and the bank was the evil Bank of America. The guy spent over an hour on the phone and was never able to buy the set. He got so pissed off that he went and closed his account the next day.

    I didnt know there was a spending limit if you want to spend your own money...

    I knew there was one if you use a charge card. He was trying to use his debit card for a debit card purchase.

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  5. just think what would happen if they ever merged with dominos...

    oh, the humanity...

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  6. I purchased a few things for instore pickup and had always picked it up and it was ready until yesterday. Ordered a remote and a laptop case, was supposed to be ready at 3:09pm for pickup. I arrive at 3:16pm to see no one in line, but 3 workers. 2 were in a conversation and waited a full 30 seconds upon seeing me standing there before asking if they can help me. Gave her my confirmation email and she says "I'll go get them, I'll be right back." Usually this means they go in the back, get the stuff, and come right back out. She proceeds to the sales floor and 10 minutes later, she finally comes back with my stuff. I politely mention I would like my $24 gift card since it was not ready. Her response was I had just gotten there and that it was 24 minutes upon my arrival. I told her no ma'am it doesn't work that way, and she got rude. Little did she know I will cause a scene. Finally, she said that's fine, I'll give you the gift card. I was semi pissed, but not pissed enough to ask for the manager and tell him/her to train the members correctly on the 24 minute rule. I probably wouldn't have said anything had they broken up their personal conversation when I arrived, but that's probably why they had never pulled the ticket and got my stuff in the first place. The other worker was just standing there on the phone drinking a jamba juice.

    ReplyDelete

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