<><> Circuit City ? <><>

Is it good to buy from Circuit City ? Are they good at
service & handling ? I`ve heard that Bestbuy is not good at
all...........Al

And neither will work on your equipment once the warranty is expired....you
are then on your own.
People who buy only on price get exactly what they deserve.

"Al Hill" wrote in message
...
Is it good to buy from Circuit City ? Are they good at
service & handling ? I`ve heard that Bestbuy is not good at
all...........Al

On Mon, 17 May 2004 14:34:49 -0700, (Al Hill)
wrote:

Is it good to buy from Circuit City ? Are they good at
service & handling ? I`ve heard that Bestbuy is not good at
all...........Al

Consider the source: I sell TV's for Sears. That said, Circuit City
is pretty good. They've got competitive prices, in general they care
beyond the point of sale for a reasonable time frame, and they seem to
lean toward earning repeat business to an extent.

Best Buy sucks. I don't say that as a competitor, I say that as a
consumer who cut up a BB card with a very generous credit limit a
couple of years ago due to the fact that they DIDN'T seem to give much
of a crap beyond the point of the sale on a screwed up laptop I
purchased. I'll never buy from there again.

With both companies, it's hard to say one way or the other what the
service is like since neither organization has it's own service techs
like Sears does (*shameless* plug g). When you buy from either
retailer (CC or BB, or any other major retailer), just who's gonna
take the screwdriver to your set for warranty work can vary from store
to store.

As far as the major, Fortune 500 coast-to-coast retailers go, knowing
what I know now as both a consumer and a salesman, I'd not make a
high-end electronics purchase from anybody but Sears or Circuit City,
but that's just me. CC's advantage is it's almost always in stock and
you can almost always take it home with you in minutes. Sears'
advantage is that guys wearing Sears name tags perform the warranty
work, so if the product breaks down under warranty, you deal with
Sears and ONLY Sears. Both will pricematch 'til the cows come home so
there's no difference there.

Sears has knowledgeable sales staff on straight commission, CC doesn't
pay commission so there's no pressure but overall, less knowledgeable
staff. At CC, you have no pressure but good luck finding a
knowlegeable salesperson. At Sears, you have to deal with a
commission salesman but the guy or gal probably studies the trends and
technology into the week hours so he/she knows alot more than the
*average* consumer. At the other Fortune 500's, GOOD LUCK if your
product fails under warranty.

Just my own personal opinion, your mileagle may vary....

I've had good luck getting vcr's replaced at CC when they go bad.
They used to fix them, then they went into replacement mode and I could get a
good upgrade in the process.
Lately, all the vcr's they have on the shelves are nothing I'd buy. They went
cheapo with the stock choices.
If I want to buy a $200 model vcr, they only have up to $150 models.

I see Mitsubishi is making D-VHS vcr's now. Where can they be found?

OK, I have to ask, as this is basically what made me cut up my BB
card.... I bought a CD changer, had a 12/12 warranty, did not purchase
extended, two months old it quit, BB says I have to give them 25 bucks
to deal with the warranty, they only do it for thirty days. I paid 75
dollars for the changer, (pos, I know) they wanted IIRC 50 for the
warranty, now 25 for warranty repairs. I pointed out that if i wanted
to be cut loose after purchase, I could have bought on line for
considerably less, but they were adamant, and I wound up sending the
changer back to the manufacturer. How would Sears have handled this?
Eric
Consider the source: I sell TV's for Sears. That said, Circuit City
is pretty good. They've got competitive prices, in general they care
beyond the point of sale for a reasonable time frame, and they seem to
lean toward earning repeat business to an extent.

Best Buy sucks. I don't say that as a competitor, I say that as a
consumer who cut up a BB card with a very generous credit limit a
couple of years ago due to the fact that they DIDN'T seem to give much
of a crap beyond the point of the sale on a screwed up laptop I
purchased. I'll never buy from there again.

With both companies, it's hard to say one way or the other what the
service is like since neither organization has it's own service techs
like Sears does (*shameless* plug g). When you buy from either
retailer (CC or BB, or any other major retailer), just who's gonna
take the screwdriver to your set for warranty work can vary from store
to store.

As far as the major, Fortune 500 coast-to-coast retailers go, knowing
what I know now as both a consumer and a salesman, I'd not make a
high-end electronics purchase from anybody but Sears or Circuit City,
but that's just me. CC's advantage is it's almost always in stock and
you can almost always take it home with you in minutes. Sears'
advantage is that guys wearing Sears name tags perform the warranty
work, so if the product breaks down under warranty, you deal with
Sears and ONLY Sears. Both will pricematch 'til the cows come home so
there's no difference there.

Sears has knowledgeable sales staff on straight commission, CC doesn't
pay commission so there's no pressure but overall, less knowledgeable
staff. At CC, you have no pressure but good luck finding a
knowlegeable salesperson. At Sears, you have to deal with a
commission salesman but the guy or gal probably studies the trends and
technology into the week hours so he/she knows alot more than the
*average* consumer. At the other Fortune 500's, GOOD LUCK if your
product fails under warranty.

Just my own personal opinion, your mileagle may vary....

I'm just curious, why did you not just call up the manufacturer? I
had a Samsung TV that died two months after I bought it from Best Buy,
but I sure didn't even consider calling BB. I just called Samsung.

So why even deal with BB? Just call the company who built the CD
changer. The year warranty is through them, not BB. I'm siding with
BB here. You didn't buy their extended warranty, and you're past the
30-day return, so why should BB mediate between you and the manufacturer?


Eric Houkal wrote:
OK, I have to ask, as this is basically what made me cut up my BB
card.... I bought a CD changer, had a 12/12 warranty, did not purchase
extended, two months old it quit, BB says I have to give them 25 bucks
to deal with the warranty, they only do it for thirty days. I paid 75
dollars for the changer, (pos, I know) they wanted IIRC 50 for the
warranty, now 25 for warranty repairs. I pointed out that if i wanted
to be cut loose after purchase, I could have bought on line for
considerably less, but they were adamant, and I wound up sending the
changer back to the manufacturer. How would Sears have handled this?
Eric

Consider the source: I sell TV's for Sears. That said, Circuit City
is pretty good. They've got competitive prices, in general they care
beyond the point of sale for a reasonable time frame, and they seem to
lean toward earning repeat business to an extent.

Best Buy sucks. I don't say that as a competitor, I say that as a
consumer who cut up a BB card with a very generous credit limit a
couple of years ago due to the fact that they DIDN'T seem to give much
of a crap beyond the point of the sale on a screwed up laptop I
purchased. I'll never buy from there again.

With both companies, it's hard to say one way or the other what the
service is like since neither organization has it's own service techs
like Sears does (*shameless* plug g). When you buy from either
retailer (CC or BB, or any other major retailer), just who's gonna
take the screwdriver to your set for warranty work can vary from store
to store.

As far as the major, Fortune 500 coast-to-coast retailers go, knowing
what I know now as both a consumer and a salesman, I'd not make a
high-end electronics purchase from anybody but Sears or Circuit City,
but that's just me. CC's advantage is it's almost always in stock and
you can almost always take it home with you in minutes. Sears'
advantage is that guys wearing Sears name tags perform the warranty
work, so if the product breaks down under warranty, you deal with
Sears and ONLY Sears. Both will pricematch 'til the cows come home so
there's no difference there.

Sears has knowledgeable sales staff on straight commission, CC doesn't
pay commission so there's no pressure but overall, less knowledgeable
staff. At CC, you have no pressure but good luck finding a
knowlegeable salesperson. At Sears, you have to deal with a
commission salesman but the guy or gal probably studies the trends and
technology into the week hours so he/she knows alot more than the
*average* consumer. At the other Fortune 500's, GOOD LUCK if your
product fails under warranty.

Just my own personal opinion, your mileagle may vary....

I had an S-VHS vcr I bought at Sears in late-1999, and I suspected that I had a
problem with it during the last month of warranty. So I took it to a Sears store
(50 miles away from where I live) and they sent it to their repair place 300
miles away. I got it back with cleaning done and a little adjustment, but my
stated problem turned out to be not with the vcr, but with a Radio Shack
Multi-Input/Single Output S-Video connector box that had gone bad and caused
colors to oversaturate. The vcr was fine after I retired the R.S. box. However,
the repair shop had gotten to work on it after the warranty had expired and they
charged me some money for working on it outside of warranty. So I had to bring
this to the attention of someone at the Sears back office and they tried calling
the repair place long-distance several times while I waited. My argument was
that I brought the vcr into the store BEFORE the warranty had expired, but the
repair place was saying they hadn't begun working on the vcr until AFTER the
warranty had expired and that they had to charge me. Two sides to this story.
The guy at the store made the decision after pondering these two conflicting
views and gave me the benefit of the doubt, so I didn't have to pay. The vcr box
that it came back in, not the original box, was in horrible shape though.
Fortunately there was enough bubble wrap to protect it. I only brought in the
vcr without a box; Sears dealt with the shipping aspects.

On Tue, 18 May 2004 08:44:38 -0500, Eric Houkal
wrote:

OK, I have to ask, as this is basically what made me cut up my BB
card.... I bought a CD changer, had a 12/12 warranty, did not purchase
extended, two months old it quit, BB says I have to give them 25 bucks
to deal with the warranty, they only do it for thirty days. I paid 75
dollars for the changer, (pos, I know) they wanted IIRC 50 for the
warranty, now 25 for warranty repairs. I pointed out that if i wanted
to be cut loose after purchase, I could have bought on line for
considerably less, but they were adamant, and I wound up sending the
changer back to the manufacturer. How would Sears have handled this?
Eric

Eric, you would have either been directed to call 1-800-4-my-home (the
Sears warranty department) or taken it to your nearest Sears repair
center. If there wasn't a repair center nearby, the Sears store would
have sent it off for you.

Once at the repair center, whatever rights you had under the fine
print of the manufacturer's warranty would have been honored directly
by Sears. If both parts & labor were covered still, then it would
have been a free fix or replacement for you. If only parts were
covered, or only labor, etc., etc., then Sears would honor that.

Basically, if it was a Sony CD Changer (for example), just substitute
the word "Sony" and/or "manufacturer" with the word "Sears" in the
fine print of your warranty. Again, this is probably the BIGGEST
benefit of making big-ticket purchases from Sears if Sears carries the
item... a benefit most people don't even know about.

Sears' CEO, Alan Lacy should be fired for failing to make the world
well aware of this fact because it would probably turn the company's
falling around if Sears would just make it a priority to advertise
this particular benefit of buying from Sears.

I'd like to plug local non big box retailers. Where I live there are
several local electronic stores that have built a reputation over the years
for service, particularly after purchase service. Every town has these
retailers; stores run by local businessmen who value their reputation and
depend on repeat business to stay alive. When I decided to buy my HD RPTV I
did my research on the net in newgroups like this one and visited
manufacturers websites to compare the various brands and models. Then I
went to my local retailer. The first thing I noticed was that he carried
only two brands of RPTV, Sony and Hitachi and his service department was
certified to service both brands. So I knew that whatever I bought, he was
the guy I would call if I had any problems. The sales rep explained that
the reason they carried those brands is that they were, in their experience,
the most reliable and most likely to result in customer satisfaction.
Reliability also meant that cost to the retailer in after sales service was
kept as low as possible. So both the customer and the retailer is happy. I
bought an Hitachi 46F500 RPTV and have been extremely happy with it. So far
I have had no need to call the store for service, and knock on wood, I don't
expect to have to call them. But I know they are there for me if I need to.

As for the big box stores, what I buy there generally are electronic
products that will be replaced if anything goes wrong since service is just
too expensive or impractical. So stuff I can take back and exchange like
camera's, hard drivers, printers and the like are what I buy at BB or Future
Shop here in Canada.

JK

"Cymbal Man Freq." Don't g wrote in
message .. .
I had an S-VHS vcr I bought at Sears in late-1999, and I suspected that I
had a
problem with it during the last month of warranty. So I took it to a Sears
store
(50 miles away from where I live) and they sent it to their repair place
300
miles away. I got it back with cleaning done and a little adjustment, but
my
stated problem turned out to be not with the vcr, but with a Radio Shack
Multi-Input/Single Output S-Video connector box that had gone bad and
caused
colors to oversaturate. The vcr was fine after I retired the R.S. box.
However,
the repair shop had gotten to work on it after the warranty had expired
and they
charged me some money for working on it outside of warranty. So I had to
bring
this to the attention of someone at the Sears back office and they tried
calling
the repair place long-distance several times while I waited. My argument
was
that I brought the vcr into the store BEFORE the warranty had expired, but
the
repair place was saying they hadn't begun working on the vcr until AFTER
the
warranty had expired and that they had to charge me. Two sides to this
story.
The guy at the store made the decision after pondering these two
conflicting
views and gave me the benefit of the doubt, so I didn't have to pay. The
vcr box
that it came back in, not the original box, was in horrible shape though.
Fortunately there was enough bubble wrap to protect it. I only brought in
the
vcr without a box; Sears dealt with the shipping aspects.

Not all Sears stores perform their own warranty work. Maybe the one you work
at does, but I know for a fact not all. The reason I know this is the
company I work for does service work for BB, CC, some of Sears and some of
Tweeter. The company I work for is a dept store chain. In fact they are the
biggest privately owned dept store in the US.

You make some very valid points about commissioned salesman, the draw back
you didnt come up with is that a lot of commissioned salesman push product
or the customer to something they really dont want or need. But yes in
general most commissioned salespeople are more knowledgeable, not all
though. I have run into some very dumb commissioned salespeople who were
veterans by decades of sales experience who doesnt know what the difference
from their left and right hand.

Scott


With both companies, it's hard to say one way or the other what the
service is like since neither organization has it's own service techs
like Sears does (*shameless* plug g). When you buy from either
retailer (CC or BB, or any other major retailer), just who's gonna
take the screwdriver to your set for warranty work can vary from store
to store.

Sears'
advantage is that guys wearing Sears name tags perform the warranty
work, so if the product breaks down under warranty, you deal with
Sears and ONLY Sears. Both will pricematch 'til the cows come home so
there's no difference there.

Sears has knowledgeable sales staff on straight commission, CC doesn't
pay commission so there's no pressure but overall, less knowledgeable
staff. At CC, you have no pressure but good luck finding a
knowlegeable salesperson. At Sears, you have to deal with a
commission salesman but the guy or gal probably studies the trends and
technology into the week hours so he/she knows alot more than the
*average* consumer. At the other Fortune 500's, GOOD LUCK if your
product fails under warranty.