The Failures of Circuit City's 24/24 policy

I have three complaints about the service I have recently received at Circuit City.

First, the 24/24 advertising campaign is very misleading and should either be altered or eliminated. The CC web site indicates that if a customer purchases a product online for instore pickup, the product is guaranteed to ready in the story in "24 minutes". If it is not ready, the customer should be given a $24 gift card. This time should be measured, according to CC web site, as the time between receipt of the confirmation email from Circuit City and the time at which the product is available in the store. However, today when I went to my store to pick up the product I had purchased online a number of hours earlier, I was told that the time actually applied to the time between providing my receipt to the customer service desk in the store, and receipt of the actual package. Although I had to wait a significant amount of time (not time spent in line), waiting for the package, I was told this did allow me to claim that $24, since the time did not surpass the 24 minute window that they had to give me the product. That is, the 24 minutes between my contact with the customer service desk the store and the handing over of the product for me. Obviously, if THIS is CC means by its campaign, than it actually makes no sense to purchase something online, since it takes a lot less than 24 minutes to find a product in the store and purchase it. Furthermore, the plain meaning of the statement on the website is that the 24 minutes refers to, as I have already stated, the time between ordering the product (or receiving the confirmation email) and having the product available at the store. I believe that I should have been given the $24, or that, at the very least, Circuit City should apologize for such a misleading and unethical campaign.

Furthermore, when the package, after a delay, was available for me, it was actually damaged. I was told that the store had no undamaged products for me, and that I could either return the product, or they could give me a nomial (%10) discount on it. I could not accept a damaged product, nominal discount or not. After all, it was to be a gift. So, I had to return the package, and I had wasted time in the store and online, and traveling to the store. Yet I had actually decided to patronize Circuit City in the first place because of its promise of prompt and reliable service! Rest assured, I will never make that mistake again! CC should not indicate to customers that a product is available in the store if there aren't any truely undamaged items available for them.

Finally, allow me to comment on one quite unprofessional thing that happened to me in the store. After I had been given sub-standard service, I requested the names of the Circuit City employees, or at least their identification numbers, so that I could refer this to the company in my complaint. The employees refused to give me their names, and all I was able to obtain was their first names (Dion and Nick). This refusal to be accountable for events taking place was itself insulting and inappropriate and unprofessional.

Sincerely,

Laura Franklin