A word of caution to anyone considering making a major electronics purchase from Circuit City: DON’T! And if you do, don’t be as naive as I was and buy the 4-year CityAdvantage Protection Plan to go along with it. At least, not unless you enjoy flushing hundreds of dollars down the toilet for the fun of it.

I bought an HP Pavilion desktop package from CC in December, 2004, and the friendly salesperson (who was obviously concerned with my welfare above all) advised me to purchase the extended warranty. I’m one of those who believe that if you refuse an offer like that, your product will automatically fall apart the day after the manufacturer’s warranty ends, so I bought.

Well, in summer of 2006, a nearby lightening strike fried my computer’s hard drive and motherboard, and when I discovered that such damage was covered by my Plan, we contacted the service company.

I should have realized there was a problem when it took numerous phone calls and emails to convince them to even send a technician. Then, despite the fact that Ben had told them that both motherboard and hard drive were destroyed, the man they sent was equipped only to replace the motherboard.

Obviously, he couldn’t install any software without a working hard drive, but he assured us that one phone call to the company would bring another technician, who could install the hard drive, after which he would return to install the software.

BTW, they opted to repair rather than replace, but they’d be spending way more on the replacement parts plus the hourly wages of certified technicians than I originally paid for the two-year-old computer! Probably why they keep hoping we’ll just give up and go away.

Anyway, that was last September, and since then we’ve had no response to any of our calls or emails except for a survey we received about customer satisfaction. Enjoyed filling it out, but still no resolution.

We’ve also attempted to deal with Circuit City directly, but they insist they have no in-store method of handling our situation and keep referring us to their useless service representatives.

If you know anything at all about retail, you know that this is a lie. Circuit City has contracted with an outside company to provide service and support after the sale, but ultimately, Circuit City got my money and the responsibility is theirs.

Whether it’s a mail-in rebate you don’t receive after filing it correctly or an issue like mine where a service agreement isn’t being kept, the store where you made the purchase does have a backup plan to see that your needs are met. After all, it’s their name you’re going to remember and repeat to your friends and family.

So today, I got sick of it and decided to pen one of my infamous letters-which-cannot-be-ignored. Then I got online to get addresses for my local store, district and regional offices, and corporate headquarters. Very little success there, but I was absolutely floored by the number of horror stories out there from people like me who’ve been ignored, mistreated, and deceived by this company!

How can a corporation founded in 1949 have such abysmal customer service and still be the third-ranked electronics store in the country? It’s absolutely ridiculous. And I will NOT be one of those customers who finally just gives up on getting satisfaction from them! I will file complaints from here to kingdom come until I wear them down and get my money back.

So, please, fellow consumers, don’t flatter these people with your patronage. I’m not such a fool that I expect them not to focus on sales. But you don’t have sales without customers, and if you can’t provide a satisfactory service experience before and after a sale, then you don’t deserve customers.

I think that as consumers, you forget that you don’t have to just take what’s handed to you. You have spending power, and you have a voice.

If you have a totally positive, absolutely heavenly customer service experience, tell the manager. Write a letter to corporate headquarters. Let the person responsible for it get credit for a job well done. You might even get a gift card out of the deal!

And if you have a horrible experience, alert the company! Give them a chance to make it right — maybe the person you dealt with didn’t represent the corporation correctly. You might even get a gift card out of the deal! Again!

And if they won’t take care of it, then alert everybody else! Tell everyone you know to avoid the store! Tell the Better Business Bureau! Tell Good Housekeeping! Tell your neighbor’s dogwalker’s second cousin!

There are just too many alternatives out there for anyone to give their business to a company that’s totally uninterested in what happens after they swipe your card and send you home!