Circuit City
Refused a refund for defective labo

When I bought my new computer I was told that Circuit City would, as a courtesy, load virus software and make sure the computer had all the updates needed from Microsoft. I came back to pick up the computer after work, and when I got home I found that I couldn't access the internet or load new programs that I had bought from another store.

I called Circuit City and was connected to their tech support depatment that did the work and talked to Dan. He told me that I should wipe out the current load and return the computer to factory defaults by using the F10 function and following the prompts. After I did this I was immediately able to access the internet using my dsl connection and load new programs.

I looked at my receipt and couldn't decipher what each item was, but discovered there were three entries pertaining to software installation that totaled $149.96. Some courtesy!

I went back down to the store, taking the disc of virus software with me, to get a refund for the labor and the software that they had loaded, and which I didn't trust anymore.

I spoke to the salesman who sold me the computer who told me he would have to talk to his manager Tony to get the refund approved. Both of them were very vague and contradictory when I tried to pin them down as to what the three entries on the receipt were that pertained to software installation. Tony eventually said that the labor was $69.99. I wanted the entire $149.96 back, but made a concession to him that since I probably should have paid more attention, that a refund of the labor would be sufficient.

They left me alone, standing in the store and one of them would come back occaisionally to ask me where the other one was. I finally was able to get them both together after about 30 minutes then they left me at the counter for another 30 minutes while they went in the back and talked about it.

Tony came out when I started telling other customers what had happened and said I wanted to talk to the store manager. Tony told me that the store policy was not to give refunds on labor, even if the labor was useless.
He simply would not listen to reason and stood there like a statue as I gave logical examples of how that would relate to doing business in other stores. When I refused to leave and started drawing a crowd at the counter he told me that the best he could do was to give me a gift card for $50. I took the card, even though the true value of it was less than $50 because of profit margin.
I would now like a refund of the remaining $99.96, as their labor was non-effective and I will not load their Circuit City "IQ Team" software. The computer already came with Norton and Symantec protection, and I didn't open the software, they did. I never conceded to them that I was satisfied with the $50 gift card.

Company: Circuit City
Country: USA
State: California
City: Sand City
Address: 905 Playa Ave
Phone: 8313920103

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