Complaint Review: Circuit City - Rockwall Texas

My wife and I bought a Samsung HL S5086W 50" DLP television from Circuit City on August 4, 2006. We also bought the City Protection Plan to cover it. The sales person said if we had any trouble it would be fixed or replaced. I specificaly asked if that meant if it broke shortly after the 30 day return policy if they would replace it, and I was told he thought it would.

52 days after the purchase the tv died. No power. The power to the tv is fine, but no lights, no sounds, nothing. Dead, dead, dead. I called Samsung to phone troubleshoot it. They could not get it up and running. I contacted the store the next day and explained what happened. I acknowledged the tv would have to be fixed most likely but asked the Operations Manager "Wilma" if she had any way she could expedite the repair or exchange it. She said she would speak to the Sales Manager over entertainment.

We got a call back shortly thereafter and were told "Go ahead and bring the television in, we'll exchange it." by Wilma. I don't own a truck and my car is too small to transport the tv so we rented a truck from Enterprise. After my wife and I loaded up the truck with the tv and all its cords, remote and documentation we went inside to get our cell phones and load the kids into the truck.

Wilma calls the house just as we are leaving. She tells us that we should not come down to the store because "Gabe" the Sales Manager over Entertainment is not going to honor the exchange. We will have to have the tv repaired 3 times to have it exchanged.

This didn't set right with me. When asked who authorized the exchange in the first place Wilma would refer us to Gabe and Gabe would say he was not privy to any such conversation. To make matters seem more sinister, Wilma informed us this was her last day at the Rockwall store and she would be at a different Circuit City starting tomorrow. Convenient to say the least. A perfect scapegoat even.

Well, I did raise my voice at Gabe saying a manager with the authority to make the exchange told us to bring it in, but at no time did I swear at him or yell. He however became very condecending. I told him we were loaded up and I had paid for a truck rental so we expected the exchange. He said if we showed up and demanded the exchange we would be escorted off the premesis by the police.

Before we left my wife and I decided to call corporate in an effort to exahst all avenues before heading to the store. I explained everything above to the corporate "Cool Line" and when I was done the girl told me that the situation was outrageous and that she would bypass the store and contact the District Manager about it. Shortly thereafter I called the number for the DM to see what had happened. The girl assured me he would call, but he never had. The assistant to the District Vice President told me to explain the situation to her. I gave the same description again and she agreed with the "Cool Line" girl, and said she would email the DM and tell him to handle it and call me. Well, no phone call again, so my wife and I packed up and went to Circuit City not wanting to waste the rental, and on the assumption the DM took care of it.

When we got to Circuit City it took only two minutes of talking to Gabe to find out he had most of the story wrong, as far as what had transpired. We tried to reason with him on the points he was mistaken about but in the end he said that the DM said don't do the return. Then he called the police and had us escorted out. We never yelled or lost our tempers, nor swore a single time. We simply argued in slightly raised tones, just as Gabe was doing to us. (You have to raise your voice to talk over the obscenely loud music in the store).

In the end we have the same broken TV, have to wait 2 weeks to get a repair guy out here (nice quick response time on repairs huh?) and have had no satisfaction. ANyone who says if you buy the protection plan they'll bend your way sometimes.... HA! I don't see that happening.

I'm disguested I had a tv for 52 days and it died and they want me to keep the defective thing with a new part or two in it. I know they have policies to repair before replacing, but once an Operations Manager says they will exchange it I think that should be the end of it.

Kyle

Greenville, Texas
U.S.A.

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