It seems that everyone knows that the Circuit City liquidation is a scam in our corner of the Internet but what about Mr. Average Joe? Does he know that we haven’t heard of anyone finding a lower price at a closing Circuit City store than at Best Buy or via an online source. Maybe the deals will come after the store’s inventory is stagnate for a few weeks. After all, the head liquidators have played the game a few times before. Hopefully there will be a time when deals are to be had ’cause this guy wants a big boy Monster Power Center but isn’t willing to spend anywhere near the retail price.
What does Mr. Average Citizen think about Circuit City's liquidation?
Ok so – They tried to get me. My honest opinion is that this is a scam,, and that they are trying the old bait and switch. Say one thing on a sign, and the register rings you up for another. basically the same thing walmart just went to the witches stake for..
i tried to buy something that was posted on its normal place (on 2 racks with 2 tags) for $14.99 plus 30% off as was clearly marked throughout the store (for cables).
They guy tries to make it 18.99, won’t check the shelf price with me (which was in view of the register) and tried to tell me it was only 20% off when I was literally standing within arms reach of the sign proving otherwise. The sign was even facing him!
I can’t even bring it up without getting infuriated.
I should also note that the prices were.. ok.. on the 30% off items. ShopSavvy on my G1 showed that newegg, or amazon had them beat in most cases though. I think before shipping, they might have beat the web on some more trinkit like items. Cables, connectors, etc…
this is the scam, they are promising a manufacturers warranty on display items that is absolutely a lie. I got stuck with a car radio that was promised manufacturers warranty and even printed on the receipt. so when i call the manufacturer they say no that is not true they only take warranty items that have their original box. when i called circuit city in steubenville ohio they said to try and dispute my credit card company to get the charges taken off. thing is i didnt pay with credit but with debit. i am contacting a lawyer now to sue but not sure of the outcome of that yet because if they are going out of business then can they still be sued. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CIRCUIT CITY IN STEUBENVILL OHIO. THEY ARE RIPPING YOU OFF BIG TIME.!!!BEWARE
You gotta wait. All the scammed prices are the first 2 weeks. They try and make people think that because they are going out of buisness that they are gonna have great deals right away. So everyone rushes in and buys what they think is a great deal. Most of the Salesmen that they have left which is basically a ghost staff of minimal people haven’t found another job yet. They won’t won’t be given permission to negotiate or change any prices until Febuary or the closer they get to March 31st. It’s also up to the Store Manager. So wait and see if you wanna buy stuff from Circuit City.
There are some deals to be had – 20% off all CDs & DVDs. 10% off PS3, Apple, computers & video games (there are some items that never go on sale)
Scam is a strong word. If you don’t do your research you can pay more, but it’s always been the informed consumer that is best prepared.
of course it’s a scam, that’s how liquidators operate. they rely on the uneducated, impulsive, emotional, buyer to fall for anything that says 10 percent off. they most assuredly have other clever, nasty little tricks up their sleeves. i saw this with compusa. the prices actually went up but stupid people were falling over theirselves to get a deal.
more comments…the word liquidation does not necessarily mean bargain. it just means selling out. liquidation companies are legitimate business enterprises. it’s just that they rely on the ambiguity of the word liquidation. they rely on triggering a buyers emotions. this is what is wrong with the whole advertising industry. they prey on peoples emotions. that’s why i use adblocking software and don’t watch television ads. i don’t like being treated the way advertisers treat me.
But there stock is less than a cent a share . . . how can that be a scam? They just havent gotten serious about sales off the goods yet.
It sort of is… Liquidation sales don’t necessarily mean great deals as far as I am concerned. CompUSA did not have any good deals when they went out of business.
It’s probably time to make sure that if there are outstanding rebates in process, they are still valid.
Personally, I have been avoiding Circuit City rebates for quite some time based on the advice at: http:/www.uberi.com
They also have a quick note about liquidation sales in general. They have saved me from a lot of headaches through deals and shopping advices from time to time. Maybe someone will find it helpful.
By the way, it was nice when Best Buy decided to eliminate all rebates about two years ago. That was a nice touch.
Went to Circuit City the morning of the 16th, the day the liquidation began. Looked at two laptop computers on display, both clearly marked $1099 minus $50 rebate = $1049. This was before the liquidation manager arrived on site. Later that day I returned and price on both was $1199. With the 10% liquidation discount, it was now $30 more than a few hours earlier. How do you spell SCAM.
I don’t know if its a scam, but i guess when you go shopping at Circuit City, you have to look hard. I found monster component cables with optical audio cable for $13.99. Though it was taped up, i risked it and bought it. It isn’t HDMI but hey, its a steal, especially for monster brand. Just search around, find the hidden items.
Ok I did not fall for this scam, but I did purchase a couple playstation network cards. The employee never activated the card so it is useless. I called Sony and they wont do anything they told me to go to the store and have them activate it. Circuit City refuses even though the receipt has the card number printed on it. This is how they are making all their money. They scammed me for $100, and all they had to do was scan the card. I will now dispute this through my credit card company and Circuit City will lose the money on the rest of the merchandise that I purchased. Maybe they should have taken the time to activate the card.
I made a questionable purchase on 1-16-09 with the assurance of a Circuit City employee stating that I could return the item within 30 days of purchase. 2-3-09 I bring one item back for a refund but was refused both a refund and exchange. The item was unopened and I had my receipt. I was told I had thirty days to return the item if needed and now I will dispute the charge with my credit card company. Circuit City now promises to levy a collection against me for failure to pay.
What a RIP!
I hope every business in financial distress goes bust tomorrow. I don’t plane to purchase anything from any of them!
Truthfully there is a reason they are going out of business. And I can’t think of a better company to do so. Did the black friday check w/Staples, Office Depot and Best buy as well. Circuit City’s on sale items were higher than their competitors. Even though it was marked down in the store. Saw the 40% liquidation sale sign spinner last week so went back in and saw the 10% off. The prices have been marked up drastically. DON’T BE FOOLED BY THIS COMPANY. They never honored their warranty agreements when they were flush either. This is a totally horrible company that, good news, wont be around long. DON’T BUY FROM THEM AT ANY PRICE!!!
ok people this is not a scam. the liquidator company has to save as much money as they can. so basically they start the liquadation off with only 10 percent and work there way up. as soon as its mid feb. they will start to dramatically drop prices because the stores cant be open after march 21. so what they do is they bring the price back to retail price and do the price cutting off that. they cant cut the price off an actually sale price. us your heads people. and stop being so selfish and thinking about prices when 34,000 people are losing their jobs.
Of course you all you should be penny wise. The liquidation company is not Circuit city. I agree with Jack. Do think about the 34000 folks who are losing thier jobs, and then think about yourself and what’s going in our country right now. Can you say DEPRESSION.
Hell yea, it’s a rip off. You find better prices at many other stores that are actually still in business, like Newegg.com. I recently bought a 42 in. Haier Full HD LCD TV (1080P) from an online store call U.S. Appliance. Total price was $799 with free shipping and no sales tax. Image quality is great. I’m using it both as a computer monitor and T.V. The closest thing I saw at Circuit City in Emeryville was a 40 inch Toshiba for around the same price before taxes. It would be more expensive after taxes were applied.
I got taken today. Went to purchase something with that sat above a tag that read $39.99. A piece of paper was posted above that read the discount prices ie. “if original price was $40 you pay $24. Got to the register and it rang $31. The clerk was nice enough to go look at what I was talking about and went to get the manager. He met me with a chip on his shoulder and told me he couldn’t fix the pricing but could refund my money (I stood in line a 1/2 hour so I wasn’t going to start all over). He blamed it on the liquidators. I asked for their info and he refused to give it to me. I told them this sounded like fraud, like false advertising since I could PROVE the mistake. He told me that I was threatening him and that he would no longer speak to me. I thought he was going to cry. I only hope that the crap I purchased was at least worth $31. He told me the tag I was looking at was expired and it should have read $45. So maybe I was ok in the end??? I think I at least got $8 bucks off of what was probably the REAL original price and not the jacked up price….
Went there last week with my blackberry and I could find not one item cheaper than I could find it on the internet. That was after there discount.
I received an email from circuit city advertising up to 40% off this weekend, so I went back. Not one item was changed, if something was 40% off it was the DVD’s jacked up to $29.99.
I started to tell one of the assistants (if you can tackle one down?) about the price and then thought, hey these guys and gals don’t set the price, they are powerless to change any price and they will soon be unemployed.
My advice, wait for the prices to drop by 40-50% storewide and if your item of interest is no longer there, google it and get the deal you should have gotten in the first place.
What I noticed mostly is that people who couldn’t afford it in the first place where impulse buying and caught up in auction fever.
Walmart, Sams Club, Best Buy always had the same item cheaper. The only deal I ever got was going back and having them match an item I found someplace else cheaper. After gas money I still came out behind! Maybe they are going out of business due to the economy, or maybe they are liquidating because they should.
My advise, if you need it want it and find it, buy it but don’t expect a great deal at least not yet.
Only my oppinion, Back at you!
Circuit City is no longer in control of the store and the remaining merchandise. Circuit City is now bought out by a third party liquidation company and the liquidators raise all the prices of the remaining items to MSRP then takes a certain percentage (example 10% – 40%) off the MSRP (not Circuit City’s original price) which ends up being more expensive than many competitors prices and the prices of the items before the liquidation. In addition to raising original prices to MSRP, the liquidation company may bring in outside merchandise (usually items that didn’t sell yet during liquidation to other retail stores.) The stores (even though it has the name Circuit City on the front) are no longer being run by Circuit City but it is being run by a third party liquidation company. Many people who think they are getting a good deal don’t even know this and are being fooled by the big sale tags on high end electronics such as lcd flat screen televisions. The goal of the liquidation company is to get the most money possible out of the remaining merchandise.
I wanted to check the store out to see if anything was decent yet, since it’s been at least a couple of weeks. I already wasted $30 on some crappy DL DVDs but that I blame a bit on myself for not wanting to check around and not wanting to get too many (I bought 2 packs of 5 and the price wasn’t marked, then wound up burning 4 coasters and not being able to return the other 5 pack, so if I had only gotten one pack at least I’d have been ripped off less, the going rate for the best media is about $2 at Best Buy, and about $1 online, but you’d have to know the brand beforehand anyway).
This time I needed a surge protector. Of course, again, they weren’t marked, this time I just picked up a couple of different ones and took them to the register and bought the cheaper one. I could have gotten the same model for $11 at Wal-mart that I paid $12.50 for at CC. Still a rip-off, if I had actually cared I’d have gotten it elsewhere, but it was cheap enough that it didn’t matter much.
I don’t even really care enough to check again in a month. I know the TVs will never be a good deal, and they’ll just sell off whatever they can’t rip people off with to Best Buy. I’m also certain they’ve got considerable back stock for everything and just leave a smaller number out to get people to buy (for the DVDs, there were only 4 boxes left when i bought 2, and now there are still 4 there now weeks later).
Of course it’s a scam. But does anyone care ? I went in to see if prices had dropped and found people buying T.V.’s and all kinds of stuff even though I could clearly see it was not a bargain. By the time they lower the prices , the only items left will be the junk no one wants. Why are people so impulsive and clueless ? This is why big corporations and politicians get away with anything they want. I’m tired of it. Are’nt you ?
It is a SCAM in the greatest proportions. Anytime they announce a higher discount, they increase the original price. I saw an item from $311 the first week to $389 and today was $402.88. Go figure!
I understand they are trying to collect as much money as they can but that should not involve increasing prices from prior weeks. That is a classical SCAM and I really wish them the worst!
I went in there (the store in Roseville, CA) and everything I looked at was marked down but not by as much as the sign/tag said. For example : A Samsung LCD tv was $799.99 regular price. It had two tags on it saying 20% off and a sign sitting on top of the display saying 20% off with the model # and yet on the tag it said “Final Price – $719.99″.
That’s when I left the store. IT IS AN INSULT TO PUT 20%, 25% and 30% SIGNS ALL OVER THE STORE BUT ONLY MARK IT DOWN BY HALF THAT.
Oh, and Expo Design Center is pulling the same scam as well.
Thinking about this, I left work early today, so I should go to the store and point out the scam to the shoppers for a few hours.
Make sure you open your item IN the store right after you buy it. Once you leave the store then there’s no way you can return it. That happened to me with a cracked in half XBox game and they wouldn’t take it back. One of their stellar salespeople must have stepped on the game. I threatened to open every single game on display to prove their fraud – they then had one of their secret nazi police follow me all over the store. I couldn’t believe it when I saw someone buy a 52″ Sony LCD that was easily $300 more than what Amazon had that same day (and no sales tax, free shipping too on Amazon). There are real suckers out there.
It is very sad, indeed, the bad name that Circuit City is being given because of this whole thing. If you take anything from this, just remember how slimy these liquidators are, when more liquidations will no doubt be happening in the coming months…thanks economy.
These liquidators are ripping people off and making bank, all while hiding behind the name of a business that has been around for 50+ years…
YES, I say this, being currently employed at Circuit City…and here are the facts that people really need to research and know, before walking into their local CC’s and ripping apart the poor associates because of the “scam.”
First of all, when people are complaining about not being able to return stuff, it is not the choice of the store. The liquidators came in and threw everything into a tailspin from day 1. They said the return policy would be 14 days on previous purchases, and that was it. We have no ability to take things back…well, technically we do, as someone did it in my store the other day, when an associate had told someone to buy the wrong thing. The “returner” was given a warning that if it happened again, they would be fired. They are tracking the computer systems like hawks.
As for mismarked prices, the truth is, as people have said, they bumped everything up to the MSRP. So while there could be 50 tags on the same shelf that say a price, tags have not been printed since this whole thing began, as the system is royally messed up, so the prices are often not accurate. We have no ability to do price adjustments anymore, so don’t sit around and take it out on the poor associates who are losing their jobs and did NOT sign up for this…
Also, in response to the person talking about the TV’s saying they said 20 or 25% but the price marked was only 10% off, what you don’t understand is how much manual labor is having to be done on our part, individually pricing things by hand. The truth is, the tags just did not get rewritten from the 10% off days to the 20% off days…no they are not saying you are stupid and can’t do math, they just simply have not been changed…Rest assured, that if you buy a TV and the TV’s are 20% off, you will get the 20% off…the liquidators are scummy, but not that scummy.
To touch on what someone said about stock being “held back” that is not at all the case…we were told that what we had when the liquidation started was the end of it, and we would liquidate all those assets…low and behold, we received at least a half dozen shipments in the first 2 weeks+, hence the reason why merchandise kept popping up.
Yet as many people have said, so many are being fooled by this and checking out with baskets full of things. Whenever I get a chance talking to customers, I advise them that the deals are not good, and to go elsewhere, especially if they are only buying to get a good deal, while not getting the item they really want.
Again, just please remember, give the associates a break, as they can’t do anything about it…hunt down the numbers of the liquidation firms and give the verbal lashing to them, if need be…I can’t tell you how many people have gone off on me about the pricing and the scam and on and on and on…after having to go through this, I don’t wish it upon anyone else, EVER.
I bought a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Card card for $134.99 on January 24th. Thats my first mistake. When I got home, inside the box wasn’t even the card I purchased. I went back and they told me sorry call the manufacturer. When I called Creative, they told me that they do not support ANYTHING from Circuit City because they are selling defective and returned cards! SCAM! SCAM! SCAM! BUYER BEWARE!!!
Its deceptive advertising…aka a scam. They claim that everything in the store is on sale with some items up to 50% off. Catch 22 or should I say 44…the percentage off is based on the MSRP. Basically you can get the same price that Circuit City is offering just about anywhere else and in some cases you can get a better price. The lowest blow is the inability to return what you buy. So after you’ve found out you’ve just been taken for a ride you’re screwed.
Definitely a scam. So I had a $10 gift card there and decided to get some headphones I saw for $15 earlier that week. I went down there and they were all out. So I found a model that was $40 with the 30% discount. I thought this was outrageous and I checked the other section of headphones that the rep told me to check. There I found the original price tag without discount on the headphones. Want to guess what the price was. Ding Ding Ding. $40 Theyre excuse for these so called mistakes including a higher price on a latop case is that the you are mistaken about the price or it was in the wrong location and you should have look. Even when I stated I compared the model numbers they insisted it was my fault. Beware if going and verify the price before handing over the money. The clerk told a person before me the price on a digital camera, only to find that after his card was charged the amount was the original price. Just thought I would share my experience and help those of you wanting to purchase items from CC. Go to Best Buy.
The truth is, never go buy anything at any liquidation sale. It is nothing but a scam and it is NOT the fault of the Circuit City employees. It is the third party liquidation company that is ripping people off.
and forgot to mention something
I would rather buy something at Best Buy than from a liquidation company even if it cost a few dollars more because you always have the option to return the product and get your money back.
And another thing, I am going to miss Circuit City alot. I bought a 46 inch lcd flat screen there. What happened at the time, and that was way before the liquidation, I saw the price of it at $3199.99. Then I thought I would check elsewhere and I found that Sears had that same model on sale for $2799.99. I checked how much the protection plan at Sears was and the three year protection plan was like $499.99 at Sears and around $349.99 at Circuit City. I went back to Circuit City because I know they price matched before the liquidation so I told them I saw a lower price at Sears on the lcd television. The associates there looked on the web and somehow the Sears website was down, but one thing I like about it is they didn’t give up and they even tried calling Sears. Finally someone got the Sears website and they found the ad and matched the price to $2799.99 plus I was able to get the Circuit City Advantages three year protection plan at a lower price than Sears charges for theirs. They were a very big help and I sure find Circuit City to be a lot more helpful than Best Buy. Best Buy did not help me much based on my experience.
Bought a Nikon D300 kit from them on closeout. Got it home and found the lense had been replaced by a cheap Sigma. Took it back and got the correct lense. Unpacked the body and found the screen cracked. Decided to cut my losses and sent it to Nikon for repair. They returned it saying it was actually a D-200 whose logo had been modified and the serial number tag falsified. Clear case of willful fraud. Pursuing it through Virginia Consumer Fraud Div. Don’t beware, just don’t buy it.
ONce a SCAM ALWAYS A SCAM….just went to buy something at circuit city that was susposed to be 70percent off….naturally it rang up higher, when questioned the cashier had the nevre to say the sticker price was only a SUGGESTED retail price and there system rings up there actul price then takes off discount……..Beware to all and doulbe check while checking out on your purchases if you go to circuit city
Well the best deal I saw was the Logitech Harmony One which was selling for $150. I wasn’t familiar with it so I checked the web for pricing and reviews. Well it turned out to be a great deal for a great remote. Next weekend I went back and the dozens of Harmony Ones were all gone! However, they jacked up the price to $175 before it ran out.
This is a branch in Foster City CA. DANG!! I also found an expired $15 coupon for purchases worth $150. So that would have been $135 if I knew about it before.
The cheapest I found on the internet is $170 from Xeusa.com
Here’s one customer who got it for $135
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/xatom71/scan0001-1.jpg
Damn!
Did you even read that receipt you linked to? It cost $145.22, not $135.00.