Circuit City

Full review
I have been a loyal CC customer, buying much of my electronics from their site or their store.

I am disappointed this year. I found a decent price on a camera I was looking for (Sony a700) on Thurs/Fri (Thanksgiving week). Their site kept going down intermittently so I couldn't place my order. I wasn't worried because their $1259 price was a sale price but it wasn't a giveaway price, plus I figured they'd honor it a few days. I logged back in Sunday to see the price at $1499, but their banner add bragging their "already discounted" prices would be an additional 10% cheaper. I wait until Monday ("Cyber monday") because this is the day when the big deals happen. Price is still $1499 -- basically full retail price for this item!?

I contacted them days ago to let them know I tried to order, can't, and could they honor the advertised price of $1259. No reply.

The have a 10% off sale today. I am disappointed this is the best they can do for Cyber-Monday but OK. I check the item again. It's $1499 less $150 but it's *still* nowhere near the $1259, and I can't have it shipped to get the 10% off. What a pain.

I like their warranty and I was loyal so I keep trying. I find out my AAA membership offers a 10% off coupon good whcih can be added to most other sales and promotion. I sumbit and wait. It takes 8 hours but Circuity City finally emails me my AAA discount code. Turns out the darn thing doesn't work. At checkout it gives a crazy red error message about "invalid code sequence". I didn't type it in wrong -- it's a direct link. I already know contacting support won't do anything. So frustrating!

In short:
-- They don't reply to inquiries. Why even offer this as an option if you don't plan to reply? I didn't even get an automated reply (and I checked my Spam folder, too).

-- Site may be unreliable at times of heavy traffic. Apparently don't expect them to honor their sales if you can't order due to their web site's problems.

-- Prices change without warning. Their print circulars and in store sales have sale end dates. Online who knows what the price will be tomorrow??

-- Their brag about "already discounted" prices is just not true. Some of their things are full retail price.

-- They don't update their links with Yahoo Shopping, Froogle Shopping, etc. So everywhere is *still* showing this particular example at the lower $1259 price but you just can't complete your order at that price.


Very disappointing. I bought my last camera from them (a $1000 model) without any problems. Why have they gone downhill? Where is the customer service?