How Circuit City Ruined My Weekend - A long short story by billg

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I know its been posted (right above me.. in fact..) but:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/complaints/-327225.php

I tend to agree with the commenters on the Consumerist (probobly a chunk of the 20k views?). OP's attitude was out of line, CC ended up eventually matching the damned thumb drive anyways... even though it was for CHARITY and they shouldn't have had to do that... and that wasn't good enough.

The OPs tone showed nothing but contempt for the people who work at that store -- just shopping somewhere doesn't make you the fuckin' second coming of Jesus, OP.
 
I feel bad for you Bill, especially the way you were treated, but i do think that shopping on black friday is one of the roughest times, not just for the costumers, but the employees as well. What you were doing was pretty much testing their patience, i'm surprised they didn't resort to insulting you or kicking you out!

This might be very obvious to some but, You should have just bought the items online and saved the gas money and all the hassle. For example at Amazon.com, since they usually have good prices on their items anyways PLUS seeing as you seem to live in the Philadelphia area, you would have gotten the items in no more than 1 to 2 days (their shipping center is located in Allentown). :)
 
Keep up the fight, customer service is getting crappy everywhere. The people running and working at these stores are just there for a paycheck. They can talk to friends there or on there cell phones, pick up dates, play video games, bs with the employees, etc. I don't know how many times I have walked up to employees chatting only to wait a minute or so for them to finish then they just look at me. Its not like they are talking store or customer issues. WTF? Where is store 700? We have a lot of stores around here like that. Circuit City, Best Buy, Sports Authority, anywhere younger employees are involved. If corporations wonder where there profits are going, these workers are screwing them.

Keep up the fight man! There is a principle to the matter. Which no one understands anymore. Sure our time is worth more not dealing with this crap, but if we don't speak up then it gets worse all around.
 
[quote name='dwsscs']The people running and working at these stores are just there for a paycheck.[/QUOTE]

Well no shit, I don't think many of them have working retail at Best Buy or Circuit City in their minds as their professional career.
 
I have to agree with the "OP is clearly in the wrong" side of the debate, but whats worse to me is, does anyone else think his bringing corporate attention to this and his constant pointing to CAG and FW to prove his case is going to backfire on all of us and cause the stores we normally look to for deals to start being more forcefull in stopping deals from showing up? If I was front office for CC and was getting flooded over this stupid situation, my first thought would be "if these deal sites weren't posting our mistakes and convincing their forum members to treat the mistakes like gospal this would never have happened". His whole argument as to why he should have been allowed to buy the DS for the sale price AFTER the sale ended is that FW said he could.

I, like most everyone else here anti-OP, worked retail electronics in college, and its impossible to give an accurate inventory account on BF weekend because of the sheer volume of people coming through, even if you spoke to someone and they had 6 of those drives, by the time you drove in there they could have all sold out! But that probably would have been CC's fault too. It is nearly impossible to get to the phones, and to be honest no one working wants to get to the phones because you shouldn't be calling, there are thousands of people in the store that went out of their way to COME to the store that day, they SHOULD get first dibs on the employees time over someone sitting on their butt at home holding a phone. And before someone says they should have enough employees for both or they should find time to answer the phones, it doesn't work that way. There are ALWAYS people waiting instore for service on BF weekend. You can only bring in so many employees to limit that wait time, but it is constant.

As for the coupon, no it does not work on game consoles and no it does not work on sale items. Sometimes you can convince a CC employee to let it go, but it clearly states it doesn't and they are in no way obligated to let it. Ok so you showed the manager your coupon. Its BF weekend, I'm guessing he didn't have time to read all the exclusions or probably didn't pay too much attention to it when you showed him. If he would have taken 5 minutes to sit down and read the coupon, you would have been pissed at him for that too. The exclusions are written clearly on the coupon, its your responsibility to read them. If you don't, then don't be upset if you get to the register and get denied. If you don't get denied, good for you you got away with one, but that doesn't mean you are obligated to.

I also have to disagree with everyone praising OP's writing ability. It is propaganda, pure and simple. It is a little bit of truth (use that word lightly as it is clearly skewed to his perspective) sprinkled amidst a sea of "witty" remarks to draw everyone to his side. If you clear out the witty remarks and bias and make it a point by point recounting of what happened, he looks like even more of an @$$ than he does now.

Finally, I love how he comes in an immediately defends his position on taking the charity drive and saying he asked for either one to be marked down, and that he had personal experiences with the disease, but then has "witty" comments like "perhaps figuring that they won't remember being shorted in a few days." in there which is clearly a classless shot at people with the disease, but thats ok as long as someone thinks its funny and call CC for him because of it.

Oh, and I completely agree with whoever said EVERYONE should have to work retail for a year.
 
[quote name='blaked569']Update 11/28...2051


Chapter Seven: Chump Change

After seeing so much bad publicity from rabbling forum members who read this story on CAG and spread it to other sites, Circuit City decided to give in to my unreasonable demands in order to try to salvage any semblence of positive public image. By posting the store number as well as the names of any involved parties, I purposefully and vengefully indicted a number of average blue-collar workers just like me, all because Circuit City (like most business establishments in the United States) refused to allow me to barter the prices of items down to my liking.

The holidays came and went. My relatives distanced themselves from me after receiving my gift of Mario Party 8. No matter though - estranged family members aside, I still had my nifty $14.99 2Gig Cruzer Micro (black), which more than makes up for the emptiness in my life. I'm still offended that Circuit City didn't sell me the purple one at that price. Which establishment actively REFUSES a customer's money?! Sure, the Alzheimer's grant alottment might have been very-slightly shafted in the long run of things, but I'll be damned if Circuit City puts anonymous Alzheimer's victims before me. Completely dehabilitated victims with their family and personal lives ruined, none the less. But still - fuck them.

I spent the rest of my days alone, with my triforce-emblazoned golden DS, as well as my extra nunchuck conroller which I occasionally used to perform autoerotic asphyxiation on myself. I died alone, a bawling and complaining heap of a man who just couldn't deal with the simple fact that sale prices are only valid and applicable for the duration of the sale.

The End[/quote]


Just wanted to repost this on another page so everyone can read this. :applause:
 
[quote name='ITDEFX'].

What nightmare?
Did they steal all your porn from your computer when you took it to them to get it fixed?!?!?
[/QUOTE]

Now I'm really scared. Tell me its not true, tell me its not true!
 
[quote name='dphizz']

inventory systems are going to be fucked during the whole week and weekend of black friday, you can't really expect any dependability during this time period.

.[/QUOTE]

Which, unfortunately, is very true, and needs to be fixed. Most of those online inventories tell you to call the store to double check, which he did and they said they were closed. I worked retail for 5 years, worked a number of black fridays, and no matter what, we answered the phone. Its shitty CS to do that.

But yeah, retailers need an overhaul of their online/in-store thing. Either seperate the online from the in-store completely(which most dont), or admit that they are joined and make the effort to sync them better.
 
The thing is with the current level of technology there is no way to fix the inventory system. There is no way to prevent someone from picking up a thumb drive and putting it in another section.

With the ever decreasing prices of RFID tags we will have a solution eventually but not for a while still.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']The thing is with the current level of technology there is no way to fix the inventory system. There is no way to prevent someone from picking up a thumb drive and putting it in another section.

With the ever decreasing prices of RFID tags we will have a solution eventually but not for a while still.[/QUOTE]

A fair point. But look at my GS example that I posted a few pages back. I called/checked with 6 different stores over the course of 4 or 5 days. They didnt have what I was looking for, yet the inventory results never changed.
 
I'm fairly sure that 40 off 200 doesn't work on consoles anyways. :lol:

I had a shitty time dealing with CC myself this weekend. My 360 red ringed and I called the store to ask about my replacement plan. They said sure, just a minute and put me on hold. I also got the several spaced rings followed by an employee being sick of ignoring the phone and hanging up.

At this point, I boxed up my 360 -and my TV as it was giving me problems too- and chuck em in my truck. And getting that 150lbs 30" down a flight of stairs was real fun.

I spend half an hour in traffic driving to the store and wait in line for 10 minutes (also meeting another RR victim). Onnly to have them throw a pamphlet at me and tell me to call a number.

I told her that the sales guy that sold me the plan told me I could exchange both items for my money back in store. She didn't care.
 
I guess some of my confusion lies in how (and I'm paraphrasing)

"She said she'd send me a $10 gift card. Bah! What a trifle! $10 is a small amount of money to me in this matter! More!"

later becomes

"This DS bundle is supposed to be $10 cheaper! $10 is a chasm of money that I will not leap. $10 is too much money! I will continue this fight over (Do this last part in your best Braveheart yell) TEN DOLLARS!"

Things like this are why I have sympathy. For Circuit City in this matter.

Circuit City people, if you are reading this, Stand Strong!
Offer him only a big glass of Shut Up. Nothing more.
 
[quote name='BattleChicken']I know its been posted (right above me.. in fact..) but:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/complaints/-327225.php

I tend to agree with the commenters on the Consumerist (probobly a chunk of the 20k views?). OP's attitude was out of line, CC ended up eventually matching the damned thumb drive anyways... even though it was for CHARITY and they shouldn't have had to do that... and that wasn't good enough.

The OPs tone showed nothing but contempt for the people who work at that store -- just shopping somewhere doesn't make you the fuckin' second coming of Jesus, OP.[/QUOTE]

The response from this website versus the response from CAGs is hilarious. It seems when you step outside here to the real world, nobody has sympathy for the OP. At lleast he got a mix here but that stems from the general disgust everyone here has for CC and not real sympathy for the OP and his misguided quest for justice.
 
[quote name='blaked569']Update 11/28...2051


Chapter Seven: Chump Change

After seeing so much bad publicity from rabbling forum members who read this story on CAG and spread it to other sites, Circuit City decided to give in to my unreasonable demands in order to try to salvage any semblence of positive public image. By posting the store number as well as the names of any involved parties, I purposefully and vengefully indicted a number of average blue-collar workers just like me, all because Circuit City (like most business establishments in the United States) refused to allow me to barter the prices of items down to my liking.

The holidays came and went. My relatives distanced themselves from me after receiving my gift of Mario Party 8. No matter though - estranged family members aside, I still had my nifty $14.99 2Gig Cruzer Micro (black), which more than makes up for the emptiness in my life. I'm still offended that Circuit City didn't sell me the purple one at that price. Which establishment actively REFUSES a customer's money?! Sure, the Alzheimer's grant alottment might have been very-slightly shafted in the long run of things, but I'll be damned if Circuit City puts anonymous Alzheimer's victims before me. Completely dehabilitated victims with their family and personal lives ruined, none the less. But still - fuck them.

I spent the rest of my days alone, with my triforce-emblazoned golden DS, as well as my extra nunchuck conroller which I occasionally used to perform autoerotic asphyxiation on myself. I died alone, a bawling and complaining heap of a man who just couldn't deal with the simple fact that sale prices are only valid and applicable for the duration of the sale.




The End[/QUOTE]

phew, that was a hell of a long book. Not worth the 7.95 I paid for :|
 
[quote name='jaystaeb8']The response from this website versus the response from CAGs is hilarious. It seems when you step outside here to the real world, nobody has sympathy for the OP. At lleast he got a mix here but that stems from the general disgust everyone here has for CC and not real sympathy for the OP and his misguided quest for justice.[/QUOTE]

Which is odd, because usually, 60-85% of the posters on the consumerist side with the consumer. Thats how you know you are really in trouble.
 
according to google "How Circuit City Ruined My Weekend" he's got about 5 sites that tie back to here.

No wonder I couldn't get into cag earlier... See I fucking knew it he would slow down cag.

son of a bitch.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']phew, that was a hell of a long book. Not worth the 7.95 I paid for :|[/QUOTE]

It was definitely worth taking my friend's recommendation to come back to this thread and read it. The ending is classic. :whistle2:D

And yes, when the Consumerist is not on your side--- you're boned.
 
[quote name='Darthjer']

Things like this are why I have sympathy. For Circuit City in this matter.

Circuit City people, if you are reading this, Stand Strong!
Offer him only a big glass of Shut The fuck Up! Nothing more.[/QUOTE]


Fixed.
 
[quote name='MrNEWZ']It was definitely worth taking my friend's recommendation to come back to this thread and read it. The ending is classic. :whistle2:D

And yes, when the Consumerist is not on your side--- you're boned.[/quote]

The consumerist has magic powers that make PR monkeys fix shit... When the isue is legit. They don't often run with 'Man this customer is a total douchenozzle'.

Oh yeah... Congratulations for getting the Consumerist to pick up on the story, OP!
 
[quote name='jza1218']A fair point. But look at my GS example that I posted a few pages back. I called/checked with 6 different stores over the course of 4 or 5 days. They didnt have what I was looking for, yet the inventory results never changed.[/QUOTE]

Retailers can't make it too easy for their employees to change inventory counts otherwise it'd be way too hard to track employee theft.
 
Yeah I have to say that this was bull. They acted like jerks and the store was a hot mess but you went above and beyond asking for "justice".
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']according to google "How Circuit City Ruined My Weekend" he's got about 5 sites that tie back to here.

No wonder I couldn't get into cag earlier... See I fucking knew it he would slow down cag.

son of a bitch.[/QUOTE]

Well that probably answers the question though as to why this thread is a front page item. This guy's crusade against Circuit City to force them to accept his own idea of what their prices should be is just crazy enough to bring a whole lot of people who never saw the site before here since he's dumping a link to this site on every forum he can get his hands on. If even one person out of all those people ends up becoming a member of the site, then this thread was completely worth promoting from Cheapy's standpoint. Judging from the consumerist comments, it appears to be creating a negative image of the site in the eyes of some, but it's still a bunch of free publicity.
 
I can't believe some of you guys are hating on him. Give me a fucking break! He was obvioulsy wronged by CC. There were many opportunites for CC to just admit they were wrong and give him the prices he asked for. The price for the DS bundle was reasonable, and everything else he did was not the least bit out of line.

Simply because of this, I will not shop at CC anymore (not that I recall the last time I shopped there anyways). fuck them.
 
[quote name='RedvsBlue']Retailers can't make it too easy for their employees to change inventory counts otherwise it'd be way too hard to track employee theft.[/QUOTE]

In this day and age of internet, how hard is it to do? When something is scanned into the system, and marked as sold, a notice goes to someone on the web to remove from inventory.
 
[quote name='Heavy Hitter']Not hating on the man, just the wrong-headed pompous entitlement attitude in his message.[/QUOTE]


SO now we can change the title from "How Circuit City Ruined My Weekend - A long short story by billg"

to

-"How I got boned by CC during a limited time promotion on Black Friday Weekend"

or

-"How CC Pissed me off and my quest to get free shit from them"

or

-"How I can make shitty excuses to justify my crusade against CC"

or

-"How to waste everyone's time on CAG with a lame but well written story"


Serious OP, you haven't answered my questions about the Charity contact information request to validate that part of the story. I am sure CC HQ would like that information too. Time to pony up that information boy...that way we can all call the organizer of this charity and tell him what kind of problems your causing in the name of the charity.

Like I said before, if you would have focused on the flash drive for the charity part, and had documentation of the actual charity (like an official letter or whatnot), then *maybe* they would have helped you out by either not taxing it, giving you a discount or if they were nice enough...could have given you the flash drive for free and do it as a tax write off. Purple, black, who the fuck cares.. it's 2 gigs in a plastic colored shell. If you didn't involve the video game package, you would have had a higher chance in walking out with something vs walking out pissed and coming here to bitch about it.

Anyways your approach was totally messed up. Yes CC screwed up, but you shouldn't make it a crusade just get a free DS out of it.
 
[quote name='KueMan10']I can't believe some of you guys are hating on him. Give me a fucking break! He was obvioulsy wronged by CC. There were many opportunites for CC to just admit they were wrong and give him the prices he asked for. The price for the DS bundle was reasonable, and everything else he did was not the least bit out of line.

Simply because of this, I will not shop at CC anymore (not that I recall the last time I shopped there anyways). fuck them.[/QUOTE]

The only way he was wronged by CC was that the employees should have been more polite to him, but we don't even know their side of the story so that may not even be true. If anything he was technically trying to wrong CC by using a coupon that wasn't even valid with his purchase, but he was hoping they'd let it slip through the system anyway. Not that it ever got to that point of course because after he badgered them into lowering their price on an item because the one he wanted wasn't in stock, he couldn't be content with paying the 10 dollar difference in the DS pack he cost himself by waiting a day to fight for the jump drive. The most ironic part is as was pointed out earlier, that same 10 dollar amount was offered to him on a gift card from CC to just shut up and go away, but he claimed that amount was insignificant.

The guy who was upset with CC for having games advertised as being on sale, but then was told the sale quantity was gone and the rest in stock were full price had a legitimate gripe. This situation however was a case of a guy creating a scheme to use a coupon in an invalid way to rip off a corporation, and because his plan didn't fall out the exact way he planned it he freaked. As for the people treating this as a situation where he's fighting for better customer service for all of us like a true patriot, umm it's a bit more selfish than that. CC isn't likely to institute a policy where they hand you a pricing gun when you walk in the store and let you go to town on their products, which is basically what this argument is over.
 
[quote name='Levizk']The only way he was wronged by CC was that the employees should have been more polite to him, but we don't even know their side of the story so that may not even be true. If anything he was technically trying to wrong CC by using a coupon that wasn't even valid with his purchase, but he was hoping they'd let it slip through the system anyway. Not that it ever got to that point of course because after he badgered them into lowering their price on an item because the one he wanted wasn't in stock, he couldn't be content with paying the 10 dollar difference in the DS pack he cost himself by waiting a day to fight for the jump drive. The most ironic part is as was pointed out earlier, that same 10 dollar amount was offered to him on a gift card from CC to just shut up and go away, but he claimed that amount was insignificant.

The guy who was upset with CC for having games advertised as being on sale, but then was told the sale quantity was gone and the rest in stock were full price had a legitimate gripe. This situation however was a case of a guy creating a scheme to use a coupon in an invalid way to rip off a corporation, and because his plan didn't fall out the exact way he planned it he freaked. As for the people treating this as a situation where he's fighting for better customer service for all of us like a true patriot, umm it's a bit more selfish than that. CC isn't likely to institute a policy where they hand you a pricing gun when you walk in the store and let you go to town on their products, which is basically what this argument is over.[/QUOTE]


and the truth will set you free... Well said my friend.
 
It's fairly ridiculous how many of you CAG users are defending some lame corporate entity against a fellow CAGer. I would have thought there would be more of a rally around the individual who was treated like crap instead of the corporation that could care less about their shoppers.
 
[quote name='swift17']It's fairly ridiculous how many of you CAG users are defending some lame corporate entity against a fellow CAGer. I would have thought there would be more of a rally around the individual who was treated like crap instead of the corporation that could care less about their shoppers.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, stick it to The Man! Let's rally around poor downtrodden billg. Let's march on CC's corporate headquarters and demand change! Let's grow out our hair, smoke a bowl, and firebomb a library! Peace!

ADDED :

/sarc off
 
[quote name='Heavy Hitter']Yeah, stick it to The Man! Let's rally around poor downtrodden billg. Let's march on CC's corporate headquarters and demand change! Let's grow out our hair, smoke a bowl, and firebomb a library! Peace![/quote]
Exactly. You hit it right on the head dude. *Lights a doobie*

ADDED:

Sarcastic as well. Guess you didn't catch it.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Serious OP, you haven't answered my questions about the Charity contact information request to validate that part of the story. I am sure CC HQ would like that information too. Time to pony up that information boy...that way we can all call the organizer of this charity and tell him what kind of problems your causing in the name of the charity.

Like I said before, if you would have focused on the flash drive for the charity part, and had documentation of the actual charity (like an official letter or whatnot), then *maybe* they would have helped you out by either not taxing it, giving you a discount or if they were nice enough...could have given you the flash drive for free and do it as a tax write off. Purple, black, who the fuck cares.. it's 2 gigs in a plastic colored shell. If you didn't involve the video game package, you would have had a higher chance in walking out with something vs walking out pissed and coming here to bitch about it.[/quote]

I think you may have misread something. He was not asking to buy a thumbdirve that he could donate to a charity or use to benfit a charity on his behalf...the thumbdrive was being sold by CC as part of a charity drive.

I agree that the OP's sense of entitlement is comically inflated here but we really should focus on the facts when calling out his douchebaggery.
 
[quote name='Heavy Hitter']Yeah, stick it to The Man! Let's rally around poor downtrodden billg. Let's march on CC's corporate headquarters and demand change! Let's grow out our hair, smoke a bowl, and firebomb a library! Peace!

ADDED :

/sarc off[/QUOTE]


Damnit, I shaved the other day. I guess I cant join.
 
I worked at Circuit City a few years back as a manager, but was unloaded a little over a year ago when they started firing and laying off to cut costs. I am still in contact with the one remaining employee at my old store. She even says to company has gone to hell. All the new employees are a bunch of 17 year old idiots. They have pretty much completely dropped the training they used to do, so now the employees are not even trained in the department they work in. Circuit City needs to shut down and have those mass clearances like CompUSA had so I can get some dirt cheap crap.
 
[quote name='fatherofcaitlyn']I keep returning to this trainwreck of a thread.

Will there be survivors pulled from the wreckage?[/QUOTE]

unbreakablePDVD_00901.jpg


yea this guy, but don't tell anyone he's a superhero ...shhhh..
 
i hope you get every item you wanted, for the price you wanted(if not lower) and i hope every m*****f**ka you had to deal with in that store gets fired

honestly i understand everyones views here, but it all comes down to the guy was deliberetly lied to by many employees who "did not want" to offer him a price change(he wasnt asking for a full adjustment just a discount on another drive) and after the run around twice and many many calls he still gets treated like shit and nothing will come of it

if anyone else actually cared how they were treated then this could be any of us but everyone on this site that gets rejected of an obvious deal just leaves and doesnt bother to actually show the store they were wrong and try and get what you came for

GOOD LUCK
 
I have to say, and I rarely post, that I wish you luck. I have been screwed over many times by big corporate because they figured it would be OK to treat someone like that. Wendy's has lost my respect because of such, as have other companies. I usually come to forgive and forget and not try to deal with the hassle but it gets to a point where you get tired of the 16 year old who screwed up, and the 22 year old who is in charge thinking he's smarter than you because he works there. I've had enough of it- and I complain every time something happens so customers can be treated fairly.

I understand that sometimes customers act downright rude, but in some circumstances you have to just give in to the mistakes made and bite the bullet. You might lose some money at first, but I'm sure the next time the person needs to buy something they'll come right back there to buy it.
 
I hate CC as much as anybody on this board, but after reading the entire first post I can't side with the OP. Sorry!

No doubt my points have been made (huge thread, I haven't read all replies), but here's my summary of what occurred:

OP goes to store to purchase several items. Due to a breakdown in the system, one of the items (a $14.99 thumb drive) is erroneously reported as being "in stock" when it really isn't.

So what? This sort of thing happens all the time. Most people (myself included) would find something else to fill that remaining $15 so they can use the coupon. Or put all the stuff back and gone someplace else.

But the OP instead decided to go about getting the deal one way or the other, and when things didn't work out has made a huge issue over it (calling corporate, etc). That's a lot of time and effort. I don't know about anybody else, but $14.99 isn't worth much of my time -- not even an hour, let alone all the time and effort spent on this.

Bottom line is that you aren't going to get great customer service at CC (you knew that before you walked in the door), and it's not worth the effort to try. Especially for something so trivial.
 
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