Circuit City comes through after trashing man's Honda Civic

It may have given him the runaround at first, but it looks like Circuit City is now finally doing the right thing after totally trashing the Honda Civic owned by an 8thcivic.com forum user that goes by the name VTECnical. As you may recall, that damage, which totaled over $12,000 in all, was incurred after VTECnical had Circuit City install a Pioneer AVIC Z2 GPS unit and some other components he purchased at the store, all of which went horribly wrong and left the car unsafe to drive. Now according to Autoblog, however, it appears that not only has Circuit City's insurance provider come through with over $10,000 to cover repair costs, but Circuit City has paid out the remaining amount itself, and thrown in a brand new $2,000 Pioneer AVIC Z2 to boot. No word if VTECnical's going to have Circuit City install it or not though.

[Sachin @ Apr 15th 2008 6:11PM]

hi

[Sachin @ Apr 15th 2008 6:20PM]

yay, i was first...damn, no fuzzy feeling inside. what's the big deal with being first?

[holycow @ Apr 15th 2008 6:36PM]

The Deal is get LOW RANKED.

[Sachin @ Apr 15th 2008 6:55PM]

HI IS A PERFECTLY VALID COMMENT.

IT'S ALSO A STATE OF EUPHORIA.

[tokyo_suicide @ Apr 15th 2008 7:04PM]

You must be out of lower-case letters. Here, have some of mine:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

[davelogan77 @ Apr 15th 2008 8:23PM]

welome to wister...

[Backlin @ Apr 15th 2008 8:55PM]

Were you the guy that installed his AVIC-Z2?

[Sachin @ Apr 15th 2008 10:14PM]

Thanks, tokyo_suicide, I've been looking for those. I'll give you 10 bucks for the lot of 'em.

[Fishreed @ Apr 17th 2008 3:33AM]

Circuit City is a victim of their own low rent wage stupidity. They hire these bimbo tattoed kids back in Road shop for minimum wage and they expect them to be electrical engineers. I wouldn't let ANY kid at Circuit City fix my toilet or feed my dog let alone screw with electronic stuff in my car.

[DESTOS @ Apr 15th 2008 6:14PM]

It?

I think it was the people at Circuit City that gave him the runaround...not the building itself.

[nikola @ Apr 15th 2008 7:33PM]

"It" as in the company, not the building the company resides in. sheesh.

Still, this right up guarantees I will NEVER have one of these stores install anything in my car, EVER.

[Alex Padilla @ Apr 15th 2008 6:14PM]

Was it a Civic SI? That is one badass car. And kudos to Circuit City, even though they focked it up in the first place.

[nikola @ Apr 15th 2008 7:32PM]

"kudos"...for what? If this story wasn't closely being followed across the internet Circuit City would have done absolutely nothing but let the kid drain out his pockets in legal fees before he gave up. There conduct was horrendous.

I would say kudos if they came out with a new policy that guaranteed protection if something like this happens in the future but they didn't do that, did they?

[Alex Padilla @ Apr 15th 2008 7:45PM]

Kudos because they ultimately did the right thing. Sure, they had pressure, but that doesn't matter, because they ultimately made up for their wrongdoings. How many times do companies NOT take care of a problem the proper way (that is, make it up to the consumer in some equitable way)?

[Juaquin @ Apr 15th 2008 8:13PM]

I hope the part about the Civic SI was sarcasm...it's a Civic. It's a fine car, but it's not "badass."

[austin @ Apr 15th 2008 8:24PM]

padilla = mexican

mexicans like civics. i dont get it either

[JT @ Apr 15th 2008 8:50PM]

Naw, they don't deserve kudos for merely doing what they should have done have done in the first place. Responding to a ton of bad press is not kudos-worthy.

[happy_penguin @ Apr 16th 2008 12:15AM]

I'll stop short of kudos, but at least they did what they could to make it right. They had to. The situation was a public relations nightmare and they couldn't afford more bad press for not taking care of the situation.

[happy_penguin @ Apr 16th 2008 12:16AM]

Oh, and I have to say that I think the Civic SI is a damn nice car from what I've seen.

[Jeff @ Apr 17th 2008 8:01PM]

That Honda with him in it could'nt be worth more than $500

[gabe @ Apr 15th 2008 6:16PM]

throw in a copy of Fast and the Furious and this kid will feel like a winner!

I see a large wing in Vtech's future ;)

[Dan Davis @ Apr 15th 2008 6:22PM]

They will be able to do that if Circuit City gets bought out by Blockbuster!

[AJ in the East Bay @ Apr 15th 2008 6:27PM]

@Dan Davis: Circuit City doesn't need Blockbuster to give the guy a copy of The Fast and the Furious. They sell DVDs, you know.

[Stephen @ Apr 15th 2008 6:18PM]

"No word if VTECnical's going to have Circuit City install it or not though."

I lol'd!

[MaX PL and the 360 r4pe Tr4iN @ Apr 15th 2008 6:19PM]

CC still sucks.

bought an HD DVD player from them over the summer and while BB is giving out 100 dollar gift cards, CC is offering crap.

[Josh @ Apr 15th 2008 7:16PM]

Actually they are letting you return them well past the return period time limit.. which is 30days

[Warren @ Apr 15th 2008 6:31PM]

I say good job to Circuit City for fixing the situation AND going above and beyond by giving him the Pioneer unit. But this still doesn't change my believe that Circuit City is evil - and I will never shop there again. Be warned Best Buy...you're on thin ice...

[Prokanda @ Apr 15th 2008 7:59PM]

you mean the pioneer unit that he paid for in the first place?

[Prokanda @ Apr 15th 2008 8:00PM]

let me clarify before some bonehead comes up and says "no no no.. it says they gave him a new one!!!!!!!!1111"

--

he bought one, they f'd up his nice new car, they decided to give him a brand new one.... which is exactly what he originally purchased anyway.

[PSU_Boss @ Apr 18th 2008 9:08PM]

I would assume that the estimate of the damage included the damage caused to the pioneer unit, since it was part of his property.

[The Dude @ Apr 15th 2008 6:32PM]

Wooh, VTEC just kicked in yo.

It's still balls though, isn't it? Does the car still have a clean title after that much damage was done or is it salvage?

[sinai @ Apr 15th 2008 7:07PM]

you bastard, i was going to use that meme

[ebb3 @ Apr 15th 2008 6:47PM]

best buy would have put the car on cement blocks and taken everything out that is sellable then blame you for what happened...

[rew @ Apr 15th 2008 7:37PM]

You guys congratulating CC should ask yourselves if they would have been doing this were this not a high profile case.

Look at how that guy and his situation was treated all the way up to the point where his case got so much attention.

[Jeff @ Apr 15th 2008 10:50PM]

Well, you should ask yourself if the guy really deserved it either. A lot of people who saw his actual repair bill (including me) were questioning whether he was really telling the truth... or maybe he was being taken advantage of himself by an unscrupulous dealer. I'd say there's a good chance of either one, or maybe a combination of both.

He had things on his repair bill like a whole new dashboard (there was nothing wrong with his dashboard) and all new door panels (there was nothing wrong with his door panels). He had a new *shifter* on his repair bill. I don't know what CC allegedly installed in his shifter.

My feeling is the guy did have some damage, but he was also extremely nitpicky (he said he wanted his shifter replaced because it had a scratch... come on! He couldn't even prove CC did that, and anyway, that's normal wear and tear). My bet is the dealer also saw dollar signs from this kid as soon as he said he wanted his used car to look new again.

So CC, seeing all this bad publicity, just throws some money at it to get it to go away. I do think they were culpable for *some* damage, but $12,000? No way. They're responsible for fixing the air duct and replacing the GPS unit and that's it. Anything else they gave him was above and beyond.

[happy_penguin @ Apr 16th 2008 12:24AM]

I'm kinda on board with Jeff. But this guy was entitled to have his car restored to the condition it was in before whatever damages were done. Dealer repairs are very expensive and wiring is particularly expensive. I'm willing to bet that the majority of the bill was warranted. Circuit City probably didn't argue because they needed this problem to be resolved quickly.

[timbrooks @ Apr 15th 2008 7:00PM]

Hmmmm.....I wish Al & Ed's was like Circuit City. They messed up my Tacoma and refused to pay for the damage....check it: http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee244/krameraxeman/

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 15th 2008 7:30PM]

I'm willing to bet you didn't take Al & Ed's to court.

[timbrooks @ Apr 16th 2008 1:53PM]

Sure didn't....too much of a pain in the ass to deal with it. I can't afford to take the time off of work. Lesson learned, I should have installed the stuff myself. I ended up having to re-do the install myself anyhow.

[Dasgooch @ Apr 15th 2008 7:06PM]

You'd think with a super creative name like VTECnical he'd be able to install a stereo in his own car... or he could be like every other ricer tard out there and the extent of his TECnical ability stops at bolting on rediculous wings and applying yellow stickers (they are the fastest color afterall).

[zomg0t @ Apr 15th 2008 7:18PM]

Actually, violet is the fastest color. When going near the speed of light, all color will shift toward the violet end of the visible light spectrum.

[Prokanda @ Apr 15th 2008 8:04PM]

all this hatred towards a guy that has a honda.... and is on a forum.... (wait for it...)

FROM PEOPLE ON A FORUM.

You're on a forum devoted to something you're into.... but would you appreciate it if you bought an HP Blackbird 002 and HP f'd it up for half of what it was worth... and then people blasted you because you're a member of Engadget?

ass.

[Juaquin @ Apr 15th 2008 8:17PM]

@Prokanda

I basically agree with your statement, but Civic!=Blackbird. The HP Blackbird is multi-thousand dollar machine. The blackbird is more like the Lambo - expensive and flashy, with good-but-not-great performance. The equivalent of a Civic would be something more like that ok gaming rig you built for under a grand.

[KangMin @ Apr 15th 2008 7:09PM]

He prolly took the new systems to Best Buy eh?

[Weeze-dog @ Apr 15th 2008 7:25PM]

I wouldn't let those @$$ clowns "install" anything in my car. If they struggle just trying to put the stereo into the plastic bag at checkout, who knows what they hell they will end up doing to your car....oh wait, I guess VTECnical knows....
As the old saying goes, if you want something done right.......

[koresho @ Apr 15th 2008 7:35PM]

I have to say, this is not always the case. Just because the salesperson ringing up your item can't get it right doesn't mean that the installer actually doing the work doesn't know what they are talking about.
Honestly, I work in retail tech support and some of the people I know there are more knowledgeable than the network support admins I know. Hell, we even had a guy who works for one of the government offices come in and work for us... he knew a lot about networking but when it came to actually fixing computer issues, he didn't know much.
Granted that is in computers, but the people that I work with in the car area are quite knowledgeable and very good at what they do.

[andres @ Apr 15th 2008 7:48PM]

why would you let ass-clowns anywhere near you?

[j.pickens @ Apr 15th 2008 10:35PM]

Possibly the Diggnation 5 minute tirade about how CC was at the 10X level of bad publicity over their refusal to refund on yesterday's show could have helped here. The Digg boys were spot on in their criticism.

[Ubuntu 7.10 WindowsXP @ Apr 15th 2008 8:09PM]

I refuse to praise a company for FIXING SOMETHING THEY BROKE. This is called....what is that phrase....DOING THEIR JOB.

I wonder if this incident was not published on the net like it was, would he have gotten that free $2000 replacement system? Or the money they owed him? Or anything other than the "legal finger"?

[lanejasper69 @ Apr 15th 2008 8:49PM]

@ Sachin

I believe "HIGH" is the correct descriptor to "A STATE OF EUPHORIA."


LMAO!!

Faslane