Just [the headache] I needed.

I recently had a bad experience purchasing a new laptop computer (pc) at Circuit City. After seeing the low price advertised on my Sunday paper, I bit on it and went to the store to buy "Just what I needed."

After selecting the computer, I was up-sold on Microsoft Office, Norton Antivirus and Webroot Spysweeper.  And, I was informed that the 1 year warranty on the computer would not be valid unless the softwares were installed on-site by Circuit City's IQcrew (a group of punk kids sitting behind a wall playing online games).

I wanted to take the computer home after I paid for it, but was then told that the IQcrew needed 3 hours to install the software, and that at that point I could come back to pick up the unit.  When I came back later that day, the salesperson was nowhere to be found and the I was told by the group of service technicians that it was going to take another 10 minutes to finish it.  I ended up spending another 30 minutes waiting while they performed what seemed to be very simple installation and configuration processes.  The IQcrew seemed to be backed up with other service jobs and installations and my job was simply in queue.  This was completely understandable, considering some low pricing of merchandise in the store, they probably had a lot of work to do.  However, to be told the computer would be ready at a certain time, and for that not to happen was very disappointing - particularly when you are running a tight schedule, several hours wasted on a weekend can be a bit disturbing.

The kicker of the whole story is that when I finally got home and opened Internet Explorer and attempted to set my homepage to a certain favorite Internet destination, the softwares (that were so diligently installed by the kids on Circuit City's IQCREW) were blocking all attempts to change the homepage.  I used all known methods through Internet Explorer options, then Norton's support (1 hour chat session) to resolve the issue, but was unable to do so. 

Today, I am able to change my homepage but only after about another 2 hours of follow-up on the phone with Microsoft Support.  The representatives at Microsoft walked me through about 8 different processes, restarting the computer in safe mode and turning on/off various functions and options 3 or 4 times finally allowed me to change my homepage in IE! 

Still though, after all of this troubleshooting, the Microsoft Reps were unable to say definitively weather or not this was an Internet Explorer bug, a problem with the Office installation, a problem with Norton Antivirus or Webroot Spysweeper.

I then suspected that the homepage problem may have been caused by settings implemented at Circuit City.

Circuit City has ineffective local, in-store customer service. And at the East 86th Street Store in NYC, they hire jokester, idiot kids to who don't know how to properly install software.  This figures well for an electronics retailer, but I was surprised by the amount of time it took to get answers and assistance from them.  In calling the local store at East 86th street in Manhattan, I was unable to get anyone on the phone.  When I made some follow up calls to the store on a Saturday afternoon, the line rang and rang only to go to a voice mail that said the store was closed!

I took to the web again and after filling out a form on Circuit City's website, I received a call back from a rep who said that the store manager would contact me in a couple of days; this was over 2 weeks ago and I yet to hear back from them...So much for Circuit City's tag line "Just what I needed"; it's more like "Just the headache I needed".

This whole experience also leads me to think that Apple Computer really has something going with the MAC - for sure.  PC's are just a flat out pain in the *ss.

Here an interesting like to a company / customer satisfaction review website and you can see that Circuit City stinks and they will give you "Just the headache you neeeded."

Comments

[Meg]

Jake - that's HARD CORE! I would be smashing some serious customer service skulls if I were you.

You must switch to a MAC. If you spend a lot of time on your computer, it's really the only way to go.

[WindowsObserver]

Jake - thanks for stopping by my site and commenting on the customer service experience I had there. Your story above sounds like a royal pain. Not so sure it is a PC vs MAC thing but customer service has to improve across the board for sure.