The once shuttered Circuit City electronics store is back, but without its brick and mortar presence...this time it's online only.
Systemax Inc. has completed its acquisition of defunct retailer Circuit City's e-commerce business and relaunched what it calls a "new and improved" CircuitCity.com Web site.
In case you don't know who Systemax is, they also own Tigerdirect.com, another big online electronics dealer. This opens up a question. Why would Systemax keep the Circuitcity name? Why not just roll Circuitcity's online business into TigerDirects? Or vice versa? Why does a single company, Systemax, need two different online stores to sell their wares? It couldn't be the strength of Circuitcity's name....the store wasn't that great. Very curious.
But before everyone runs over to the "new" Circuitcity site and starts ordering up stuff, take a peek at their policies.
Some manufacturers have implemented returns restrictions that prevent CircuitCity.com from being able to accept returns or offer exchanges, replacements or credits on their products for any reason. Please check the item listing on our website to determine if special return policies are applicable to your products. Support as well as exchanges or replacements for products with manufacturer or supplier restrictions, including within the first 30 days of ownership, must be handled directly with the product manufacturer or supplier.Did you catch the important bit? This part: "Some manufacturers have implemented returns restrictions that prevent CircuitCity.com from being able to accept returns or offer exchanges, replacements or credits on their products for any reason." That means it doesn't matter if it's defective, or arrives DOA, or if the wrong thing is shipped...you're stuck with it, deal with the manufacturer. That doesn't sound like a good deal to me. So while I'm shopping for deals I have to refer to some mysterious list of extra special manufacturers that don't allow Circuitcity to take returns? No thanks. I can just as easily get my gadget fix at Newegg.com or Amazon.com.
One last thought about the "new and improved" Circuitcity for all of you that were wondering...no you can't return your pre-resurrection Circuitcity merchandise to this site.
