Circuit City's Repair Service

[dudesowetodit]

Hello All,

Last year I bought a projection tv from Circuit City with a ESP(extended service plan). Hoping that this should cover what ever problems i may encounter along the way. The tv screen turned white-ish on us on in the middle of January. Called the ESP and here's what happened:


Jan 22 - Called ESP to make appointment, earliest is next week says operator.

Jan 30 - First visit by technician, will need to order a board he says. That should do it.

Feb 6 - Second visit. Tech says: first board might have shorted out another board, will need to order it. That should do it he says. He'll put in rush for me.

Feb 9 - I call ESP to enquire about rush part order. " What rush part" says operator, " it'll arrive like regular, call back next week."

Feb 12 - I call to check part, part is in, made appointment with operator for the 13th.

Feb 13 - Waiting at home for tech to show between 7-9 am. Past 10am, no show. Call operator to ask to speak to manager. Kim (manager) says part has not arrived yet, will
arrive today. Will make appointment for the 14th.

Feb 14 - Third visit. Tech says: this is the wrong part received! Had him call his manager. One hour passes and he is trying something else now. Tech called other techs for
assistance. Found that a transister in one of the 3 lenses is out. Will need to order part or may have one in warehouse. That should do it he says. "Was this the only problem to begin with" I asked him. "Yip!" replies the tech, "this was the only problem"


Called Kim(manager), I was furious(no swear words used), told her that i was fed up and needed a resolution immediately to my problems. She calmed me down and explained
that i need to allow her to talk if i need her help. Okay, take a few breathes. So I listen: "There's absolutely nothing I can do for you at this time. I can not make any decisions on this situation at this moment" replies Kim calmly. She will need to contact her manager to see what's next.

So far i've missed about 12 hours of work. My wife and I are extremely fustrated well beyond words can describe. Oh, and they only loan out 20-27 inch tv's. I have one of those already.

So let as many people know that ESP doesn't mean that "Satisfaction is a Guarantee" so states Circuit City's brochure. And if you do decide to buy one and need to bring a product in for service, make sure you ask when you can expect to get it back or when the repairs will be finished. I don't believe 3.5 weeks(going 4th) is an exception, even if it is a regular repair duration for Circuit City.

.....more to come later,

Very unsatisfied customer

 

[Stark]

That sucks about the time off work (and lost pay), but I don't see that they're doing anything to screw you over.

Customers overreact like this all time with computer warranty repairs, especially apple customers, so I'll play devil's advocate.

Most likely, circuit city ordered the part from the manufacturer. They get the part when it gets there, and they can't do a thing about it. It sounds like you paid for in-house service which is what you're getting. The technician most likely has a list of parts to replace in a specific order to fix the problem. Any one of those parts could cause the problem.

Without your esp warranty (and I'm no supporter of buying them) you would have:
A. paid about three hours of on-site labor, and bought two parts it turned out you didn't need (if done out of warranty... parts are usually non-refundable, and like I said, there's no way to know 100% for sure what's causing some problems without swapping parts. sad but true).

B. Had to take your big-screen to an authorized service center, then pick it up when it was fixed (if still under manufacturer's warranty).

I can empathize with your frustration, but if you chill out and wait for them to call you (a week or two max), they'll have the part and be able to schedule an appointment they won't have to break because the part never arrived. The more you pressure them, the worse the service will be. Our service manager puts the annoying and over-anxious customers at the bottom of his list to help, and they usually get their problems fixed a week later than they normally would have.

Make sure you get a list of parts they replaced. If they have to replace the same things for a third time (in the future) you get a store credit towards a new tv.