Monday, March 13th, 2006 | Author:

Well, we made our decision on the home theater front and went with the Onkyo HT-S780.

There’s an interesting story that goes along with this purchase, as are most retail experiences. I had printed down the price at the Circuit City website on Saturday so we could bring it along with us to the store on Sunday. When we got there, the price had gone up rom $399 to $479. We showed the print-out to the guy helping us, and after a little hesitation, he agreed to give us the price of $440.The reason, he explained, was that we were eligible for a $40 rebate, so after that, the price would be $399. That was reasonable, so we agreed, and he sent us to merchandise pick-up.

The guy who hauled out the gigantic box to our car was so nice and funny. He seemed really excited for us, talking about how the system was going to blow us and our neighbors away. He said it was the second best home theatre in a box that CC sells. He was also very helpful by pointing out that since many movies and programs aren’t yet in 7.1 surround sound, two of the speakers would probably not “work” the majority of the time. I’m glad he said something because it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me at first. It was nice hearing him talk about what a great choice we had made because I figured he was being honest since he had nothing to gain as we had already made the purchase.

So we got the unit home and Joe unpacked the box and hooked everything up. It was quite easy because the manufacturer color-coded all the wires and speakers to eliminate confusion. We tested the system and it sounds great and that’s before any tweaking or proper speaker placement. Due to the wires and our living room setup, we’re not going to be able to take full advantage of the surround sound right now. All the speakers are actually set up below and to the side of the television. One thing we are planning to do is buy two stands for the left and right speakers to raise them off the floor, as well as put in a shelf above the tv to put the center channel.

A little later after Joe had everything hooked up, I was going through bills and whatnot, and shredded some stuff, including the print-out from the circuit city website. I figured it was no longer needed. I’m not sure why I shredded it as opposed to just throwing it away, but I did. A few minutes after that I logged onto the Circuit City website to print down the rebate like we were told. Imagine my dismay when I read that only online purchases qualified! I immediately called CC and had Joe speak with a manager. He was bit hesitant at first, asking if we could bring in the print-out with the $399 price (because the price had also increased online from $399 to $479 between Saturday to Sunday). Joe explained he didn’t have it, but that the department lead should remember us and could verify our story. So the manager asked us to come into the store. We got there, Joe talked to him, and also talked to the guy who made the original sale, and then we went to customer service and they issued a $40 refund to our credit card.

THIS, my friends, is why I shop at Circuit City. I guarantee you that Best Buy would have NEVER done any of the price reductions we received. I’ve had enough poor experiences, and have read about enough, to feel confident in saying this. In fact, I don’t think BB would have matched a price from the day before on their own website, let alone give us the credit like Circuit City did. They would have told us to go home and order it online if we wanted the online price. I just want you to keep that in mind next time you’re in the market for electronics. I don’t mean to offend anyone who likes Best Buy, but I really don’t understand why they seem to always get more business than Circuit City when CC has just as good, if not better, prices, and superior customer service. I’m inclined to write CC a letter letting them know just how much I appreciate their excellent customer service. Unfortunately it is a rarity in today’s world.

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6 Responses

  1. 1
    Heather 

    you’re going to love your surround sound. We have a 7.1 set up from Sony and it’s not that 2 of our speakers don’t work, it’s just that you get the same sound out of them as the other 2 back speakers. We actually have them mounted on our back walls and the brackets allow us to hook the 2 on each side together for now until studios do actually start using 7.1 and then we can seperate them.

  2. 2
    Kevin 

    I worked at Circuit City during breaks from college for a year or two and I agree that we are a lot more lax in our customer service policies. We realized that we played second fiddle to BB so if we could steal customers via our customer service, why not? I still shop there on occasion but I find it difficult to get the selection I want from a CC. If they could just improve their selection, we’d be regular shoppers especially since they are right across the street from BB and it’s not as though we would have to travel much further.

  3. I haven’t been in a Best Buy in YEARS. I hate them.

    We took our old computer into them as the CD drive wasn’t working. We made several trips back and forth – first they tested it and said the cable needed to be replaced. So they replaced it.

    We get it home and it worked once. So we took it back and then they said we needed a new CD drive. Cripes. So we got a new drive and had a friend install it.

    Haven’t set foot in one since.

    I have had better luck with Circuit city.

  4. 4
    Nicole 

    Heather – Oh really? I didn’t know about the same sound coming out. Right now since all the speakers are in front, they kind of blow us away if we’re watching a show and some music comes on because the music comes out all the speakers but the people talking comes out from the center channel only. We need to tweak the settings. I think you can change how loud each speaker is, so I’m going to check that out this weekend.

    Kevin – You are right about the selection at CC; it’s not the best. I like the aisles and aisles of everything at Fry’s Electronics but they make you feel like a criminal whenever you purchase something. It’s a huge turn-off.

    GrumpyBunny – Yea I boycotted Best Buy for quite a few years. We’ve been there on and off a few times in the past year, mostly because Joe has a giftcard from there. But I really really hate them.

  5. 5
    Heather 

    you can change the individual settings, I know even with some dvds they have a speaker setup checker thingy on them (I think some of the disney dvds have them) so you can make sure they’re set up properly

  6. 6
    Jeff 

    Being a former employee of BBY(10 Years with them) I have to say I am a little disturbed at the level of violent words projected at my former place of work.

    I know that when I worked in the store I would bend over backwards for people to try to make them happy or if I couldn’t accomplish that at least have them be satisfied when they left.

    I don’t know if it is a regional thing in your area or not but most of the BBY stores I have been to in Minnesota have been still just about as nice as they were when I was working there. I’ll admit they probably scorn extreme price shopping but let’s face it, they are still running a business that needs growing profits. I’ll be the first to argue for customer service though as I know that was always my priority. Trust me, I have had enough conversations with managers to both appreciate their situation and I have pushed the limit on more than one occasion to get my way and I didn’t have a problem tactfully doing it.(In fact, I had just purchased a monitor a few weeks back that I was thinking about returning but didn’t realize they were on the 14 day return plan and spoke with a manager right away and he was totally willing to work with me to get the right thing even after 14 days including letting me return it without a restock fee.) I’ll also agree that the whole online price versus store price never made much sense to me.

    I’ll tell you that the CCs we have around here are ghost towns. It doesn’t suprise me that a salesperson in a CC store is going to be friendly around here since they are probably just happy to see someone.

    That all being said I am probably biased towards any of the store people(CC included) as I know how hard some days can be to be there in that high level of traffic flow and still try to smile. People are just not nice sometimes(more often than not) and that can really take a toll on how willing a person can be to help someone else out.

    Maybe the pendulum will swing the other way again in CCs favor, keep in mind they used to be the top dog ten years ago. They must have done something wrong or BBY did something right. It is a popularity contest after all. :)

    Apologies for the mini-rant. I tend to babble. I know I had a point somewhere but I’ll save that for some other time. (I’ll go hide somewhere now for a while.) Nicole, you’ll probably understand why I don’t post much now. :)