Camping for 17 Hours

[FuNkY CaPrIcOrN]

How much Time did you do at your Circuit City?:)

[skairx90]

I camped for about 12 hours, pretty good experience ppl weren't as nice as the ps3 crown

[Mom2Twinners]

Camped outside for 6 hours, then waited in line inside for 9 more hours. I'm tired.

[FuNkY CaPrIcOrN]

I was in and out in about 45 Minutes.The Vouchers really Pay off because they have a Line just for you.

[Kalel]

14 hours! I got LCD 32' TV and Compaq Laptop...by the way, i was number one at Laredo's Circuit City

[Diesel0312]

I was in and out in about 45 Minutes.The Vouchers really Pay off because they have a Line just for you.

They had 3 registers marked for the TV, laptop, and desktop, but they were ringing up other customers in line there as well, so they were backed up.

 

I camped out for 10 hours and was in the store for about 2.5

[dlkbc]

I was number 1 at CC in Bellingham, Washington. (arrived 4:00 pm the aft before)

The store was so disorganized and it was the worst retail experience of my life!

 

They made you go pay for the laptop (Acer) and then go pick up other stuff. Then you get in another line which was backed up because they would have someone get to the cashier and then a runner would get their stuff that they couldn't find. Whereas, the rest of us had hunted for all our stuff before getting in line. So waits were really long.

 

Then, I went to go pick up my laptop and they didn't have a special pick up line only, so I had to go into yet another long line of just people buying anything and having these runners hold up the line getting other stuff. I also find out that they 'forgot' to give me the rebate form for my laptop but I should come back in 6 hours to get it. Yeah, right! Idiots!

 

They obviously didn't train their staff very well because they kept having to ask others for answers, which that in itself because everyone was so busy. A good store manager would have held a meeting before and answered these questions before opening, but it looked they just had a pep rally (I was right outside as number 1) and told them to sell, sell, sell! Push the items, who cares how long they have to wait!?

 

Then, by the time I get to the front of this second line, they tell me that there are no more 'free' polaroid cameras even though there is nothing in the flyer that hints that they are in limited supply.

 

Then, I tell them that I want all the 'free' stuff that is supposed to be included if you buy a laptop--and they tell me that I have to go and get all the stuff myself which made me explode (and remember I have had no sleep for 13 hours) so I tell them that I refuse to leave the desk until someone finds everything.

 

Then, they keep telling people wrong information, like about how many of an item they can get even though the rebates are usually one per household. So they decide to remedy this by allowing people to buy each one individually, hence even more hold ups in lines.

 

After I finally get everything, the bags are too small so I can barely get out the door when the damn security alarm goes off! So I have to line up to get checked!

 

Because they did so many individual charges at CC because of all the infernal lines, my visa company reported it as suspicious activity so they froze my card at the next store I went to.

 

So what do I think of CC? I think that the Bellingham, WA store really needs to learn about retail. I will never go there again!

[cstreasure]

11 hours! #2 in Puyallup WA line. Not happy with how items were placed. Staff had no idea of where things were and had all kinds of trouble with check out. Will go to BB next year EARLY!

[ZeeMek]

I showed up at 3am, and was out of CC at 5:23am. Would have been sooner, but the staff charged me regular price for all my items and didn't give me any BF deals at first. They had no idea what was going on.

[lissa]

I drove by my CC in Kennesaw, GA at 8pm and there was nobody there. We wanted to visit some friends, so we did that and came back at 10:45. We wound up being around 20th in line and got the tv, but could have gotten the laptop or the desktop. The only vouchers they handed out were for the 32" tv, and the cheapest of the laptops and desktops. A lot of people left the line when they ran out of laptops a few people further back from me. I heard employees talking about it later that the other laptop was still available because so many thought both were gone.

 

Our line experience outside the store was... interesting. There was someone that arrived around midnight and stood at the barriers in front of the store. She was told that she needed to get in line, but would not say anything. Every once in a while, a guy would come by and check on her. At one point, he came over to one of the people that tried to tell her to get in line and threatened him with "something from his car" for speaking to her. As soon as he walked away, several people called 911 on him. Three cop cars arrived and were dealing with the matter when the manager arrived around 3 or so. The manager talked to us about it and said not to worry. We got the impression that they weren't after or wouldn't get the items we were all in line for. I don't know the outcome of it, but I was pretty nervous/scared about the situation.

 

We also had a few people that tried to run into the store when it opened, but they were pushed back and employees took care of them. There were a few kids that ran in, but I don't think they noticed them.

 

I'm just glad it's over and I finally got to sleep last night!

[koelpien]

Camped out at CC after the line at BB was crazy long at 9:30 the night before. WORST experience ever.

 

No crowd control or barrier to keep the lurkers out for 5:00 am opening. After they handed out the claim tickets for the three items, I did NOT see a store employee outside.

 

If you were interested in secondary items (those to be had without a claim ticket) you could have showed up at 4:55 and gotten into the store before those who were there patiently in line most of the night. Was ready to check out 5:15; stood in line for 2.5 HOURS.

 

I would guess that the employees were told that if anybody complained, don't agree with the complainer or try to fix anything, just don't say anything, which makes the employee look like a retard (or me feel like a retard) when you complain about the lurkers or the hours-long wait and they pretend they didn't hear you. A simple acknowledgement of the many problems or apology for their mismanagement would've diffused people's anger and frustration.

 

I had people in line with me who went to BB first, got stuff at BB, drove to CC, (five miles) got what they wanted at CC and got in line with me.

 

NEVER AGAIN WILL I BLACK FRIDAY AT CIRCUIT CITY AGAIN.

 

The only way a person could have a positive experience is if they elbowed a lurker in the face and were in a checkout line at 5:03 am.

[skairx90]

Its funny how people say they will never go to a store on BF again because they don't want you to anyway. These stores don't profit from the door buster items. They are losing money all day. If you want to punish them you would probably want to save up all year and spend every dime you have at their BF sale especially on cds and dvds that's where they lose the most money...believe it or not most cds and dvds are sold with no profit to the store (except for a few cents) yr round...and for them to be marked down to 2.99 on bf.....horrible for profit

[Cannon1]

Hmmm, I already wrote a long thread, but yes CC, please cordon off an area outside the store next year, alot of 10 hour+ waiter's (including me) had to watch scavengers, bums, people with nothing to do 'cept not show up early, threaten our good time just prior to the store's 5am opening.

[oldrick]

I got to our CC in Independence MO at 6pm and was first in line. My main mission was the Sony 40 LCD and the laptop. After standing in the first line and going to the second line, I found out that I could have paid for it in the second line. Very, very unorganized but employees were helpful, getting the little stuff for people while they were in the long nonmoving lines. Got everything I needed but I didn't leave the store until 11am. The people who bought only one item and left the story early got all the free Polaroid cameras. People like me who spent several thousand dollars and had to wait in individual lines were penalized by not getting the free camera, and most of the free computer stuff has to mailed to me later. Will I ever see it? Not a very good system.

[Guest vjwilson27]

I got at my CC at 8pm and was 25th in line. We camped out overnight for basically nothing. We were going just for the laptop, and they only had 12 and by the 14th person they were gone. (Which is really screwed up considering when we first got there, there were only 4 other people in front of us there wanting the laptop. I think something fishy went down and someone wasn't playing fair) We were also going to get the $49.99 GBA... they said they had 250 of those, and they were gone within SIX minutes. The lines were extremely unorganized and it was just a horrible all around experience.

[jeffreytran08]

CC needs to improve. At BB, they had a wall of carts blocking line jumpers at the ENter entreance. At the exit entrance was two HUGE staff members guarding the Door. And were the line was not blocked off, a Police officer searched for cutters, tossed them out, and gave them directions to the nearest walmart.

 

OWNED.

[mystikal1]

we were 2nd family in line @ bb @noon and people told us @ 9pm there was no line @ CC