Radio Shack
Radio Shack is one of those necessary evils. If you need a cable or an adapter, you can either order it online and pay exorbitant shipping rates, or go to Radio Shack.
Let me detail what I hate about Radio Shack:
1. If you do not know your products, do not offer to help a customer. When I ask for 75 ohm cable, please do not direct me to cable in 75-foot lengths. I said ohm. Ohm. OHM! As in resistance, you know? I don’t give a damn about the length if the resistance value is not what I need.
2. Stop asking me for extra information. If I am returning an item I didn’t need, then process my damn return without asking for personal information. I made the purchase with a Visa, and you didn’t ask me for my phone number or address upon making the purchase, you should NOT ask me for my phone number or address when I make a return. If you do, don’t expect that information to be valid.
3. Give me my receipt back. If I return one item from a multiple-item purchase, I get my receipt back. That is how businesses keep records– with receipts. Don’t make me feel like a jerk by threatening to cancel my whole transaction worth $30 just because you won’t give me my original receipt back from a $4 return.
4. Learn the basics. If I ask for RCA, don’t show me Instrument. If I ask for Instrument, don’t show me Coax. This is simple stuff, and if you don’t know the answer, please don’t pretend like you do. If all you are going to do is search around in boxes, then spare me the trouble– I can look through the boxes much faster because I already know what I’m looking for.
5. If I clear you out on an item and ask if you have more, don’t look exactly where I found the item, and don’t look in the back. Put the SKU into the computer and check your stock. If the computer says you don’t have any, that is good enough for me.
Hopefully I got everything I need, and I won’t have to go back to this Radio Shack for a while. They drive me crazy.
Hi all! I found this looking for more information on Radio Shack as a company and thought I’d throw my hat into the ring with my thoughts. Whether I stir the pot, this has been very informative.
I’ve had a wide and varied career in retail. From big to small box, and in every market from grocery to electronics. Moving from one area to another, the current company I worked for couldn’t offer me more than 5 to 10 hours a week. To top that off, my assistant manager at the previous store had torpedoed me and gave me a horrible review, using her personal relationship with this other manager to make sure she was believed. Her manager however, gave me a glowing review. Walking into that situation, I decided it was time to make a change and the local Radio Shack was hiring.
Now take into consideration I’m in Michigan, with some of the highest unemployment in the country. So when I was offered minimum wage plus commission, I was thrilled! Now I’m one of the few people that believe customer service first, and the rest falls into place. That’s what growing up in a town of less than 700 people teaches you. Well now I’m in a city of over 13000 and all of my fellow associates and new manager were born and raised in the area. People come in to deal with us because of their longstanding history. I lived right between Flint and Saginaw (Flint’s one of those top 5 violent crime rates in the country cities, and Saginaw’s creeping that way) growing up, and moving to Saginaw I saw quickly the difference between the type of service I got in the small town vs a larger city. They were all sales first service maybe. If I was that way, every manager I’ve ever had would kick the crap outa me. Prime example, today a customer came in to get an AT&T phone since we no longer dealt with Alltel. I walked through the process and he picked out the phone and right before I ported his number his girlfriend told him he’s not going with AT&T when he called. He apologized and cancelled, apologizing over and over saying he hates when he does work like that and people walk out of his dealership. No big deal for me, sure a loss of a commission but the way I see it, is he’ll be back for something else. Working at a sporting goods store dealing with high price firearms, you get the guys who want to talk and hold the weapons. You spend probably 2-3 hours a week in the off season, and closer to 8 near hunting season letting people drool over them. And even though I may answer some person’s questions multiple times on multiple days, word of mouth brings people in. That held true when a gentleman came in to said store and asked for me, and proceeded to buy a $1500 and a $400 rifle. He told me that his friend has been coming in at least twice a week and that another co-worker and I never rushed him or talked down to him, so he decided to buy his firearms from one of us. He thought we worked on commission, which none of us did. Too bad about the non-commission on that.
I’m a techy guy, and as such I keep up to date on new technology as much as possible. Do I know the basics of electricity? Yes, including Ohm’s law. Do all of my co-workers? No, but they’re willing to take the time to help you figure it out, or pass it up to our manager. He has over 20 years in, and can answer the questions I have no clue of.
Maybe I’m lucky to be in the store/market I am, but with respect to No longer @ RS, I’ve seen markups like that everywhere. Wal-Mart and the other big boxes can sell them cheaper because they get them cheaper. The fact that the battery is taking up space, and has to have a certain profit margin is the reason for the price. I used to order for a small e-commerce company, and the price you pay for your Carhartt jeans and jackets are near a 194% mark-up. That’s the way things are all over. Your math is off, it’d be over a 2000% markup, but that same battery at the same cost could be at a 1000% markup and be $2.20. Firearms and electronics, very low mark-up items. There is nearly maybe a 15% markup (and that’s being sorta generous) for those.
For better or worse, I think at least at the associate level I’m doing better in this market than I could with any other company. Gotta pay the bills while I’m going to school somehow right?
This place is so stupid, you can steal whatever you want, and return anything for store credit or call and complain and they will give you gift cards. By the way I would never endorse a company that treats their employees worse than Wal Mart!!!
Radio Shack is a bad place. Sure the employes can send text at the speed of light with their thumb , but thats their whole life , they do not know any thing else and do not care to know any thing else.
I have applied several times corporate positions (knowing I am more than qualified for the positions) in this company and they are literally the worst – they do not communicate with the candidates, they silently repost the ads, the place seems to have a revolving door. I don’t know anyone working there but it would be interesting in getting an insight of the place. Or is it just narrow minded in-bred good ol brother stuff I am dealing with…
My husband and I went to Radio Shack to buy a Magic Jack. For the first time ever we bought a warranty because the sales person who was the manager said that if something went wrong they would swap it out. Needless to say we have a faulty magic jack and we went back to the store last night, dealt with the same manager- salesperson and he called the company and they wouldn’t let him swap it out. They are going to send us a label, then we have to send it to them, and then they will send us a gift card. All the while we have No PHONE!! I will Never by a warranty again and I will Never Ever shop at Radio Shack Again.
RADIO SHACK SOLD ME CEILING SPEAKERS FOR 53.99 EACH AND THEN I FIND OUT SEARS HAS THE SAME EXACT SPEAKER FOR 24.99. RADIO SHACK WONT PRICE MATCH. I GUESS THEY ARE TOO BUSY RIPPING OFF THE CONSUMER. I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THEM AGAIN. WHAT A RIP OFF
I JUST BROUGHT BACK A PAIR OF HEADPHONES FOR WHICH I BOUGHT A REPLACEMENT WARRANTY TWO MONTHS AGO. THEY STARTED SCREWING UP A WEEK OR SO AGO. I TOOK THEM BACK TO THE STORE FROM WHICH I BOUGHT THEM BUT THEY DID NOT HAVE A REPLACEMENT THERE. THEY CALLED THE STORE DOWN THE STREET, THEY HAD SOME IN STOCK SO I HAD TO GO THERE!!! MORE TIME WASTED!! SHOULDN’T HAVE SURPRISED ME, BUT IT DID. WENT TO STORE #2, AFTER WAITING FOR 5 MINUTES FOR THE MANAGER TO FINISH TALKING TO A FOREIGNER ABOUT SOMETHING THE GUY DIDN’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT (THE CUSTOMER),GOT A RUNAROUND FROM MANAGER. WANTED TO KNOW THE SAME SHIT I HAD JUST TOLD THE DUDE AT THE ORIGINAL STORE EVEN THOUGH DUDE #1 TOLD HIM OVER THE PHONE WHAT THE DEAL WAS. THEN HE WANTED TO KNOW IF I HAD CALLED IN THE REPLACEMENT INFO! OF COURSE I HAD NOT AND I TOLD HIM SO AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE OTHER GUY HAD DONE. SO HE TOOK MY WARRANTY PAPERWORK, MADE A PHONE CALL AND TALKED TO SOMEBODY. FIVE MINUTES LATER, AFTER NOT SAYING ANYTHING, I ASKED WHAT WAS GOING ON. HE SAID HE WAS ‘WAITING FOR THE REPLACEMENT INFORMATION’. (WHATEVER THAT MEANT!) MEANWHILE I WAS STARTING TO LOSE MY PATIENCE WITH THESE PEOPLE.
SO I HEAR HIM ASK THE PERSON IF THEY COULD DO AN IN STORE EXCHANGE! WTF!!!!??? THAT’S WHAT THE REPLACEMENT WARRANTY WAS FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE!! I WAS EXPECTING TO BE IN AND OUT IN 5 MINUTES WITH MY NEW HEADPHONES!! DIDN’T HAPPEN!! SO HE HANGS UP AND TELLS ME THEY WILL BE MAILING ME A ‘GIFT CARD’ FOR MY PURCHASE PRICE THAT I CAN USE TO PURCHASE WHATEVER I WANT IN THE STORE!!! WTF AGAIN!!!!! WHAT KIND OF SHIT IS THIS!? I BOUGHT THE DAMN REPLACEMENT WARRANTY IN ORDER TO ‘REPLACE’ THE DEFECTIVE MERCHANDISE FOR THE SAME NEW ITEM IN THE STORE!!!! DUDE TOLD ME THAT ‘THEY DECIDED THEY DIDN’T WANT TO DO IT THAT WAY!’. WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT!!! IN OTHER WORDS, THEY ARE DEFAULTING ON THE TERMS OF THE POLICY I PAID FOR AND THEY ‘GUARANTEED’!!!! THIS IS TOTAL BULLSHIT!!! AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED, THEY CAN ESAD!!! THIS IS THE LAST TIME I FART AROUND WITH THIS CHAIN!! BUNCH OF IDIOTS! I TOLD THE MGR THAT I SEE THE QUALITY OF THE HEADPHONES HAD NOT IMPROVED ONE BIT SINCE 10 YEARS AGO!!! I SAY THAT BECAUSE I HAD THE SAME FUCKING PROBLEM WITH HEADPHONES JUST LIKE THESE THAT I HAD PURCHASED FROM RS BACK THEN!!! ONLY BACK THEN, THEY AT LEAST DID HONOR THE REPLACEMENT WARRANTY! THEY DID REPLACE THE HEADPHONES IN STORE WITH NO PROBLEM. NOW, IT’S JUST CRAP!!! THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY (FOR THE WARRANTY) AND THEN DEFAULT ON IT!! JUST BECAUSE THEY ‘DON’T WANT TO DO IT THE WAY THE WARRANTY SAYS!!’. IT LOOKS TO BE LIKE THIS IS A MATTER FOR A LEGAL SUIT!! I’M SERIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT IT. ANYBODY ELSE EVER SUE THIS ROTTEN STORE? IF SO, WHAT HAPPENED? I’D LIKE TO KNOW.