Circuit City's 24 minute guarantee

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hegemonyhog

CAGiversary!
So, I ordered something on CC.com last night for in-store pickup. I went in this morning to get it, and it took three employees over 15 minutes to find what I'd purchased on the shopping floor.

Silly me, I was thinking that CC's 24 minute/$24 card policy would be in effect. I was denied by three different employees, all of whom said the policy only counted from the moment you stepped in the store. The argument was illogical - you have a guarantee in place that says after I paid for something in full, when I get to the store, my wait will, at most, be merely horrible? - but I decided to write corporate instead of fight it out in the store.

Has anyone else had issues with CC employees making up policy about the 24 minute guarantee?
 
I think the fine print says it's 24 minutes, starting from the moment they send you the email stating the product is ready for pickup - no? In which case, you should have received a gift card.

My guess is, stores get in trouble from corporate if they give out any/too many gift cards. I'd follow up w/ a store manager, or better yet - give corporate a call/email. Can't hurt.
 
[quote name='chrisnsally']I think the fine print says it's 24 minutes, starting from the moment they send you the email stating the product is ready for pickup - no? In which case, you should have received a gift card.[/QUOTE]

Yes. I ordered something at 8pm the night before and picked it up the next morning at 10:30 (just to give them a little time to make sure it was out). It took them another 30 minutes to find what I had ordered, they had to give it to me either way, but it's supposed to be 24 minutes from the time they send you the email that they have it in stock and available for pick up (granted you should give them 5 minutes to run to the back to find it and bring it out, but after that it's obvious they weren't prepared).
 
I had a order at circuit city that I had to make the trip to the store several times but it still wasn't ready and they still denied the giftcard. fuck circuit city.
 
CC honors exactly dick. They blow off price matching and any sort of in-store guarantee in my area; I still need to write Corporate over it.
 
The store doesn't give a fuck. Unless corporate comes down on their ass, they don't care. Best to thing to do is write to corporate and complain that you basically waited over a half-hour while the employees were not doing their job properly. You asked about the policy and were denied the gift card, breaking CC's policy. That's the best thing to do right now.

All you would do going back to the store to complain is waste time, since the manager will deny it.
 
Good luck complaining. Doubt you will get anywhere though.

They never price match things for me... and I have one of there damn gamer cards.. how sad is that..
 
wait a minute, where does it say when you walk into the door the timer starts? Do you have to announce to CSR that you are now in the building? 24 dollar gift card doesn't seem much. I am just getting sick and tired of there bait and switch tactics.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']wait a minute, where does it say when you walk into the door the timer starts? Do you have to announce to CSR that you are now in the building? 24 dollar gift card doesn't seem much. I am just getting sick and tired of there bait and switch tactics.[/quote]

Im tempted to order something tomorrow and walk in with a parade.. announcing my arrival at the store, get a trumpet player, a guy to read a giant scroll saying I have arrived..

God thatd be priceless. Theyd still deny me though cuz I went in with a parade.. or find some other useless bs loophole that isnt there..
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']Im tempted to order something tomorrow and walk in with a parade.. announcing my arrival at the store, get a trumpet player, a guy to read a giant scroll saying I have arrived..

God thatd be priceless. Theyd still deny me though cuz I went in with a parade.. or find some other useless bs loophole that isnt there..[/QUOTE]

LOL... Now a pic or video of that would be priceless.
 
You're owed a gift card (assuming your order was greater than $25).

From their website:


What happens if my order is not ready in 24 minutes?

We guarantee your order of $25 or more will be ready for pickup at your selected store within 24 minutes of the timestamp on your confirmation email. If it’s not, we’ll give you a $24 Circuit City gift card.
Click to expand...

Complain to corporate. You have the proof (email time stamp and receipt time from store).
 
Yep i've been denied it even when I was within that 24 minutes from email to me being at the CS desk, honestly i'm more curious who manages to actually get it , since that policy started I just can't remember any stories of " Hey CC gave me a gc for not having my order ready!"
 
CC is the worse @ honoring anything. anytime some1 mentions them, i refer to going to BB instead. i have so many CC horror stories its not even funny.
 
In their fine print they say the 24 minutes excludes time waiting in line for the CSR so it's not exactly from when you enter the store or receive the email since you could wait an hour in line and that would not count. It does sound like they owe you a gift card.
 
I had this happen before. I received the confirmation e-mail and headed to the store. When I got there the CSR said they did not have the item, I showed her the confirmation email and she said the B&M Store's inventory is not linked to the online store in real time. I said cool i'll take the gift card. She said no way, it only qualifies if we have the item and it takes more than 24 minutes to get it. I showed her the email stating that they had it, but she wouldn't budge. I contacted online customer service and they appologized and about a week later my git card showed up in the mail.
 
What if you try ordering it within the first 30 minutes of the store opening. Since when is CC jammed pack in the first hour?!?!
 
[quote name='jorgeed']I had this happen before. I received the confirmation e-mail and headed to the store. When I got there the CSR said they did not have the item, I showed her the confirmation email and she said the B&M Store's inventory is not linked to the online store in real time. I said cool i'll take the gift card. She said no way, it only qualifies if we have the item and it takes more than 24 minutes to get it. I showed her the email stating that they had it, but she wouldn't budge. I contacted online customer service and they appologized and about a week later my git card showed up in the mail.[/QUOTE]


what about your item you paid for but B&M didn't have?!?! Did you cancel it or did Customer Service shipped it to you for free?
 
The CSR @ the store refunded the online purchase. She offered no solutions or help as most Circuit City employees. My complaint to Online Customer Service focused on the gift card and not the item. Their response also did not attempt to get me to repurchase the item or offer any further discounts.
 
Ive done store pickup at CC plenty of times. One time I walked in the store, checked the time, it was well over thirty minutes, and asked for my item. They punched in the number for the item and told me to hold a momment. It took them another 10 minutes to look in a 7 X 7ft storage room for my item. I asked them about the '24 minute' promise. And they said they knew nothing about it. Not to mention with a horrible attitude. I rarely shop at CC now.
 
You know I am going to try this sometime soon. I am going to order something like 30 bucks, and in stock at the store. Print out both the CC 24 minute guarantee or a free 24 dollar gift card page from CC.com AND my time stamped order. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to get there so by the time I park and walk in and get to the CS line, it should be ready. If it's over 24 minutes since the order was placed, I am going to bitch to a manager and stick the 24 minute guarantee to them. If the manager gives me lip I will state that this is false advertisement to get the customer to shop at CC for a speedy service and experience or they will give you a 24 gift card for free.

You know someone should actually do an undercover video camera operation of this. Buy something online, print out the order with the timestamp, and then take it to CC within 24 minutes and see what happens. Capturing every moment with time stamps on the video tape. Bet you CC B&M will screw up and 1 not have the item ready and 2 not honor the gift card promo. With that you upload it to the net and post on consumer web sites and someone will pick up on the story.

The only problem will be the concealment of the video camera.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']You know I am going to try this sometime soon. I am going to order something like 30 bucks, and in stock at the store. Print out both the CC 24 minute guarantee or a free 24 dollar gift card page from CC.com AND my time stamped order. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to get there so by the time I park and walk in and get to the CS line, it should be ready. If it's over 24 minutes since the order was placed, I am going to bitch to a manager and stick the 24 minute guarantee to them. If the manager gives me lip I will state that this is false advertisement to get the customer to shop at CC for a speedy service and experience or they will give you a 24 gift card for free.

You know someone should actually do an undercover video camera operation of this. Buy something online, print out the order with the timestamp, and then take it to CC within 24 minutes and see what happens. Capturing every moment with time stamps on the video tape. Bet you CC B&M will screw up and 1 not have the item ready and 2 not honor the gift card promo. With that you upload it to the net and post on consumer web sites and someone will pick up on the story.

The only problem will be the concealment of the video camera.[/quote]

I'm sure you could find a good small one at CC. Oh, wait...
 
My friends and I make stupid videos; I'll make it a point to do this sometime next week.

I've got an epic vendetta against Circuit City...they refused to honor my extended warranty on the laptop, after fighting with them for two years they finally gave me a GC after holding on to it for two more months, they're rude every time I go there, and they back out on every single guarantee they offer, from Price Matching to In-Stock Guarantees.

And I still haven't let the laptop thing go.

Sic semper CircuitCity!
 
[quote name='Porksta']I'm sure you could find a good small one at CC. Oh, wait...[/QUOTE]


I see you know which CC I am talking about lol :)

gotta love that fairfax one. It's like a ghost town when it comes to employees.
 
I really never order for in-store pickup, and definitely not at CC. But the one time I did, I was able to get the card. I ordered something for pickup and it took them at least 20 minutes to find the actual item. I started to walk out, turned around and said "Yeah, shouldn't I get a gift card? It took way more than 24 minutes for it to be ready since I ordered." Got it without any issue.
 
Between this guarantee and their $20 game guarantee, we could all end up snagging multiple gc's. Of course, that would be IF they even honored the deals. But, it never hurts to try and if that fails, then a quick email or two to corporate(especially if you tell them you're going to tell your friends to not shop there)really helps in many cases.
 
Here's one of my latest CC experiences quoted from the Zune thread .

[quote name='Richlough']I managed to finally get a Zune .
I checked the CC website and noticed the Brown Zune was $99.99 , but only available for in-store pick-up .

Cool , I thought , but no stores near me had one .
So I start putting in different Zip Codes and viola !
I see there's one at a store about 20 miles away and order it without hesitation .
This is at 6:00am mind you , and I'm on my way to work .

So I finally get the chance to go pick it up at 7:45pm , I get there at around 8:20 .
I proceed to the counter and tell them 'I am here to pick up my web order'
and give them the order number .
They begin to look around , she goes in the warehouse and out about 3 times .
At this time I mention to the other cashier that I think I qualify for the $24 gift card .
She says don't worry about it .

Finally the original cashier comes out of the warehouse with a Black Zune , 'this is the only one we have , is this color ok ?'

Hell yeah it is ! the black Zune is still normal price [$199] , plus they still hooked me up with the gift card .
I was amazed , I thought I was going to have to end up arguing with them and the management .

I ended up using the gift card towards Scene It .

I'm sure I'll have a bunch of zune related questions soon .[/QUOTE]
 
no wonder they're changing/changed their name cause of the horrible customer service and the stuff that's happened internally the past year or two. i might do this and bring in a camera with me as an experiment.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Between this guarantee and their $20 game guarantee, we could all end up snagging multiple gc's. Of course, that would be IF they even honored the deals. But, it never hurts to try and if that fails, then a quick email or two to corporate(especially if you tell them you're going to tell your friends to not shop there)really helps in many cases.[/QUOTE]


I sense a scheme forming here lol :)

The only way you could pull this off is if you had a laptop with wireless internet, a location with wifi or internet access such as your home OR a starbucks, panara bread, McDonalds or whatever within 20 minutes of the particular CC. Going back and forth can be a pain just for a 24 dollar gift card and the management might stop you if they start seeing a pattern that you are doing.

I don't have a laptop with wifi so I can't pull this off, so I would have to do this at home then run out and drive 20 mins to the store.
 
[quote name='phear3d']no wonder they're changing/changed their name cause of the horrible customer service and the stuff that's happened internally the past year or two. i might do this and bring in a camera with me as an experiment.[/QUOTE]


Changing the name won't help them at all. Changing it to "The City" is the stupidist idea I have ever heard of.... I can hear it now....when asking for directions "Where is the City?" , people will say..."Which city??!?!"
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']I sense a scheme forming here lol :)

The only way you could pull this off is if you had a laptop with wireless internet, a location with wifi or internet access such as your home OR a starbucks, panara bread, McDonalds or whatever within 20 minutes of the particular CC. Going back and forth can be a pain just for a 24 dollar gift card and the management might stop you if they start seeing a pattern that you are doing.

I don't have a laptop with wifi so I can't pull this off, so I would have to do this at home then run out and drive 20 mins to the store.[/quote]

Nah, no scheme here, though I was tempted to go back the next week after getting the $20 gc and try for another one when another game had 'in stores (day of the week) by 2 pm', but knowing my lucky they'd have it in stock.

In which case, instead of buying it(as many have said they do if they try for the gc and get told it's in stock), I'd simply say I was checking to see if they did for a friend. I think I used that as an excuse when asking about the game that got me the gc in the first place, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground for Wii.

I may be a cheap ass gamer, but in no way, shape or form am I a stupid ass gamer. If it's not in stock, give me my $20 gc. If it is in stock, I was just checking for a friend. No way would I be stuck paying full retail for a game I probably didn't want in the first place.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Nah, no scheme here, though I was tempted to go back the next week after getting the $20 gc and try for another one when another game had 'in stores (day of the week) by 2 pm', but knowing my lucky they'd have it in stock.

In which case, instead of buying it(as many have said they do if they try for the gc and get told it's in stock), I'd simply say I was checking to see if they did for a friend. I think I used that as an excuse when asking about the game that got me the gc in the first place, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground for Wii.

I may be a cheap ass gamer, but in no way, shape or form am I a stupid ass gamer. If it's not in stock, give me my $20 gc. If it is in stock, I was just checking for a friend. No way would I be stuck paying full retail for a game I probably didn't want in the first place.[/quote]

I got screwed so many times on the 20gc so many times I gave up.. have they even been doing it recently..?

I will go one day with a parade announcing my arrival.. just wait..
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']I got screwed so many times on the 20gc so many times I gave up.. have they even been doing it recently..?

I will go one day with a parade announcing my arrival.. just wait..[/QUOTE]

that's what CC is betting on, you forgot about the Gift Card. This is just plain stupid. They think that it gets me into the store and buy other stuff? nah.. I can go in and out of a store without buying a thing.
 
Thanks for the advice - I wrote corporate yesterday right after posting, and told them exactly what happened, timestamps and all.

I keep swearing off Circuity City, and then they keep having the one thing I need in stock at half off. Bastards.

I think the worst thing about Circuit City is that their main method of attracting customers is through deals that are clearly worded, but confusingly enforced. $10 off this game if it's not in after 2! Well, that only counts if the game was never in from 2 until the present moment, not if we got one copy in, sold it, and then didn't have any more.

Also, that rebate only counts if you can prove direct lineage from the last King of Persia. In triplicate.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']that's what CC is betting on, you forgot about the Gift Card. This is just plain stupid. They think that it gets me into the store and buy other stuff? nah.. I can go in and out of a store without buying a thing.[/quote]

Me too actually, which is what makes me even MORE of a devil customer, since I can go in and buy the one or two items I want that're on sale without going 'oh I've been looking for one of those for a while and it's SOOOOO cheap' and walk out with 40 things instead of the one or two.
 
Circuit City is just a horrible store. The employees never really do anything. That seems to be a reoccuring theme at every single store I've been in. Your troubles with the card just remind me of just how the employees don't seem to do anything but try to sell you TVs.

I only go there if there's a really, really good deal, and that hardly ever happens or is worth it. Best Buy usually matches everything CC does and does it better.
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']CC honors exactly dick. They blow off price matching and any sort of in-store guarantee in my area; I still need to write Corporate over it.[/QUOTE]

Price matching? Price matching?? My CC doesn't do price matching! I had a manager tell me his store does not do price matching (I have been to two CCs like this). He told me, the "idea" of price matching is merely used to make the public feel confident in CC's price structure. Huh? They suck ass.
 
[quote name='opportunity777']Price matching? Price matching?? My CC doesn't do price matching! I had a manager tell me his store does not do price matching (I have been to two CCs like this). He told me, the "idea" of price matching is merely used to make the public feel confident in CC's price structure. Huh? They suck ass.[/QUOTE]


they don't do price matching?!?!?! Did you point out the GIANT SIGN behind the Customer returns desk? I would have told the manager, "Did they ever teach you to read big letters in school?" if a manager says that they don't do price matching. What's the deal with them NOT doing rain checks anymore?
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']they don't do price matching?!?!?! Did you point out the GIANT SIGN behind the Customer returns desk? I would have told the manager, "Did they ever teach you to read big letters in school?" if a manager says that they don't do price matching. What's the deal with them NOT doing rain checks anymore?[/QUOTE]

I even have a witness to back me up on this account because I took my nephew along with me both times. I have a long story about it, but I'm not going to post because I am not in the mood to rant forever about stupid stuff right now.
 
[quote name='opportunity777']I even have a witness to back me up on this account because I took my nephew along with me both times. I have a long story about it, but I'm not going to post because I am not in the mood to rant forever about stupid stuff right now.[/quote]

If it happens again, file a complaint with the BBB. That store is quite clearly participating in deceptive advertising practices. CC advertises PM at a national level. It's on their website. If they refuse to honor it, and then tell you it's just there as a fake guarantee, they could definitely get in some shit with the BBB.
 
i've never been denied a gift card and i've gotten 3 of them. i always place my orders for in-store pickup just for the chance of getting the card.

i've only had to fight for one of them. The customer service desk didn't want to give me the card. Their policy does state that it doesn't include time "waiting in line". I agreed with this, but the fact that my item wasn't pulled and sitting behind in their customer service area says to me that my item wasn't ready for pickup, regardless of how long I had to wait in line.

I didn't get upset. I just calmly remind them that it is their policy and the chance of getting the gift card is why I bring my business to them instead of Best Buy.
 
[quote name='daminion']i've never been denied a gift card and i've gotten 3 of them. i always place my orders for in-store pickup just for the chance of getting the card.

i've only had to fight for one of them. The customer service desk didn't want to give me the card. Their policy does state that it doesn't include time "waiting in line". I agreed with this, but the fact that my item wasn't pulled and sitting behind in their customer service area says to me that my item wasn't ready for pickup, regardless of how long I had to wait in line.

I didn't get upset. I just calmly remind them that it is their policy and the chance of getting the gift card is why I bring my business to them instead of Best Buy.[/QUOTE]


Now see that's sad for them. They can't have someone find an item within 24 minutes and get it to the customer service desk. I wonder if the store gets a write up for that when they have to pay a customer a gift card. BTW, how does it work? They don't get you the item in time, they just ring up a new gift card worth 24 dollars and bam, there ya go or does it go on your order receipt ? If it's separate then the order receipt then what will stop people from buying, getting the free gift card and then later on returning the item and keeping the gift card?
 
The added hassle of having to return the item is what I'd guess would be the reason why people wouldn't return the item they ordered. Or, it being something they DID want.

Either way, I know many told me that if I was going for the game guarantee card and they had the game(s) in stock, to buy them and then return the next day. Well, in the only case of me trying for the gc, I was trying for it for a game for a system I didn't have(Wii), so it would've been a useless title to me and more hassle than it was worth to go back and return it.

So, if CC had the game(s) in stock, I'd simply say that I was 'checking to see if you had it in stock for a friend of mine'.
 
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