Circuit City comes through

I suppose there are a plethora of blogs out there which have been utilized by disgruntled customers to lambast products and retailers. May I actually offer a recommendation?

Not long after I purchased an HP notebook last year, I found the A/C port was faulty. Being a student in England, I was told HP UK would not touch it, that I'd have to get it fixed in the US. Well, to make a loooong and extraordinarily frustrating story short, I attempted to interact with HP for about 7 months to get the problem resolved. No result.

So, I turned back to Circuit City in Roseville, MN, where I bought the unit and their own extended warranty protection. After patiently listening to my entire story, the store director, called Mark, said to bring the unit in and he'd have one of his techs take a look. The next day, I did so, and a tech named Jason removed about 5,000 screws from it only to discover that the A/C connector was completely fried. The store director knew I am headed back the UK at the end of the month, and didn't have time to go through the 4-6 wk. repair process through HP (he also knew how frustrated I was with them). After some covert chatting with some of his colleagues, Mark returned to me, offering to apply the full purchase value of my HP notebook against a brand-new notebook of anything they had. A sales rep named Chris, who was very helpful, took over. After selecting a Toshiba that is quite obviously an upgrade, and getting the 4-year protection plan, I ended up owing Circuit City a grand total of just over $40.

I couldn't believe the generosity and kindness of the folks at Circuit City. This is customer service at its absolute finest. For anyone reading in the Mpls/St. Paul metro in the market for electronics, please stop in to Circuit City in Roseville. And if you happen to see the store director named Mark, a tech named Jason, or a sales rep named Chris (who was wearing a nametag with "Kurt" on it), mention that you read this blog, and thank them again for me.