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Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Dampier Circuit City, concerned about the perpetual supply problems with the I-Opener, has discontinued the product and have removed the SKU from their website and their in-house systems (the back order information is retained however so they don't lose the info about who has prepaid for what.) CC has started calling customers who have had their I-Openers on backorder and offering them a full refund on the amount pre-paid for the backorder. Although some stores are keeping their back orders on file and trying to fulfill the product requests already made, one Rochester customer was asked to bring his credit card with him to refund the pre-paid amount as his backorder was cancelled as it reached 30 days old. Evidently, the company has now requested that store personnel offer refunds automatically as the pre-pays reach 30 days. He is going to cry a river to try and get some compensation for the hassle - a CC gift certificate in a nominal amount might be the outcome. Several states require retail outlets to automatically offer the refund option after 30 days when money changes hands and no product is provided. Usually, the customer has the option to continue to wait, but CC itself may be unwilling to do so and just drop the order. As has been reported earlier, the I-Opener prepay option was discontinued several weeks ago at Circuit City. With the "discontinued" status, the product disappears from the web site and the display units not already removed should be fairly soon. I have one on hold at Circuit City that will reach the 30 day point later in April. If/when I receive a call, I'll report back the details. 04-12-2000 05:09:40

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Dampier One quick aside - this does NOT mean they will never offer the product again down the road. It simply means that they don't want the hassle of dealing with angry customers and giving out end cap display space for a product they can't get their hands on. I suspect that once the supply problems are worked out, they can introduce the "new model" I-Opener, unless the company simply tired of Netpliance. If you have a unit on hold, assume they will fill the backorder unless/until they contact you. Some stores are still getting in backordered units in small quantities. Unfortunately, Comp-USA has been more aggressive as their stores are just receiving their second large shipment of units this week. The I-Opener product is now gone from CC's website under the Internet Appliance category. 04-12-2000 05:24:01

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) iman http://circuitcity.com/ Yup, it's not on their site. Was it ever? 04-12-2000 06:35:07

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) jmh3 it was on thier site at one time(03/19), but it disappeared around the 22 of march. 04-12-2000 06:52:08

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Datoyminaytah No, a search for "i-opener" would find it up until at least last weekend, although it did say they were unavailable. 04-12-2000 07:34:12

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) dknight found it on website last night :) 04-12-2000 08:38:17

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Jared This absolutely sucks!! It was bad enough when all the CompUSA folks put their orders in a few days ago and are now playing with their units, now I won't get my I-Opener that has been on order with CC since 3/18?? damn, I'm pissed. 04-12-2000 08:52:18

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) 6 TO 8 WEEKS! I just got of the phone with CC and was told 6-8 weeks....I'm #5 on the list... 04-12-2000 10:17:42

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) mrbuick It is true ..gone ..make sure you RELOAD/REFRESH your browser when checking CC site ..it is gone ...see the BREAKING NEWS ..NetPliance teams up with e-BAY! CC will be calling folks who have waited for 30 or more days and REFUND your money ..they have dropped the product. Spoke with Marketing Manger today! 04-12-2000 11:15:39

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) jamie Profile And I just got my call yesterday at 10am. "Netpliance is _finally_ [emphasis from CC employee] done redesigning them. You can pick it up any time." Being quite busy, I didn't bother asking what was "redesigned". And I promptly forgot about the call and didn't think of it again until around 11pm. I'll go pick it up tonight if I remember. Bottom line: YMMV. It's now been a month since this whole thing got started and we're all still seeing the same BS. "My local CC is run by a bunch of idiots who cancelled my order. Therefore, everybody's order will be cancelled." "I am under the impression that some sort of law (don't ask me to name it) requires that CC cancel any order that is 30 days old." "Mine will be another 6-8 weeks." "No, it won't. Your order will be cancelled." It's all BS. The only thing that can be gained from all these posts is the knowledge that there is no definitive answer. And, FWIW, I ordered on 3-13. Don't bother asking where because it won't matter. If you ordered from the same store and yours is in, they will have already called you. If they didn't call you, it's not there. If you ordered from another store, my experience is irrelevant. When I pick it up, I'll add my info to the list of goo/pins/epoxy reports. Not that it will help anyone else. It'll just show the complete lack of consistancy shown by both Netpliance and CC. The status of my unit will be as irrelevant as my CC experience because we all know that CC has been delivering every possible combination of IOs during the past week but I'll post anyway. Jamie 04-12-2000 12:35:29

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) plappo Profile Just got a refund for my i-opener from CC. Two came in for me at CompUSA yesterday. Told Circuit City what I thought of them. They didn't seem to care. Funny thing is, at least in the Chicago area, the I-opener is in this weeks sales flyer here. I don't get it. www.circuit city.com still has the i-opener listed if you click on computer peripherals/internet appliances. They aren't very bright. 04-12-2000 12:51:29

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Someone If this is true I will be ***VERY*** pissed. I've been waiting over a month for mine. 04-13-2000 00:52:28

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) VMSPC I hait to tell you this. But my order with CC is going on 24 days. On Weds I walked into a Compusa in NY City midtown and left with an IO, brand new!!!!! date 4/12/00 4:45pm. I'm going to get my money from CC. 04-13-2000 12:47:46

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) mrbuick CNET News for the day .. Netpliance adds CompUSA as distributor for Net terminal By Bloomberg News April 13, 2000, 11:50 a.m. PT AUSTIN, Texas--Netpliance, the maker of stripped-down computers for accessing the Internet, said CompUSA will become a distributor of its I-opener device. The I-opener previously was sold only at Circuit City stores or through Netpliance's Web page or toll-free number. The computer maker, which also makes software, is hoping to sell more $99 I-openers by distributing the device through CompUSA's 218 retail outlets and online store. Austin, Texas-based Netpliance makes its profit on the $21.95 monthly charge for the Internet service, which buyers order along with the device. "That brings us into more retail stores across the country," said Munira Fareed, Netpliance's marketing director. "It's a big number of retail outlets for a new product in a new market for Internet appliances." The company, which cut the price of the device from $199 to $99 until June 18, also provides an Internet gateway linked to information and e-commerce sites. Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. This was JUST anounced ...looks like COMPUSA will be the NEW retailer because NPL runied their relationship with CC. Story at ...http://yahoo.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-1692242.html?tag=st.ne.ron.lthd.1006-200-1692242 04-13-2000 15:05:33

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Scott CC is not "dumping" orders. Just today, 4 arrived at my local CC. 04-13-2000 15:57:04

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) bad_packet Clue train coming in......cho...cho.... OK, anyone else see the link as to why CUSA has been filling orders like crazy, and not CC? Doh!!! Obviously CC has parted ways with NP, and as such ain't getting squat. So, while you may get yours from an errant CC, most likely you'll get the refund. And there isn't anything you can do about it. It's no longer a stocked item, hence your refund. Me, still waiting for mine from NP, ordered 3/19. Will be scouting out CUSA Saturday/Sunday AM. 04-13-2000 21:09:52

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Anonymouse I was the one who said "if this is true I'll be really pissed" yesterday. Today my two iopeners came in. Well, that is, I called them and they said "uh, yeah,they're in..." I was there 5 minutes later and they're now sitting in my living room. Incidentally-- the demo IO was STILL there on display with a $99 tag STILL on it. Stats: Ordered : 3/12/00 Prepaid : 100% Recieved : 4/14/00 Gooed : yes pins clipped : dunno (haven't looked) bios : 3/23/00 I think. So there. 04-14-2000 20:57:01

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Redwood really hard to find.... /http://www.circuitcity.com/frame1.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1208158156.0955842279@@@@&BV_EngineID=dhalhhjdjjdkbemgcfkmcgch.0&upper=head.jsp&lower=frame2.jsp&left=leftchilddept.jsp&right=departments.jsp&department=Computers+and+Peripherals 04-15-2000 17:17:10

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Info. I gave up dealing with the dudes at CC, Went and got my refund today Got my i-O from C-USA wednesday Up and running WIN98 04-15-2000 20:46:08

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) mrbuick CC is still advertsing in this Sundays paper dated 04/16//2000 Yes it is still showing on the CC web site! Yes I cleared my cache to make sure! 04-16-2000 18:15:56

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) JRThro Yep, the CC flyer in the 4/16/00 Houston Chronicle still had a half-page devoted to the I-Opener. 04-17-2000 06:23:35

RE:Circuit City Drops I-Opener, Refund Option Begins (modified 0 times) Dampier The I-Opener is not showing up at the website under Internet Appliances and a search for Netpliance or I-Opener shows no results. You may be viewing the "current weekly ad" but the product SKU number has been dropped. The CC ads are printed several weeks in advance. CC stores still do not have any units in stock and most stores have removed the demo unit from display, replacing it with the aforementioned "product unavailable" sign. No backorders, one per customer still remain as CC's policy, so in effect, the product is not available from CC. Backorders prior to the dropping the SKU are still being filled, albeit very very slowly, with some being offered refunds as their backorders reach 30 days. 04-17-2000 06:48:10

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