Bait and Switched: Circuit City
Back at the beginning of November there was a big push by Toshiba to get it's A2 model HD DVD players into the market. They offered a slashed price and 5 free HD DVDs. Being a complete technophile and having purchased a new 50" plasma TV, I wanted in on the bargain! Labels: bait and switch, circuit city, customer service, hd dvd
Wal Mart had slashed it's price to $99 but I couldn't, in good conscience shop there. Best Buy had a similar price but they were out. I shopped around and settled on a model from an online only sale at Circuit City. Done and done.
It's now close to a month after it was supposedly shipped and still no player. I called the post office and they said they never received the package so I called up Circuit Citys (lack of) Customer Service Dept. I got the run around and finally the woman told me, "We'll just refund your money".
Not. Acceptable.
I informed her that, while it was a nice gesture, it doesn't solve my problem at hand. The lack of promised HD DVD player for the promised price. She said they don't sell that model any longer and suggest a more expensive model. This proceeded my parade that I like to call the "Let Me Talk to your Boss" ladder climb. She was resolute though and said that there weren't any supervisors there. I asked her "are you the highest ranking person?" She said no so I said to put me on with someone higher than her as I understood she could only do what she was allowed to do. No dice. She said she couldn't escalate the call. Apparently, they allow the Customer Service reps to govern themselves at Circuit City.
She then told me I was "lucky" to be getting my money back at all. I tired to reason with her that I bought the item from CC out of good faith that they would, you know, get me said item or help me get it at the least. I can't buy that item at that price anywhere now as it was a one day sale. It's complete bait and switch and kept me from getting it from another retailer. No go. She then blamed the Post Office and said it was out of their hands.
That part really bothers me because, no, it isn't. I'm not the Post Offices customer...Circuit City is. My transaction is with them. It's not up to me to chase it down after I paid them the money. It's up to them to help me get the item they promised me.
I was on the phone for about 20 minutes with this women and it was a horrible experience. I told her to give me my money back and then she told me it can take up to two weeks to do so.
I'm sure what happened was that they were overwhelmed with the orders and couldn't meet the demands with the stock. That sucks but that's not my problem. They promised something at an agreed on price and haven't delivered on that promise.
I wrote a two page letter to the corporate offices of Circuit City and thanks to some consumer sites online, I have particular executives' email addresses. They'll all be getting fresh copies in their Inboxes tonight. I've worked in customer service long enough to know that the more you sqwak, someone will finally do something to shut you up. I'm as fair as can be but in this situation they are wrong and are doing nothing to fix it.
posted by John K @ 2:56 PM
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