Review: The Source

[hugh]

The purpose of this thread is for Digital Home members to review and relay their experience with The Source by CC.

This is NOT a discussion thread so please limit yourself to one post which includes your review.

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• What product or service you purchased.
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[westmanguy]

It was annoying having to go through the switch from Radio Shack to The Source, but I still find it to be a good store.

Now this isn't the type of place for me, where I make big purchases.

I often find it to be a quick and easy solution, for:

Wires
Connectors
Small Electronics (clocks, radios, XM Radio, etc.)

The con that usually irratates me is how much they cram into those small spaces.

You have to turn sideways and slip through corners to get around the place.

But this issue only happens to mall spaces where they try to make the most of their square foot.

Overall I rate it as "somewhat positive".

BTW, Its great for smaller markets, where you don't have a FF or BB in town, like where I live.

[mrhooie]

Please don't discount the Source by CC as just what is on the website.

WE have one here in Yellowknife (actually 2 - one is a corporate store and one has been here for 30 years) and it's fantastic. they sell Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, LG, and others as a full dealership

Looking into it more, these 'dealer' stores can carry what they want, as well as ordering from the Source line up

a great assett to a small community

[Holmwood]

Some of the owner-operated stores have some very knowledgeable people, especially in smaller communities. As others have mentioned, for places too small to have a BB/FS, The Source can be an excellent alternative.

That said, I've never felt very comfortable with most of their house brands with the exception of quite basic components. A lot of their house brand products seem quite cheap and nasty (and were, in the Radio Shack days). It's said that this is somewhat changing -- for example, Energizer is now their generic alkaline battery OEM.

They fill an interesting niche, with products between the simple mass-market huge volume consumer sales and specialized electronic component stores.

For example, after trying an old-fashioned analog splitter to feed VCR, PVR, TV, (thank macrovision copy protection for not being able feed the signals through PVR/VCR) I realized the dB drop was too great. BB/FS didn't have what I needed, and the component stores weren't open. The Source? Sure enough, exactly what I wanted, a 4-way powered amp for $30. Perfect.

I agree with the previous two posters: "Somewhat positive" provided you're cautious, and great for smaller communities.

Holmwood.

[spensar]

I've bought a couple of items from their daily "circuit breaker" 24 hour deals. I avoid the house brands and check if the price really is a deal, but once in a while there really is a good deal. It is delivered free for in-store pickup and that has worked really well. Got Age of Empires III at $20 for the boy and Seinheisser (sic) headphones for $20 for me.

[ishoong]

I just got the Wii bundle for $386 and found out that first they jack up the Wii price up for $10 then bundle a $60 SD card which is selling for $20 on every other store and then an extra remote which is not working at all but they refuse to exchange! What a rip off! I can't believe a big name store can do business like that! And their sales rep are talk like crap! just keep told you, bundle... no refund, no exchange!

[MAXAM]

When I first heard that Circuit City was coming to Canada I thought that was fantastic as it would give the consumer more choice and be good competition to B.B., F.S. and Visions etc.
However, when they took over the Radio Shack operation, it turned out (for me) to be a big disappointment! I find most of their stores to be tiny over-crowded outlets squeezed into shopping malls. I had expected them to be large stand alone stores like most of the Best Buys and Future Shops I've been to with a large selection of HD sets to choose from not some hole-in-the-wall boutiques with limited stock!
Last November, I visited a local Source store and found it very hard to navigate around the boxes of large remote control cars they had on display. (It didn't help the situation that two ten year olds were racing two cars around the floor of the shop.) Most of the aisles were blocked with boxes of merchandise and the store was very crowded due to the limited space. I left without bothering to look for a short DVI cable that I had intended to buy.
Around the time of the takeover, A&B Sound (an excellent store btw) was in financial difficulty and to me it would of made more sense for Circuit City to buy them out instead of buying Radio Shack. IMHO
A&B is under new ownership and I have no idea how they're doing financially. (I got a good deal there on a Yamaha YSP 1000 a couple of months ago)

[Windchaser]

I never find their prices to be very stellar; however I do like the fact that they typically sell electronic things you need that you would never be able to find anywhere else. My only other beef is always being asked for my name and address even if I am only buying a $ 5 part.

[Anteater]

It's not that bad of an electronics store. My local dealer won't accept returns on anything, which can be annoying but the service is at least average and prices are average too. It's the only electronics store in my local area so I have to depend upon it (or online stores) anyway.

[alebowgm]

Some of the owner-operated stores have some very knowledgeable people, especially in smaller communities. As others have mentioned, for places too small to have a BB/FS, The Source can be an excellent alternative.

The Source by Circuit City in Haliburton, ON - which is a dealer store ran by Halco Electronics - is a perfect example of this. Very knowledgeable staff and perfect for a cottage country community. Everything that I need can be had or at least orded in and arrive by Thursday or Friday.

Of course with that said the dealer store charges more than the stores do in the city. Drives me nuts when I forgot to pick up a cable or batteries in Toronto and when I get up to Haliburton I need to pay another 2-10% depending on the item. Heck, there have been times when it has been cheaper with gas to drive to the closest metropolitan area and back just to avoid the dealer increases in the price when I have needed more than just the one-off item!

[ported]

I tried to purchase an Acer AL2216W LCD monitor from them last year on sale. They said there was one in stock but couldn't find it until they realized, that item had been sent back for warranty. They had also ordered another "new" monitor so I said I'd buy the "new" one. I was informed they couldn't guarantee which monitor I'd get. All in all I found that they sell refurbished as "new". Maybe this is only in our local store in Prince Rupert.
We did order a "new" Wii Sports Package from the source online and were happy with the "new" items. I am reluctant to buy any major electronic item from them because of the refurbished as "new".

[nursedude]

I buy a fair bit of electronic stuff. I've tried shopping at the Northumberland Mall branch in Cobourg with mixed success. Product selection sucks and usually the service is poor/nonexistent and they really try pushing the extended warranty (biggest laugh was them trying to sell me an extended warranty on a cheap pair of headphones where the warranty actually cost more). The store in Lansdowne Place in Peterborough, on the other hand, has always been great with me.

[JamesK]

As is often the case, the local stores may vary considerably. A couple of years ago, I bought a stereo receiver from The Source. At the first store, they wanted to charge me full price for a demo model, that was missing some parts. At another store, I was able to buy a new one for less than the first store wanted for the demo.

[sean122]

Good Day All... (And hopefully some Source employees),

I purchased a computer from the Source at the end of February and in July it had a major breakdown. My motherboard was fried, as well as the Power Supply and Processor. It was sent in for repair immediately and I was given a two week repair window, which was completely acceptable.
As the two weeks approached I phoned in to find out the status of the work and when I could expect to see it back. The store manager went on to tell me how he couldn't see it in the system so he would have to call the repair center to find out what was going on and would call me back. After 24 hours of not hearing back I decided to call and see what the deal was only to find out he took the day off. Two days after originally speaking with him (the store manager) I finally got him on the phone again and was told that my repair hadn't been started because of a mishap regarding the faxing of the paperwork. Basically, he forgot to fax the forms so the repair center had a computer sitting in their office with no name attached to it and no idea what was going on with it. That's when I was given another two week window, which I calmly accepted.
After contacting them, following the second two week window I was told the computer was sent to ACER for repair and to call back in a few days to check on it. At this point I decided to contact customer service and stage two of the run around began. Three days after discovering my computer was sent to ACER I stopped in to the store and was told my computer was not sent to ACER and that they were repairing it themselves with parts coming from ACER.
This was the point customer service contacted me saying they were doing everything possible to speed up this process but it would still take a few weeks to complete. They also said that several e-mails were sent out to various district and depot managers (which means nothing to me).
A few more weeks passed (were around the middle of September now) and I was finally called by the store manager saying that the repair was done and the computer was being sent back to the store which would take approximately a week.
The one week mark hit and I called the store and was told that it didn’t show up yet and they would attempt to track it down. That’s right, I waited two months for it and then someone lost it.
It was around the first week of October when I received a call saying they had found it and it would arrive in a couple of days which it did.
As compensation for my 2 ½ months without a computer they graciously offered me a 50$ gift certificate. I contacted them to ask if they would consider offering me a free upgrade to windows 7, which they refused and asked if they were going to extend my warranty for the time in which I didn’t have the computer which was also refused.

Has anyone else had horror stories dealing with the Source? I would recommend anyone considering purchasing a new computer to deal with another electronics company. I don’t feel my requests were too unreasonable taking in to account if I had bought a new computer in June, three months after I did they would have upgraded me for free.

[dosborne]

Your situation is unfortunate, but typical of a "box" store in which classification I include The Source.