Complaint Review: Circuit City In Memphis Tennessee

On August 1, 2005, we purchased a Toshiba laptop for our daughter who was going off to college 5 hours away from us in just a few weeks. Circuit City was having a promotion where with the purchase of this computer we received a "wireless router" for free and a case for the laptop for free. We also purchased an Ipod and a car charger for the Ipod.

We were asked if we wanted to purchase an extended warranty on any of the items as we had also purchased an Ipod as well. We asked about the different warranties available and were told about a 2 year warranty and a 4 year warranty. Since our daughter was going to be 5 hours away from us, we wanted to make sure that if she had any problems with the laptop that she could take it to a Circuit City store in the area of her University.

We knew that we would not be able to just run to her in the event of a problem with her laptop so we asked for a 4 year warranty on the laptop. We also purchased a 2 year warranty for the Ipod and since the Ipod died a year later and had to be replaced with a different Ipod, at least that one worked out ok. But we were told that the Ipod that she originally had was no longer available at Circuit City, she was sent a different one.

In October of 2006, 3 of the keys on her laptop ceased to operate at all. She contacted Circuit City by phone through their 800 number and was given the number to City Assure Advanced Protection Support. She called them and they told her that she would need to download everything on her computer to a external hard drive in the event that they would have to completely reformat her hard drive and that they would send her a box to send the laptop into them for repairs.

She located a fellow student who was able to download her hard drive and when the box arrived, she sent the laptop in. Approximately a month later, the laptop was returned to her. The student who had downloaded her hard drive reinstalled her data and everything seemed to be fine. She did tell us that the laptop was not operating as well as when we first purchased it, but seemed to be operating ok.

3 weeks ago, her laptop totally died. It would not reboat, it would not load, it would not do anything but start to come up and then give her an error message. Once again, she called Circuit City and was told to call the City Assure Advanced Protection Support number. When she called them, she was informed that the laptop's warranty had expired. She was told that the laptop only had a 2 year warranty on it and that the "wireless router" was the item with the 4 year warranty. She called me in tears and asked me to call them and see what I could do.

I spent approximately 2 hours on the phone with a person named Derrick and he kept telling me that the warranty we purchased on the laptop was only a 2 year warranty and that the 4 year warranty was indeed on the stupid router. We did not purchase the router. We did not want the router. We only had the router because it came free with the laptop. The router has never been used and is still in the box it came in.

I explained to Derrick several times that we had specifically requested and purchased the 4 year warranty on the laptop as we wanted to make sure our daughter would be able to take it to a local store for help. That she was at University 5 hours away from us and we would not be able to just run to her with assistance. He agreed that it made sense, but told me that there was nothing he could do.

I have reported this problem to the Better Business Bureau as well and am getting no where with them. They keep insisting that I send them a copy of my receipt. Well, Circuit City uses a type of paper that fades very quickly and after 3 years, the receipt is totally a blank piece of paper. Nothing is showing on it at all. So how can I send the Better Business Bureau a copy of the receipt with nothing on it. Their reply is for me to email Circuit City and ask them to send me another copy of the receipt.

I will do this, but I feel that since I have already had several arguments with them and have reported them to the BBB, that any receipt they would send me would only show what they want it to show. I would not trust it to reflect exactly what we purchased and for what it was purchased.

I also suggested that perhaps the salesman had mistakenly mixed up the warranties. We were of the opinion that we were purchasing a warranty for 4 years on the laptop and 2 years on the Ipod. That is what we asked for and what we thought we paid for. I just spoke with another representative (David) of City Assure Advanced Protection Support and he informed me that we PAID for a 2 year warranty on the laptop and PAID for a 4 year warranty on the stupid router that we didn't want in the first place. He also informed me that he could not confirm or deny the warranty on the laptop as that is not his department. He gave me another number to call which I did call, but they are not open at this late hour and I must call back during business hours.

I suspect that when our daughter had to send the laptop in to be repaired for the 3 keys that were not working that they damanged the hard drive at that time and that it took it another year and a half for it to completely fail. She has said that the laptop has not worked completely the same since its return from being repaired in 2006.

We have be forced to purchase another hard drive and have it installed in her laptop and the operating system loaded onto that hard drive due to the fact that she returns to University in less than 2 weeks for her senior year and needs this laptop for school. The technician who installed the new hard drive and loaded her system back onto it is attempting to retrieve the data from the damaged hard drive, but is making no promises that he will be able to retrieve anything.

Like any other college student, her whole 3 years of college experiences are on that hard drive. She is devastated about this whole thing.

Circuit City is totally ignoring the fact that a 4 year warranty was indeed purchased for the laptop, but that it was erroneously placed on an item that we didn't need, didn't want and only ended up with because it was FREE!!! And that the 2 year warranty was on the laptop. So where did the 2 year warranty for the Ipod go? Due to the fact that they have already honored (somewhat) the warranty on the Ipod, I am completely outraged and feel that they are just jacking us around because they do not want to honor the 4 year warranty on the laptop because they know it will cost them money to fix it. But our money has already been paid for the warranty to cover the repair of the laptop. Since she has already had to send it in for repairs, I guess they feel they have done their part.

They are sticking to their story that we purchased a 2 year warranty on the laptop and have not commented at all about the supposedly 4 year warranty on the router.

If you can help me to force Circuit City to honor the warranties as purchased, I would be forever grateful. This is just outragious how this company is ripping off people without any care or concern for their actions. This kind of thing must be stopped.

Dee
Olive Branch, Mississippi
U.S.A.

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