Our Man in Arlington

The following saga involves an icon of American retail businesses, Circuit City, and a premier example of economic policies that have encouraged much of our electronic manufacturing to migrate overseas in the last several decades, Samsung Electronics of South Korea. The story begins on May 10 when we arrived at the Circuit City on Columbia Pike ready to change our lives TV-wise. We were looking forward to getting a large HDTV set to put into our custom-made entertainment center.

We settled on a 43” rear-projection HDTV-ready Samsung. Fortunately, we also bought an extended warranty policy, something I had never done before. The set was delivered two or three days later. We were ecstatic!

Everything was fine for two or three weeks. Then we noticed the reception on two stations was erratic. We called Circuit City, and within a few days a technician arrived. It turned out that I had set up these two stations incorrectly, and the problem was solved. A few weeks later the picture again refused to come on at all. We called, and we called, and we called. After being shuttled to three different locations, we finally got a service representative who told us that someone would come out to replace the bulb – in two to three weeks! We were not happy campers.

When the technician finally arrived, he found that it was not a bulb problem. Apparently the entire circuit (or something like that) needed to be replaced. But not to worry, it would only take him a couple of weeks!

Ten days later, the set came back, everything was fine – for about a month. The picture went out again in the last week of October, and we called immediately. The service representative said that no one could come until November 19, more than three weeks later! (A semi-serious comment that I should throw the set through Circuit City’s window before a battery of TV cameras was received with a slightly nervous laugh.)

November 19 rolled around. The technician said that the previous job had been poorly done, and he would tighten up whatever doohickey was loose. That did it - for about two hours. The picture went off again. Another phone call, this time to the technician’s cell phone. He said the entire power box would have to be replaced. He would get back to us. When he did not, we called Circuit City on November 23. The person said they would get back to us the within 24 hours. Again, no one did, and we called once again. This time the service representative said she had no record of our problems. An hour later we were told that new parts would be ordered and to call back ten days later to see what was happening. The technicians are now scheduled to come on December 8. You may have noticed in this saga that our perfect Circuit City television set has not been working for at least three of the seven months we have owned it.

I must add that everyone at Circuit City has been unfailingly polite and universally sympathetic. But my television set still doesn’t work, and Circuit City still hasn’t replaced it. I will let you draw your own conclusion. I sincerely hope that this will all be over on December 8. Don’t count on it. Richard Barton may be emailed at rbarton@towervillas.com