- Report: #374214
Complaint Review: Circuit City - Regina Saskatchewan
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Circuit City
Victoria Square Mall, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Phone:
306-569-1699
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Circuit City, AKA The Source No warranty on new battery. Regina Saskatchewan
I bought a NexxTech nicad for our Radio Shack cordless on August 20, 2008 from Circuit City in the Victoria Square mall. This battery has so little capacity that it is as weak as the old one I turned in to Circuit City when buying this new battery. I declined the extra cost three year exchange warranty, and therein lies the problem. The rep who sold me the battery less than a month ago, and his manager, claim there is NO WARRANTY on a battery of this type, even if it is defective right out of the package, as this one is.
Is there not a common law principle that a newly purchased item must be suitable for its intended purpose? A battery that gives only fifteen minutes or so of talk time is not,
in my estimation, anywhere near being suitable, as these batteries normally give two hours of talk time.
I am e-mailing my family and friends to warn them about this crappy Circuit City policy. Needless to say, they won't EVER see my business in the future!
If the dollar value wasn't so small, I would be tempted to launch a small claims action to recover this sum. By the way, I found a more powerful lithium-ion battery to fit this phone at Best Buy.
I see from other complaints on this site that Circuit City doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation among consumers or State attorneys General. Wish I'd known that before they palmed off this dud battery onto me.
Avoid these stores like you'd avoid the plague!
L
Regina, Saskatchewan
Canada
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Circuit City
Is there not a common law principle that a newly purchased item must be suitable for its intended purpose? A battery that gives only fifteen minutes or so of talk time is not,
in my estimation, anywhere near being suitable, as these batteries normally give two hours of talk time.
I am e-mailing my family and friends to warn them about this crappy Circuit City policy. Needless to say, they won't EVER see my business in the future!
If the dollar value wasn't so small, I would be tempted to launch a small claims action to recover this sum. By the way, I found a more powerful lithium-ion battery to fit this phone at Best Buy.
I see from other complaints on this site that Circuit City doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation among consumers or State attorneys General. Wish I'd known that before they palmed off this dud battery onto me.
Avoid these stores like you'd avoid the plague!
L
Regina, Saskatchewan
Canada
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Circuit City
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Berkley
Ottawa,Ontario,
Canada
Battery
#2UPDATE Employee
Sun, April 25, 2010
I am also an employee of the Source, but I wont give you a novel about our return guidelines. The battery you purchased should have had a 30 day warranty on it and you should have been able to exchange it for a working one. Furthermore, at our store, we will return batteries that are defective because its the manufacturers fault, not the consumers. Although the extra warranty is a great deal, you shouldnt have had to purchase it to get a new battery. They should have given you a new one or even returned it. Customer service is more important than a battery sale. Don't let this stop you from going to the source, the people is this story were not acting correctly, the batteries do have a 30 day warranty. PS dont buy nexxtech stuff it sucks
Liam
Toronto,Ontario,
Canada
Policy re batteries
#3UPDATE Employee
Fri, April 09, 2010
Hello,
I am a sales associate at The Source at a store in Ontario, and I could perhaps provide a little advice to someone in this situation.
Generally speaking, we do not accept returns on open batteries, as they are 'consumable products'. The same goes for things like open headphones, dvd's, cd's, etc.
HOWEVER, depending on the battery, some batteries actually do have a 30 day warranty where we will replace it. Of course, because I'm not sure exactly which battery you had (the 23X-XXXX number in this case), I can't tell weather or not this is the case in your situation.
As you previously mentioned, you did decline the Advantage Care Plan (or ACP as we call it) when you purchased the battery. This of course would have automatically entitled you to a replacement of the battery without question, plus a second replacement down the road (within 36 months of the date you purchased it). Of course, its up to you weather or not you want it. However, there are in fact quite a few times where purchasing the ACP is definitely worth it (see below for my advice).
As previously stated, we do not give refunds in this situation. However, because it was less than 30 days, I may have either replaced the battery (at my discretion after a close inspection nonetheless), or allowed you to use the value of the battery towards a new telephone set (noting on the new receipt that the value of the battery is not refundable)
Now, getting back to the ACP's. Do I personally (not as a sales associate) recommend purchasing the ACP on cordless phone batteries? The answer is a definite YES. Some people tell me they're a ripoff, which really isn't the case. In fact, every day I get numerous customers who wished they'd bought it in the first place.
Now, do I personally buy the ACP on everything? No. It ultimately depends on what it is. It is definitely worth it on things like headphones, cordless phones and their batteries, wireless routers (yes, I'm serious!), and even some button cell batteries (in some cases, depending on what you're using them for).
That being said, don't automatically say NO when we offer you the ACP on products. Think about it for a second...do you think you might need to replace it (or have it repaired) at least once within 36 months? If yes, go for it! Although, there are some instances where its not worth it.
Also, different products are handled in different ways in their manufacturer's warranty period. Each item has its own 'repair code'. Here is what they are and what they mean:
D=We replace the item, write it off, and throw the defective product in the trash. The store eats the cost. (This is what cordless phone batteries generally are, as well as most small trinkets and accessories)
W=We replace the item, write the item off, and send it back to head office. Head office eats the cost. Generally, these are also smaller items.
V=We replace the item and send the broken one back to the vendor (a wide range of products are code V...I bought my Fuji camera solely because it was code V, and that means its easy to deal with)
R, E, H=The item is sent to our repair depot and is repaired. Code R products are generally large private label products such as TV's (eg Nexxtech, Fluid). Code E products include Toshiba laptops, and code H products include many Samsung and Motorola products. The difference between these is how the repair costs are billed.
C=This can mean one of many things, but generally within 30 days of purchase we will treat it as per service code 'V' (above). After 30 days, it is generally the customer's responsibility to obtain service, as in many cases we are not allowed to handle service requests, as per the manufacturer. Apple products have to be the most strict in this case; we often can't touch them after you've opened them!
It is also important to note that not all stores are corporately owned; there are some that are corportately owned, and then there are some that are franchised, also known as 'Joint Venture' or 'JV'. There have been times where JV store managers have given customers issues such as this, and I've managed to resolve the issues with zero effort. And then there was the time where one JV manager would ship junk to our store expecting us to deal with it because he'd otherwise lose money.
Now, because that particular store in question is out of my district, I can't see weather or not that particular store is. As well, there have been plenty of instances where stores have changed from corporate to JV or vice versa. I work in a corporately owned store.
I hope this helps.
