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Um...ouch. Thankfully their credit card was outsourced to those inept weasels at Chase so they won't be selling that to the King of Botswana to find winners for his lotto and/or inheritance project. ;)
Um...ouch. Thankfully their credit card was outsourced to those inept weasels at Chase so they won't be selling that to the King of Botswana to find winners for his lotto and/or inheritance project. ;)
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What about customer rights? What if you \"opted-out\" of being contacted by Circuit City\"? Does my information changing hands negate the prior agreement? PERHAPS I would never have gone to Circuit City knowing they would not be able to maintain an agreement.
@fantomesq: This has nothing to do with it being an asset. My car loan is an asset to somebody. Again, the company acquiring my GMAC contract or agreement still can't just arbitrarily change my loan terms. Understand?
@dancekat1: In a bankruptcy proceeding, customer contact lists are deemed a valuable asset used to satisfy creditors... perhaps your thinking might be different if CC owed you money?
The agreement not to solicit you based on that contact list was an agreement with CC - which no longer exists. The purchaser is not bound by those terms - as unseemly as that might appear. They ARE still bound by the Do Not Call list though and since the purchaser does not have a previous business dealing with you they can't exploit that loophole.
It is not unusual in bankruptcy proceedings for a company's trademarks and customer lists to be amongst the greatest assets left to satisfy creditors and the creditors take precedence in a bankruptcy. Your loan situation is not analogous.
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I'm guessing the breakdown is $13,999,999.94 for the mailing list and $0.06 for the Firedog name.
Remind me how this is legal? Has the law actually said transferring private information like this is okay? Are there precedent cases? This happens a lot, but I don't see how it can actually be legal.
@Trencher93: Google Acxiom or ChoicePoint.
Perfectly legal. Your information is sold every day to anyone who pays enough for it. They're also legally able to sell your information to the US Government for any purpose. No search warrants required.
It's not uncommon to sell an established business with the customer list - you just don't hear about it at this level very often.
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@Cant_stop_the_rock: I think once you have given certain types personal information to a business entity they have the right to resell it. Names and addresses and emails and phone numbers are ok, but obviously SSNs and credit card numbers are a different story.
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@dragonfire81: Yeah, it's basically treated as their property, and an asset they can sell to the highest bidder. And it will stay that way until we get some sort of comprehensive privacy legislation in this country that says that you own your information and get to control how businesses that collect it use it.
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You know, I think it is time the consumers did something about this. Sadly, I dont think selling our info is ever gonna stop. On the other hand, seeing that it is OUR info, maybe we should start charging a fair use fee? Our personal/financial/medical history is whored out so much that if we got a nickel for every transaction.... well, we'd have a bit of extra cash....
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Rackin Frackin, $10 says my name is on that list because I used their website in the past to buy items and then pick them up in the store.
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When CC B&M stores went under, I thought they gave people the option to get a pro-rated refund on their Firedog service?
The question I have is that is it everyone who has bought a FD service, ever, or is it those who still had existing contracts with time left?
If so, the buyer might have to fulfill those contracts which make it more than a mailing list. They'll have to provide tech support for the tvs, cameras and CPUs...
...which makes it a perfect purchase for Dell, Best Buy or even Wal-Mart (if they want to get into that business).
@JustinSane07: I think you're thinking of their warranty. Firedog was not a warranty, but a one time service, such as flat panel installation, pc repair, etc.
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@JustinSane07: \". . . is it everyone who has bought a FD service, ever, or is it those who still had existing contracts with time left?\"
That's a good question. I had them come and hook up my wireless because I was too chicken to try and do it myself. Is that going to haunt me?
My Circuit City had policy of asking me for my phone number before every transaction. I would always give them a fake number and this ladies and gents is the reason why..
@HungryTuna: i just told them they couldnt have that info.
it never stopped them from ringing me up at the register.
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@HungryTuna: This. If businesses get insistent about asking for my info, I give them something fake.
It's not \"essentially a mailing list\".
It's a spamming list.
Anyone spamming me on my unique CircuitCity email address will automatically be labeled as a spammer and blacklisted as well as reported to all appropriate anti-spam blocklists.
For my last magazine subscription I deliberately misspelled my name to see who they sell my information to. The magazine was free, so I continue to expect AOL installation CD's but have yet to get anything spelled Tedd.
@SeattleTed is proud to like Robert Zimmerman: I've done that before too. I was surprised who Martha Stewart sold my information to.
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Jeez, I hope whoever buys this list gets a whole lot of action out of my address and phone number from when I was in high school (1992), which is the last time I shopped @ CC.
looks like it is finally time to make sure that the custom circuitcity@ email addy that I have setup is marked DOA.
I run a pc repair job on the side, and the lists I am on, small companies do this too, they go under, or do not wanna be in the business, so they sell their clients list to someone, send out letters saying this is who is going to service you now, then the new company I am sure sends out a letter.
I doubt this has anything to do with people ordering online, just their clients who got their computers serviced or upgraded.
Make Michael Vick buy the Firedog brand with the money the Eagles are giving him for returning to the NFL.
(Can't wait for that first away game he plays cause you just KNOW the other team's PA booth is gonna play \"Who Let The Dogs Out\".
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Oh, no they don't. They do that there will be hell to pay before breakfast!