Full FeedCircuit City 24/$24 pickup guarantee, now you try to get there
So Circuit City challenged us to take their 24/$24 pickup guarantee. Both Doug and I, in our respective states, had a chance to order products online at CircuitCity.com and choose the in-store pickup option. The deal is that they guarantee that your product will be ready at their customer service pickup desk within 24 minutes or you get a $24 giftcard. Easy as that…or is it?
For me, the guarantee didn’t mean much. I live in the big NYC and as they say, it is big. I am only 10 blocks away from the closest CC location, but with waiting at lights, traffic, and the crowds of people, getting into the store takes more than 24 min. What is a guarantee good for if it is unrealistic from the beginning? Doug, on the other hand, had no trouble getting to the store in time, but once there he had a nice long wait on the customer service line, pushing the time over the edge. Even if the product wasn’t ready in 24 min, it certainly was past that by that time.
Regardless, the concept (and the customer service tied to it) is a good one (I just wish the in-store employee customer service was that good - the audio/camera section clerk did not even know what the Zune was nor could anyone unlock the case and get one). CC is not only offering a way to save on shipping costs, but paying you a bit when they slip up - not too shabby. So what’s in the fine print…
To get your items, you must have:
- A printed version of the order confirmation email (what if you are ordering a printer?)
- Photo identification (a valid state-issued ID or driver’s license)
- The credit card used to make this purchase (if applicable)
- And yourself—no one can pick up your order for you
They will also hold your order for the 14 days, in case you can’t make it in right away, but then you don’t get to put them to the 24 minute test.
Have you done it? Did you make it in time? Did they?
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Don’t blame the clerk. Nobodys ever heard of Zune!
on December 1, 2006 at 06:03 PM - LINKI decided to try it out as with my location I can make it in time for the 24 min deadline. So then I order it online, go to my email and wait for the order confirmation which doesn’t even come for about 17 mins, so I cancel the order and within a few seconds, I get a nice cancellation confirmation. BTW, in the meantime the Customer Service person on the phone says that email confirmations usually take 24 hours. Go figure
on August 21, 2007 at 06:23 PM - LINKI too have not had any luck with the 24 minute rule. even after an hour when they don’t have the right items pulled and you point out to them that they should honor the 24 minute guarantee the “customer service manager” who’s name was William refused to honor the 24 minute rule. (he said the customer had to be waiting in the store for 24 minutes, and that an hour since the e-mail confirmation was sent was not enough to get the $24 credit)
Bad exp with Circuit City. It has really gotten worse since their cut backs releasing all the “highest paid” people may have also laid off all of their best people.
on October 2, 2007 at 05:28 AM - LINKI also had bad experience with 24/24. On 2007-10-16, around 8:10pm, at Bellevue WA store, after reading the 24/24 rules together with store clerk, he still said the time started when I arrived. Apparently, he had trouble understanding simple written English. Would you trust them with your technology purchases? A few minutes later, warehouse guy came out and said he couldn’t find the item. Now he HAD to give me the $24 gift card. I then walked into the store and took one (that they couldn’t find) from the display shelf and checked out with the gift card I just received. I would never shop at circuitcity again.
on October 18, 2007 at 01:21 AM - LINKTried out CC’s 24/24 guarantee. Ordered a digital camera online and received a confirmation e-mail within 10 minutes. I then headed to the store and arrived there 20 minutes later, stood in line for about 5 minutes, showed my order confirmation, ID, credit card, and received a receipt for my item exactly at 29 min. after time stamp on confirmation e-mail. However, I noticed that my camera was not sitting behind the counter with the ohter pick-up orders and the lady helping me had to go to the camera department and get one out of the security cages. In any case, by the time she returned and handed me the camera, it had been over 32 minutes since I received the order confirmation. The lady said thank you and called the next person in line, but I immediately asked her if she could please give me the $24 gift card being that my order had not been ready within the 24 minute period. Next, the lady went to the counter, took out a gift card, ran it through the check-out computer, and handed me the gift card. The lady apologized that the order had not been ready within the guaranteed time period and wished me a nice day. The moral of the story? One has to be proactive and hold CC to the time guarantee as they will not willingly give up the gift card unless one requests it. In any case, thank you CC!
on October 24, 2007 at 01:16 AM - LINKi went to buy guitar hero 3. their website said they had it but infarct they did not. i got to the store almost 24 hours after i ordered it, and got the $24 girt certificate. sweet!!!!! :) even though i did not get the game i am still a satisfied with cc because of this.
on November 14, 2007 at 04:49 AM - LINKCircuit City 24 min. guarantee sucks! I placed in my order and did not get into the store until 45 minutes later. I was hoping that my order will be ready for me to be picked up. My online order was not ready when I got to the store in Rockville, Maryland and there seemed to be confusion among the circuit city staff. They finally located my order and when I asked the Operations Manager standing nearby about their $24. gift card guarantee that Circuit City will give you if they do not deliver your order withing the 24 minutes alloted time when you get your email confirmation, he insisted that the guarantee is for the 24 minutes when the customer reaches the store for the items to be picked up. Som I thought to myself, I just sneaked a few minutes from my office and expecting to get my online order. The so called “manager” tried to lie about their guarantee or either, that he really did not fully understand their company’s 24 minutes guarantee. What a waste of time! Circuit City needs to train their employees, as well as their managers NOT to lie to consumers.
I’ll go to Best Buy exclusively from now on.
on November 14, 2007 at 07:51 PM - LINKVery bad experince with online pick-up. Since my son was going into town which is 16 miles away I wanted him to pick it up which required us to put it in his name and use his card fro the purchase. Printed a copy of the email confirmation and away he went. He comes back with no mouse. The clerk told him sorry, the card don’t match so you can’t get the merchandise, have a good night. So, how does the clerk think we where going to get our merchandise that we paid for. It is the same card and has the same last 4 digits along with his name on the card and his ID. Me and the Manager will be having a nice chat in the morning cause someone is paying for the 2 trips to town.
on March 30, 2008 at 01:02 AM - LINK