When I first came to the US, Best Buy, Comp USA, and Circuit City were like nerd heaven for me. Quickly, I settled on a favorite: Best Buy. It “felt” more approachable, the Circuit City and Comp USA sales people were just that sales people. Commission based and annoying. Over the last few years, I’ve grown to like the new look Circuit City, they seemed to have gotten rid of the annoying sales people, and they have had some great deals.
Sotoday was the most annoying online/offline sales experience I have ever had at Circuit City. So I go online, looking for a high gain wifi antenna to try to lessen the dead spots in our new house (before trying a powered range booster that is). Online I see a “pick up at the store in 24 minutes or you get a free $24 gift card” promotion. Being a good online/offline experience researcher (and never one to pass up a marketing deal *gack*) I decide to try it out. What could be simpler, my expectation was I would buy online, and pick up quickly in the store, soooo simple right? WRONG!
Once I compelted the checkout, I got no confirmation, just a bizrate thingy, which I closed. The online experience said: unable to display confirmation, check your email. Which I did. Gave it 5 minutes, no email so i just went to the store. When I got there, the dude looks at me like I’m a martian. Then asks to swipe my credit card. Here’s how it all went down:
- Me: “But wait, I already paid”
- Sales minion: “Yeah, but I have to validate that its you”
- me: “Oh it’s me, I have the email and confirmation number right here …”
- Sales doofus: “Yeah, thats not enough, I need to swipe it”
- Me: “So I’m not getting charged again right?”
- Sales knucklehead: “No, no you’ve already paid”
- Me: “So tell me again why I have to swipe”
- Sales wonk: “So I know its you”
- Me: “Ok, fine, swipe my card”
- Sales numb nuts: “Thanks you sir, now I’ll need to see a photo ID”
- Me: “But you’ve already got my money, and re-swiped my card, why do need a photo ID?”
- Sales nincompoop: “I need to make sure you are the owner of the credit card”
- Me: “Oh surely you jest, this is candid camera right/”
- Sales idiot: “What’s candid camera?”
- Me: “Ok, ok, I give in here’s my photo ID”
- Sales moron: “Thank you sir, please sign here”
- Me: “Wait, wait, wait WTF is this? Why am I signing? You already have my money (from 30 minutes ago online), you’ve swiped my card, and validated my photo ID, why do I have to sign?”
- Sales monkey: “To acknowledge receipt of the item”
- Me: “Wait, wait, wait, you’re not charging me TWICE for this are you?”
- Sales flunky: “No of course not sir.”
- Me: “So it would have been quicker for me to come to the store, find the item, and check out the regular way rather than this”
- Sales cone head: “Well sir, I did go and get the item for you, so I guess I saved you some time”
- Me: “Ok, I guess, I’d like a copy of the signed receipt please to make sure you don’t charge me twice”
- Sales f*ckwit: “Oh I can’t give you a copy of the signed thing, its in the computer
- Me, infuriated: “Give me the item, god bye, I won’t be buying anything from Circuit City again”
- Sales baboon: “Have a nice day”
At which point I went to leave, with my receipt and bagged item, only to be stopped by the guy at the door who wanted to check my receipt because “He didn’t see me come from a register”. Oh my god, this has to be the worst online/offline experience I have ever had. No benefit from the online ordering, more complicated than a regular checkout process, and a bunch of idiots manning the store.
Filed under: happenings , bad, circuit, circuit city, city, experience, sales, wifi
So when i first moved to NYC, a good friend sent me a list of things to do, see, experience while I was living in the city. Here’s the list, annotated with stuff I haven’t done in bold and all the things I loved in italics! All in all looks like I have had a pretty good run of some of the fun things in the city. Anybody interested in doing one of the things in bold below with me over the next 2 weeks should drop me a line.
