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Circuit City Scam

post #1 of 14
8/6/06 at 12:54pm
Thread Starter 
Circuit City has an inexpensive basic Acer notebook for $399 after rebate - one of those deals where they only get a few in and try to get you to buy something else. I decided I wanted to get one for my parents so they have something to use the internet with.

I get to CC (by Oakland mall in Troy, MI) at about five minutes after opening and there was a small line. I noticed the notebooks on the counter. There was a man arguing with an employee named "Tony". I didn't understand what the argument was about but Tony explained they have "Core" and "Premium" systems. I thought they were referring to the Xbox. I finally realized what he was saying. For $65, They open every box, power on the notebook and either remove or add software, and give you a 'resource CD' which is a CDR that probably contains drivers from the laptop of possibly adware knowing these guys.

I had been in line for about 20 minutes or so. Tony told me "We only had one Core system, and Eleven Premium, but I can call the other stores to see if they have any Cores left". Right, by the time I got there I'm sure they would be gone, that I had no desire to drive there. For $65 more this laptop wasn't worth it for me. It wasn't worth it for essentially a "Used" system where they have opened up and tinkered with it - thats my job. Also, they weren't through 'tinkering'. There was another guy opening them up and making them into 'premium' systems right there! What a scam!

I left in disgust and threw down the ad saying something like "Thanks for wasting my time, Circuit City sucks!"

To add insult to injury, the reason the man in front of me was arguing is because they sold a "Core" system to someone who had purchased it online. BUT YOU CAN'T PURCHASE IT ONLINE!!!!

Finally, I looked at their website and they still show the $399 system as 'in-stock' at that location. What a complete scam, and false advertising. The ad makes NO mention to this core/premium deal.

Not that circuit city is anything great anyways. It's a wannabe Best Buy with higher price tags, weird check-out counters where you have to grab an employee if you can ever find one. I never want to shop there but now I definitely know not to!
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post #2 of 14
8/6/06 at 9:27pm
wow, sorry to hear aout that. i got the 550 acer last week at my local circuit city
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post #3 of 14
8/7/06 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan-o-
Not that circuit city is anything great anyways. It's a wannabe Best Buy with higher price tags, weird check-out counters where you have to grab an employee if you can ever find one. I never want to shop there but now I definitely know not to!
Best Buy is even worse - not much of a reference point haha.
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post #4 of 14
8/7/06 at 12:49pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by amb9800
Best Buy is even worse - not much of a reference point haha.

I have generally had very positive experiences there. I would not agree that they are worse. Yes their computer employees are dumb and don't know what they're talking about and will try to sell you a bunch of useless garbage that you do not need, but I was able to go there once and grab one of their advertised specials with few questions ask after telling them I wasn't interested.

But theres the time I went there with my wife to buy a printer and glanced in the next aisle where i heard an employee say "There are a couple suckers in the printer ailse, they said $100 is not problem, sell them something expensive!"

But I've gotten great deals on appliances and the rewards program has worked out well. Can't say a whole lot bad about them.
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post #5 of 14
8/7/06 at 2:26pm
I've never liked CC... it started 10 years ago when they had the stupid policy where you can't return ANYTHING w/out being charged a 10% restocking fee even if it's purchased the day before or something like that.

I'm not sure if their policy ever changed but I make a point to stay out of there. Plenty of other places to go such as the Goodguys, Bestbuys and my favorite Fry's.

Phil.
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post #6 of 14
8/7/06 at 3:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan-o-
I have generally had very positive experiences there. I would not agree that they are worse. Yes their computer employees are dumb and don't know what they're talking about and will try to sell you a bunch of useless garbage that you do not need, but I was able to go there once and grab one of their advertised specials with few questions ask after telling them I wasn't interested.

But theres the time I went there with my wife to buy a printer and glanced in the next aisle where i heard an employee say "There are a couple suckers in the printer ailse, they said $100 is not problem, sell them something expensive!"

But I've gotten great deals on appliances and the rewards program has worked out well. Can't say a whole lot bad about them.
They're fine with any of the regular, so-so advertised deals, but go for anything more, and they'll give you nothing. They will never follow their own pricing policies -- they will never price-match, for example, always coming up with some excuse. For example, on something as small as a $100 hard drive, matching an $80 price at CompUSA right nearby, the excuse is, oh CompUSA is computer-focused, and we're not (policy says comparable stores only). Ok...then how about $90 after instant from Circuit City -- oh no, we're different from them too. So what stores are they "comparable" to? Nothing. Lol. Just try to get any deal on Black Friday at BB, and you'll see what I mean - "big sale" leads to hundreds of people wrapping around the entire interior of the store, then they say, oh sorry we only have 3 of this product...but if you come tomorrow, you can buy as many as you want (at full price).

There are so many stories of people Worst Buy has screwed - from not accepting returns on products that turned out to actually empty boxes with filler material, to other things.

Have you seen their angel / demon view of customers? While it makes businees sense (mindless masses who just go and buy the big plasma TV regardless of what it costs, who don't send in rebates, who are easily taken in by sales pitches, etc. are more profitable), it's horrible from an educated consumer's point of view.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20041108-4382.html
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post #7 of 14
8/9/06 at 11:30am

I Hate Best Buy

I'd forgotten all about the website, but reading this thread reminded me of it, and I thought I would share. I like Best Buy just fine, and shop there often, but this website is just too funny (though not meant to be): http://www.ihatebestbuy.com

I, personally, think that CompUSA has better deals than any other electronics store around here. But that's just me and my opinion.

Ransom
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post #8 of 14
8/15/06 at 1:03am
Having worked retail in my past life, I understand the scams...
A lot of price matching is based on particular model number for a product. Problem is that Circuit City, Best Buy, Sears, etc. all have agreements with the manufacturers to have a special model number for their chain. Thus, they can say," Sorry, Mr. Snowdog, This price in the ad is for the 160 gig hard disk model #xyz and our model # is BBC for that part"
I have bought from the chains when it is convienant for me.
I never buy the "loss leader" products from these guys. They never seem to have it in stock, and if they do, that's not what I really wanted in the first place. (premium versus core etc.) especially when it comes to computer equipment. I don't want to buy the one that isn't quite useful to me, I want the one I can use for 3 solid years before needing an upgrade.
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post #9 of 14
8/29/06 at 7:32pm
It seems circuit city is the only place I can find Acer Laptops. Why is that and where else might I find them?
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post #10 of 14
8/29/06 at 7:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogue_boy
It seems circuit city is the only place I can find Acer Laptops. Why is that and where else might I find them?

If there's a MicroCenter in you area they carry some Acer laptops. Compared to Best Buy or Circuit City they're a much smaller chain with far fewer stores but they are nationwide in the U.S.

Spartos
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post #11 of 14
8/29/06 at 7:48pm
CompUSA also carries them.

Same deal as MicroCenter in that there are not as many branches as BB and CC, but they do tend to have better prices, in my experience.

Ransom
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post #12 of 14
8/30/06 at 12:30am
I want to save up for a beefed up gaming laptop but should I stick to Acer or go to Alienware?
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post #13 of 14
8/30/06 at 10:59am
If you want a beefed up gaming laptop, you should look at both the graphics card and the processor.

What exact games do you want to play?

I suggest the x1600 video card or better on the ATI side and the 7900 card on the nVidia side. Oh, and get a dual core processor that's 2GHz or faster.

Brand doesn't make it a gaming laptop (though Dell and Alienware might have you think otherwise). So if you like the Acer brand, find an Acer with the processor and graphics card you want, and go with that.

I have the Acer 8100, with the ATI x700 in it (a great card, but not the best) and a single core 2GHz processor, and I've been very happy with performance. It's played every game I've tried at great frame rates.

Ransom
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post #14 of 14
8/30/06 at 4:18pm
I do love the body on the Acer notebooks and I was looking at games such as Doom 3 or anything else on the Quakes 3 and 4 engines. really I want to be able to run them well and run them without my pc overheating and shutting off as commonly happens if I try to run those. In addition I want to be able to run Second Life and later on 1-2 years from now when it's released I want to be able to play Stargate Worlds. (an MMORPG)
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