I remember my first purchase with Circuit Atlantic. It was a desperate measure to get an HP laptop with really nice specs from CircuitCity. At the time I had no idea how this was supposed to go, I did not have a credit card and other sites I had checked that advertised purchasing services felt shady.So there I was, pondering different options. Then by some stroke of luck I remembered seeing a website on my sisters laptop, she had it open all night, searching for nice rings from some foreign site. And the name came to me, Circuit Atlantic.
I’m a big believer in the web and it makes me open to try new things very open to risks. So I took my +100k, and with the fear of God in my heart, and a prayer to His angels to guide my path, lol, I made the purchase. Three weeks later, I had my HP laptop with beats audio :). A moment of joy.
I’ll briefly discuss Circuit Atlantic here as and give you insight to how it works, just in-case you are not that much of a believer.
IF you visit the Circuit Atlantic website, you’d notice it has a simple two tier layout. The first letting you input values of your purchase like the name of the product, price, quantity and item number among many others. The second tier lets you browse foreign sites as advised by their system, you could also browse sites not on their list and simply copy and paste those values needed.
Conversion rates are quite standard and are changed every once in a while with changing economic values. So you put in the dollar value of the product you want to buy, and you get the naira value instantly based on their conversion rates.
Other functions are pretty automated from then on. When you decide to make the purchase, the system calculates the service charge and shipping costs and gives you the total on the spot, including insurance fees. That’s my personal best feature, other sites have you send them mails and wait for them to reply you with an invoice, I love that I know what I’m paying for right there and then.
Payment methods are fairly standard, Interswitch web pay and bank transfers. Not like we have any other method of payment in Nigeria, unless them mobile platforms like paga.
You are given three choices of delivery, office pickup, which is the cheapest and what I’ve always used :), delivery within Lagos, and delivery outside Lagos. The office is at Ikeja, and that was close to me at the time so it really depends on you.
upon completion of the order you get mails to let you know when the item has been purchased and when it in transit. In my opinion, this helps to factor out having to call some customer care rep.
So far, nice. The thing is, its designed around a system that reduces the need for contact, so really, unless something goes wrong, you’re always in the communication loop.
I got a blackberry once with them, a tour, for a friend. At the time I bought it from ebay. After I did not get a response from them for two weeks, I knew something was wrong, and the boy was on my neck, I was turning into a scam artist, lol. So I called them up, got some response I really could not understand at the time, and then received consequent emails that kept me in the clear a bit for some time. Long story short, by the next month it had not come, within that period I had bought CPU components to couple for another friend, and that arrived in two weeks exactly. No delay. So I went to the office to pick up my desktop parts, and to follow up on the blackberry, by this time my friend was already counting his loss. Anyway I’m finding out about my blackberry and I’m shown into the President’s office (the president of the company, not the country), Dr. Iroh Anaele, made the mistake of addressing him as Mr. once, did not turn out funny, lol. Well he apologized and explained how the product I ordered for had gone out of stock and was being re-ordered. In the end I went away a bit more confident that I had not killed my reputation with my friend.
That’s the only instance where I had an issue with the delivery time, I’ve got several other things from them since then, not always for myself though. So in my opinion, if you’re in a decision making phase, its OK to go with them. No worries.
There are a whole lot of them, and I can’t write them all here. But get this, they included cargo shipping as a delivery option! Now you might not get my excitement, but I’m a lover of all things good and artistic. I could do a “whole lot” to get things from sites like IKEA. My dream home interior seems to be tied to that site. Now that there is a cargo option available, I’ve decided to start saving for that dream, my home is so going to be filled with killer aesthetics. Wonder if any site similar to that can come up in Nigeria without making us pay with our lives for stuff. Just wondering.
Worst of all for me, there is no way to return stuff. Not that I expected that though. So you would have to be sure of the product you’re getting before you make a purchase. Personally, I got a desktop, one of them DIY (Do It Yourself) types that you couple. Crazy specs inside, and then the power pack did not work, and when it finally did, it fried the motherboard. Worst part yet, I bought it for a friend. I seem to have bad luck with buying stuff for people. So right now, I have a 1TB, 8GB RAM , Quad core A6 processor, 1GB ATi graphic card desktop sitting with me a Lagos, with a 23 inch screen monitor to add to that. All useless, till I can change the power pack and motherboard. Sad.
What now pained me, sorry but i have to say this one, I mailed the power pack company, quite a popular one too, lips sealed, and this customer care guy is telling me their product wasn’t designed to work in Nigeria! Seriously! Bloody racist customer care rep.
Well, in my opinion, returning might cost more than buying new parts. I’m stuck here till I find the courage to buy the parts back, my fear… that other components got bad too. That would just be the end.
So there you have it, my personal opinion on Circuit Atlantic, and really, my way of saying “Here is something you might not have thought of before”. I plan on buying a ~55″ flat screen from Tigerdirect for my room, can’t stop thinking of Modern Warefare 2 on that :D.
Have you used Circuit Atlantic before? Share your experience with us.
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Hmm...
What patrick? You're not convinced? Unbeliever. Lol.
Circuit Atlantic is the worst procurement service on earth. The perfect Nigerian scam. They take your money, and ask for more and threaten you if you don't pay what they ask.
They have taken fraud to a whole new level.
They started off well but the viral corruption that's going round has drowned them so much in the ocean of greed that they are so blind their minds are depraved.
Uk2me, Manna stores, order to naija, mall for Africa, Nipost, Royal Mail, are the go to guys.
To even mention that Nipost is better than circuit Atlantic is mind blowing enough to run the other way wen you see circuit coming.
Be Aware and don't be defrauded.
Have you come to promote their competitors or do you have a real issue? It is better when you say what the issue you have with the company and how they have not addressed it. That would be more useful. Not name calling with no substance.
Very interesting read! Well I work here, what else can I say. But am not so sure about Dr Iroh's reaction to you calling him "MR", as we all refer to him by his nickname Adis, well I never tried calling him "MR" sha!.
On the issue of returning stuff, it is not impossible to return items, (once the vendor site accepts returns and you accept to pay the freight cost back) only most times it might not be the most cost effective thing to do.
Thanks Cathy for your comment.
I guess my mistake was the formal approach, I should have just stuck to Adis. See where being formal got me.
Its understandable that returns would not be very cost effective, I guess that's the downside to being in this part of the world. All things considered though, its a trade off we have to make.
Thanks again for your comment. Met the guys at your office once, I guess it was a smaller team then.
I hav used Circuit Atlantic for more than 3 times. Got my tablet, digital cam and bb from united state tru CA. My impressiv suprise form circuit was wen i paid for two CDMA bb fones. The customer care mailed to inform me dat it wont work in Naija. Surprisingly, i got my my money bak in ma account. So with Circuit Atlantic, U are good to go!
Thank you StevenJel for your comment.
I think its because they review every order before making the purchase. Which is an added benefit for us.
Great work on their end.
how long did it take for you to get your stuffs
Waoh...this is my first time hearing about the company. Need to get a digital camcoder from the US. Will definitely try it thru the site. Thanks
You're welcome flow,
I'll advise confirming stock if you decide to use ebay, third party sellers can be tricky with out of stock issues.
Happy shopping.
Trying out this guys for the first time, but isn't a delivery period of 10-17 days too long? I mean U.S - Naija isn't that far these days!
Hi there, Yusuf.
The way I understand it, this is how logistics go. You pay for the product, Circuit Atlantic buys it and waits for it to be shipped from the vendor (e.g. Ebay) to their office in the US. On delivery to the US office, Circuit Atlantic packages and ships it to Nigeria.
Its like a relay process. I guess that's why it takes that long. Especially if the vendor doesn't stick to their promised delivery period.
Hope this was helpful. Thanks for the comment.
I ordered an Amazon Kindle from CA about Dec 2 expecting to get it before the end of the year so I could travel out of the country and be less bored..Till now (Dec 27th),I have gotten no feedback email to the numerous emails I have sent to info@circuitatlantic.com. And they had sent a broadcast email saying that their customer care numbers will be inactive till Jan 3. And I leave Jan 1! I am panicked! Any other contact numbers I can reach? Pleassse!
WOW, Dec 2nd is really far back. I'm sure they had issues with courier services, that happens sometimes. Yes, they have other channels of communication, try tweeting @Circuitatlantic, I'm sure someone would reply you. And if you need further help from me, tweet @ososoba and I'll see how I can help out.
Hello U'
i hope you have been able to contact our customer service reps and this issue has been resolved?
Hello Cathy,
Still unresolved. Apparently,it just got to the country according to your reps and they are still tryna clear it for delivery. Whicih is super late as I am not in the country at the moment so my safest bet will be a refund.Quite a big disappointment for a first try!
@ Osoba: Thank you for your response the other day. I was able to get across to them through Twitter after all.
Hi there U'
Sorry about the poor experience, I'm sure it was beyond their direct control.
And I'm glad I could help, even if just a bit.
Happy new year. I wish you a great year ahead.
Could i get the order id? So i could take a look at the order?
The order ID is 1212040166. Thanks :)
Hi Osoba i trully am disapointed with services through Circuit Atlantic. I Placed an order and i got a mail stating the item was purchased as at 20/07/2013. On tracking it and after several calls i learnt the item has not even been delivered to thier office in NJ as at 2/8/2013. I am suprised the item was not tracked nor follow up done with the company to ensure the item was delivered to your office in NJ. This has in turn affected your SLA of 10-17 working days with me and has totally disrupted my plans. My Order Id is 1307170150.
I don't know which account number I will make deposit to in order to add fund of my account
CRAP COMPANY.
GUYS I AM COMPILING A LIST OF ALL ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES ON THIS COMPANY, IN SUPPORT OF MY CASE AND OF COURSE PUBLICATION, WE MUST STOP THIS SORT OF EXTORTION
PLEASE KEEP COMPLAINING AND LEAVE A WAY TO CONTACT YOU, I WILL CONTACT YOU PRIVATELY FOR A DETAILED VERSION OF YOUR CASE
Hi Dfames,
Have you had any dealings previously with Circuit Atlantic? I'm curious as to why you think they are illegal.
Illegal is a strong word to use. If their services weren't satisfactory you should state what your issue is with them.
Hi,
The posts and comments here seem to be quite old. Does it still represent the present state of affairs with circuitatlantic operations?
Hi,
I have recently done a review on the company, if you haven't yet used them, then check my review comments out.