Circuit City sticking it to Xbox 360 gamers ... again
by Blake Snow 
{ Sep 21st 2006 at 8:45PM }
Well if exploiting the ignorant once wasn't enough, Circuit City seems to be misleading the uniformed yet again by offering a 15% off Gears of War coupon that expires on 10/31/2006, more than a week before the game is released in store on 11/08/2006. The coupon was attached with an ad in the November '06 issue (#63) of the Official Xbox Magazine.
So be sure to take advantage of this excellent offer "while supplies last!"
[Thanks, Mikeawesome]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Footlong! @ Sep 21st 2006 8:51PM
LAME
Cody S. @ Sep 21st 2006 8:50PM
Someone ought to write a letter to them.
Way to be dishonest Circuit City!
FrenchPoodle @ Sep 21st 2006 8:55PM
you've got to be kidding me! Who seriously in charge of Circuit City? I can't see how you can make these many mistakes
Can Dulgar @ Sep 21st 2006 8:55PM
Hey .. Maybe it's just a typo. Also , shouldn't it be "uninformed" not "uniformed." Not trying to be smart btw.
taliesin-nine @ Sep 21st 2006 8:56PM
So we're sure this can't even be used to pre-order the game?
If not, that really would mislead all of us who are wearing uniforms.
Dave @ Sep 21st 2006 8:57PM
Anybody even consider that the coupon is for the purchase of PRE-ORDERING it at Circuit City?
Daran @ Sep 21st 2006 9:00PM
Bait and Switch FTW!
zymman @ Sep 21st 2006 9:01PM
I've never in my life been able to use a coupon to pre-order or to add to a pre-order, so I doubt it.
Jonn @ Sep 21st 2006 9:44PM
Oh, come on. This has to be fraud.
GregAshlin @ Sep 21st 2006 9:18PM
You guys are idiots...do you know how far in advance you have to put an advertisement together for a publication? They probably made that before the release date of the game was put out. Still a bad move on their part (guessing the date) but this isn't a "bait and switch" (which most of you probably don't understand anyway) and chances are there is a correction at the stores stating that the release date was changed from when the coupon was originally printed...or they will allow you to use it when the game comes out. Either one is an option. Misprints happen. Everywhere. A lot. Get over yourselves. (And no, I don't work for CC...I just think you're all a bunch of over-hyping idiots.)
Hobo Rowe @ Sep 21st 2006 9:22PM
I work at Circuit City. Haven't seen this particular coupon but, knowing how our preorder process works, it should be applicable towards a preorder of Gears of War.
WedgeTalon @ Sep 21st 2006 9:53PM
My money is on it being a typographical error (rather than fleecing customers) as, firstly, that's more common than one might think, and secondly that it's in the NOVEMBER issue of the rag, rather than the October.
Imadogg @ Sep 21st 2006 9:57PM
Hahahaha this is so damn funny. I noticed the same exact thing. I got my new (Nov 06) OXM like a few days ago, saw some Circuit City coupons, even a coupon for a great game like Gears of War! Hell yea 15% off right?
Then I noticed that it was only for October... and I was like wtfffff messed up!!!
Kevin @ Sep 21st 2006 10:05PM
First off this is not a typographical error. Companies pay people to make sure this doesn't happen, especially on something dealing with money.
Second off, to send in the template to be printed with the publishing company isn't sent in more than 1 month before the issue is compiled together and printed, so you can probably be assured that they did this on purpose.
Ratchet the Lombax @ Sep 21st 2006 11:14PM
OK, did anyone at joystiq call them and ask if the coupon would still be honored for the release of "gears of war"? Probably not, just too quick to jump to conclusions. Plus the other two games are avaliable so the coupon is still valid. Anyway I did call my local Circuit City and guess what, they said that they would honor the coupon for "gears of war" for the week of it's release. So all this fuss and hype over nothing a simple 5 min phone call clears everything up.
Cosmos @ Sep 21st 2006 11:26PM
It says "while supplies last." Either it means the supply of preorder placements, or it has nothing to do with preorders.
Mike @ Sep 21st 2006 10:17PM
I work for Circuit City and the ads have typos in them constantly. More lately than usual, too. Anyway, you could use this as a preorder. While I agree that the whole Xbox 360 backwards-compatibility thing was a scam, it was something that location decided to do and not a company-wide thing. CC does suck sometimes, but come on, they would not purposely do that.
FSK405K @ Sep 21st 2006 10:26PM
as if anyone even 15% tech savvy shops at CC.
Adam B.H. @ Sep 21st 2006 10:51PM
I am sure that if you went in there and ask them to honor and they probably would. I got ncaa 07 for only 40 bucks when it came out because of an ad error. although I find that circuit city's game section is poor with a small library of games.
Dan F @ Sep 22nd 2006 8:16AM
I work for CompUSA and I can tell you that ads are indeed planned and printed far in advance. It can vary depending on the ad but it does happen. CompUSA had a BluRay dvd player in their ad but unfortunately the players in general were delayed.
Gears of War got pushed back. This ad was more than likely planned with the original street date and either went to print or they didn't notice it. Things like this do happen, Circuit City will decide how to deal with this issue. More than likely they'll just honor the coupon when the game is released.
Fox @ Sep 21st 2006 11:33PM
Ironically, this coupon is also in the latest PSM (Nov 2006).
Insomnia Bob @ Sep 21st 2006 11:40PM
Lol, it's a Time Paradox, Snake.
Zatch @ Sep 22nd 2006 1:23AM
I really hate CC now.
Azalia @ Sep 22nd 2006 8:43AM
Here in the UK that would be illegal.
Nick James @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:06AM
The coupon will work? Piiiimp. Here's hoping my local Circuit City cares that blinged out collector's edition.
Nothing gets poontang like a tin case for your Xbox 360 games.
Right?
...oh yeah.
PapaChabre @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:43AM
@GregAshlin
Easy there, killer. It's easy to jump to conclusions about CC being shoddy, because they /are/ shoddy. Whether it's a mistake, typo, misprint or whatever it doesn't change the fact that CC sucks.
Mal F4cti0n @ Sep 22nd 2006 9:43AM
My favorite sentence in the paragraph is, "Select the applicable.". No, seriously, that is what it says. I think this has to do with the quality of employees you can hire out of college.
Care about what you do!
But yes, total BS. I traded in two 360 games and used my credit to pre-order the game. I got 10% off the game by using my credit to buy in full, so that was sweet.
Monster @ Sep 22nd 2006 9:54AM
"First off this is not a typographical error. Companies pay people to make sure this doesn't happen, especially on something dealing with money."
I see, so it's impossible for someone to make a mistake if they are being paid. Gotcha.
Steve @ Sep 22nd 2006 11:56AM
Sounds like typical Circuit City stuff. I bought an Evga video card from them with an advertised "rebate" coupon. Sent in all of the correct information. Never received my rebate. Will never buy anything from Circuit City again.
shaggy @ Sep 22nd 2006 12:29PM
All you guys arguing about the delay in the game are ignoring the fact that the 11/8 available date is printed in the ad. Would they fix the ad and not the coupon?
Rob @ Sep 22nd 2006 12:59PM
Just so everyone knows, there will be another coupon from Circuit City in the December issue of Official Xbox Magazine (on-sale Oct 24th) that is valid when Gears goes on sale...
kmaclou @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:03PM
I know someone who works at Circuit City and they checked into it. Looks like they are going to extend the coupon for the month of November also. Anyone that receives this October coupon will also be able to use it in November. The launch date for the title moved into November creating this typo.
Roger Hicks @ Oct 5th 2006 11:36PM
********************THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU******************
October 5, 2006
Our Church purchased a Hitachi 42 inch plasma TV, Model 42HDS52, from Circuit City and paid $2849.99 on 8/26/2005. The Television never worked correctly.
The left speaker often buzzed, and the picture didn't seem to be any better than a very cheap TV. The store was called, and we were told that since we hadn't reported the problems within 60 days we'd have to deal directly with Hitachi. Hitachi told us to contact Alex Audio Video and informed us that they were the ONLY authorized service center for our area.
Alex Audio Video, said they’d pick it up, do the repair at their facility, and return it promptly. We told them we'd like it back for the 4th of July because we had something we'd like to watch at that time. They said, "That should be no problem". They finally sent someone to pick it up in late June 2006, well within the warranty period. The Forth of July Holiday passed, and the TV was not returned.
The service center informed us that there were no speakers available for the TV, and they would have to be ordered. When weeks elapsed, and we’d heard nothing, they were again contacted. We were now informed that the speakers had come in but that there was an additional problem. It seems that there had never been a “high definition digital signal” because of a problem in the manufacture of the digital circuit board (thus the poor picture quality). They said they'd have to order one. Weeks elapsed with no word. When we again contacted them, they said there was not a “digital circuit board” available anywhere in the United States, and that it would have to be ordered directly from Hitachi.
Finally, by mid September we had expended all our patience in dealing with Alex Audio Video, Circuit City Store 3624, Circuit City Corporate Headquarters, and Hitachi. We had paid $2849.99 for a new plasma television, and had nothing to show for it.
We had the expectation when we initiated the purchase from Circuit City that we would receive a television that worked properly.
We also had the expectation that Circuit City would deal ethically with us, and that should anything should fail to function correctly, that Circuit City would promptly "make it right".
Neither of those expectations was met.
The television for which we paid $2849.99 has been under the control of Circuit City, or their authorized service center for one fourth of a year. Circuit City (along with their authorized service center) had our money, and our television.
Out of frustration, we contacted Circuit City and told them, that since we were making little if any progress in getting the television repaired, we no longer wanted the television. We explained that we had purchased the television to watch, and that it wasn't doing us any good, since it had been in their service center for 3 months.
Circuit City told us that they were not going to do anything about our problems. They claimed no responsibility for selling us a faulty television, and were very "curt" with us, and were told that they had no responsibility (even though their store had sold us an improperly manufactured television). They told us to go ahead and file a lawsuit against them if we wanted to.
At that point, we asked store #3624 for Circuit City Corporate address for "Service of Legal Papers" (we were in the process of preparing documents for the filing of a law suit). They claimed not to know the address. Another time that we asked, they would not give us the address, but told us to have our lawyer contact them for the address. We finally went in to the store and demanded the address of Circuit City Corporate from Mike Arndt, Sales Manager. Very reluctantly he gave it to us.
We also contacted Hitachi and asked for their legal address. Hitachi acted very concerned with the way we had been treated by Circuit City, and asked if we'd give them some time to try to work this out. We did so.
Hitachi said they would issue a "Merchandise Return Authorization" to Circuit City, giving them full credit for the television. They told us that we could then go into the store and use that credit toward the purchase of another television.
Mike Arndt, Sales Manager for Circuit City Store 3624, called us on September 29, 2006 and insisted that we go to Alex Audio Video and pick up the television and return it to his store. We returned the TV to the store on on September 30, 2006. Circuit City has possession of both our $2849.99 and the television.
Mike Arndt called us on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 and told us that Circuit City was issuing us a credit for only $1750 toward the purchase of another television., when we’d paid them $2849.99.
Circuit City plans to confiscate $1099.99 of our money, after selling us an improperly manufactured television and dragging their feet for over 3 months to settle the matter, while we're without a television. (And now, they want to allow us only 61% of what we paid them.)
After discussing this with only two other people, I was shocked to learn that both had experienced similar horror stories in dealing with Circuit City, and had vowed to never enter another Circuit City store.
This could happen to any consumer. Circuit City apparently is only interested in getting the consumer's money, and apparently has no intention of serving the customer, or rectifying any wrong that has occurred.
Unfortunately, Circuit City has just thumbed their nose at us, and insulted us with an offer of 61% of what they charged us for the television ... after having it in their authorized service center for 1/4 of a year.
Every potential customer should ask himself or herself, "Since there are so many reputable companies that sell high end electronics, is it worth taking a risk to deal with Circuit City? Am I willing to just hope and pray that everything works correctly, and that I won't need any help … once Circuit City has my money? Am I willing to give Circuit City my money, wait for a fourth of a year for the item to be repaired, and then be insulted by Circuit City offering me 61% of what I just paid them?"
In a discussion with Hitachi on October 4, 2006, we were informed that Hitachi had credited Circuit City with the full amount of their purchase, and that the insulting 61% offer was from Circuit City ... and not from Hitachi.
We just wish we'd heard those other horror stories before we did business with Circuit City; maybe it would have saved us from this experience.
Oh well ... maybe our sounding the alarm, will cause others to check out Circuit City's reputation before laying down their hard earned cash ... and losing it.
Maybe we can turn our sorry experience with Circuit City into a positive. If making our experience known to others, saves them from falling into the same trap as others and ourselves... then some good will have come from this terrible situation.
Meanwhile, we will do everything in our power to recover our attorney fees, court costs, the $2849.99 we paid Circuit City for a properly operating TV, and reasonable compensation for the months of phone calls, time, and loss of our television.