Well, it turned out pretty well...

[Budfred]

I had an interesting experience with Circuit City this evening... I went there a couple of weeks ago, partly to buy a MS notebook wireless laser mouse on sale for $20... They were out and expecting one the next day, so I paid for it and they said they would call when it came in... That was on a Friday, so on Monday I called to see if it was in... The person I talked to said it was and when I noted that they said they would call me when it came in, she said I was on her list... A couple of days later, I got a voice mail informing me that it had come in... On Monday this week, I got a call from a snippy person who told me it had come in and when I said I knew that already, asked me if I was going to come pick it up... I said I was and she informed me that I had until Friday or they would refund my money and resell the mouse... Since there was nothing about that on the receipt, I was quite irritated with that... I managed to get down there today to pick it up... It took me an extra 20 minutes or so to get there and another 20 minutes to get home, so I was not happy about it... I checked to see if they had any more on display and found that they didn't, so I went to the counter to get the one they were holding for me...

This is when it really got irritating... They brought out a full size MS wireless laser mouse which I knew immediately was not the one I had purchased... As soon as the employee figured this out, he said he would be back and headed off to the back of the store -- apparently to look for a mouse... After about 20 minutes, I asked to speak to a manager... The manager told me the clerk was looking for the mouse and then said he would go help look... I told him that I had already looked and they didn't have any -- that is why I had pre-purchased one... He just took off... The clerk came back and told me they didn't have one... He started talking about calling other stores to see if they did so that they could have it delivered and I could come back a third time to pick it up... I was pretty angry by now and asked if they were going to pay for my gas and my time... The manager returned and basically did nothing, but said he was going to check on something and took off again... He never came back...

The clerk proposed that I could get another similar mouse and I said that would be fine if I got it for the same price... He said that would be okay... I went over and picked out a $50 Logitech notebook wireless laser mouse and he rang it up... He then went over and grabbed a gift card and said he had put $24 on it for me to use... I got home and looked at the receipts to make sure it was all done properly and noticed he even gave me the form for the $10 rebate that is available for the mouse... I won't bother with the rebate, but at this point the $20 mouse that I originally bought is transformed to a better Logitech mouse and I am about $5 ahead of where I started... So, it turned out pretty well... :D

[bassman]

LOL :D I love when this stuff happens. You get so angry with the incompetence over simple things then get rewarded (so to speak) to the point of relieving all grief. Good deal Budfred ;)

[Whyzman]

And this was at the discretion of a "clerk" and not the "manager???" Astounding!!! I think a job swap would be apropos...as someone took the initiative to pull out the emergency kit and diffuse a bomb...

The clerk probably overstepped his bounds...and I sure hope in all this that the "manager" realizes it was a good thing!!!

[Budfred]

I wondered if the manager had authorized it on the side when they were talking... They were both about 17 years old, so I suspect that the clerk was either on the manager track or just had some discretion allowed for this kind of thing... He certainly didn't seem anxious about allowing it or even giving me the gift card... I told him the gift card wasn't necessary, but he gave it to me anyway... Who am I to argue?? :p

[saphalline]

You are far more patient than I would have been! I can't stand incompetence like that! Although admittedly most of the incompetence surrounding a large retail store such as Circuit City starts with the corporate execs and gets poured down from there :rolleyes: (CompUSA anyone?) but still... I would have asked for my money back within 5 minutes. Too much of my time has been wasted in those retail empires.

Actually, one of my favorite things to do when I visit a Best Buy is torture the employees, but that's not quite as acceptable during the holiday season. :p

[Budfred]

It wasn't really so much about patience as it was about having made two trips there and not wanting to make a third... I figured that they would offer some sort of accommodation if I persisted and they did, so it was worth it...

[PrntRhd]

saphalline:
Actually, one of my favorite things to do when I visit a Best Buy is torture the employees, but that's not quite as acceptable during the holiday season.
Yeah, I love talking to them about AV programs, you should see their faces when they find out about Avast Home Edition (FREE!) and AVG (free).
Budfred,
I have one MS mouse and several Logitech ones, I think you got the better mouse out of the deal.
:)

[saphalline]

Yeah, you should see them squirm when I talk about RAM! :p Incredible how few people know that PC2-5300 and PC2-5400 are the exact same speed bin. :rolleyes:

Ah well, I guess your persistence paid off. Even so, two trips there?? :eek: I would have... done something mean at that point... Like I said, you have far more patience than I. Maybe 'cause you're OLD! :p

[Budfred]

Ah well, I guess your persistence paid off. Even so, two trips there?? :eek: I would have... done something mean at that point... Like I said, you have far more patience than I. Maybe 'cause you're OLD! :p
The first time was simply to buy it... I knew I would need to go back to pick it up, it was the fact that they didn't have it when I did and after insisting that I get back within their arbitrary undocumented time frame that was irksome...

As for your second point... There are definitely some advantages to not being a young whippersnapper sonny!! :D :D

[Budfred]

An update: I thought it was odd that the clerk decided to give me a $24 gift card... I mean, why not $20 which would have been about what I originally paid?? Or $25 which would simply be a more typical amount?? The answer is in Circuit City ads the last few days... If you order something and they don't have it waiting for you within a certain time limit when you go to pick it up, they give you a $24 gift card... I still don't know how they came up with that number, but at least I know how the clerk did... :p

[mjc]

Could be due to 'Shopping Days' from Dec 1?

[jlreich]

The add is something like - "ready in 24 minutes or you get $24"

That works. :cool:

[PrntRhd]

Better spend it quickly, Circuit City lost $207 million in 3Q, but Best Buy's profit rose 52%. Circuit City laid off all their floor staffers making over median wages in March.
Circuit City could be collapsing like CompUSA, understaffed sales floors, low paid floor employees, but the executives got $600K-$1M bonuses while having awful results.

[Whyzman]

I think I remember reading about a multi-million dollar government study on human attraction and fascinaction with numbers. If I remember correctly, if followed on the heels of the DOD frisbee study... Anyway, I believe it was determined that the number 24 had the same effect as pricing items using the suffix .99¢ rather than whole numbers. I think they found that the number 23 had no attraction, and the number 25 being a quarter of a century was deemed over the hill. Thus, 24 was the logical choice...

Circuit City jumped all over it. Personally, I find it psychologically overpowering. I'm heading out to Circuit City to buy something solely with the hope they'll screw up and salve the situation with a $24.00 gift card! ;)

[Whyzman]

Oh, and PrntRhd, ponying up all that bonus money for the execs is pretty much deemed a necessity to keep them motivated... Losing money is inconsequential to keeping them motivated...