Circuit City Sucks

Oh how they suck.

Suck suck suck.

I'm not feeling eloquent. Suffice it to say after over 2 1/2 months, I still don't have a working television set and it ain't about to spontaneously fix itself anytime soon. I wish I could sell the pile of crap and get something new! better! different! Because Sony blows as well. They suck. And they blow. That's talent, right there. That's what that is.

So, yeah. Sony and Circuit City.

You know, crap happens all the time. It annoys me, I deal with it, I move on. Sometimes I lose my shit and say horribly rude and mean things to the people over the phone like "I want you to stop talking right now. I can't stand the sound of your voice any more and I want you to transfer me to someone different. I don't care if they're going to tell me the exact same thing you're telling me, I just don't want to talk to you any more because I don't like you. Don't speak to me. Just transfer."

Mean, right? Embarassing.

But I didn't DO any of that with Circuit City. I really didn't! So why am I writing about this? Here's the reason: More people need to KNOW how horrible Circuit City's Service Center System is. Wow that's a lot of "s" sounds. Say it out loud, it's kinda' fun. I know I'm weird.

Don't ever buy the extended warranty that Circuit City offers!!! It is more trouble trying to get someone out to fix anything than it is worth. Trust me, you don't need the aggravation.

But I like to keep things a little even, so I'm going to share about some companies that are freaking AWESOME, because they deserve the kudos.

• Etymotic Research makes the best frigging in-ear noise-cancelling headphones EVER. And their service is beyond belief! Two examples:
• I lost my carrying case. I called them up to order a new one. The woman on the other end asked if I had tried the new ear flanges on my earbuds. I hadn't. She then sent me free of charge TWO replacement cases AND a set of the new flanges.
• I ran over my earbuds on the elliptical at the gym and broke 'em. Called them up. They could fix them for less than half what it would cost for new ones. I sent them in and got them back within ONE week. PLUS, they determined that even though they knew I had run over them at the gym, they felt the earbuds should still have been working, so they DIDN'T CHARGE ME FOR THE NEW SET. Seriously. How fucking incredible is that company?
• Not as amazing, but also pretty frigging fantastic: The staff at the Apple Store in Soho. They have to deal with an incomprehensible amount of assholes panicking about their computers and iPods and they STILL manage to keep their cool. Many of them also have kick-ass senses of humor and just pretty much kick ass all around. I'm talking specifically about MATT and FANYA here.
• Zappos is so cool. They have a million billion shoes online. They have reviews which (accurately) tell you if that particular style fits wide or short or whatever. They match or BEAT any other retail price (including online). They ship to you FOR FREE. Shoes always arrive like the DAY after I order them. Then, if you don't like the shoe, or it doesn't fit or whatever, you print out a FedEx label from their site, and you then you send back the shoes FOR FREE and they refund you 100% of what you paid. PLUS, as long as you haven't worn them outside, they refund your entire price up to a year after you bought them. You can buy a pair of shoes right now, keep them in your closet, never wear them, take pictures of them, whatever, and then on March 10, 2007 return them for a full refund.

So there are cool companies out there too. Just not Circuit City. Because they suck.