At breakfast this morning, I reached for my favorite part of the Sunday paper--the Circuit City section. Actually, that's not true. My favorite part is the Best Buy section, but Circuit City is probably my second favorite. I'm in the market for a new car radio, so I was happy to see that a CD player with the features I wanted was on sale. And lookee here! It's on sale at Circuit City for $30 less than at Best Buy!
So, after my hospital rounds, I went south to the closest Circuit City, which is still well out of my way, but worth the drive for a good bargain. I walked over to the car stereo department. This was the conversation as I approached:
Actually, first they ignored me. But after a while, this was the conversation:
Me: Hi, I'm here about the car CD you have advertised in this morning--
Circuit City Moron: Yeah I'm pretty sure we don't have that one.
Me: 's ad...did you say you're out?
CCM: Yeah, pretty sure.
Me: I didn't tell you which one yet.
CCM: Which?
Me: The JVC that plays MP3s, for $139?
CCM: Yeah, we're out.
Me: When did you run out? The sale started an hour ago?
CCM: We've been out for a while. You can't go by the ads. That's a national advertisement. It has nothing to do with what's in our store.
Me: Well, your national advertisement showed up on my local front porch, and that's why I'm here.
CCM: Well, we don't have any. Maybe we'll get some in this week. Maybe not. We have some others you can look at.
Yeah, some others that are more expensive.
Well, I realized I was getting nowhere with this bozo, so I went to look for another bozo, the store manager. He was busy talking to an elderly couple. For a while. Actually I was starting to feel bad for him. From what I could tell, it sounded a lot like the kinds of discussions I have with elderly couples. But after a while, he finished and he noticed that I wanted his attention.
He probably noticed because I was staring right at him from a distance of about 3 feet. Still, it took him a while to acknowledge me. I showed him the circular, which I had just picked up off the store counter.
Store Manager Moron: Can I help you?
Me: You see this radio you have advertised? Well I drove all the way down here for it, and apparently, you didn't have any when you opened this morning.
SMM: Yeah, well that's a national ad, and we don't have anything to do with that.
Me: Yeah, well it's a national ad for your store, so you really should have something to do with it.
SMM: Well, people come down here all the time looking for stuff in the ads--
Me: Imagine that.
SMM: --and sometimes we don't have it. We can't always be responsible for what they print.
Me: Actually, I think the Attorney General of Wisconsin thinks otherwise. There's something called "Bait and Switch." I heard about it on All in the Family. It's against the law.
SMM: Hold, on, we didn't say you can't have it. We can special order it for you. It'll be here in 7-10 days.
Me: That's nice, but I won't be here in 7-10 days. I'm here now. And you advertised something in this morning's paper at a ridiculously low price that you don't have. That sounds like a scam to me. I think I'll just go across the street to Best Buy and get it there.
But I didn't. I was so sick of the whole situation that I just decided to go home. There is a place where I can file a complaint online. But I didn't actually buy anything, so I'm not sure if it's worth filling out.
I'm thinking about just going to one of those car stereo places instead. I need to start supporting the little guys more.
I don't think I'll be reading the Circuit City section anymore over Sunday breakfast. I'm already getting indigestion just thinking about it.
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5 comments:
You just can't catch a break in the last couple of days. It's like they're in cahoots with the thieves who broke into your car! That really stinks. It might be worth to just buy it online. You can probably find a good price at Ebay or half.com.
By the way, you can't call morons "morons" anymore. They're intellectually delayed.
I had the exact same story with circuit city in october. they had an AMAZING laptop advertised for cheap. I called a manhattan branch on a sunday and they confirmed they had some left. I went down their on Tuesday night and to my horror they were all sold out!!! Sheeesh! I ended up going on Wednesday morning to a Brooklyn branch and they did have about 3 pieces left... I hate when they promote an item and then dont have it.
It's one thing for them to run out of a popular on-sale item after a few days. It's quite another to find none in the store an hour after it opens on the first day of the sale, and then have the salesperson confirm they never had any. That's deceptive advertising. And circuit city does this chronically. This is not the first time they've done this to me. Best Buy has been much better, but at this stage, I'd rather patronize one of the smaller shops.
Can't you order it online at CC for the advertised price? You won't get it that day but at least youll get it (plus some shipping charges) Lastyear i also had the exact same thing with them, ended up buying a different one for 30 bucks more. The little guys charge more by the way .. theyre not "little guys" anymore they are "specialty stores"
Have you ever heard of Planet Feedback??? www.planetfeedback.com It's an amazing place to go and complain about a company. We've done it a few times on some big guys and within 48 hours (sometimes less) had Asst. to the CEO calling us personally to see how they can rectify the situation and make us a happy customer again. It's a public forum, and it helps you to write a letter to the company, which essentially goes straight to the top! (and no, this is not spam, I gain nothing from you going there to use that site!) :D
~enjoying your blog....I have a PT of my own.
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