I am a current employee of Circuit City. I am a Firedog. I'm a very honest person. I always, always sell the customer the right things that they need. I never over-sell a customer UNLESS my manager is watching. See... We have meetings about once a month on how to upsell people. They teach us techniques that will convince the buyer into getting a four year warranty that they don't need at all. Oh yeah... They make us call it, 'Circuit City Protection Plan' so that it doesn't sound like, 'warranty'.
One thing that I hate about my job is getting in trouble for my sale's numbers being too low. I have to upsell someone 3 - 7 times a week. If I don't, they cut my hours down very low. I was working 32 hours a week once... I didn't upsell anyone for one week... And they cut my hours to about 17 hours per week. I don't like lying to people, but to keep my job... I have to. I need the money to pay for my car, college and gas.
We learn this method of getting rid of people that don't fall for the upsale. All of our expensive things are in the warehouse... And if a customer doesn't fall for the upsale we are trained to either,
A.) Tell them we don't have any in stock.
B.) Tell the customer that we will be right back... But go to the breakroom for 5-10min in hope that the customer leaves or asks someone else for help.
C.) Get a manager to 'help' us with the sale.
In my opinion, this sucks. It makes me think about when I was younger shopping around with my Mom if that happened to her and I? I've wanted to work at Circuit City since I was 12 buying my first PlayStation 1 game.
Everyone at my store plays around all day. My managers are never to be found. Managers are the only ones with keys to ANYTHING. If a customer wants an iPod or something that is locked up, I have to find a manager for a key... Which takes about 10min. Finnaly I get a key... The customer is upset already... Then I go to scan it... Oh wow, it is 30$ more than what the price tag said... I have to explain to the customer that the price tag is out of date... They get even more angry and I have to get my manager... After ANOTHER 10min of looking for him/her he comes to tell the customer that we are sorry and there is nothing we can do. So the angry customer leaves. I feel bad for those customers..
Another thing I would like to mention... Sometimes I ring things up, it comes up 20$ or so cheaper than what it did cost. Example: I ring up a laptop that cost 599$, but the computer says that it cost 449$... Usually I tell the customer, 'Wow, it is your lucky day, that computer has dropped down to 449$.'... But my manager would be around watching and he would jump in the sale and tell the customer that he can add on a 3 year 'Protection Plan' for 'free'. Which of course the customer says, 'Wow! Thank you.' because they don't know that it is actually on sale or on clearance! It is just another way Circuit City sucks money out of people.
Just this past Sunday we had an all-store meeting about the holidays that are coming up. We learned again, like last year, how to upsell people. We learn to mention christmas gift for a loved one... We are trained to make a laptop or TV or w/e sound like the BEST and only gift that a child or husband or grandson etc would want.
I understand that warranties are a good thing to have... But you just are wasting your money when you get a warranty on a PC. The warranty cost about half of the computer's price... That is a waste. I'm a computer Tech, I would know.
All I ever wanted to do was just fix computers and help customers with their specific needs. It was my dream growing up to be a great PC Tech. Which I am, but I never wanted to pay the price of honesty.
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