I wanted to share with you my story on how Circuit City has treated me and the extended warranty I purchased.
I bought a 48" Samsung DLP Television in July and paid an extra $400 or so for the Extended Warranty as the sales person said if anything went wrong they would send someone to my house to fix the TV.
Well, to make a long story short, I had problems within two weeks of purchasing my television with the audio. It sounded like a motorboat engine and was inaudible, so I called the service center.
After a few phone calls I found out that Circuit City did not have any company representatives in the area that could fix my television (I live 17 miles from San Jose, CA... Population 1.2 million and there is no one in this area?) They then told me that they would be getting an outside vendor to come to my house and fix my television. This is in early October.
Well, I set up my appointment and the gentleman came out and looked at my TV. He was over three hours late and wouldn't answer my calls during that time to let me know. Like I stated, he looked at my TV and did nothing else. I explained the problem to him about the sound and he said he would order the part and come back and fix it.
He called me back to let me know the part was in around two weeks after his first visit. Well truth be told, he finally called me back after leaving several voicemails. He then came out with a projector for the TV to fix my audio problem? This was very confusing to me since it was an audio problem. He replaced the projector and much to his surprise, it didn't fix my audio problem... Go figure... He then took out the new part and replaced it with the old one as it actually made my video worse as well. Also, he was 2:45 minutes late and laughed at me when I commented on it and brushed me off.
Then I don't hear from him for several weeks. I finally got in touch with him again and scheduled an appointment. I spent an entire Saturday waiting for him and calling him and he never showed up, nor did he call to let me know he was delayed or couldn't make it. I was becoming very frustrated.
I set up another appointment with him and waited for three extra hours after the timeframe that he gave me. I had to leave to catch a flight and couldn't wait and as irony would have it, he called as I was on my way to the airport and told me that he would be there soon, but I wasn't home. He once again laughed at me and said that its my problem. I became very upset and told him to "go to *." and hung up on him.
I called Circuit City and told them about what I had been through with this guy and they apologized for his lack of professionalism and said that they would look into it. They called me back the next day and said that they decided that they were going to replace my TV and were going to send me a voucher within 10-14 days.
I waited and waited and no voucher came, nor did they call me.
During this time more things started going wrong with my TV. The voices were out of sync (I was using my stereo for audio at this point) with broadcasts, DVDs, my X-Box and VCR. Then the TV started turning off randomly and wouldn't come back on for approxiately 15 minutes.
I called Circuit City again and they focused exclusively on my statement to the gentlemen, and decided not to replace my TV, but said that they would research other vendors and get back to me. I called, I called, I called and I called and finally a week and a half later they called me to say that they found a "highly reputable vendor" and they will come out to look at my TV and fix it. A few days later I hadn't heard from this new vendor and called an got in touch with them. They took 45 minutes on the phone with me just to set up an appointment.
Well the day of the appointment with the new vendor came and and once again, they weren't showing up. Around 15 minutes after the window for the service person to come that we had set up had passed, the service person called me and said he would be late. I told him that I had to leave for an appointment and he told me that he would be right over. Three hours later he showed up at my house. He was drunk and very combative and all he did was look at the TV. Not touch it, not open it, not test it... Just looked at it. He then went on to tell me that I should have just returned it.
I called Circuit City on the following Monday furious that they would send someone combative and drunk to my house. They said that they would take care of it and called the vendor. 15 minutes later the guy called me on my cell phone and threatened me and said that he knew where I lived. I called Circuit City back and they said it wasn't their problem and that I should contact the local authorities since I felt threatened.
I didn't hear back from them for over a week. I called and left messages twice a day during that time asking to have them call me back and finally they called me back. But now they said that they couldn't honor the Extended Warranty I purchased and were going to refund it to me and leave me with a broken TV. They seemed as if this was doing me a huge favor. I elevated this and elevated this and kept getting the same answer, we cannot honor your warranty and we are going to refund you the warranty and leave you with a broken television.
I finally escalated things to the office of CEO W. Allen McCullough and they said that this was Circuit City's postion and that they were going to do nothing to help me. Just refund the warranty money and do nothing more. I told them each and every time that this wasn't acceptable and I only wanted to have them fix my TV or replace it like they said that they would. Well guess what, the woman who told me that originally "never documented that comment" according to the office of the CEO.
So now I am left with a broken TV and a worthless Extended Warranty. I guess my only option is to bring a lawsuit against Circuit City... Because I highly doubt that Mr. McCullough is going to return my call before he retires at the end of February...
Thank you Circuit City for calling me a liar and defamating my character. Thank you for consuming many many hours of my valuable time. Thank you for the mental pain and anquish your company has put me through.
Kenn
Capitola, California
U.S.A.
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