I embark on Part 3 of the 24 Minute Holiday Shopping Saga. I found about 8 DVD’s including some HD-DVD’s to help complete out my shopping list. It was now almost 24 minutes since the web order was placed with my stealthy laptop from my car in the parking lot...Cingular 3G, you gotta love it! I headed up to the pick up counter and requested my order. The girl there was very friendly and asked me to wait a moment.
The iPod Nano was brought out and then she had a puzzled look. She asked me to wait another moment. I already suspected the remote may not be there based on the scurrying doing about the store of the sales associate earlier. She brought out the order and said they were just about to call me and tell me the remote was not in stock. She offered to order it in for me or locate another unit at a different store. I opted to have the amount refunded back to the gift card.
So now what? As per their 24 minute guarantee qualifying purchases will be ready for customers to pick up at their designated store within 24 minutes of purchase confirmation, or the customer will receive a $24 Circuit City gift card. With out missing a beat she started processing a gift card and apologized for the out of stock item.
So there you have it; ordering was easy but the lack of in store pick up for Movies and Music is so Web 1.0 (yes, I’m lossing karma for that). It was nice to see what stores had regular items in stock and then being able to select what store to pick the item up at; very handy. Not having an item in stock after you drove out to get it would be annoying however. Was the $24 gift card worth the drive out...possibly? It is a nice perk that makes you feel that you’re getting something for the effort. If your trip to the store is your only propose out and you have to fight traffic I would call ahead to ensure your order is ready. Overall Circuit City’s online shopping and 24 minute in store pickup guarantee made for a very easy shopping experience and I did not have to fight any crowds. Also as a bonus and I get another $24 to buy myself a little something.
--Bill Landon
Unfortunately, I have to disagree pretty vehemently. I’m continuously frustrated with the Circuit City in-store pickup. So frustrated in fact that I won’t even shop there anymore, online or in the store. Six months ago, I was trying to buy a large amount of items for an in-home office and I wanted to order them all online and pick them up in the store. They’ve added a feature that automatically tells you now whether the item is even available for pickup, and out of the 27 items I was attempting to purchase, only ONE, that’s right ONE, was available for pickup in the store within 24 minutes. All the other items would have to be delivered to me or I could pick them up in three days, THREE, even though all of the items were IN THE STORE! I could have driven out there THAT day and got all the items I needed and took them home but as a small business owner I just don’t have four hours to search around for items or for someone to help me. I’m also a Best Buy for Business member. I called over to Best Buy and told them everything I needed and what had happened. They told me they would grab some people to help them and I could start driving right that minute if I wanted to and it would all be ready for me when I got there. And guess what? It was already on a palette with a guy waiting to put it in my car when I got there. That’s service. Have you ever had a 100% good experience with Circuit City?
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