Fun at Circuit City (Spring, 2000) ---------------------------------- By ccsucks I was a manager at Circuit City. Unfortunately, Circuit City and I parted ways (their decision), so I decided to write the following article for my friends at 2600 ... enjoy! Price Tags If it ends in .99, it is "In Program." (In other words, if it's not in stock, the associate can "special order" it from the main warehouse.) If it ends in .98, it is a sale price or CTC" (Challenge the Competitor) competitor has it on sale. If it ends in .97, it is "Open Box." As a rule, avoid open box buys at Circuit City like the plague unless you get the chance to see the unit working for yourself. Sales counselors usually don't test units that come back as Open Box, even though they re supposed to. And never believe the story that "it just came off display." If it ends in .96, it is "Out of Program (OOP)." (In other words, if it's not in stock, the associate will not be able to order more of these.) This is a display that you may be able to purchase if there are none in stock at that store. Same caveat emptor for Open Box, above, though! If you see an Open Box with a .96 price on it, it was not reviewed by a sales manager and was "auto-priced" by the system. You will definitely be able to get money off this price. If it ends in .95, it is "Going out of Program (GOOP)." (In other words, the associate may be able to order from the main warehouse, but probably not.) This covers 99 percent of the price tags for store merchandise, but does not include pricing for any music software (CDs, tapes, DVD, etc.) or major appliance sales like "10% off," etc. Telephone Fun Pick up any phone on the floor. Dial 9 to get an outside line. Long distance lines are blocked, but you can social engineer the 4- to 6-digit code from a floor manager if you say you need to call your wife before you buy that big screen TV. "But it's long distance!" you'll exclaim. The sales manager, not wanting to lose a big screen TV sale, will gladly dial your wife's phone number and, after waiting for the tone, dial in the long distance code. Each store has its own long distance code, but I can't tell you the number of times I've been able to stand in one part of the store while no one is standing around watching. * 0 Front counter (They will see extension you're calling from.) * 0 PA system on floor and in warehouse * 150 PA system in warehouse only (wait for beep) * 5510 First North American National Bank (FNANB): Circuit City card * 5560 Circuit City Headquarters * 5570 FNANB Customer Service * 5580 Help Desk. Social engineer a sales manager's name The help desk is generally a little more understanding with sales managers because they have not gone through as much computer system training as the operations staff. The store number (4 digits) prints on the receipt or you can get it from the web site. If you tell the help desk that DPS is down, they will ask you if you're by the CC130. Say "yes." Tell them that there are no lights on the CC130 at all. If you're not the adventurous type, you can just hit 50, go over the PA system, and say "DPS is down." That'll get the Ops staff running toward the CC130 and calling the help desk themselves! A Little Computer System Glossary * DPS: Distributed Processing System (the "computer system") * CC130: Main board in the general office behind the counter * Wedge: The main board under the register into which everything (monitor, thermal printer, scanner, check reader, etc.) is plugged Want to call any Circuit City across the country? Dial 1-800-475-9515 and, after the tone, dial 333 and the four-digit store number.