Circuit City guarantee

I purchased a 4-year guarantee for $298 on a Compaq computer. I am absolutely certain it was for four years because I remember the clerk telling me that, if nothing else, I could get a battery once a year for four years and that would equal almost the price of the guarantee. I have since seen the same guarantee on the same computer for $50 less.

I have no idea how the clerk mixed up this transaction, nor do I particularly care, but when I inquired about the guarantee in Dec., I was told by the FL Circuit City that the computer record showed that it was a 2-year guarantee. What an outrage! The computer cost in the neighborhood of $525 and came with a 1-year guarantee, so they are claiming that I or anyone in his right mind would buy, essentially, one year of coverage for more than half of the cost of the item. It DIDN'T HAPPEN! Even if he put a contract in front of me to sign, which I doubt, I would not have noticed that he changed the time frame. I paid for a 4-year guarantee, and a clerical error has resulted in an erroneous entry. Period. CC in FL told me that I would have to go online to rectify it. I did so, and the person I talked to told me that it was clearly an error, but that I would have to talk to his supervisor to rectify it. I talked to many CC reps, including customer service. She said: "For the purchase amount you are saying, that would be correct for the dollar amount of your computer for a 4 yr contract." Then she told me that she would forward this on to are (sic)warranty management group for review. Then I spoke to a CC rep who told me that I would have to go back to the store in CA to rectify it. Believe it or not, I went back to CA (obviously on another matter) and went back to the dept in the Santa Monica CC where I had purchased the laptop. The clerk told me that I would have to talk to his manager. I did so, and he told me that I would have to talk to the asst. store manager because the store manager wasn't in. I did so, and the asst manager wrote up a report and called someone and promised me that they would get back to me via email. That was in April, but I have heard nothing to date from anyone in CC.

Until this happened, I was a loyal customer of CC, often extolling its virtues to other shoppers. Now this series of incidences has sickened me toward them. What does a customer have to do to really get this straightened out? Last month my cd/dvd drive failed, and of course the guarantee has now run out. Surely CC can treat good customers better than this.