Complaint Review: Circuit City

Um... Original payment type does not mean NO EXCEPTIONS, as a poster above pointed out... it says,, Original type UNLESS it was a check or OVER 100 dollars.

Yea... theres the exception, a contract is a contract, you cant decide to NOT accept on part of it and allow the other parts. It clearly states that if it is over 100 dollars or a check, that you will be issued a check.

Almost every major, high value item retailer is set up to do "drops" from the registers as previous posters have indicated. Once the drop is made there is usually NO ACCESS for store personnel, inclucing the manager to the safe. It is likely you have seen anti-theft signs posted on doors of many retailers - "Safe is time locked - Employees have no access to the safe", or similar wording. The money is dropped, and only the armored car service can open the safe to retrieve it when they do a pick up. As for giving change, there is normally an electronic safe that allows the manager to withdraw up to $200.00 an hour for change funds. These are common in convenience stores, and usually the limit for obtaining change is lower.

With the prevalance of armed robbery in our society why would any reasonable business keep thousands of dollars of cash available? You are expecting something that is totally unreasonable Dejuan.

Additionally, you mentioned that you paid for a portion of your purchase with a "Debit Card". In a perfect world a retailer would NEVER have trouble obtaining funds from a Debit transaction. This is not the case. There is a huge incidence of chargebacks and reversals to retailers from debit cards. The debit card is nothing more than an "Electronic Check", therefore by your logic you are receiving your refund in the same manner you paid.

Almost every major, high value item retailer is set up to do "drops" from the registers as previous posters have indicated. Once the drop is made there is usually NO ACCESS for store personnel, inclucing the manager to the safe. It is likely you have seen anti-theft signs posted on doors of many retailers - "Safe is time locked - Employees have no access to the safe", or similar wording. The money is dropped, and only the armored car service can open the safe to retrieve it when they do a pick up. As for giving change, there is normally an electronic safe that allows the manager to withdraw up to $200.00 an hour for change funds. These are common in convenience stores, and usually the limit for obtaining change is lower.

With the prevalance of armed robbery in our society why would any reasonable business keep thousands of dollars of cash available? You are expecting something that is totally unreasonable Dejuan.

Additionally, you mentioned that you paid for a portion of your purchase with a "Debit Card". In a perfect world a retailer would NEVER have trouble obtaining funds from a Debit transaction. This is not the case. There is a huge incidence of chargebacks and reversals to retailers from debit cards. The debit card is nothing more than an "Electronic Check", therefore by your logic you are receiving your refund in the same manner you paid.

Since you feel it is your right to walk around with a lot of cash on you and risk getting robbed for it (and possibly lose your life for it) that the store should force it's employees to the same risk just for you??

That is why return policies like this, (as well as the small amount of cash allowed in the register are in effect) even though there is still always the risk of a robbery, that risk is minimized by lowering the ammount of cash that that the store can access.

Yes, they do sell high priced items, but how much easier is it to stick a gun in someone's face and steal cash rather than stick a gun in someone's face and try to leave with a huge television?

Since you feel it is your right to walk around with a lot of cash on you and risk getting robbed for it (and possibly lose your life for it) that the store should force it's employees to the same risk just for you??

That is why return policies like this, (as well as the small amount of cash allowed in the register are in effect) even though there is still always the risk of a robbery, that risk is minimized by lowering the ammount of cash that that the store can access.

Yes, they do sell high priced items, but how much easier is it to stick a gun in someone's face and steal cash rather than stick a gun in someone's face and try to leave with a huge television?

Since you feel it is your right to walk around with a lot of cash on you and risk getting robbed for it (and possibly lose your life for it) that the store should force it's employees to the same risk just for you??

That is why return policies like this, (as well as the small amount of cash allowed in the register are in effect) even though there is still always the risk of a robbery, that risk is minimized by lowering the ammount of cash that that the store can access.

Yes, they do sell high priced items, but how much easier is it to stick a gun in someone's face and steal cash rather than stick a gun in someone's face and try to leave with a huge television?

Since you feel it is your right to walk around with a lot of cash on you and risk getting robbed for it (and possibly lose your life for it) that the store should force it's employees to the same risk just for you??

That is why return policies like this, (as well as the small amount of cash allowed in the register are in effect) even though there is still always the risk of a robbery, that risk is minimized by lowering the ammount of cash that that the store can access.

Yes, they do sell high priced items, but how much easier is it to stick a gun in someone's face and steal cash rather than stick a gun in someone's face and try to leave with a huge television?

Regardless to how CC employees feel about the company that pays their bills your company advertises falsely and has fraudulent practices. On april 30th I returned to circuit city again after everthing I went through two weeks ago I actually considered upgrading my tv for a better model instead of returning it. The manager tells me that the only way I can exchange my tv was if I purchased a protection plan for the upgrade tv? Now where in your store policy does it say anything like that??

Your stores sell many of expensive electronics and however a person decides to pay for their merchandise, well its a free country. regardless to how any of you feel about cash your stores accept and probably prefer cash but your gonna try to make me believe that returning cash to a customer is a problem, thats a great way to do business and keep customers? Treat credit and checks as if theyre more valuable than cash that makes alot of since, especially in a day when identity theft is such a growing problem? ORIGINAL PAYMENT TYPE means ORIGINAL PAYMENT TYPE theres no exception because a person uses cash you accepted the cash without a problem, And if you think Im going to sit back and anticipated a $2000 check for merchandise you already have back on your shelf your crazy.

If I wanna walk around with cash or do my shopping with cash and your store has a problem with people that make cash purchases maybe they should post that in the open like they do they're store policy. This is the second time this store has made an exception to their "policy" for me. I've contacted my state attorney general and the BBB Ive also spoken to an attorney about the matter and if I have to legal action is not far away. 30 day satisfaction guarantee not likely.

You just love giving refunds. Unreal. This is the actual wording on the back of a CC reciept:
"If you're not completly satisfied with a product circuit city will GLADLY exchange or REFUND your purchase within 30 days of the sale date, except where noted below."

DeJuan left out the last part of that line. The part that includes the 15% restocking fee, and how refunds are handled.

"Refunds are issued in the original payment type. Refunds on check purchases less than 14 days old and in excess of $100 are issued by check from our corporate office within 14 days of the return date."

I'll make it simple for you. $2500 is larger than $100, so CC will send him a refund check within 14 days of the day he returned the television.

DeJuan did not post the whole WRITTEN policy for a reason. He doesn't like it. Nobody in their right mind would expect to get a $2500 CASH refund from ANY retail outlet, not in America, not anywhere.

As for the Manager writing a check for filling the tills, nope. The cash drawers are locked away each night with their draw already in them. The deposit is put in the drop box at the bank. There's usually a couple hundred dollars extra for emergencies" in the safe, but NOT thousands. This goes for ANY retail business.

I suppose you keep thousands of dollars laying around for refunds.

Guys be realistic.

No store should ever have a huge amt of cash on hand for any potential refund.

Besides you should never ever expect cash back refund for very large buys of anything.
Credit or paper check yes, but never cash.

As a manager/owner of a computer store myself, I wont even give cash refunds on large purchases returned. Never ever. Even if my receits or adverts say otherwise.

Anybody who thinks that any retail biz would keep any substantial amt of cash on hand is a absolute idiot.

Besides that 'payment type' is probably defined as 'credit card,debit card,store card,check' or even as cash for amts below a certain amt.
I know that Bestbuy used to define cash refunds as doable only if refund is below a particular amt, even if the purchase was greater than that amt.

Besides anybody who would buy a large item in part or in whole in cash is a idiot and is risking problems related to 'cash purchasing'.

You as a consumer dont have as much legal protection as one with credit cards.

As a seller of computers, I dont care how they buy from me, but I guarantee you wont necessarily get the requested refund the same way back.

OMeSSiaHo and T do you honestly believe it is fair for a customer who has paid in cash at point of sale to wait 14 days for a refund? I can think of not one reason why that is in any way fair to the customer. If I walked up to the checkout with a $2500 TV and told you that I only have $50 dollars in my pocket which I will need in case I get hungry or want a beer but I will send you a cheque(Australian spelling)in 14 days would you be happy to let me take the television home? You would probably have me arrested.


How is that scenario any different from what the OP has been subjected to? CC say leave the TV with us and we will pay you in 14 days. What if CC falls over and is forced into liquidation during that period? How much money would the OP receive? Don't tell me CC is a big company and can't fail because in your country and mine lots of bigger companies have gone belly up.
With some 509 complaints on this site alone as I type this CC certainly could not be considered a safe and reputable company to deal with. Their customer service and policies are atrocious which is demonstrated by the way you two employees talk down to any poster that has a legitimate complaint against CC.


It is painfully obvious that CC and its employees have a "them against us" mentality where everything is black and white and no flexibility is available when dealing with customers, who, incidentally pay your wages. Don't tell me that within an hours trading any CC store couldn't raise $2500 in cash or that the manager couldn't write a cheque and send one of the employees to the bank to cash it. What happens when you don't have enough change for the registers? The manager writes a cheque and has it cashed!!!

You two really think you are so superior to your customers it is sickening. I hope you never have to run a business for yourselves, you will starve!!


Dejuan you had a perfectly reasonable expectation that you would be refunded in cash as that is what you paid with. Ignore the two employees they have no idea of the real world. You were lied to when they said you could not be refunded in cash. I hope you win your argument, good luck.

no offense to the orig. poster of the topic but i am a csa at circuit city and it's only logical that yes we are a big retailer and that is exactlly why we don't just have large amounts of money floating around in our registers. throughout the day what they call "drops" are done just the same as every buisness once a register has over a certain amount a manager/csa does a drop and it goes into the safe where it stays until the wells fargo men pick it up.. the registers on the sales floor all only have $50 in them and at some locations only the front registers may have $100 in them..

it sounds kinda weird they way ur saying they dealed w/it. were u there first thing in the morning so they didn't have any money for u? did they ask if u wanted to come back later or offer to call u if they got a large payment that day? that's usually what we do... but as far as the mail refund process that is actually one thing we don't get complaints on.. it a check straight from our corp. office never heard anycomplaints on that one yet.. yet..

You're complaining because you are getting your money back?! OMFG you wont have to carry around thousands of dollars in cash, the horror! I know I would rather have a check deposited into my savings account then carry around that much cash but I usually think things out. Oh, the store really dosent have much cash. I'm not a CSA but all of our registers have less then $50 in them and I know we have less then 30 registers so I would say the store dosent have much cash. I guess we could have given you the cash but that wouldnt be fair for the other customers who want change now would it?

Again this is FAR from a ripoff because you are getting your money back. Do you know what a ripoff is?!