Beware Circuit City closeout deals: No refunds on broken gear

Stories are pouring in from outraged shoppers who thought they could get a great deal on equipment from Circuit City as part of its fire sale liquidation. The problem: Circuit City won't let you open sealed boxes to inspect merchandise before you take it home -- and all sales are final. No returns. No exchanges. That's not so great if the gear is hopelessly broken.

One Minnesota family spent $1,500 on a 50-inch plasma TV and found the glass shattered once they got it home. The store refused to take back the TV and instead referred the issue to Circuit City headquarters, where no one answered the phone. The family is checking with Panasonic, the manufacturer, to see if it's covered under warranty.

A similar problem happened to a Boston customer, who paid $1,100 for what turned out to be a totally busted Samsung TV. She got a refund from her credit card company, but only after a local TV station made inquiries on her behalf. Be warned: Consumerist says that getting credit card companies to help you out may be difficult in cases like this where a bankruptcy is involved. (As I understand the specifics of the Circuit City case, normally your credit card company will just "charge back" the merchant in question, but in this case the merchant is going out of business and has federal bankruptcy protection during the process.)

It's not just big ticket items that can be dead on arrival. Consider this $7.50 "bargain" video game purchased from a Circuit City store, which appears to have been chewed up by a robot.

No doubt there are still some good deals to be found in these liquidating stores, but remember that, now more than ever, "buyer beware" is the rule of the day.