While Circuit City in general is a decent store, I had a bad experience shopping at this particular location. I went in to purchase a laptop and my top 3 choice models were not in stock, but a very similar model was available as an open box item with a few bucks knocked off. After the promise of a full 1-year warranty, despite the fact it is open box, I decided to go ahead and buy the laptop. The sales guy informed me that since my wireless router at home is a G and this particular notebook's internal wireless card is a B, that I would have to buy an external G card. I trusted his knowledge since I do not know much about computers. As it would turn out, the B and G frequencies are backwards compatible and I did not need the external G card. I called to complain to the manager – per the terms of the purchase, a return of that particular open box item would not be accepted. The manager I spoke to was very nice and allowed me to return it for a full refund. A few months went by and suddenly, my computer would not boot up. I had registered it with Compaq the day I purchased it, so I figured that my warranty would be good since a year had not yet gone by. I called Compaq and they informed me that the warranty for my serial number was old and no longer under warranty. I explained to him about what the store employee told me and he told me that it happens all the time and all I have to do is fax the proof of purchase and the warranty would cover the problem. Well…..I faxed the receipt and did not hear from them for 2 weeks. I finally contacted Compaq and they told me that they did not receive a receipt that had my computer's serial number on it. I faxed it again. Still, no word. Another call, another "we did not receive a receipt with your computer's serial number." Come to find out, it's because the serial number on the receipt did not match the serial number on the computer! Seething mad, I called CC to tell them about my problem that is the result of their data entry error and they did not care – it was not their problem, according to the manager I spoke with. I had to pay for it to be fixed out of pocket, only for the motherboard to crack 3 months later – all of this would have been under warranty if the serial number would have matched the one on the receipt. I do not recommend that you shop at this Circuit City.
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