More on Liquidation Sales Sucking

February 26, 2009

Remember I posted my thoughts on liquidation sales recently? Many of you knew about the pitfalls about liquidators and for some of you it was startling news.

I just ran across this story from Boston about a couple who spent $1,100 on a big screen TV at their local Circuit City liquidation and got it home only to find it was shattered. Of course, with the “all sales final” policy the liquidator basically said tough patooties to them. Apparently, there have been some reports as well that signs in some of the stores stated that boxes were NOT to be opened in the stores so you could even check the items before you left the store. You can read the full story on Boston’s WCVB site.

Remember, you really need to be careful at any of these “liquidation sales” you come across on big ticket items. If you can’t afford to be out that money don’t spend it at those stores in case there is a problem.

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Tagged as: rant

She Became A Butterfly

i just tweeted back to you!

she
pookielocks at ymail dot com
Janine

I’m also thinking that you don’t have the option of extended warranty and we always get that and have almost always needed to use it!
DG

I agree with Janine. warranty is pretty important for big purchases and not having that option stinks :(

dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com
brandy

i heard about that, now some people are trying to take them to court or something. i would if i bought a broken tv.
bwalleshauser AT yahoo DOT com
foamfan

Buying the shattered TV–that would be about my luck!!
doctorsound

When I worked at CompUSA during their liquidation (also liquidated by Leeman Bros.) we had the same no returns policy. We did however let you at least open the box. We also did sell some broken TV’s, but the purchaser knew that by either looking at it or seeing the tag. I have seen more people cry foul at the liquidation than I can stand. A large majority of complaints stem from the fact that people do not realize that it is a liquidation, and need to take according actions to protect themselves. /rant
Lori

That is sickening! My dad was at Circuit City on Tuesday and bought a printer, got it home and it didn’t work. He sighed and said to me yesterday, “oh well, it’s just twenty bucks” (something I definitely would not let go), but 1100 dollars! That’s a huge chunk of change!

lkziegler[at]gmail[dot]com
Stacey Moore

that is awful!
Katharina

Oh, I *SO* know about this, and just recently too. My husband has wanted a big fancy toolbox for many years now.

So they finally had one one what looked like a great sale. I was so glad that he could finally get one.

So we get the huge box home… box looked fine but the stuff inside was all dented and looked horrible. He pounded and bent and made the parts fit, but I felt so sorry for him!
watari

Thanks for this,
I really have to agree with the comments above, warranty is very important when you purchase something big.

shindepo@gmail.com
bevh566

A near by Kroger is closing. I went in last week everything was $30 off. But they had raised the prices so high that it was still more expensive than everywhere else. I could not belive the amount of stuff people were buying…The lady ahead of me spent $220!
I went back Wed, 70% off now, but not much left. I spent $13.
neko03

that’s horrible!
KawaiiNeko2008 (at) aol (dot) com
Wei

Honestly, now days, anything that’s being liquidated is not worth it because they will always raise up the price to MSRP price and then take a 10% off or so.
stephie

If it had been purchased with a credit card they may be able to dispute the charge.
Carolyn

Most companies that are going out of business have sold the merchandise to a liquidation company. They are going to try to make as much as they can from the sale of goods. It is best to wait until the last 6 days. Then they get a bit desperate. I’ve worked retail for years and that is the God’s Honest Truth!
yadgirl

They don’t take gift cards either.
bqjohns

My local CircuitCity, during their liquidation process, took my gift cards to the tune of $85 worth. Nary a question asked.
And for those suggesting waiting til the last days: I watched an expensive Sony "G" series zoom lens, ready to snatch it at 30% or 40% off. All four of these $1000+ lenses sold at 20% off. "Red-Facedly", I'd even tried befriending an older, probably temp sales person working the camera bar. Not only did I ask if he could keep one of the lenses out of sight, you know- tucked away under the counter or in the back, but went so far as to mention I'd a $50 finders fee if he could only find me one at $XXX. He, Quite Honestly, told me he couldn't do that, but did warn me that they'd go fast. I should have heeded and saved $300 instead of waiting for a big Kill.
Do Not Wait for Any Quality or High tag items: Don't gamble, but take what you can get before your neighbor does.
bqjohns

You people talking about warranties? Are you speaking of "Extended Warrantys"?

IMO, they are most Always the worst investment one can make. Whether on your car or a Flat Screen, you can expect your new possession to break down within its original, factory warranty- If it's to break down. Most everything I've read of EXTEND-Warrants says NO, Bad Deal, Waste of Money.
Anyway, I think all new, unopened, unreturned type merchandise will still have a warranty honored by the factory. All you'd need is a receipt coming from an approved retailer.
I learned the hard way myself, buying a 3 year extended warrant for my new Sony Vaio PC- from CircuitCity as a fact. I began on the day of purchase, with various limits to what it'd cover over and above the factory, and went on for 2 more years. The 250GB hard-drive went out just prior to the factory 1 year warranty. Sony would have paid for a new one, but I replaced it myself with a new Seagate 500GB internal drive. Nothing broke after that, the 2 years have just this month expired, and I wasted the $280+ for the warranty.

And think of what's involved with this warranty. If something does break, you usually have to send it away for 3-5 weeks (and I've heard horror stories of worse), be out a PC (in my case), they Keep the old/broken part (including hard-drive that I wanted to keep until better restoration methods were invented) and you must accept the orginal value/power of the replacement (no upgrades).
And it remains a fact: if something electrical is going to fail, it most always does pre-warranty expiration- you see, the makers Want their product to survive- and please. Better for resales.