Bad Experience at Circuit City

[Richard W. Haines]

One day short a month ago I purchased the Optoma HD70 projector from Circuit City in Cordlandt,
New York. I paid cash and the sales person told me the store had a one month warranty. Well
I set up the projector in my screening room with the Toshiba HD XA2 and was very happy with
the results until a couple of days ago. There appears to be some dead pixels now on the Optoma
projector. I took the projector back with all the packaging and receipt to Circuit City who didn't
want to deal with me at all. The manager was on a perpetual 'conference call' and wouldn't speak
to me. Some very young people who called themselves the assistant manager and sales staff said
the original salesman was wrong and if you looked at the fine print, the one month store warranty
did not apply to DLPs which were on 14 days. They basically told me to get lost and to call the
manfacturer for repairs or a replacement. This was very shabby treatment so I would suggest to
others to be very carefull before ordering electronic equipment from this store. At least in this location, they don't want to hear from you once they get paid. A lot of the teenage sales people know absolutely nothing about the technology nor will they help you if there's a problem.

[tonyvdb]

This is the one big advantage that Canadians have over US individuals Canadian law requires all stores to include a minimum one year warranty on all new merchandise and thus protects us from that sort of problem.
I would contact the Circuit city head office about this.

[lcaillo]

Circuit City is not much different than any other large chain retailer with regard to having salespeople who are young, inexperienced and lack customer service skills. I suggest that you escalate the issue to management and be patient. I also suggest that no matter where you buy, you reas the fine print and don't take any salesperson's word as gospel. My experience with Circuit City, who is a competitor, BTW, is that they are no worse in this regard than Best Buy, Sears, or many others. If you want good service, deal with a dealer who has a reputation for service and trained staff. If you deal with box movers, be wary.

I have been selling and repairing DLP products for several years now, and have yet to see any dead pixels on a single unit. I would wonder about what you are seeing.

[Richard W. Haines]

I'm seeing a blob in the lower right hand corner of the 16:9 frame. Not a splotch on the lens. You notice it when the screen is black in that area or when there's a fade out. I double checked to make
sure it wasn't the disc or player by switching them around with the other machines. It's definately
on the Optoma HD70. Sure looks like some dead pixels to me. Like I said, the shabby treatment I received at the Circuit City store means I'll never shop there again.

[Sonnie]

That sounds like a dust blob.

[tonyvdb]

I fully agree, It is most likely a dust blob. I had the same problem and after blowing the area out with "air in a can" it went away.

[Bob_99]

It's interesting to listen to sales people, especially the young ones, telling the customer how great the extended waranty is on a product and then listening to customer service explaining the fine print when the customer tries to take advantage of it. I've also had my experience with Circuit City and now only shop there for bargain DVDs which is unfortunate because they carried some models that Best Buy didn't.

Bob

[LRC91]

You may have frozen or dead pixels on your DLP. It is rare but it does happen.

As others have said Big Box Stores are notorious for not telling the customer the truth about there products.
Its not that they are trying to deceive you. In most cases they just don't know any better.
I have had customers tell me they were told that plasma TVs would leak if you tilted them and
that you had to replace the gas in a plasma set every 2 to 3 years.
None of this is true. The sales person they spoke with just didn't have a clue what he was talking about
or even how it worked.

Your best bet is to deal with well established independent companies that do both sales and there own service and installation.