Posted 05/25/09 at 08:47:03 AM by Paul Lilly

Circuit City has risen from the dead, at least in online form, and as is most often the case when an entity emerges from the grave, decomposition rears its ugly head. In this case, it's the new CircuitCity.com's return policy that has been withered, but more on that in a minute.

Last Tuesday, Systemax -- the same company that owns TigerDirect and purchased electronics retailer CompUSA's intellectual property last year -- closed its agreement to acquire trademarks, domain names, and customer list of email addresses and "other basic customer information" of Circuit City's online business for $14 million plus a share of future revenue over 30 months, CNBC reports. 

The online portal relaunches today and it looks just like the Circuit City of old, except for the return policy. Not even a full day under its belt, CircuitCity.com is already catching flak over how returns are processed. Under new ownership, non-defective returns "will be for store credit or refund at CircuitCity.com's sole discretion." But even worse than potentially getting stuck with store credit, some items are just plain nonreturnable.

"Products from manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson, and others are not returnable to CircuitCity.com FOR ANY REASON," states the return policy.

In other words, welcome back, and buyer beware.

Read More