Circuit City, Jefferson Georgia worthless warranty
2 years ago we purchased a computer package from Circuit City in Athens, GA. We were sold a very costly extended warranty. The salesman sold us on the warranty when he said that it would entitle us to in home service for the next 4 years. 2 weeks later our computar broke and I called the store. That is when I found out that the warranty does not go in effect until we had the computer for 12 months. I had to lug the entire computer back to the store.
After just three months I has been traded out of 6 junk E-Machine computers. I do internet research and during this time I was losing several hundred dollars every week my computer was down. I was talking to the store each and every day. At that point I called the district office, and talked to the district manger, who instructed the store to trade me into a better model of computer.
I was also told that E-Machines were junk and that he was embarrassed that his company kept selling them. I was told that I had to keep all the components of the old unit (printer, monitor, ect.) Not one month into the new hard drive our monitor went bad.
I was reffered to the warranty provider, who jerked me around almost 2 months, before caving in and sending me a new monitor. That monitor lasted just 3 months and it too went bad. I have not be sucessful in getting the store, or their warranty provider to return my calls. I went to the store last week and attempted to borrow a loaner moniter to get me through and the store told me that they had done all they could to accomadaite.
I had to go out and spend almost $200.00 on a new monitor. The bottom line is I have never been able to get a service tech out to my house to service/replace anything for me. I am now out a considerable amount of money, in lost wages and for replacing broken parts.
Sherri
jefferson, georgia
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Alice
Mukilteo,Washington,
2-3 days to figure out a monitor is dead?! You're trying to pull something over this poster's head.
#3Consumer Comment
Thu, April 25, 2002
It takes two or three days to figure out if a monitor is bad vs. the video card?! Bwahahahahah. Apparently if you get a warranty with competant enough people it can take 15 minutes, read story below:
Ok, When I called in my Gateway monitor bad, it took them thirty minutes, most of that me trying to find the serial number on my computer so I could prove I bought the computer and it is still under warranty (which is fair enough, without that they don't have proof that I'm not some one trying to get a free monitor out of them).
So, finally when we get the serial number right (I was trying to read it when the computer was stuck in a corner) and affirm that I did indeed buy a Gateway computer within their standard warranty, I tell him the problem (simple detail: the monitor was randomly just going black).
He confers with another guy after I describe the problem (in a little more detail), they say yep, it's your monitor, we're just going to send you another one. They even let me keep my broken but sometimes working monitor til the new one came in and supplied return postage for the broken monitor so I could send the old one back to them. Talk about trusting and very nice on their part, I was expecting to at least have to pay 20 bux to ship the old monitor back.
Now, get this... it took them 15 minutes to ascertain the problem. *15 minutes*. Gee... maybe you just work with incompetant people if they always must take days to ascertain the problem. I'm sure there are a few problems that it might take days, but definitely not all problems and I'd venture to say most problems.
Apparently Gateway at least hires competant people. And while I won't say I am happy with quality of computer parts I'm definitely happy with their customer service. I'll prolly make my own computer next time rather than buying package deals, but if you go package deals, go Gateway, they at least know how to treat their customers.
As an aside:
Never buy any computer at any retail store, all they carry is crap brands. I mean I actually like CC but I'd never buy a computer from them. Compaq and HP, their two biggest brands, are known for making really crappy computers. HP makes great printers, compaq I hear makes pretty good handhelds, but computers, avoid like the plague (I have never seen a working Compaq computer).
Kurpol
Dallas,Texas,
Taking this out on the wrong guy arent you?
#3UPDATE Employee
Wed, March 13, 2002
In your complaint you state that Curcuit City had replaced your computer system a number of times, GE-Zurich was not involved.
Then you state you were unable to get a loner monitor which upset you, GE-Zurich was not involved in that.
Basically the only thing I see GE-Zurich being involved in any of this is when you called to troubleshoot with us. Our company has not done you wrong in any way, yet you make a complaint about our service.
Yes, it did take some time to prove that your monitor had failed. Typically when a customer calls it takes a total of 2-3 days to prove failure on this type of part. Which would tell me that you did not call in or respond to our phone calls at some point there. The only thing you would have to do to prove failure on a monitor (given it recieves power) is to test it on another system. Yeah that may be a hassel but this really helps you out as well in the long run. Reason being if we "assume" that your monitor is bad and replace it, that may not resolve the problem. If the video card in the system had gone bad you would have had to wait for the monitor to arrive then wait again so that we may ship parts and have technician come out to replace the bad video card. This sounds to me like alot of unnecessary down time.
GE-Zurich has honored there contract in your case and did not do you wrong in anyway.
A word of advice would be, if you plan on purchasing a PC for business purposes and you buy an extended warranty on it, read the warranty. You purchased a home warranty and are going to get the type of service a home user would recieve. This means no loner of any type will be provided to ensure there is not any down time.
Next time look for a BUSINESS CONTRACT. Most of these types of contracts will provide another system for you while your system is in repair. Yeah the contract may be much more expensive but how much have you lost in down time with your Home Warranty?