Re-animated Circuit City site jerks back to life

Circuit City retails stores may be gone for good, but CircuitCity.com is back online, courtesy of the same company that bought CompUSA last year.

As DailyTech reports, CircuitCity.com—dormant since mid-January, when the 60-year-old tech retailer went belly-up—went back into business over the weekend.

Who's behind Circuit City now? According to ChannelWeb, it's Systemax, the Port Washington, N.Y.-based owner of TigerDirect.com that snapped up another floundering tech retailer, CompUSA, in early 2008.

As ChannelWeb notes, Systemax recently bought the e-commerce assets of Circuit City for a song: just $14 million.

Unfortunately for loyal Circuit City customers, Systemax apparently has no plans to revive any of the chain's brick-and-mortar stores, and as DailyTech notes, the new CircuitCity.com is (once you click beyond its home page, anyway) a virtual clone of the Systemax-owned TigerDirect.com.

And here's another thing to keep in mind, especially for previous Circuit City customers: On the CircuitCity.com Help page, a note explains that the site won't handle customer service claims for purchases made before March 31, 2009—so, if you've got a warranty claim for anything you bought from Circuit City prior to March 31, you'll have to contact the manufacturer directly (or in the case of extended warranties, contact the third-party warranty provider).

That said, most of the items I found on the new CircuitCity.com (save for printer toner cartridges, software, blank CDs, and the like) had a prominent "30-day Guarantee" badge, promising no-excuse returns within 30 days. Update: Consumerist has more details on the new CircuitCity.com return policy, which includes the caveat that "Products from manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson and others are not returnable to CircuitCity.com FOR ANY REASON." Instead, returns and exchanges, and support "must be handled directly with the product manufacturer." Strange, given that several Compaq, IBM, and Epson products I checked on the Circuit City site have the "30-day Guarantee" badge. In any case, I'd suggest double-checking with Systemax on specific return policies before you buy anything on the new CircuitCity.com

So, anyone planning on browsing the virtual aisles at the revived CircuitCity.com? Wish the old Circuit City brand would just fade away? Let us know.

Related:
CircuitCity.com is Back From the Dead [DailyTech]