Circuit City refusing to honor advertised free Call Of Duty 3 offer?

[Zeus]

One gamer is claiming his local Circuit City (Store # 3111) is refusing to honor its advertised offer of free Call Of Duty 3, when you buy COD 4. His local store told him that it was a misprint and refused to honor it. The advert you can see below is from the weekly circular for Naperville, Il which clearly states "Buy Call Of Duty 4 & get Call Of Duty 3 free". He says his local Circuit City store regularly "bait-and-switch". Anyone else had any problems redeeming the offer?

<center><A href="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/codoff.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/codoffsm.jpg"></center></a>


Today, like many anxious gamers, I went to Circuit City (Store # 3111) to pick up the highly anticipated "Call of Duty 4" for the XBox 360. I chose to pick it up at Circuit City as this week's circular ad listed a free copy of the previous game "Call of Duty 3" with purchase. When I went to check out, I was told that it was a misprint and that they refused to honor it. Myself, along with about half a dozen co-workers were rightfully angry that we wasted our lunch hour on this Circuit City bait-and-switch, that has become too common with this outlet lately. I would urge other Consumerists to skip out on Circuit City and try for another retailer (Target has a free $5 gift card).


News Source: <a href="http://consumerist.com/consumer/bait-and-switch/circuit-city-refusing-to-honor-advertised-offer-for-free-call-of-duty-3-319551.php" target=_blank">consumerist</a>

[madfatter]

if the ad doesnt note on that page "offer subject to change" or something like that, they cant do that, its false advertising, besides how could it be a misprint, look how big it is. and you mean to tell me they misprinted it twice. i dont think so, i wouldnt have left without at least something of the same value. they have that in there to entice the consumer to make thier purchase at thier store, they cant just not honor it

[MadMax31]

I have seen a lot of complains from this stores, yet people still buy from them :confused:

[shokey25]

i bought cod 4 for ps3 from circuit city and i got cod 3 for ps3 free so i had no problems

[XxBigP123xX]

sounds like a good deal...

[wigsplitta]

That's strange because the offer is on their web site. Here is the link ---> http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Call-of-Duty-4-Modern-Warfare-Xbox-360-047875830790/sem/rpsm/oid/190733/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do Just to be a d1ck order it for store pick up and laugh in their faces when you go get it. In any case they HAVE to honor this as it's a valid promotion.

[danight]

They are morons... i dont shop with them any more. I was gonna spend a grand to get a dvd car stereo put in and they tried to charge my 400 extra and wasnt gonna tell me why.

[wiggim]

lol, whos got pricematch in the states?

[cokemusic1]

That kind of thing is illegal in the UK, not sure how it is in the US.

[grd94533]

i bought cod 4 for ps3 from circuit city and i got cod 3 for ps3 free so i had no problems

How did you manage that since the offer is only good for the 360 version?

[canadajames]

it also isnt out for a month for PS3 do you work there or u just stupid and a fanboy.

[goboom]

ps3 version is out today...

[Agent__0range]

My circuit city told me it was an online offer only. I told them they were wrong and they said they didn't have any CoD3 anyway.

[bhetrick]

i bought cod 4 for ps3 from circuit city and i got cod 3 for ps3 free so i had no problems


Ya, and you're full of **** because the ad states the offer is for the 360 version.

[Riffy]

Dood I hate hate hate hate that fucking store off of 59 by the mall, the place is full of little shits that do the bait and switch all the time. Try the one out in oswego down 34.

[el username]

Seriously, who shops at CC? Especially since there is almost always a Best Buy across the street. And BB sux but at least they aren't CC. CC is only one step up from Walmart.

[Morgoth]

Union Square Manhattan

No COD3 left

No rain check

No friggin' poster either


so yeah....that sucked balls

[soutthpaw]

Circuit Chitty Sucks I stopped shopping there when corporate office laid off all employess making more than 50 cents an hour over the average wage and then offered to hire them back 6 weeks later for less pay and no seniority..... no wonder the people who work there are Jerks. it obviously a company reqirement that starts with CEO down!!!! it was published in all the papers and news media when they did that too.....

[soutthpaw]

Seriously, who shops at CC? Especially since there is almost always a Best Buy across the street. And BB sux but at least they aren't CC. CC is only one step up from Walmart.

as far as honoring prices and return policy I think Walmart is above CC in that respect

[rickianblaster]

I stopped shopping with them some time ago.

The management setup encourages store managers to make the call on when to honor these things.

I caught a store closing, and went to grab a game on closeout, but they told me it would be closeout on pricing six months old. The game retails for twenty, but they wanted to give me 20% off of fifty. I told them to shove it somewhere nice and dark.

[danthemanic]

That kind of thing is illegal in the UK, not sure how it is in the US.

Unfortunately there was a change in legislation in the UK this year, retailers are allowed to refuse a sale on "ticketing" errors".

But the above is plain as day...:mad:

[Templedog]

They are morons... i dont shop with them any more. I was gonna spend a grand to get a dvd car stereo put in and they tried to charge my 400 extra and wasnt gonna tell me why.

Granted, not all of them are morons, but I was able to walk into a Circuit City, close to closing time, and tell one of the associates "Look. I want this TV, and I want to pay this price (the way cheaper amazon.com price) ... 5 minutes later he was like okay man let me ring you up."

saved about 1000 dollars. Use those morons to your advantage!

[whackawookie]

Granted, not all of them are morons, but I was able to walk into a Circuit City, close to closing time, and tell one of the associates "Look. I want this TV, and I want to pay this price (the way cheaper amazon.com price) ... 5 minutes later he was like okay man let me ring you up."

saved about 1000 dollars. Use those morons to your advantage!

funny i had a similar experience. a tv i bought a year ago was on sale at boscovs in the paper which is a local store. The tv in circuit city was over 600 more. at first they were reluctant to honor there price match policy saying "the tv has to be in stock" i told them that the circular is for a local store but also had a delivery option if it wasnt in stock, they then told me they had to call the store to confirm and they couldnt do that for another hour until they opened. I ofcourse had the circular with me to prove the deal was in effect, after some back and forth discussion i finally got the price match with the approval of the manager.

[grapeape]

This was a tempting deal but I passed...havent stepped foot in a Circuit City since the whole Divix fiasco back in the 90's, I guess you can say I hold a grudge but fair-use and consumer rights are something I take seriously.

[dalezer]

As a marketing manager that souds like some "bait-n-switch" to me. Are the other stores honoring this offer? Cuz if its only 1 store, I doubt "bait-n-switch" is the issue, just one uncompliant franchisee or store manager. I forgot if Best Buy manages or franchises its retail chain. My money is on self managment. Complain to your consumer affairs department, it illegal to to advertise a false offer to bring in people, and then change the offer to something else.

[11111]

i bought cod 4 for ps3 from circuit city and i got cod 3 for ps3 free so i had no problems

why do people have to lie for dumb crap like this? it just f0cks the whole thread up and confuses everyone else.

[kronikdaddy]

I bought a 31" panasonic HDTV in 2001 from CC that weighed 200+ Lb and got it home only to find out it was the SD version of the TV, I took it back and was told that was the one i bought so i had to track down the employee who sold it to me and confront him about my purchase infront of the manager.
He then told me he couldn't return it due to it being opened, After much more complaining they took it back and said they would give me $300 off the HD model(the one i thought i bought for $1000) so i would only have to spend an extra $300 to get the TV i thought i already had. almost 2 hours of arguing later i walked out with a floor model of the TV i wanted.
I guess they took me serious when i pointed at the TV and yelled "THIS IS THE F***ING TV I BOUGHT"

I spent a more than $2500 that day and maxed out my credit only to get treated like i was in the wrong for trusting the sales guy for telling me that TV was the price it was, The whole deal was they labeled the TV wrong and it wasn't their fault they said...... Was it the TV's fault?

I will NEVER give CC another dime, Circuit City = BUYER BEWARE!!!!

[CoBrA2168]

Deal worked for my friend with the PS3 version.

Those who say it is "only XB360": where does it say that? The big print does not say "only XBox 360" anywhere...lol

[bhetrick]

Deal worked for my friend with the PS3 version.

Those who say it is "only XB360": where does it say that? The big print does not say "only XBox 360" anywhere...lol


Your friend didn't get **** free. And maybe before opening your blowhole you should try making sure you know what you're talking about.


http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/bill16504/cc.jpg

[RiPPn]

This has been a disaster, I went to 2 Circuit City's here in Phoenix, luckily I got in on the deal, but I can tell you the first location I went to had only a handful of COD3 and were sold out by the time I got there, definitely not enough to cover the COD4 stock, the second store I went to was waiting for 2p like the ad states but only had 6 copies of COD3, the line of 20+ people after me (I got the last copy) were pretty pissed. This was clearly a bait and switch tactic cause they did not have the COD3 stock to match the traffic the ad would generate. This has been the story all over the country, you can read hundreds of posts from people on deal sites like cheap ass gamer.

A side note, if you were on the east coast there was a glitch in Circuit City's system where they were only charging 30.00 for COD4 and giving COD3 free, so several people got lucky and got both games for 30.00, lucky bastards!

[aceboomer]

nobody here actually knows what bait-and-switch means. the ad says while supplies last clearly. if a store has inventory for both and refuses to honor the ad, thats false advertising, not bait-and-switch. bait-and-switch would be to offer cod4 with a free cod3, then tell the customer its not cod3 its cod2. if anybody has a store not honoring it, call 1-800-251-2665 and give them the store location number. we had issues with the promo package not working. it will be fixed wednesday.

[gopherbob]

Just take your business elsewhere. If you have a best buy near you they will match circuit city's printed ad deals as long as circuit city still has the items in stock.

BBY 4 LIFE

[RiPPn]

Just take your business elsewhere. If you have a best buy near you they will match circuit city's printed ad deals as long as circuit city still has the items in stock.

BBY 4 LIFE

Best Buy will honor other peoples ads unless it's a package or something free (like COD3) so getting Best Buy to price match is very your mileage may very, however several people in the deals forums have had success. However the "still has the items in stock" is really the problem because Circuit City doesn't have COD3 in stock which is what is causing the problem in the first place, this should give Best Buy another out.

[RiPPn]

nobody here actually knows what bait-and-switch means. the ad says while supplies last clearly. if a store has inventory for both and refuses to honor the ad, thats false advertising, not bait-and-switch. bait-and-switch would be to offer cod4 with a free cod3, then tell the customer its not cod3 its cod2. if anybody has a store not honoring it, call 1-800-251-2665 and give them the store location number. we had issues with the promo package not working. it will be fixed wednesday.


Per web definitions Bait and Switch "advertising a product at one price, usually a low or bargain price, while actually having in stock little or nothing of this product and offering to sell the customer a similar product at a higher price"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS240US240&defl=en&q=define:Bait+and+Switch&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

They had little to no stock on COD3 but were still offering and expecting people to pay the full price for COD4, which COD3 retails for 30.00, which means they were selling COD4 for 30.00, expecting you to pay 60.00 for the advertised 30.00 price would definitely fall under that definition of bait and switch, however you are correct it is also false advertising. Also the "while supplies last" is clearly printed under the free poster promotion, but nowhere does it say while supplies last on the COD3 offer, Circuit City should have offered rain checks or similar priced games as they clearly did not stock enough COD3 to meet demand.

[aceboomer]

actually, your wrong, the advertised price for COD4 is 59.99. so nobody was asking anybody to pay more than that. there was just a promo for a giveaway with purchase that stated while supplies last. even if a value for the giveaway was posted it is still not the price of cod4 its just the srp of the giveaway. nobody is asking anybody to pay more than what cod4 is advertised as. as far as rain checks go, we do offer them on sale items, just not promos. however on items that are not software related, we can do special orders for the sale price, but those items are usually never a while supplies last advertisement.

[icheateverygame]

sorry guys, better read up on retail law...


THere's nothing illegal about what they're doing. Offer clearly states "while supplies last" so if they don't have COD3 you don't get it, end of story.

And as far as them saying it was a "misprint" I'd say what you were dealing with is an underpaid, uninformed, idiotic employee. I used to work at Best Buy, and still occasionally shop at Circuit City... So I know these stores are full of them.

Just go to best buy right before opening and look inside, you'll see what I mean... Yes, those poor bastards in blue shirts are cheering... not because they're happy, but because they have to... same as wal*mart, Sams club, everywhere.

When you've worked in retail, you see a lot of this stuff... black friday is the worst... Plus, consumers are evil and will lie and cheat and steal to get their way.

So, in a nutshell, CC isn't doing anything wrong, the story is possibly a 50% fabrication, and everyone needs to be nicer to the people wo work service jobs...

Cuz lets face it... if you're nice to that pock-marked snot-nosed teenage dipshit at Circuit City, and treat him with respect, you'll soon realize that he's a lot more willing to give you a better price on "Open Box" items... Trust me.

[saosin]

Well I bought COD4 and got COD3 for free. :D

[nwjuggalo]

lol, whos got pricematch in the states?

Best Buy honors stuff like that

[nwjuggalo]

sorry guys, better read up on retail law...


THere's nothing illegal about what they're doing. Offer clearly states "while supplies last" so if they don't have COD3 you don't get it, end of story.

And as far as them saying it was a "misprint" I'd say what you were dealing with is an underpaid, uninformed, idiotic employee. I used to work at Best Buy, and still occasionally shop at Circuit City... So I know these stores are full of them.

Just go to best buy right before opening and look inside, you'll see what I mean... Yes, those poor bastards in blue shirts are cheering... not because they're happy, but because they have to... same as wal*mart, Sams club, everywhere.

When you've worked in retail, you see a lot of this stuff... black friday is the worst... Plus, consumers are evil and will lie and cheat and steal to get their way.

So, in a nutshell, CC isn't doing anything wrong, the story is possibly a 50% fabrication, and everyone needs to be nicer to the people wo work service jobs...

Cuz lets face it... if you're nice to that pock-marked snot-nosed teenage dipshit at Circuit City, and treat him with respect, you'll soon realize that he's a lot more willing to give you a better price on "Open Box" items... Trust me.

Nice 1! :)

[CoBrA2168]

Wow, I can't believe people say this doesn't work for PS3. I'll have a receipt by the end of the week as I'm getting it shortly (went today, they were out of COD3 for PS3, they said by Thursday they will have them - for free of course, with COD4 purchase).

[ranmax09]

Well, I got the PS3 version today and they said they didn't have any COD3's left. But when I went to go look at the PS3 games, I saw 1 Call of duty 3 left inside the window case. The girl said she was gonna go get it for me but then she came back saying it was the PS2 version when I clearly saw it say "Playstation 3".

Oh well, I can wait. She told me to go back on tuesday and they'll have it for me by then. She probably took it and hid it :p.