Circuit City 24 minute guarantee

Circuit City, Syracuse, Ny

Carousel Center Mall

Electronics store

I wish there was a way to tell the CEO of Circuit City about my

experience at Circuit City on Saturday 11/24/2006. I'm sure they would

be furious that their own self imposed policies are not being followed

by their employees. Take the following as a great example:

Circuit City has a 24 minute pickup guarantee. It states that if you

place an online order for an in-stock item, your item will be READY AT

THE STORE FOR YOU in no more than 24 minutes from the timestamp in the

order confirmation email. This 24 minute guarantee states that if your

item is not ready for you within 24 minutes, then you get gift card

for $24.00.

Today, I ordered a television on Circuit City's website. The timestamp

on the confirmation email was 10:12 am. This means that my local

circuit city was supposed to pick my item from the stockroom, and

bring it up to the customer service counter, ready to be picked up by

me by 10:36 am AT THE LATEST. Well, I got there about noon, and it

wasn't ready for me to pickup. As a matter of fact, I had to wait 20

minutes for them to go get my tv once they knew I was there to pick it

up. So, not only did 24 minutes pass and they didn't have it ready, an

hour and a half passed and it was not ready. Keep in mind this tv

costs more than $1300 dollars, for those of you who think customer

service is ramped up if you spend enough. Well, after looking at the

HUGE sign behind the customer service counter proudly displaying the

24 minute guarantee, I finally decided to ask for my gift card. I

went up to the counter, and politely showed my email confirmation

printout which clearly showed 10:12 am as the timestamp. It was almost

12:30pm at this time, and the cashier rudely stated that my situation

didn't apply. She was wrong. There are 3 times the 24 minutes

doesn't apply. Black Friday, and the two days following Christmas.

This day was not any of those 3. Clearly, according to their own

policy, they owed me a $24 gift card. After the clerk failed to see my

logic based on 10:12 am & 12:20 pm being more than 24 minutes, I asked

for the manager.

The cashier went into the back room, and came out after a couple of

minutes. She says "we're gonna just give you the card, Sir" as if I

should feel guilty, and they were just being good samaritans. I asked

the clerk..."how does this situation not apply?" She stated some

nonsense about time spent waiting in line not counting...well I wasn't

counting time in line....they had an hour and a half to get my item

not counting waiting in line. They failed.

BOTTOM LINE: CIRCUIT CITY ADVERTISES 24 MINUTES GUARANTEED, BUT WHEN

YOU CALL THEM ON IT, THEY TRY TO WIGGLE OUT OF HONORING IT. THE

EMPLOYEES MUST GET PUNISHED FOR NOT MAKING THE 24 MINUTE DEADLINES,

BECAUSE THIS GIRL WAS REALLY TRYING TO AVOID GIVING ME THIS CARD. SHE

ACTED LIKE I WAS BEING UNREASONABLE WHEN I WAS NOT. CIRCUIT CITY

SHOULD NOT ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO MAKE CUSTOMERS WHO SPEND 14OO DOLLARS

FEEL BAD WHEN THEY CALL THEM ON THEIR OWN POLICY.

DON'T LET THEM DO THIS TO YOU! IF THEY TRY, ASK FOR THE MANAGER

IMMEDIATELY AND TELL THEM YOU WILL CONTACT THEIR SUPERIORS IF THEY

DON'T HONOR THEIR POLICY. JUST MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THIS POLICY

AND MAKE SURE YOU REALLY ARE RIGHT BEFORE MAKING A SCENE.