DailyTech - CircuitCity.com is Back From the Dead

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Internet CircuitCity.com is Back From the Dead
Jason Mick (Blog) - May 25, 2009 9:40 AM

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33 comment(s) - last by GatzB.. on May 27 at 6:10 PM

The Circuit City website is a virtual look-alike, past the front-page, to the Tiger Direct website. Both websites are owned by Systemax. Starting June 9, Systemax will likely send advertisements to former Circuit City customers who do not opt out of the transfer of their information.

The owner of TigerDirect.com hopes to begin Circuit City's revival with an online push

Systemax is a company with a penchant for acquiring toxic assets which few others would consider taking. The company, whose cornerstone is the very successful TigerDirect.com, first acquired CompUSA soon after the retailer began liquidating its stores in 2007. After Circuit City collapsed last year, Systemax bought the company for $14M USD, pairing the former competitors together.

Now online observers are noting that since May 23, CircuitCity.com has been back online and offering products, courtesy of Systemax. The site's front page looks similar to the original front page, which will likely bring back memories for some. However, the rest of the site's pages are remarkably similar in look to Systemax's CompUSA.com and TigerDirect.com pages (see screenshot for one example).

The site makes a noted point of reminding users that it does not service products bought at Circuit City pre-acquisition or honor their warranties. Unlike CompUSA, which now has a presence of 16 retail stores, Systemax has no announced plans for physical stores. Instead, the site seems to be content to offer Circuit City's website as a reskinned TigerDirect.com, in hopes of luring former customers familiar with the brand name.

One important note to former Circuit City customers -- as part of the acquisition Systemax acquired rights to customer address and email information. The company is giving customers until June 9 to opt out of its advertising. Customers can go here to opt out. After that, it plans on sending out regular advertising emails, as it does with those on its mailing lists for its other sites.

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Bad Idea

By Aquila76 on 5/25/2009 11:01:24 AM , Rating: 1

quote:
hopes of luring former customers familiar with the brand name

I wouldn't get your hopes up.

The old CC was awful in terms of selection, price, and service after the brilliant idea to cut the high-commission sales staff. This new site does seem to carry on that tradition, however.

RE: Bad Idea

By HinderedHindsight on 5/25/09, Rating: 0

RE: Bad Idea

By Fanon on 5/25/2009 12:31:45 PM , Rating: 4

Circuit City was better at selection and price than Best Buy. What killed Circuit City was the horrible/non-existent service.

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RE: Bad Idea

By Morphine06 on 5/25/2009 1:36:33 PM , Rating: 2

Indeed it was.

I made one large purchase at CC. It went well so I decided to go back to buy my mother a television. I spent an hour ironing out what model I wanted and talking with the sales person about what the final price would be with the current sale. Then when it was checkout time he realized he was wrong and the sale wouldn't apply to the item he sold me on. He admitted it was his fault, but the manager still wouldn't honor the price. So, I left and vowed never to return, and this includes the website...

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RE: Bad Idea

By aj28 on 5/25/2009 6:53:08 PM , Rating: 4

No offense, but that's a poor reason to hold a grudge against a company. Do you know how many stores CCity had? And how many employees at each store? Multiply them and it's a pretty huge number. Even towards the end, it was estimated they employed 32,000 people, and just because one associate was confused and one manager denied honoring a price because of said confusion, you'll never shop with them again? I mean, none of those 32,000 people even work for Systemax/TigerDirect/CompUSA anyway, so what's the point?

Don't mean to be telling you how to feel, but I buy wherever the price is best. As long as you get your product (in a relatively timely manner), who cares about past experiences?

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RE: Bad Idea

By afkrotch on 5/26/2009 8:39:39 AM , Rating: 3

If you get horrible service when you buy, what kind of service do you think you'll get when you have an issue with said item?

I understand your point that none of the workers are at Systemax/TigerDirect/CompUSA anymore. So if I did have issues with CC before, wouldn't have them now.

I hold grudges too, on big purchases. If Bestbuy tried to screw me on a big TV, you can bet your ass any electronic purchase would never happen at any Bestbuy again. But I would still go and buy small items, that doesn't require me to associate with Bestbuy's employees, except the sales clerk when I make the purchase. Like picking up a dvd or candybar.

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RE: Bad Idea

By Spivonious on 5/26/2009 9:52:17 AM , Rating: 3

I disagree. If the sales guy said one price, even if it was off by $500, the store should honor that price. Take it out of the sales guy's paycheck.

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RE: Bad Idea

By Hiawa23 on 5/26/2009 11:57:57 AM , Rating: 2

Prices seem high on the site. Doesn't really matter, as I am fine with Best Buy..

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RE: Bad Idea

By callmeroy on 5/26/2009 2:23:09 PM , Rating: 2

Sorta...kinda...

If its in writing and signed -- then yes....(like in the case of financing a large purchase for example)..then I agree with your comment.

If it was just verbal told you like an on the spot thing in an example like : You walk into the store see a tv ask the sales guy the price and he goes "I believe that's $500" , when its really $1000.....in that example the guys a moron for saying what he did -- but I disagree he or the store manager should be held to the $500 price he told you at POS.

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RE: Bad Idea

By Morphine06 on 5/27/2009 12:11:57 PM , Rating: 2

Technically it wasn't a sale now that I think about it. It was a financing offer. Any TV over $500 was 1 year no interest, no payments if you use your CC card.

The TV I found I liked was 499.99. I asked if the financing applied to the after tax total. He checked with someone, I assume the store manager since he was the department manager. He came back and said yes, the TV I was considering was included in the offer because it was over $500 after tax.

I spent an hour debating which crappy TV was good enough for my mother. (that was harder than I thought, people who buy the low end stuff get ripped off) When I was set to go the sale wouldn't work in the checkout process. He brought the manager back who quickly dismissed the whole transaction. I explained that he checked with someone and asked if it was him. He wouldn't reply to that and the sales person gave me a look like, "yes it was."

I wasn't about to spend another hour picking out another TV. He let CC lose a customer over a penny. If he had come back the first time and said that the TV did not qualify for the financing I would have been fine. My grudge is quite justified in my mind.

If TigerDirect wanted to buy the reputation of CC, they get it...negative included. If they want to change my mind, they can try. I'm a CC card holder and they can send me a letter to convince me to visit the site. It better be quite convincing.

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RE: Bad Idea

By chick0n on 5/25/09, Rating: -1

Lipstick on a pig

By bigboxes on 5/25/2009 10:20:43 AM , Rating: 2

I hate TigerDirect so I don't see me flocking to the "new" Circuit City site.

RE: Lipstick on a pig

By Joz on 5/25/2009 1:10:51 PM , Rating: 5

I don't hate TigerDirect, I just like Newegg's search mechanics better :P

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RE: Lipstick on a pig

By aj28 on 5/25/2009 6:56:03 PM , Rating: 2

No kidding. If TigerDirect had a better site (platform, I guess you could now call it), I would be much more willing to purchase from them. After all my thousands spent with NewEgg, I've only actually had to return one item anyway, and that was defective open box.

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RE: Lipstick on a pig

By callmeroy on 5/26/2009 2:31:42 PM , Rating: 2

Ditto...I am someone who more than gave TigerDirect a chance to (I'm going back years) at a former company, I ordered about a dozen machines from them, then even after two came DOA I still gave them another shot with some monitors and some of them had issues...what's worse is at the time (I'd safely guess its been 10 years now) the customer service was rude and unhelpful. That bad taste has never left me , so to speak -- when I see TigerDirect.com or anything associated with them my mind thinks "low quality trash" as if its natural instinct.

Also I never cared much for CC -- they going out of business really made no difference to me whatsoever, though I feel bad for the employees out of work (as I do with any company -- let alone a large one, that goes belly up).

Best Buy doesn't have the most knowledge staff or the best prices -- but the prices aren't so horrid (and frankly I don't make a large electronics purchase more than say once every 6 years or so on average - my computers and all related hardware normally come from online sources like newegg anyway) to keep me way. I probably would hate Best Buy if I required their support staff -- because they do annoy me...but luckily my obsessive habit to thoroughly research the hell out of large purchases before I buy normally means I'm far more knowledgeable on the item than the people who work at the store are.

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Ahhh!

By bodar on 5/25/2009 10:18:16 AM , Rating: 4

Kill it with fire!

RE: Ahhh!

By Fenixgoon on 5/25/2009 2:17:01 PM , Rating: 3

Nuke it from orbit. Just to be sure.

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RE: Ahhh!

By Mojo the Monkey on 5/27/2009 5:56:26 PM , Rating: 2

"Ion Cannon ready."

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check out their return policy page

By invidious on 5/25/2009 1:06:23 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Circuit City may be a "proud brand that America has grown to count on," but this isn't Circuit City. It's Systemax.

Ya that is actually from their own site, check out the link.

http://consumerist.com/5267463/circuitcitycom-rebo...

RE: check out their return policy page

By invidious on 5/25/2009 1:07:20 PM , Rating: 2

Oops not their own site, misready the link title, but its bad none the less

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RE: check out their return policy page

By usg on 5/25/2009 4:31:57 PM , Rating: 2

Then who is running this site:

http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/it...

Please see that Item Number L23-6438 is the same on all three sites.

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RE: check out their return policy page

By GatzB on 5/27/2009 6:10:29 PM , Rating: 2

That is also a system max company, it says so at the vary bottom of their site.

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Thanks

By bplewis24 on 5/25/2009 11:47:06 AM , Rating: 3

Just wanted to say thanks for listing that advertising opt-out information. I wouldn't have known about this otherwise.

Brandon

RE: Thanks

By TomZ on 5/25/2009 12:34:50 PM , Rating: 1

According to US law, you can opt out of e-mail advertising at any time. Every e-mail they send will have opt-out instructions. So I don't really see the point of an opt-out deadline.

Also, I already received an e-mail yesterday from "CircuitCity.com," so it's not like their waiting to sent out promo e-mails either.

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RE: Thanks

By TomZ on 5/25/2009 1:00:25 PM , Rating: 1

oops... their -> they're

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RE: Thanks

By MrSmurf on 5/25/09, Rating: -1

RE: Thanks

By bplewis24 on 5/25/2009 11:42:28 PM , Rating: 2

But what I was most worried about was them selling my information to third parties after the 'opt-out' deadline had passed. Maybe that was never a possibility, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Brandon

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Great another shotty site...

By tdktank59 on 5/25/2009 1:26:50 PM , Rating: 2

I don't know about you guys... But I can never navigate TigerDirects website... So I may never shop with CC.com for the same reasons...

RE: Great another shotty site...

By conorvansmack on 5/25/2009 2:38:44 PM , Rating: 4

TigerDirect's website is a f*cking mess, I get a headache just looking at it.

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Gentlemen...

By NuclearDelta on 5/25/2009 3:49:26 PM , Rating: 2

...It looks like we have ourselves a zombie issue. Lock and load, we know what must be done!

RE: Gentlemen...

By acase on 5/26/2009 9:01:42 AM , Rating: 2

Yah, they definitely should have Left them 4 Dead

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Too bad

By fishman on 5/26/2009 11:50:29 AM , Rating: 3

I never had problems with Circuit City, but I never had unrealistic expectations - I never expect the employees to know more than what is printed on the product information sheet next to the item (if they did they could probably get better jobs than working there :) ).

I realize that you can't generalize about a chain based on experiences at a hadful of individual stores, but in the stores I had been in, CC was better to deal with. Returns were a nightmare of long, slow lines at several BBs, but somewhat quick at the CCs. You could check out at several spots at CC, but BB has a central location (which was dreadful on high volume days like Black Friday - I stopped going to BB on BF but would always hit CC because I could get out in minutes instead of hours).

I've never heard anyone say anything nice about tigerdirect. I hope that the new CC website doesn't turn out to be another clone of TD. While I'm a big fan of newegg, I'm always looking for new places to drain my money.

Mmmmm,...Spam!

By nixoofta on 5/25/2009 7:36:27 PM , Rating: 2

This coincides with all the spam I've been getting. Since May 22nd or 23rd I've won a Dell XPS, an IPhone, numerous $1,000 gift cards from WalMart, vacations,...large amounts of yummy, juicy spam.

I can't really blame Circuit City, or even Systemax. I signed up years ago for a Circuit City online giveaway. Even if I opt out of the Systemax flyers they've already sold my e-mail address,...apparently to quite a few spammers.

"Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." -- Steve Ballmer