Complaint Review: Circuit City - Kissimmee Florida

AS far as selling u a service agreement, thats what all the stores are mainly in biz for. They are not 'really' in the biz to sell you product, but to sell you a repair or service agreement of some sort. I should know I was a former 'HP' rep and it was my job as a rep to help the instore salesmen to make the sale, (ie; setup a sale and turn it over to them for the sales agreement).

PC manufacutrs as a rule are no longer providing restore cd's. That is in fact a generally known fact. Its a reality of the times. But you can either do it yourself or buy same from the store u buy it from. Reality is with Dvd burn and also OEM cd's (ie; OFFICE 2xxxx) or similar. If any do it is definately the exception. My previous pc's had them, but I wouldnt even want a restore cd anymore as I would replace it with the next OS ... as I did mine, My current pc's orgiinal restore was win98, which I will never restore to...same unit has been massively upgraded. Besides a substantial part of any restore cd will have junk I will have to immediately uninstall ...such as AOL or 'Reader Rabbit' type of junk. Better: To buy a backup solution for yourself. Till 2005 I was using a 30gig tape backup for a 13gig HD. Now I use a 500gig HD to backup 2 250gig HD's I am considering goign raid, but will likely go terabyte raid. Btw, I never back up applications, only my data.. and 100% of my data is in a 'MY DOCUMENTS' folder which is never on the root drive. In fact all my 'MY DOCUMENT' folders on any pc in the home network is pointing to the same folder on that server HD. As far as salesmen in stores, very few ever know as much as I have...even 10+ years ago or even 18-25 years ago when I first started.

Some manufacturers have some sort of back up on the hard drive for a backup but what happens if your hard drive goes out or if you get a serious virus. Working there I have seen many customers who have not purchased restore disks on HP and Gateway computers who have had trouble restoring there system without the disks. But this is a separate issue. For someone buying a Toshiba, they should of not been offering restore disks. You called the management and you said your story and he said he would talk to the associate. The associate was probably new and may not be 100% aware of everything...I know you are thinking that he should be 100% trained for every situation but with selling computers it takes a couple months to get everything straight. I don't think I knew about the Toshiba restore disks in the box until about 3 months into the job. The manager should of said sorry for the inconvenience however I think this is an isolated incident because the vast majority of Circuit City associates are very knowledgeable and only interested in giving the customer things that they may benefit from (this includes protection plans and firedog) because the associates are not based on commission

I don't know of any pc manufacturer that does NOT include some type of backup (CD/DVDs) of the installed bundled OEM software that is on the computer. Here's a little something from the DELL website: ""Q. Will my system include a restore disc (re-installation disc)? A. Every Dell system includes a restoration disc which includes the operating system installation as well as any applications and files which were included upon purchase."" If they are telling folks that they must pay them (service contract) for the restore disks, something is very wrong with this and I would file a complaint with the FTC and your applicable state Attorney General office. I've been buying PCs since the early 1980's and yes, the OEMs have gotten cheap. It used to be that they shipped the PC with the actual retail software disks, then they went to the "restore" disks which saves them money on disks and is in compliance with the newer OEM software/vendor aggreements.

I don't know of any pc manufacturer that does NOT include some type of backup (CD/DVDs) of the installed bundled OEM software that is on the computer. Here's a little something from the DELL website: ""Q. Will my system include a restore disc (re-installation disc)? A. Every Dell system includes a restoration disc which includes the operating system installation as well as any applications and files which were included upon purchase."" If they are telling folks that they must pay them (service contract) for the restore disks, something is very wrong with this and I would file a complaint with the FTC and your applicable state Attorney General office. I've been buying PCs since the early 1980's and yes, the OEMs have gotten cheap. It used to be that they shipped the PC with the actual retail software disks, then they went to the "restore" disks which saves them money on disks and is in compliance with the newer OEM software/vendor aggreements.

"Most manufacturers do not include the restore disk. Toshiba is actually the exception." I was told that they did not give out the restore disk. He was selling me an eight hundred dollar piece of equipment and didn't know that? Had no one told him?! "HP, Gateway, Acer, and Compaq will not include these disks with the purchase of the laptop. Customers can either make those themselves, however most customers don't so Circuit City offers a service through Firedog to create those for 29.99. Those customers that try to order them from the manufacturer can for a limited time for thirty-forty dollars. After a couple years, the manufactor stops making them for certain models." That is not what he offered me. He said that I had to purchase the 300 dollar plan, no alternatives or anything. "The associate was misinformed, however he was trying to offer you everything you may need. He didn't force you to buy the warranty because you didn't choose it, he just tried pointing out the benefits of having our protection plan verses not having it. He wasn't on commission and trying to rip you off but he should be better informed about the restore disks." It was aggressive nonetheless. He simply would not take no for an answer, and it took quite some time of me firmly telling him "NO. I am not buying it" before he'd do anything. I don't think the kid was a devil. But I am VERY concerned about untruths leading people to buy things they don't need. Being "misinformed" when selling expensive equipment is not okay, especially given how many ripoff reports have been filed on that extended warranty plan. If it were a .99 cent upsell, that'd be one thing, but seriously?! In this day and age, with the economy as bad as it is someone wants to wrangle an extra 300 bucks from me when I'm already paying so much? If Toshiba was the exception, then they d**n well should've known. I have no doubt such aggressive use of "misinformation" has cost people quite a bit of money.

Most manufacturers do not include the restore disk. Toshiba is actually the exception. HP, Gateway, Acer, and Compaq will not include these disks with the purchase of the laptop. Customers can either make those themselves, however most customers don't so Circuit City offers a service through Firedog to create those for 29.99. Those customers that try to order them from the manufacturer can for a limited time for thirty-forty dollars. After a couple years, the manufactor stops making them for certain models. The associate was misinformed, however he was trying to offer you everything you may need. He didn't force you to buy the warranty because you didn't choose it, he just tried pointing out the benefits of having our protection plan verses not having it. He wasn't on commission and trying to rip you off but he should be better informed about the restore disks.