Comments on: Last days of Circuit City: Lousy bargains, rumpled salespeople

Don Reisinger spent a few hours at Circuit City over the weekend and he didn't like what he saw.

[brandon_L]

best buy circuit city future shop they are all the same people here in canada and they all suck for customer service and products this one is 3rd rate material

[yogibear224]

Actually, any Best Buy will deal. You just have to be prepared to haggle. They can't always deal. For instance, as someone said earlier, Bose have a set MSRP and you won't be able to get money off. However, if you're buying OTHER stuff, they will often give you a bigger discount on that than they ordinarily would, again depending on what they are allowed to do.

The Magnolia people are totally aware of the need to deal. I walked in to one in Livingston NJ and said "I usually get my stuff from 6th Ave because they always do me a deal, I never pay the sticker price, do you still want to talk to me" (I said exactly those words) and they said "Sure."

I wound up with a display model Yamaha amp that was near it's model end. It was 1600 bucks new, I paid 340 bucks. They had it marked down to 1000 on the rack, he looked in the computer and came down to 500 and we settled at 340. With the difference I bought new speakers (20% off) and a boat load of other things.

If you are prepared to negotiate you will likely do well. But accept that most of the time they will tell you when they can't move on a price. Some of them might try their luck with that line, that's when you start to leave. If they're BSing they'll say "Hang on, let me talk to my manager..." That's when you know you're good.

And as for CC prices. The liquidator is being foolish if he sets the price to the point where there is a well known trusted competitor (Amazon) selling for less. Overstock or the like won't pay him that price either, they pay way less, because THEY are selling against Amazon! In this case it was a bad call, but they are trying to get cash. Remember they don't have time to go compare every single price with competition....

[scgleeson]

I feel your pain, but my understanding of the situation is that Circuit City no longer is making the decisions. When a company goes bankrupt, they hire a company to manage its liquidation. Now whether CC has influence in that decision I'm not sure.

I mananged to benefit from their pain. I got a Nikon D90 with a 18-105mm VR kit lens and a 70-300mm lens for $1300, which normally would've cost north of $2000, so I was pleased. However, their TV deals left much to be desired.

[warpsix]

The management sucked. The good employees were fired years ago because they made too much money. Training went away and now bankrupt .

[lorreign]

Just wanted to comment that it's about making money. The inventory that is left after the stores are closed will be destroyed. So they'd much rather sell 5 tvs at a higher price and destroy 3 then sell 8 tvs at a low price. Wouldn't you? Do your homework before you buy, simple as that.

[Fdamico]

Going out of Business is a business these days. Mervyns was selling products they never carried when they were in business. I went there to by blue jeans they raised the price to full retail and then took the 50% off which was the same price I used to pay for them on a sale day. People are duped into thinking Going out of Business is going to save you money (it can) but you have to do your homework.

[jweible03]

As a current employee of Circuit City (or Liquidation City), I can honestly say that this "blogger" has no ******* idea what he's talking about when it comes to discussing the liquidation of a corporation. Do you know that every major price change, such as the one that you labled must be aproved by the courts before the liquidators can actually change it? I only know this because I was told so by our Liquidator. Second, **** customer service. You customers had your chance, yet you decided, to go with the horrible customer service, higher priced, yet more appealing stores of Best Buy. Why should I give a **** about you now?

[CCPFT]

You nailed it right on the head !

[ace198319]

The funny thing is not many of you have been through a liquidation so let me explain. There are alot of not so smart people coming in and buying the stuff that was marked up to MSRP and then discounted a set amount. The liquidator had complete control and yes people would pay the higher prices.

This makes me laugh because most of the customers we saw in there were vultures and was hallarious to see them dumb enough to spend more then if they had come in and supported us when we were actually in business. I am glad to see vultures come on here and spout off about not getting the deal they wanted and dont care about all the people who lost their jobs. Its nice to see that people are just as selfish on here as they were in our stores as we closed. Thanks public for picking over bones and then complaining that we didnt give you stuff for free.

[metsfan99]

Yea, I have to agree with ace. Most stores shut down 3 weeks faster then anticipated because people actually paid the outrageous prices. Goes to show how "intelligent" the American consumer is. Lastly, Best Buy doesn't match internet prices.

[BYOBCROWN]

THE ANGELS MUST HAVE REJOICED WHEN CIRCUIT CITY FOLDED! CC WAS THE WORST COMPANY I'VE EVER DEALT WITH! WHEN I HEARD THEY WERE CLOSING, I TRULY FELT LIKE THEY GOT WHAT THEY DESERVED DUE TO THEIR PITIFUL (CRAPPY) CUSTOMER SERVICE AND OVER INFLATED CHARGES FROM THEIR PRODUCTS TO THEIR INTEREST RATES. A CONSUMER IN GOOD FAITH COULD NOT EXPECT THEM TO STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCTS, GOD FORBID YOU SHOULD EVER TRY TO EXCHANGE A DEFECTIVE PRODUCT OR HAVE A RETURN - I HAD TO GO ALL THE WAY TO THE "TOP" OF THE ENTIRE COMPANY OVER A CAMERA THAT I'D ORDERED FROM THEM ONLINE - WHAT A DRAMA THAT WAS! THE ISSUE WAS ACTUALLY INSIGNIFICANT BUT IT WAS THE PRINCIPLE; THEY HAD MY MONEY, PROMISED ME NO BACK ORDER ETC- THE OUTCOME?
WELL, IT WAS WEEKS OF RED TAPE AND A HUGE CASE OF THE RED (BUTT)! THEY HAD MY MONEY BUT I HAD NO PRODUCT AND THEY COULDN'T GIVE ME AN E.T.A. ON WHEN I WOULD GET IT.... THEY SENT SOME PITHETIC PERCENT OFF COUPONS ETC TO EASE MY DISGUST BUT I STILL GET TICKED OFF EVERY TIME I THINK ABOUT IT! GOOD FOR THEM CLOSING, NO MORE BAD ATTITUDE HAVING EMPLOYEES AND POOR SERVICE AT STORE LEVEL, AFTER MUCH AGGRIVATION, I WAS ABLE TO GET SOME SEMBLANCE OF SERVICE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMPANY'S OFFICE. I'M SURE THAT SOME GOOD PEOPLE LOST THEIR JOBS AS DID THOSE THAT WERE PUBLIC RELATIONS DISASTERS - I HOPE ALL THE BEST FOR THE DECENT FOLKS BUT FOR THE ONES THAT I DEALT WITH (THE "P.R. DISASTER" PEOPLE) I HOPE YOU GET TREATED JUST LIKE I FELT WHEN I WAS YOUR CUSTOMER. GOOD RIDDANCE CIRCUIT CITY YOU PEOPLE GOT THE SCREWS PUT TO YOU JUST LIKE YOU PUT THEM TO MANY OF YOUR FORMER CUSTOMERS.

[ksb_628]

As a former customer service employee that took pride in my job I am disgusted with this. These are people's lives that you're so insensitive about. Some, like myself, are students with no other form of income, others had families to support, others had been with the company for many years. Yes, some had really bad attitudes but that happens in ANY company not just this one. I've had incredibly bad issues with companies like DELL and others but I would never say anything like that if the company were to fold. I'm sorry you had a bad situation with a freaking camera, but this company folding has put a lot of people in a very bad situation.

[andrewheen]

you must not have a life. you need to go on the internet and write crap like this cause you didnt get what you wanted. boo hoo. cry a little more. we hated customers like you. get a life and grow up.

[andrewheen]

I feel that too many people have been saying to many bad things about Circuit City. I have worked there for only two years and loved it. The managers were great to me, and I loved the customers. I understand how some people feel, but it was corporates fault. Not the managers or other associates faults. We really tried hard to keep our business alive after 65 years. After we went into liquidation we all lost hope. We weren't getting severance or anything. We were all depressed a company we loved was going under. I admit, I went into work several times drunk. I was mean to customers, at least the customers who swore without reason. I didn't need to take that; afterall, I was losing my job. Long story short. The last months of the company were terrible, as it was all run by a liquidation company and not actually Circuit City. Please just give the employees a break as they mourn their loss of a job. I loved it there, and always will. And I loved my customers as they were why I came into work everyday.

[galensaysyes]

OMG!!! employees wearing jeans!!! and not willing to barter!!! Call Amnesty International!!!

...or, alternatively, GAFL.

[cv_488]

This article is stupid, if the author understood any thing about how liquidations worked he would know that 3 days after the liquidation was announced everything is handed over to the liquidation companies, Circuit City didn't set prices they lost all control of their stores and the liquidators ran them.

The warranties were going through a 3rd party, I sold a lot of warranties because they are still valid. I do agree that the liquidation was a complete scam but dumb Americans hear the word liquidation and the whip out their wallets, I worked in one of the smallest stores in the company and an average day in February we would sell between 20k-30k as soon as liquidation began our sales were anywhere from 200k to 350k per day.