Comments on: Black Friday showdown: Best Buy vs. Circuit City
It could be the LA locations I visited, but I found much longer lines at Circuit City. That doesn't mean they were doing more business though. Best Buy was much better organized.
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Nothing exciting though, not the same as standing in line at
bestbuy!
or just have an axe to grind against Circuit City? The Circuit City
near me was fine - we got in, got our stuff and got out with no
problem and no drama. Worst Buy? No problem getting into the
store but the line was horrible and getting out of the store even
had a line. The stormtrooper door cops were slow, ineffective
and even followed someone out of the store - who didn't even
have a package to check. Apparently, you need permission to
leave the store. I've been indifferent to Worst Buy for a long
time but they've just taken a big hit in my eyes.
interested in what happened during someone's Christmas
shopping. Sorry, I'm just that way. The comments are
interesting though. As long as you agree with the blogger it's all
smiles and pats on the back. I feel sorry for the few people who
had bad experiences are Best Buy though. They're getting ripped
for nothing more then expressing their opinions.
As for Best Buy vs. Circuit City. I don't like either one though I
have a special place of loathing in my heart for Best Buy for their
dirty tricks involving the MSN debacle.
This was my first experience with Black Friday and probably will be my last. You would think in line line at 2:30 am would have at least netted one of my quests. I think I will leave the bargain hunting to the insane next year. I am referring to the guy with a camper in line at least by the afternoon before sale.
When the official CC ad came out with the discounted price of $1299 for the same TV, I went to the store on Friday afternoon to request the price adjustment. I was taken aback and shocked when the same employees completely denied what they had told me earlier. They behaved rudely, and said that the CC policy had changed couple of days ago regarding price-adjustment. Although this might be true, I am surprised as to how this could affect me as the policy was not in effect when I purchased the TV. The store manager in an ill-mannered way asked me to either return the TV or live with the earlier price tag. Of course, I ended up returning the TV.
I just wanted to make any potential Circuit City customers about the lies and ill-informed comments their sales people and even store managers make to entice you in buying their products. I certainly have made the decision to never purchase a product from Circuit City again.
doorbuster price? If you bring your TV in and return it, you will
get EXACTLY the amount you paid because you have your
receipt. Then, your TV will be sitting right there in front of you.
Pick it up, or put it on the cart, take it to the next available
checkout, and buy it with the new price! (I realize this really
sucks if you have your TV on the wall already...) You can't let
them play a dishonest mind game with you. There's nothing
stopping you from returning at and rebuying it at the sale price.
That's why they guarantee the 30 day price in the first place!
Why wouldn't they if you can just return it and rebuy it within the
30-day return policy??
Now, the Dept. of Consumer Protection and the State Attorney General have been notified and both were VERY interested in what I had to say when I called on Friday.
Stay tuned.
Did you already have one posted on your Ebay site and you are mad because now you had to take it down? It was a $99 low end GPS, get over it.
They say the POI lookup in painstakingly slow.
My magellan 3100 is fast..but the map software isn't as fast at the Mio 310. I really wanted the mio 320 from radio crap.
Never have anything in stock or scant little of it w/o necessary componets to use equipment in stock they do sell. Crowded, dusty dirty store cause asthma attacks just browsing.
Still, I would go to Best Buy over Circuit City in the future. Best Buy's service sounds much better.
Then again, the management got their bonuses, so no harm done!
Here is my experience.
I bought 2 Sony DCRDVD-108 from Bestbuy at the Waterfront, PA.
I go to my home (across the street) , put them on charge - one charges another, another doesn't.
I went back to the store and complain about it. The guy puts it on charge. It didn't work. The guy switched it on and it started charging.
I demanded there is some defect with the product, so please replace it with exact same one you have.
And guess what he asked - a 15% restocking fee.
My point is:
1st - I spent 400$ and the product doesn't function properly
2nd - I wasn't returning the product; rather wanted an exchange, then why I should pay the restocking fee?
If the problem is with manufacturer's QC, why the customer should suffer? Shouldn't the Bestbuy MUST provide an exchange right away like how Circuit City, Walmart, SAMS club or Costco does?
And on top of all this, to avoid answering to my request - the staff would disappear for long durations.
I felt so bad, I swore on purchasing any thing from Bestbuy again.
And when I said this to the staff - the guy says
"we are billion $$$s company"
I mean.. who made Bestbuy billion $$$s corporation? and With this type of policies - how they gonna survive?
I also realized - this Thanksgiving - Circuit City had better deals then Bestbuy.
And the reason why CircuitCity had longer lines - had partially to do with better deals there.
I hope bestbuy will mend there ways and will remain the beloved company of millions of shoppers around. ALAS.
are two sides every time. That doesn't change the fact that the
store policy also states that the 15% restocking fee doesn't apply
if the product is defective. As far as I know the camera battery
should charge, even it it's off, as long as everything is connected
properly. It's not your fault or Best Buy's fault the camera
doesn't work. Best Buy even has a way to obtain at least partial
reimbursement or product replacement from a manufacturer
when they receive defective product. That's why the restocking
fee doesn't apply if the unit is DOA or suffers problems out of
the box. I work at a Best Buy myself and have personally waived
the restocking fee several times on product that was defective
from the get go. I'll test it myself, and if it doesn't work I see to
it that a suitable replacement or refund happens for the
customer. As a side note, I usually end up seeing those
customers back in the store later for more business, almost as if
magically... Imagine that. Customer service IS still important. I'm
sorry you had a bad experience at your Best Buy.
First of all, they cannot find the item I ordered. They also went through their stock and it's our of stock. So, the customer service people tried to get one of the managers there to "work something out for me". They were trying to get hold of him for like an hour. Finally, the Sales Manager showed up. He said the item of out of stock and he can call other stores to see if they have them. Since this is a black friday item, of course, no store will have it any more, so I told him that he should send it to me when the item is back in stock. He said he wouldn't do that, so I asked what he could do. He then said he would cancel my order. I told him that I don't wan to cancel my order, but he said, "no, I am going to cancel your order". Then, he grabbed my confirmation email and started to cancel my order. I tried to take my email back and he threatened that he was going to call the police. I told him that the email was my property and he needed to give it back to me. He refused to do so and cancelled my order. During the process, I also asked him that, since Circuit City has a policy that after I got the confirmation email, the item should be available for pickup in 24 minutes, or they will give me $24 dollars of gift card, he should give me the gift card because they fail to fulfill the order. But, he refused to do so either. And, he just sent me away.
This is the most disturbing experience I have ever had with any retailer. I will never shop at Circuit City again.
Friday. It is often too crazy for comfort. Last year at our local
Walmart there was a woman that had a doorbuster laptop in her
hands and was leaving the electronics department. While she
was heading for the front of the store, another woman literally
karate chopped her in the arm - actually BREAKING her arm -
took the laptop, and bolted for the shortest line. I don't know
what happened afterwards to either woman, but I will probably
never go to Walmart again on Black Friday. This year, I didn't
hear about anything that crazy in my local town.
I, myself shopped at both Circuit City AND Best Buy because they
are right across the street from each other. I arrived at 2:30 to
the Circuit City line. I went there first because they had the
special my little brother wanted on the XBOX with a free wireless
controller, and quite a few movies I didn't own that I wanted to
buy. They also had a great buy on a Ready Boost 4GB Sandisk
flash drive. I stood in line for 3 and a half hours. Once opened
we were quickly ushered into the store. Associates were busily
but amiably directing customers to where the product was in the
store. I was actually able to purchase EVERY SINGLE ITEM on my
shopping/Christmas list. Staff was friendly and even the
customers were decently polite. They had registers to check out
scattered all over the store, so I went to one with the shortest
line. There were only five people in front of me, but I waited in
line for 45 min. in order to check out. I mostly blame their
archaic point of sale computers, although the three (YES! THREE!)
gentlemen running the register didn't seem vary adept at
checking people out. They had to delete and rescan items
several times to get them in right, it seemed. They could've been
temporary holiday workers. This was really my only complaint at
Circuit City. Everyone was fairly friendly and I bought everything
I needed. Yay!
By the time I got to Best Buy, there was no longer a line to get
in. I went straight in and was still able to find every item on my
list except the 22" monitor doorbuster, which sold out quickly. I
got in the regular checkout line which had at least 45 people in
it and though, "Oh crap, this is gonna take forever..." It actually
took less time than the Circuit City line. The POS computers are
a little newer than CC's, and they had five registers to handle the
main line with, so it seemed like a more efficient checkout
system. The only bad part is that I didn't get my 22" monitor!!!
ARG!
Most customers I talked to in line were having a decent time. I
actually work at Best Buy (I had the 2:00-midnight shift) so I
was curious to see how customers felt about their shopping
experiences. (I also try to overlook any biases that I obviously
must have, tee hee... ) Other than wait times in line and some
product being out most had a fine experience at both stores.
Regular employees were more knowledgeable than some of the
seasonal ones, but overall most were quite friendly. This year is
probably the best Black Friday experience I have ever had. Last
year I got in line slightly earlier and still only got half the stuff
on my list. It seems that my local store and our rival are trying
to deliver a decent customer experience, even on high pressure
Black Friday.
- Staples
- by abbottpark December 22, 2007 3:20 PM PST
- I was at the Black Friday sale at Staples in Palatine, Illinois and the setup was a joke. I was in line outside for over 2 hours and the line hardly moved. They only let a few people in the store at a time at this was at 7am. I left because this was hopeless. They need new management.
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