BearFan

To attempt to make a long story short, I purchased a projector from Circuit City and bought the warranty to cover the bulb replacement I knew I would need.

Bulb goes out, I call Circuit City, and they say I should have a new one in 5-7 business days. 60 days and many calls later, still no bulb. I have hopes that I may actually get one tomorrow, they finally placed an order for me at PCMALL.com (they have been really nice and responsive).

My main problem with this beyond waiting 2 months is that I think I should get some kind of compensation for this wait (they said no) and the thing that really upsets me as much as waiting the 60 days is not once anyone (except the PCMALL.COM guy) has ever done anything to let me know that this will be delayed further, it has basically been me calling they ever 7-10 days.

I think at a minimum they should refund the portion I paid for the warranty, am I off base here and if not, any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks

TGM

I think at this point you are shit out of luck. If it were me, after about 2 weeks I would have gone down there myself, multiple times, banging the desk and waving my fist at their customer service desk. I probably would not have received any "compensation", but I guarantee I would have gotten their attention, and in turn my replacement bulb in far less than 60 days.

BravesMG

I was about one day away from buying a Mitsubishi 4900 projector from CC since their warranty was so much cheaper than anywhere else. Just google Circuit City and Warranty to see a million horror stories like yours. I specifically didn't buy a projector just because of their terrible reputation, sorry you got hosed, but I don't think there's much you can do about it at this point.

BearFan

You are obviously much wiser than I am ... I'll continue to complain to them (did a BBB complaint, which i know is pretty useless), and will see what I can do. One thing I know I will do is spread the word as much as I can as to how horrible they are and not buy from them again. Swore them off because of the whole DIVX thing some time ago, I should have stuck with that attitude.

Dr. Calamari

One thing you might want to do is contact The Consumerist, which is a consumer advocacy website run by Gawker Media. They seem to be pretty good at getting results, and I've seen several posts on their site about Circuit City, none of which were favorable.

They're not too crazy about Best Buy, either.

My Other Self

Best Buy is far worse at honoring warrantied than CC.. although both have their fair share of faults.

BearFan

Thanks, sent them an email. Also posted on some of the local news sites/consumer people. Just got off the phone with Circuit City again and have reached the point of being highly pissed.

BravesMG

I guess a lot of it is personal experience as well. I've got 2 expensive HDTVs that have needed some work and Best Buy has been absolutely outstanding though all of my issues. The couple of things that I have warranties through CC have been disasters from the get go.

I just have more personal confidence in Best Buy, and I'll actually be buying another pretty expensive HDTV from them this weekend with a warranty. Everything with CC seems to be terrible and it's gotten to the point where for products that need warranties, I just refuse to buy anything from CC.

davethomasowns

Best Buy does a great job with their Service and Replacement plans.

BTW, I plan to never step foot into a CC again in my entire life.

Dr. Calamari

If their business continues to decline like it has the past few months, you may never have the opportunity.

BearFan

The Consumerist is great, I enjoyed reading it. Taking their advice,

I have emailed the exuctive team of the company, plan on calling the CEO today, and started a blog called Circuit City Eats Small Children (http://circuitcityeatssmallchildren.blogspot.com/), am about to post polite complaints in financial sites as well. If anything, I am going to try to have some fun with this.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I'll believe it when I see that. How many years have people here been saying that Blockbuster or some other store is about ready to go out of business for any number of reasons?

With exceptions, the ones going out of business are the small stores.

I'm not trying to be a jerk to you but it's just annoying to always see people saying some large store is going to go out of business for years. Hell, people have been saying Blockbuster is going to go out of business for almost a decade because of Netflix but they're still as crappy now as they were then and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Dr. Calamari

I know what you mean...however, Circuit City has been circling the drain for a while now, and after they fired all their experienced employees last year and replaced them with morons, in the interest of saving money (salaries were too high), people started to get the hint, and have been staying away in droves. Their policy of hounding customers for their receipt as they leave the store isn't winning them any raving fans, either.

BearFan, I hope The Consumerist experience helps you...they seem to have everyone's best interests at heart (except the big corporations, that is)

BearFan

The Consumerist is awesome, using some tips on the site, I just got off the phone with the VP of Operations from Circuit City who is sending someone to my house to fix this. In addition I'm getting a gift card in the mail for my trouble. Also have a direct line someone in their consumer affairs office for any problems I might expreience in the future.

I'm happy with the ultimate resolution, but would rather have skipped it all and had this taken care of some time ago.

cdollaz

I would take it all the way up the ladder and INSIST that they refund your warranty. Basically do not take no for an answer. Find out the president of the company's name and call his office twice a day until you are heard and satisfied. You will not get to talk to him/her, but they usually have assistants and people in their office that deal with this kind of stuff that can get shit done. Don't be a pussy about it and I think you will get some satisfaction.

Lloyd Dobbler

I called the corporate number with a complaint about a manager I had experienced at CC that was brutal. They sent me a $50 gift card. I had requested to speak with the area general manager and of course they never did call me.

I used the $50 GC and have never returned.