Complaint Review: Circuit City

1. I bought a 37 Philips LCD TV from Circuit City on September 9, 2005. It cost us around US $3500 w/ extended service warranty City Advantage Plan ($2519.99 + tax for TV, 499.99 + Tax for service plan + TV stand). Circuit City sales agent Mr John convinced me and my family to purchase their extended service plan saying they have top of the line on-site service and Circuit City will replace the unit if it can't be fixed right there. He also told us that it has full money back guarantee if we are not satisfied.

2. In two weeks time after it's installed it started giving spurious trouble. The Audio won't work for few hours and it comes back on & off we initially thought this may be something to do with TV programs, Remote, Satellite box, setups etc. Being a spurious problem it took few more days for us to troubleshoot and isolate the problem. After 10 days the Audio went down permanently. I & my wife were traveling abroad (NewZealand & Australia) and hence our effort to call the store wasn't successful given expensive line & long hold. However, upon return we called the Circuit City service department and it took next several days for them to schedule a repair. The service technician finally determined that it has a faulty hardware/parts. He said it will take several weeks or even months to get the parts. Being an expensive TV set, looking at the inferior quality of the product we decided to seek an exchange of the unit (also based on suggestions from various agencies and friends).

3. Upon contacting the store Mr. Bart who identified as one of the store manager, however, refused to either exchange the unit or accept the return. He also did not seems to care for the duration for which the unit was going to be down (due to non-availability of parts) and hence refused to loan an equivalent unit until the repair is performed. All he insisted was that their return policy is 30 days and this claim is few days past that he simply did not seems to care for any professional courtesy/ customer satisfaction/ consumer protection laws. We made several attempts to reach the store director Mr Dough & left voice mail but he never returned call. Another store personnel Mr. Marcus even noted our information etc and said will pass the message in person to Mr Dough - but none of the store employees showed any consideration to resolve this matter and thus we never received any calls.

4. I contacted my credit card and lodged a written dispute with VISA. After reviewing my case in length, the dispute department found a valid case against Circuit City and they issued credit to my account. However, two months later they reverted back the credit originally issued upon Circuit City's response. Circuit City even went to an extent of lying to credit card that I don't even have an extended warranty purchased (I have their letter)! While responding in writing they didn't even bother to verify the fact that I have the extended plan purchased! Of course, Credit card reopened the case later for further good faith investigation (but have not issued credit to my account) and this is one of the cause why I couldn't seek the help of any law agencies immediately. In the mean time the unit never got repaired and I kept paying for my Dish network TV services due to uncertainties around exchange or repair.

5. I also lodged a complaint to Manufacturer Philips for manufacturing such an inferior quality product and especially the pain induced to customers via Circuit City. However, they simply escaped saying I have to deal with Circuit City because they sold me additional warranty (even though I had manufacturer's warranty still in place!). I have those emails preserved as well.

6. I lodged a complaint with Circuit City again. After several attempts I was able to reach Mr Tavis who scheduled a repair on 3/8/2006 saying the parts are already in and they just need to repair the unit. Upon hearing the terrible experience I had been subject to for last 6 months also created a new IM # 278351 and assigned to a corporate manager Ms Rita Wyatt.
7. However, on 3/7/06 evening Circuit City called and left a message in my home answering machine saying that technician won't be able to come for repair as scheduled on 3/8/06 and instead will come on 3/15/06. They apologized in that message for the inconvenience caused clearly stating that he was overbooked elsewhere. As usual I made several attempts to reach the case manager and left messages. Upon failing to receive any response from her I even spoke to Mr Jimmy and finally got escalated (after several attempts often they transfer call and I hear busy tone this is routine!) to ESP supervisor Kerry.

8. Ms Kerry kept talking in a very arrogant tone throughout. She went to the extent of lying that there was no repair scheduled for 3/8/06 repeatedly. I & my wife went to the extent of playing the recorded message in my answering machine which clearly apologized for the inconvenience caused to me due to their inability to send technician on 3/8/06 as originally scheduled. Even after hearing this message she kept on her annoying / harassing tone repeatedly denying that there was none call scheduled'. I even warned about her arrogant voice & her repeated statements making me appear like liar. However she continued without any regard for human respect she even went and created yet another claim G8483372. This was indeed a shock for me and my wife to understand that a big chain/network like Circuit City employs supervisors who treats customers so poorly (I never had such an experience in my life!).

9. Finally Ms Rita Wyatt called me on 3/8/06 and promised me that she will put in a request for Exchange of TV since she reviewed all the pain/problems I was subjected to in last 6 months. She also said she will try to see whether she can get the technician on the same day (such that repair can go on in parallel while she works on exchange) and will call me back right away. But apparently she did not!

10. I left several follow-up messages to Ms Rita seeking immediate status on exchange of unit. She finally called back on 3/14/06 saying that she has put in the request for exchange only on 3/13 instead of promised 3/8. She said she will hear back in 48 hours and hence will call back on 3/15. However, it's 3 days passed and I haven't heard back from her. After her deadline, I left three follow-up messages on 3/15, 3/16 & 3/17 requesting her immediate call and warned her against the delay tactics and consumer harassment (and the urgency for me to seek status before reporting the matter to legal agencies like yours). Failing which I made several attempts to escalate the issues to higher ups later yesterday. I ended up speaking to 5 folks across Circuit city customer Service (like Ms Mitchell, Mike etc) out of which two were from corporate Escalation Department. Ms Dennis of Escalation/Corporate dept even said she will walk to Ms Rita's office and get her online she kept me on hold for several minutes and the call got disconnected (this was nothing strange as it has become routine to me!).

11. Mean time, Technician showed up on 3/15 and said whom so ever in Circuit City told me that parts are in didn't tell me the truth! He said he has to order new parts and it may take several weeks!

11. Finally customer service yesterday evening created yet another Ref IM # 285678 and transferred me to Ms Jannet in Escalation department. Ms Jannet (as usual I have to spend several minutes every time talking about the terrible story to everyone) said she will send Ms Rita an Instant Message and get her to call me immediately. Well no one have called me yet and it is not at all surprising given my miserable experience throughout this case.

It's worth noting that the TV is lying dead since more than 6 months. Apart from the fact that my family could view the TV for only around two weeks after paying $3500+. We have also incurred terrible losses since we have to pay for the Dish Network Satellite channels throughout & related setups etc etc. The amount of time and money I have spent on phone calls and various communication amounts throughout accounts for further huge losses (I'm an Executive in a company).

After this terrible experience with Circuit City (arrogant tones/denials, repeated delay, and all the lies they made up all along), I & my family wonder whether there is anything like a Consumer protection Law in this country?! If so how can Circuit City dare/take undue advantage to treat me & my family in this manner?! I myself did a business law and understand that even the verbal promise is a binding contract. However, Circuit City repeatedly violated that contract and instead demonstrated repeatedly that customer service could throw any lies over the phone and even to the extent of denying their own recorded messages on answering machine and legal records (such as the letter that they wrote to my credit card lying that I don't have Extended plan/warranty etc!).

Many organizations/agencies (including my credit card Bank & Visa) were surprised by the Cicuit City attitude/customer loyalty and have suggested me to seek the legal help. I hereby request you to take a firm action on Circuit city (or point to me where I could avail legal help as I have a pretty strong case) for such a miserable treatment of customer and reimburse me for the terrible losses I have incurred throughout. I have done several businesses in the past with Circuit City, but amount of repeated lies they have made up throughout last 6 months of my dealing with them have made me to loose confidence in they doing anymore justification to my case or any further support. So I here by request you to help me get my refund back on the amount I paid on TV & Plan costs (plus all the additional costs I have incurred as narrated above). I appreciate your immediate response and will be eager to furnish any more documents/records you may need.
Thanking you sincerely.

Raghuram
Wesley Chapel, Florida
U.S.A.

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