Circuit City is a JOKE

[maseman]

Has this ever happened to my fellow DUers?

They put an item on Black Friday sale. (In this case a 50" Samsung TV.) You go online to buy it and the store in your area doesn't have any in stock therefore you cannot buy it.

I checked about 25 other stores and gee fucking whizz they are all out of stock also. I smell a big scam here. HERE's our great sale but we don't have any TVs left. How much do you want to bet that the nano-second they come off sale there will be plenty of the same TV ready for purchase. Anyone else run into this?

[NewJeffCT]

1. Maybe they want to save them all for Friday?

that way, people that come into the store won't complain about possible bait & switch tactics.

[Atman]

8. That was my first thought, too.

You don't really have a legal complaint right now, but if a hundred people line up at their door tomorrow morning at 5:00 am expecting to get a TV and there are none, you can be damn sure that someone will be filing a complaint with the Consumer Protection people. They're just covering their asses. BTW, there is usually some fine print underneath the price in the circular saying "At least 10 per store" or whatever. If they've only got ten left in the back room, they can't sell any more before their advertised sales starts.

All that said, Circuit City blows anyway.

.

[madokie]

2. Oh yeah many times and not just circuit city either

it should be illegal and prolly is

[maseman]

6. Not only they don't have any

But you have to go through all the purchase bullshit before they tell you they don't have it. The very last step in the buy process si when they tell you they don't have it. Assholes.

[MADem]

3. Well, they weren't funny when they were shitting on black people!

I was boycotting them for that reason. Now I have another reason, as well, eh?

[defendandprotect]

56. OK --- I'll avoid Circuit City --- glad to!!! How about Best Buy??? any better ---

where to go for electronics --- ???

[MADem]

59. I'm not aware of any discriminatory practices by them! nt

[n2doc]

4. Classic Bait 'n Switch n/t

[Donkeykick]

17. Yep...

so they can get you in to the store to buy something else. :eyes:

[flvegan]

5. Black Friday, as in tomorrow?

Maybe it's not sold out but rather "locked out" for online purchase until tomorrow?

I dunno. Wouldn't surprise me, doggone receipt nazis.

[maseman]

9. Possibly

But why make people waste 10 to 15 minutes going through all the online buy bullshit to tell me they don't have it.

[meegbear]

10. So you can't pre-order and then the stores don't have any ...

they'll be in stock tomorrow. I promise. Really.

[flvegan]

12. What meegbear said and so that there will still be a line at 4am

from the door to the back of the parking lot. If everyone knew they could purchase online, request the "pickup at store x" option, we wouldn't have the spectacle we have every year. PLUS, gawd forbid, if you didn't have to be at CC at 4am for this deal, you MIGHT be at a competitor that didn't allow you to shop online at all.

[Brother_1969]

7. It's called bait and switch.

This marketing method is illegal in most states but is used by most big corporations anyway. The laws are rarely enforced against corporations and, even if they are, the fines are puny -- no more than a few hundred dollars at most. Thanks to this marketing technique, these stores make more profit in the first 5 minutes after opening than they would pay in penalties.

The rule of thumb is simple -- all corporations are bad, assume all are lying all of the time.

[Atman]

14. When I worked at Casual Corner, we had a person whose job was settling fines

That's all she did, work with various state agencies to settle fines.

A lot of stores do what is called a "pre-mark." It is especially prevalent on clothing items; the tags are printed and affixed by the manufacturer with a price that is double (or more) what the item is ever intended to sell for. Then a hand-writing font is used to overprint a marked-down price, usually in a different color ink just for effect. Then they advertise it as a "SALE" item, and mark down the fake mark-down to get what they were going to originally charge anyway. The customer thinks they're getting a great deal, a suit for 75% off a price that the item never sold for in the first place.

The practice is illegal in most states, but the fine was usually about $500 or so, IF they got caught. Often they didn't because the item would sell out before any random inspector happened by. Meanwhile, the chain has made millions of dollars off the fake sale item (we had over 1800 stores). The $500 fine was simply seen as a very minor cost of doing business.

.

[Selatius]

37. That's a natural consequence of seeking profit: Price gouging.

This is the truth that belies folks like Ron Paul who believe the markets can police themselves without government intervention to regulate the markets.

[knitter4democracy]

64. Victoria's Secret does that.

"Special" means regular price, even though it's in red ink in the catalog like a sale price.

[NewJeffCT]

19. If the sale is stated to be on Friday - which is tomorrow

and there is likely a minimum needed per store (check the fine print of the advertisement) - how is it a bait & switch to have those items available for sale on Friday? The OP specifically said it was a Black Friday sale.

If customers line up at 5am tomorrow morning expecting their local Circuit City to have this item in stock, but they found out they had all been sold online on Thursday, then it's a bait & switch.

[mvccd1000]

11. There is actually a legit reason for this.

Check some of the online A/V forums. A LOT of people have been snapping these things up all week with the intention of walking back into CC with their receipts on Friday and getting the difference between their original purchase price and the black Friday price refunded.

I would suspect that is the reason for the low stock levels; not any nefarious plan on CC's part.

Edited to add a link so you can see what I'm talking about: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=939485

[karlrschneider]

23. I don't see what that would gain the customer other than a few days of usage at the

same (sale) price...? What am I missing here?

[mvccd1000]

26. It gains them a couple of things.

#1) They get their TV and don't have to start threads like this. :)
#2) They get the black Friday price without fighting a store full of people who are all there to get the same price.

[edhopper]

13. Your experience might

explain this:
http://ichart.europe.yahoo.com/c/1y/c/cc

[Mutineer]

15. Read something at Gotta Deal.com

which tracks the Black Friday sales, etc and someone there said that they were in Wal-Mart yesterday and the staff were packing up the "good" DVD's and putting them in storage to avoid having to include them in the Black Friday sale.

[mwb970]

16. Circuit City is dying.

Bad policies + poor hiring practices = unhappy customers + slow death.

Try Best Buy instead.

[Deja Q]

21. The internet is hurting them all...

Though BB is surviving the best.

Irony; it's more efficient to have brick'n'mortar stores and buy from them than to rely on USP And FexEd all the time to deliver packages...

[mwb970]

27. You're right.

I try the Internet first for almost all of my purchases of the CC/BB type.

[Zynx]

32. It's because people are actually generally anti-social.

Seriously, people hate going to movie theaters and going to stores for the most part.

[pstokely]

42. Best Buy and other big box stores aren't much better

[CRF450]

46. Yeah, but there the only good choice for buying higher end electronics...

If you dont want to buy something from the net and wait several days for it.

Walmart's everywhere but just about every electronic product they have is SHIT!

[pstokely]

49. Try a small retailer if available in your area,

Don't spend too much at big box stores if possible, I only buy movies and games at Best Buy

[CRF450]

51. Not available here either lol!

I mean we got some smaller ratail clothes store and all that stuff, but not really any places that sell good electronics.

[Peregrine]

18. Most of the time

Black Friday door buster items are in store sale items only. So you actually think for a Friday sale item you should be able to buy it a day early and beat those people that are going to line up tonight to get in to buy the Samsung. I don't think CC is a joke here.

[Mika]

20. Last PM on local Miami TV news they showed people camping out for the CC black Fri sale.

:crazy:

[patrice]

22. This is NOT a personal criticism, just a suggestion:

If you really and truly object to how this country is being run and what that is doing to Earth:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

Please consider:
http://wwjbmovie.com/

[Mika]

33. Thanks for the links.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:


-

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. That used to be illegal

Don't know if it still is. 30 years ago I worked in retail advertising and knew the FTC regs pretty well. This would have been a huge violation then.

Knowing the Bush administration, they probably threw out those regs.

[NewJeffCT]

28. How is it illegal if they advertise a sale starting on Friday?

It would be illegal if the items were not available on Friday.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. It used to be against regs to take items off the shelf before a big sale

Once the ads hit the media, the merchandise had to be on the shelves, even if the sale hadn't officially started yet. The town where my store was had no Sunday paper. So we put our Sunday ad in Sat's paper. And we had to make sure we had all those sale items on the shelves when we opened Sat.

But like I said, I don't know if this is still a reg or not.

[NewJeffCT]

35. Their stores are likely closed today, however

There are plenty of reasons to be upset with Circuit City, but I don't think this is one.

[lame54]

25. you shouldn't be shopping there anyway

a while back they fired a bunch of employees and then, after a ten-week waiting period, offered them their jobs back as new employees at much lower wages
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17837882/

[dysfunctional press]

30. check your calendar...today is THURSDAY.

sheesh...:eyes:

[Zynx]

31. I worked at OfficeMax one year where we had this ridiculously cheap

monitor on sale and we only had one of them on Wednesday before Black Friday and our manager sold it early to a friend of his that day so we didn't have any. I had to avoid talking to customers about it because they got so angry.

[blues90]

34. Is there really anything that is on sale ?

It's all crap , cheap plastic designed to last a year crap with the offer of a three year warrenty that you pay for , when in three years provided this crap lives that long it's then obsolete so what good is the warrenty ?

[Zech Marquis]

36. hint hint

that's why you're suppose to shop at Best Buy--yes I work there as a Home Theater Pro rep, and let's just say I would strongly advise you to avoid CC at all cost!

[TheWatcher]

47. No Thanks

Video Only is much better.

[Didereaux]

38. Circuit City is not a joke...it's a crime scene!

[Kansas Wyatt]

39. They all do it.

I always refer to Best Buy as the 'Catalog Store.'

[sarcasmo]

40. Don't go to ABC Warhouse.

ABC Warehouse is notorious for under stocking on purpose.

[Canuckistanian]

41. Can't you just pay for it and WAIT until a store has it?

I've never heard of an on-line site REFUSING to accept money.

[Cobalt-60]

43. They do suck. They're already dead to me

That bs of mass firing their employees for making to0 much was fatal.
CC can f*ck its exploitive self.

[Melynn]

44. I hated it when CC fired all of their "overpaid" employees

Then they made a big public announcement about it in order to entice people to buy their stock because they were "cost cutting".

What the morons who were running CC didn't realize is that the CC store employees who made the most money were the most loyal and competent employees they had.

[mitchtv]

52. how soon we forget

they are the lowest

[Stephanie]

53. Me too.

I bought all of my electronics including several laptops at CC until that layoff. That was unforgiveable. I will never shop there again.

[JI7]

45. i'm surprised they are still around

[Marrah_G]

48. They do this every year

They say they have like 5 of these "deals" per store. Not sure why anyone is surprised about this anymore.

This is why I am at work making money instead of running around all morning seeking out phantom deals.

[Didereaux]

50. CC is NOT a joke...it's a CRIME scene!

[otohara]

54. If It's On Sale, Out of Stock ALWAYS

it's a mystery as to why CC is still in business.

[madeline_con]

55. Bait and switch is used extensively to get people in the stores.

Lowes suppposedly had fake trees for $30. All out. Next price up, $200. Go figure.

But I did get a nice poinsettia. :)

[Renew Deal]

57. They've been doing stuff like this lately.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/happy-endings/update-circuit-city-apologizes-for-not-honoring-call-of-duty-advertisement-320638.php

You should report it to the Consumerist website.

[porphyrian]

58. Buy everything the third week of January.

The returners have mostly cleared out, the employees are so exhausted that they'll go along with just about anything to get you out of there quickly and the deals are way better than any they proclaim before Christmas.

[orleans]

60. i think it's called bait and switch. and it is illegal. (but just try to prove

it was a bait and switch!)

[Enrique]

61. Circuit City is the offical electronics store of Democratic Underground

there was a thread about Circuit City with something like 600 posts.

[upi402]

62. Like car dealers. One only (sacrifice for the advert)

They sell it and then lie, saying it's on the lot. Get ya there, and say it's on a test drive. You're shown other cars. Then gee whiz - It's gone I guess!

I've boycotted all christmases since * was "re-elected".

[B Calm]

63. I saw 2 GB flash drives advertised on sale at three different stores, none had them,

and all were supposedly sold out.. It was not just Circuit City in on the scam to get people in their stores.