Does anyone NOT like Circuit City?
 

I haven't seen many complaints about Circuit City stores around here. (Compared to the number of Best Buy complaint threads). Does everyone find the store better in all departments, or are there weaknesses that no one talks about around here?

I never shop there. Ever since the divx thing years ago. I know it was a while ago but i just dont have the urge to go in. Besides they dont carry a lot of electronic brands i like

capt

Re: Does anyone NOT like Circuit City?
 

Since there always seems to be about ten times as many people in BB as CC at any particular time (around where I live anyway) that they would get more complaints isn't surprising. I know I go to BB much more than I go to CC.

Circuit City really screwed up the recent Led Zeppelin DVD/CD offer by advertising the best price of any store out there, and then only getting a couple of copies per store on release day. (Some stores finally got them in later in the week, before the sale was over, but it took a lot of calling around throughout the week -- some stores more than once -- before I found a store that actually had them in stock. And the customer-service people at the main 800 number basically blew me off about the problem.) I usually don't go to Circuit City unless there's a really good deal because I'd rather support my local independently owned DVD store. The Led Zeppelin experience, however, left a bad taste in my mouth, and I probably will avoid them in the future.

My problem with Circuit City is they tend to be poorly stocked on any item they have for a good price. After the first day it's a waste of time to shop there in my experience.

I hate circuit city. The one in our town is worthless. Useless sales people. No CDs. Anything advertised is Not there, i think its a policy.

I pricematch their ad all over town. But i avoid their store like the plague.

In the case of the Led Zep promotion, it didn't even help going there on release day. By 5:30 p.m. on the Tuesday it came out, every store in town was out of them. (Having to work prevented me from getting there any earlier. And at the closest Circuit City to me, people were standing in line waiting to get them when the store opened, and the few copies the store received sold to those people, according to the clerk at the store.)

can you elaborate on what's 'the divx thing' ? i was probably still in high school back then...

Back in 97-98 I think, Circuit City and a law firm got together to create DIVX, a type of DVD where you would buy a Divx enabled player, hook it to a phone line, buy Divx disks for around than five bucks, then get to watch it for 48 hours [the Divx player dialed into a main Divx account database, I believe, so it knew what you 'could' and 'couldn't' watch.] You could then pay more money, I believe, 15-25 $, to 'unlock' the disk and then get to play it 'forever.' Only on the machine that originally played it, so, no resale value. Not all disks could be unlocked, and I think the divx database had to be running, so now that Divx is officially dead, Divx disks are coasters.
You can check out fightdivx.com for some details.
It's similar like what Disney is now allegedly considering, the one-time rental/disposable disk thing. I'm surprised I haven't heard the envirogroups pitch a fit about that yet.
[Note: there is a also a computer video player codec called DivX ;) that is not the same thing.]

Feel free to correct me, anyone, if my details are flawed.

Yeah that was divx. The entire thing back then was companies like fox and paramount were releasing movies for divx and not dvd. There was a entire campaign if you want to call it that, where people wouldnt shop at CC because of divx. I never liked CC so i didnt shop there anyway. It was a while back when dvd was still a new technology and it wasnt really mainstream yet. So they were trying to mess up dvd by coming up with a competing crappy format

capt

I don't shop at CC...don't like the sales pressure, don't care for some of the selection, HOWEVER, they are much better on returns with their "no questions asked" than BB, Target, or many other stores that seem to be really tightening up their policy.

I also went quite a while [5, 6 years] without setting foot in a CC. Apart from their sales pressure and commissioned sales people, we were in there shopping for a new washer/dryer, I think, and wandered to the computer aisle. Someone was considering an IBM Aptiva computer, and they were being pressured to buy it today. The sales clerk said something like 'Well, we have two in stock, and IBM doesn't make them until they have a certain number to make, so if you don't buy it now, you may end up waiting a few months.' Which was utter BS, because my father in law was the VP of IBM's Options Department at the time. We called him that day when we got home, told him what happened, and he called that CC [we got the clerk's name] and reamed them out.

I've always preferred Best Buy--selection seems to be wider, and their people are a lot less intrusive. BB's people do seem to be getting more proactive, though, at greeting and offering to help, but leaving me alone if I don't have any questions, which is good.

The last thing I bought at CC, and the first thing I bought there in at least 8 years, was the Monsters Inc DVD. They had a good price, in stock, and a free mousepad.
I have been wandering in there recently just to look at their widescreen TV's--it seems like their TV section is more comfortably laid out and less loud [Best Buy has always got some d*mn rap/hiphop crap blaring out from the car stereo section, which is near the TV's in the stores around here. That in itself is almost enough to make me not like BB.]

When did CC go off commission? That may be why they haven't been quite as annoying when I've gone in there recently.

Only once have I ever been able to successfully purchase an advertised item at Circuit City. Therefore, I never even bother going there anymore, so I've really got nothing to complain about.

I have, however, used their ads to price match at Blockbuster.

I refuse to shop at Circuit City - mostly due to the pressure sales tactics. Although I understand they've done away with commission sales, I'll still pass.
Oh yeah, and then there was the DIVX thing.

I don't really like going to Circuit City due to the bait and switch tactics that they always seem to perpetrate, their pressure sales, unknowledgable employees, etc. Still it is better than Best Buy where I got into an argument with a manager because I didn't want to buy a warranty for a new keyboard.

The only reason I shop at CC is because my local one is in a convenient location. Otherwise, I try to avoid it--they're poorly stocked, their prices are generally lower than BB's (though price matching makes up for that), and worst of all...I had a bad experience buying a scanner there a few weeks ago. No less than THREE salespeople at one time tried to get me to buy their warranty. There's nothing like being triple-teamed to turn me off to a store.

What I hate the most about Circuit City is how their DVD section is arranged. Where BB has them spined out so you can easily read the titles, at CC you have to sort of flip through them and look at the tops to try and see what the titles are. And that's difficult to do with the ones on the top shelf. It's a horribly stupid system.

In addition to that, last time i was there, I asked their "DVD Guy" if they had any Criterion Collection DVDs. He had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to explain what Criterion was but it was like talking to a three year old. Granted, this was just one guy and could probably also happen at BB, but it was still frustrating.

I love how whenever you go into a circuit city there's always a huge pow-wow of employees standing in the middle of the store talking. Then when you come up to ask one of them a question it's like you're interrupting their break time yet they won't hesitate to offer you an extended warrenty on a set of earbuds for only $29.99. I also enjoy how they stock like 3 of an item that's on sale and then tell you they have no idea when they'll be getting anymore in but that they can special order it for you. What a terrible way to run a business.

The small to midsize Circuit City stores typically only carry a few criterions and those are the mainstream ones (Chasing Amy, The Rock, Traffic). The superstores sometimes have a few more.

I did have the same Led Zeppelin problem, but when they finally did have both the CD and DVD in stock they still honored the deal. This was over a week after the 2 for $30 deal was over. I have to give them some credit for making good.

Also I stopped there once for some speaker wire, only to discover that they only sell Monster wire. No thanks! It's twice as expensive as anything else, and not any better.

The problem with my local Circuit City is you can't just buy something and leave, like in Best Buy. There is no checkout counter. Instead you have to wander around the store and find an employee who isn't helping a customer willing to check you out. And they are less than enthusiastic about doing so if all you are buying is one small item, like a DVD or CD.

What Groucho said. It's ridiculous to have it that way. If I'm browsing some component, employees are all over me asking me if I need help. I try to buy something and I'll stand at a cashier, alone, for possibly 7-8 hours while the employees are hiding in a corner talking to each other. It's amazing how quickly they disappear too.

CC is a lot closer to me than BB, but I'd go to BB any day of the week over CC. I think CC has much better options in higher end audio equipment, but for the most part have very little options in everything else. You can either buy an overpriced Monster Cable there, or an overpriced generic cable that usually comes free with hardware. No middle of the road choices at all. They also don't have anywhere near the DVD selection as BB, and I hate the way they have them in CD racks, it makes quick browsing impossible.

CC is usually fairly dark inside, which makes it hard to check out equipment sometimes too. One thing that irks me is that they generally don't have any boxed equipment out, so if you're looking at something you have to trust what they put on the little cardboard tag as far as features go. Before I put down a few hundred $$$ on anything I like to look at the box and see for myself what it actually lists. Sometimes there's a big difference.

Other than that, I can't complain about CC, mainly because I refuse to go there.

Well, I can only speak for the CC that I work at, but over the next month they are redesigning the front of the store to add independently standing checkout registers. At the moment, the customer service desk is where people get rung up if they don't purchase items at the respective depts.

I'll agree that there is an annoying stocking system. I find we sell out of way too many items. Lately it seems to be improving, so I hope they get this ironed out.

Bingo.

The CC I live near (Racine, WI) has checkout registers at the front of the store (three, I think).

The only problem with this is that no one every works the cash registers. They are always closed.

That's the only real complaint I have about CC.

The BB and CC stores we have in Racine are about 20 feet from each other, so when one store pisses me off I can walk to the other one in less than a minute.

/Benjamin