On Thursday, February 11, I very excitedly purchased an IPOD Mini in Pink. After much research, I decided this is what I very much wanted. I had gone to a couple of local stores in my area (Best Buy, Costco, and a local Circuit City in Patchouge, NY). All three locations did not have the IPOD Mini in Pink, however, Circuit City in Patchouge, NY told me that another location in Lake Grove did have the unit. I decided to drive to that location (although a little voice inside me said to go the Apple Store in the Walt Whitman mall...)
I purchased the unit at 6:25pm. I drove home, got my kids ready for bed and at 8:30pm I opened my IPOD. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box, and the only thing in it was a 4pk of D size batteries!!! I thought this was some kind of joke. I immediately called Circuit City, explained the situation and was told, from the operator through the manager that there was nothing they could do and that I would have to call Apple directly! There was nothing they could do! I was livid to say the least. The manager did not even have the courtesy to speak to me directly, or to tell me to come in so he could inspect the packaging. Perhaps he could have compared it to another IPOD in the store. But that was not the case at all...
So, I called Circuit City customer service. They first told me to calm down - CALM DOWN??? I was livid and on top of this, the store had the nerve to insinuate how "did they not know that I did not switch the item myself". Customer Service called the store, and more of the same - I needed to call apple.
So, I called apple. And of course, the first thing I was told was I needed to go to Circuit City. They too where shocked when I told them Circuit City referred the matter to them...
On a very good note, Apple is resolving this matter and have gone out of their way to resolve this matter. They even went as far as to offer me a FREE i-trip for MY inconvenience! Kudo's to APPLE - their customer service is top notch!
I am a 35 year old business owner/mom who lives in suburbia! My career has been in retail all my adult life. I have worked in all levels of retail, but mostly in the buying and customer service areas. I now own my own business. I KNOW GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE! My treatment was not only poor, insulting and degrading, it may have even been illegal! How do I not know if Circuit City is stealing these IPODS and resealing the packages! The knife cuts both ways! If I ever treated my customers this way, I would have been out of business A LONG TIME AGO!
Just a side note. A particular employee in the Circuit City location in Patchouge, NY, who claimed to be "in charge" of the area that sold the IPOD's tried very hard to dissuade me from buying an IPOD. She was very negative towards the product, asking me why I wanted this product etc? I own 2 MP3 players currently (an I River and a Rio). I wanted an ipod. Period. End of Sentence. I find it completely UNPROFESSIONAL that a person representing themselves as "in charge" of a department in Circuit City should "bad mouth" ANY company they represent!
Personally, I will NEVER buy any product again from Circuit City. I will, however, buy again from Apple (with a smile on my face). And I think I will stick to the Apple Store or your website...
Shame on you circuit city!
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