Did you post on the Circuit City thread?

[PreacherCasey]

Please consider contacting them to voice your concerns and post the messages below. I think it's the least we can do to put some pressure on this company. Thanks!

Here's mine:

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to inform you that I will never purchase a single item from Circuit City ever again, and I will encourage everyone I know to do likewise. As you might guess, this is in response to your decision to fire 3,400 of your workers in order to replace them with lesser paid, less experienced workers. Now, I don't want to hear about how they were paid "above market rates" and are getting "severance pay" because I am not a stupid person. I understand that the market rates are not a fair living wage in the first place. I see every day how the lives of working people are adversely affected by heartless, avaricious decisions like the one the Circuit City brass has just made. I see it happening all over America. How much of a pay decrease will your CEO take this year? Cut his total compensation by 2/3 and you'll save $1,671 for each person who you are currently firing. I think he would survive on the $2.4 million left over.
People are not commodities. I would advise your company to begin to come to grips with this fact. The people are beginning to wake up.

With all sincerity and intent to act,
Jim XxxXxXxxX

[DCKit]

1. Good letter

But you forgot to mention that most of their customers are working people too, many not making much more per hour.

[PreacherCasey]

3. You're right.

I should have. :spank: Write them one and let them know! :thumbsup:

[DaveJ]

2. Only government intervention can curtail this trend

And I'm still waiting for it.

[xchrom]

4. indeed.

[PreacherCasey]

7. Yes, and they will do nothing if we sit idly by. We need to pressure

them. If there is enough of a public backlash, the media may pick it up and pressure them further, hopefully leading some elected officials to take interest.

[WinkyDink]

9. Now maybe more DU'ers can understand the reason Venezuela elected Chavez.

[xchrom]

5. i missed the thread -- but i completely agree with your sentiments.

this is horrifying.

thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.

it seems we should also write to our reps regarding this.

[pitohui]

6. a suggestion

i've been told that if you state you will never do business with the company again, it's poor negotiating because they no longer have a reason to try to make you happy

i'm thinking of trying something like this:

"In the past i have been a very satisfied repeat customer, and one of the reasons i frequently return to Circuit City is because of staff members like <name of a staff member who was particularly helpful to you>. In my experience, the best compensated sales people are
invariably the people who are the most helpful at explaining things clearly so that I can
make a purchase with confidence. Often, when I'm unsure, I don't buy. It really makes a
difference to me to be able to talk to experienced, knowledgeable staff. We all know
what happened when Home Depot moved away from hiring and retaining slightly higher paid,
but much more experienced, staff. It really made it difficult to purchase and to make
choices if you weren't an expert, and the impact on HD stock prices and service was
felt for many years. I would hate to see the same thing happen to Circuit City and
would strongly encourage you to take another path to cost-cutting that doesn't entail
getting rid of highly knowledgeable staff. I believe they are worth the extra money
and that most of your customers would agree.

Sincerely, <frequent customer>"

for this to work, you need to be a real repeat customer who has a good experience with one or
more sales people that you can name, however, even if you can't remember the name of the person who helped you, you could at least mention a specific recent purchase and how it was easier
to decide to buy at circuit city because of an experienced person who stepped up and
helped you choose

you could even include copies of past receipts for big items as proof of your status as a requent customer

i think a lot of letters of this type would have a better chance of saving at least a few jobs
than a lot of letters just cussing the guy out, when people with big egos and big salaries
screw up they often don't have the yarbles to back down and fix it unless there is a way for
them to save face

just an idea though

[PreacherCasey]

8. Good point. Although a little Good Cop/Bad Cop might not hurt either.

I'll be the bad cop. :evilgrin:

Please consider making some noise on this. Thanks for the input. It will be helpful in the future, I'm sure.