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.
For help at radio shack. A job fair is nothing more than the district indicating what is expected (job wise), benefits, and other items they deem fit. They have you complete a job app (if not already done at the store). They generally will do a “quick” background check after this job fair – but it seems they like to “drag their feet” to give you any type hint if you will be hired. From what I have observed, don’t get excited if they “shake” your hand and “pat” your bottom at the job fair, even though you will (most likely) be making minimum wage (to start), they treat it like you will be making $30.00 an hour to start (very little chance of that!!!). Good luck buddy!
you sound like typical customer that we can not stand. you know everything we know nothing. you are the one we threaten to find in a dark alley. why to you think your so much better than us? just that attitude alone being portrayed towards someone working on commision while your looking at STUPID ass cables and connectors and coming in asking for 75 ohm cable, who asks for 75 ohm cable, like it matters these days dude. but if you need a cell phone come back and ill kiss your ass and be your best friend, until then, shut up, ask for tv cable, don’t try to use big words and terms to make yourself feel better. laters
After 150+ comments (after a lot less, actually), I recognize that there are good Radio Shack employees and bad Radio Shack employees, as there are in all businesses. In this case, the last comment (#152) is a perfect example of a bad employee.
Beyond the grammar errors and basic capitalization errors, he asserts that he threatens customers.
He then goes on to state that Ohms– a value that measures electrical conductance– doesn’t matter these days. Apparently Ohm’s law relating to electrical conductance has been rendered null and void, and this was somehow accomplished without any fanfare whatsoever. Boy, those MRI people are going to be really mad when they learn that their helium-cooled superconducting machines can now be replaced with a new superconducting technology that doesn’t require liquid helium or expensive maintenance to keep their superconductors functioning.
He then exemplifies one major problem with Radio Shack these days, which can be summed up with a satirical take on Radio Shack’s slogan: Radio Shack– You’ve got questions, we’ve got cellphones. This is even more ironic considering I went to a place with “radio” in its name to get parts for a radio show, and his suggestion is that I talk to him about cell phones.
And finally, he wraps up by saying I should have just asked for a television cable, which in and of itself is the funniest part of his post. It clearly shows that he didn’t even read my post or any of the comments. I was looking for audio cable, my friend, and try as you might– even disobeying laws of electrical conductance when convenient– you cannot make a television cable carry audio signal with any semblance of quality.
If you were the first commenter on this post, I might have taken you seriously. But after 150+ posts, I know that you are the problem with Radio Shack.
Good luck!
Mike
Mike you’re right! Salesman – do you really work for RS? Has RS sunk this low with training for you to respond this way? Remarkable!! I know things were getting bad – but this?!!!
yep!!!! Go, you better believe it!! As a hiring manager for RadioShack I was forever trying to lure quality people from places like Starbucks but was not lucky cause as soon as the interview went towards compensation the high quality candidates wanted to negotiate for more money. I knew our comp plans sucked and and my hand were tied by corporate on starting pay for new associates. I had to let some very bright people walk away because I could not pay them what they clearly deserved. So instead you get what you pay for (in this case it would be ’salesman’)And what manager in his right mind would want to be around minimum wage making negative associates with a crappy attitude 55 hrs a week.
I purchased a RS Replacement Service Plan (which I rarely do) and actually found it came in handy when the connector on my headset broke. Since filing a claim, the first “gift card” (for the replacement value) that they SAID they sent out, mysteriously, never arrived. The second one they SAID they sent out “mysteriously” was returned to RS. They now tell me that they have to get another card “authorized” by corporate before sending out yet a third “card”, an exercise that can “take up to 30 days”! I am beginning to feel scammed here. Any other Replacement Service Plan experiences out there?
I am a current ASM in RadioShack. I am having a hard time, along with my manager to hire quality people. When I applied to RadioShack, I believed that this was a place of knowledgeable people that can help customer’s to become more knowledgeable on product purchases……….after 6 mos. of working at The Shack, I have seen more quality people leave then those coming in. Radio Shack wants to hire college students who do not want to make a career in sales but to have some extra money in their pocket. Even if the money is not their’s (referring to theft from the register).
To be honest most retailer’s (except for Best Buy) was good at some point on compensation for employees. Circuit City, CompUSA and even Radio Shack. Now everyone sux. It was just time for Radio Shack to pickup on the ongoing trend of screwing the employees out of money to make themselves look better as a profitable company.
As far as everyone commenting about you come in Radio Shack for cables and we try to sell you a cell phone is true. To be honest, right now this is the only real way we can increase our paycheck from -$5 to +$1. We really get pennies on sales that are not cell phones. So please don’t get mad when we ask you “who is your current provider” or “can I check your phone to see if you are available for upgrade” because it works for both us Shack employees and you! Most people are not informed about the programs that are ongoing with cell phones……so naturally being that we are on commission, we will ask because this is our bread and butter.
Hello, I’d like to add a complaint. I was humiliated by a store manager, becasue I did not have my ID in order to process a return. But, the thing is I had everything I needed, to do the return, according to the reciept. The reciept states that address will be requested upon retuening an item. It aslso states that the retuen must be in the original packaging,
it also states that the retune must be made within 30 days.
NO WHERE ON THE RECIEPT, OR ON THEIR STORE RETUNE POLICY, DOES IT STATE THAT IF I DO NOT HAVE MY ID IN HAND I CANNOT GETR A CHAS RETURN; AND IT WAS ONLY $30!!
I had to be first humiliated and ignored , then becmoing upset and so frustrated so this guy can finally make an exception to what he calls, “the store policy”, BUT THAT IS NOT STATED ANYWHERE! And, his defense is taht, “we don’t tell every single person our whole entire store policy.” WHAT!!
There is 2 paragraphs of information on the back of the reciept stating everything you can imagine regarding returns. If that was som important, that he needed my ID in order to do a retuen , why isn’t it stated on the reciept?
THis guy will be reported.
I will make sure of that.
Anon & Loyal – it is distressing to here what RS has become! You may find it surprising, but RS used to be a fun place to work! Of course management decided to use the “in your face – down your throat” style of selling. Asking the same customers over and over about cell phones, credit cards, long distance, etc, became a turn off to them, but, gasp! – do you think the powers understood this (NO is the answer). During the “profitable days”, returns were not a big deal – check it for damages and refund the money – no problem. I hope the powers wake up (do they even have an alarm clock?) and return RS to the helpful place it used to be (before GREED took over).
We have a new ‘procedure’ in our district now. I’m not sure if this is a company wide thing or just something our DM dreamed up:
Each store is paired off with another store and we are to keep each other accountable on making our daily sales goal. If we make our day.. good. If not, we have to email the other store (and our DM) explaining what we did wrong for not making our sales quota for the day and what we are going to do differently tomorrow.
Well we didn’t make our day today. We were up against $3700, but only sold $2900. I didn’t write the email because I think it is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. I feel like I am being sent to the corner to think about what I have done… bad, bad me for not making my sales quota. Shame on me. This whole idea comes across to me like I am a child and being punished.
However, If I had wrote the email and could say it anything I wanted (the truth) it would have went something like this:
The main reason we didn’t make our day today is because we had less costumers come in than this time last year. I attest that to the fact that corporate has decided to cut advertising drastically, which had in turn lowered foot traffic. Our ticket count was down over 40 tickets than this time last year, which means that we had at least 40 less customers come in. If corporate had not been so cheap by cutting the advertising cost people might actually be interested in coming the store. Sure, saving the money has increased profit which in turn rose the stock prices and gave Mr. Julian Day get his stock option bonus. But, that does nothing to help me at the store level.
I also attest the drop in customers to the fact that our main customer base is over the age of 70, and lets face it- there are more and more are dying every year, thus dropping our customer base. Perhaps if RadioShack were more hip and sold more cutting edge products, we might attract younger people into our store. But instead, our store is stuck in the 80’s and looks like it is straight out of the movie “Short Circuit”. Johnny 5 would be proud that we have not had a face lift in over 20 years and our employees still wear button up shirts and khakis.
The other reason we have not made our day is that we no longer have relevent inventory. We don’t carry what customers want and our off brand radio shack products are seen as ’sub-par’.
We would have made our day if we had sold more cell phones, the problem is, all we had to sell for Cingular was 3 Motorola Razr’s and a Blackjack. I had 2 customers come in ready to upgrade their cell phones with Cingular, however they both had Razr’s and wanted to try something different. Neither wanted a Blackjack and to be honest it didn’t fit their needs. I tried selling them phones with our wireless direct service, and even offered to go to another Radioshack to pick them up different phones, but the couple told me that they will just go down the street to the Cingular store where they have a wide selection of the coolest new phones.
We may have made our day had our prices been more competitive. I had a customer come in for a set of A/V cables, he complained that our prices were just way too high. He told me that he saw basically the same cables over at wal-mart for almost half the price. I tried to explain to him that ours were superior cables and they were gold tipped-thus giving him better conductivity and would last a lot longer. He responded with “I am hooking up a 10 year old VCR what the heck do I need gold tipped A/V cables for?”.
In order to make our day tomorrow, I suggest we fire Julian Day. He has depleted my store inventory, cut my pay, and forced me to send employees home thus leaving the store short staffed. Since he has taken over this company, our prices have been raised to a level that we are no longer competitive, the quality of our products have dropped, our customer service department has been pawned off to us at the store, and normal store upkeep (window cleaning, carpet shampooing) have been out of the question. I also suggest that Radioshack as a whole takes a good long look in the mirror. All Tenured managers are leaving and it is getting harder and harder to keep knowledgeable sales associates around as you can no longer live off the money you make here. The one asset this company does have is good employees… but because corporate has cut our pay and the crap we have to go through is getting ridiculous most of these people are leaving.
So don’t blame me that we didn’t make our day.. I am doing everything possible given what I have to work with.
Thank you for listening
Sincerely,
RS Employee.
We have a new ‘procedure’ in our district now. I’m not sure if this is a company wide thing or just something our DM dreamed up:
Each store is paired off with another store and we are to keep each other accountable on making our daily sales goal. If we make our day.. good. If not, we have to email the other store (and our DM) explaining what we did wrong for not making our sales quota for the day and what we are going to do differently tomorrow.
Well we didn’t make our day today. We were up against $3700, but only sold $2900. I didn’t write the email because I think it is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. I feel like I am being sent to the corner to think about what I have done… bad, bad me for not making my sales quota. Shame on me. This whole idea comes across to me like I am a child and being punished.
However, If I had wrote the email and could say it anything I wanted (the truth) it would have went something like this:
The main reason we didn’t make our day today is because we had less costumers come in than this time last year. I attest that to the fact that corporate has decided to cut advertising drastically, which had in turn lowered foot traffic. Our ticket count was down over 40 tickets than this time last year, which means that we had at least 40 less customers come in. If corporate had not been so cheap by cutting the advertising cost people might actually be interested in coming the store. Sure, saving the money has increased profit which in turn rose the stock prices and gave Mr. Julian Day get his stock option bonus. But, that does nothing to help me at the store level.
I also attest the drop in customers to the fact that our main customer base is over the age of 70, and lets face it- there are more and more are dying every year, thus dropping our customer base. Perhaps if RadioShack were more hip and sold more cutting edge products, we might attract younger people into our store. But instead, our store is stuck in the 80’s and looks like it is straight out of the movie “Short Circuit”. Johnny 5 would be proud that we have not had a face lift in over 20 years and our employees still wear button up shirts and khakis.
The other reason we have not made our day is that we no longer have relevent inventory. We don’t carry what customers want and our off brand radio shack products are seen as ’sub-par’.
We would have made our day if we had sold more cell phones, the problem is, all we had to sell for Cingular was 3 Motorola Razr’s and a Blackjack. I had 2 customers come in ready to upgrade their cell phones with Cingular, however they both had Razr’s and wanted to try something different. Neither wanted a Blackjack and to be honest it didn’t fit their needs. I tried selling them phones with our wireless direct service, and even offered to go to another Radioshack to pick them up different phones, but the couple told me that they will just go down the street to the Cingular store where they have a wide selection of the coolest new phones.
We may have made our day had our prices been more competitive. I had a customer come in for a set of A/V cables, he complained that our prices were just way too high. He told me that he saw basically the same cables over at wal-mart for almost half the price. I tried to explain to him that ours were superior cables and they were gold tipped-thus giving him better conductivity and would last a lot longer. He responded with “I am hooking up a 10 year old VCR what the heck do I need gold tipped A/V cables for?”.
In order to make our day tomorrow, I suggest we fire Julian Day. He has depleted my store inventory, cut my pay, and forced me to send employees home thus leaving the store short staffed. Since he has taken over this company, our prices have been raised to a level that we are no longer competitive, the quality of our products have dropped, our customer service department has been pawned off to us at the store, and normal store upkeep (window cleaning, carpet shampooing) have been out of the question. I also suggest that Radioshack as a whole takes a good long look in the mirror. All Tenured managers are leaving and it is getting harder and harder to keep knowledgeable sales associates around as you can no longer live off the money you make here. The one asset this company does have is good employees… but because corporate has cut our pay and the crap we have to go through is getting ridiculous most of these people are leaving.
So don’t blame me that we didn’t make our day.. I am doing everything possible given what I have to work with.
Thank you for listening
Sincerely,
RS Employee.
We have a new ‘procedure’ in our district now. I’m not sure if this is a company wide thing or just something our District Manager dreamed up:
Each store is paired off with another store and we are to keep each other accountable on making our daily sales goal. If we make our day.. good. If not, The Manager has to email the other store (and our DM) explaining what we did wrong for not making our sales quota for the day and what we are going to do differently tomorrow.
Well we didn’t make our day today. We were up against $3700, but only sold $2900. I didn’t write the email because I think it is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. I feel like I am being sent to the corner to think about what I have done… bad, bad me for not making my sales quota. Shame on me. This whole idea comes across to me like I am a child and being punished.
However, If I had wrote the email and could say it anything I wanted (the truth) it would have went something like this:
The main reason we didn’t make our day today is because we had less customers come in than this time last year. I attest that to the fact that corporate has decided to cut advertising drastically, which has in turn lowered foot traffic. Our ticket count was down over 30 tickets than this time last year, which means that we had at least 30 less customers come in. If corporate had not been so concerned about saving money by cutting the advertising cost people might actually be interested in coming into my store. Sure, saving the money has increased profit which in turn rose the stock price and helped Mr. Julian Day get his stock option bonus. But, that does nothing to help me at the store level.
I also attest the drop in customers to the fact that our main customer base is over the age of 70, and lets face it- there are more and more dying every year, which is dropping the amount of people alive who shop at RadioShack. Perhaps if RadioShack were more hip and sold more cutting edge products, we might attract younger people into our store. But instead, our store is stuck in the 80’s and looks like it is straight out of the movie “Short Circuit”. Johnny 5 would be proud that we have not had a face lift in over 20 years and our employees still wear button up shirts and khakis.
The other reason we have not made our day is that we no longer have relevent inventory. We don’t carry what customers want and our off brand radio shack products are seen as ’sub-par’.
I’ll admit that we would have made our day if we had sold more cell phones. The problem is, all we had to sell for Cingular were 3 Motorola Razr’s and a Blackjack. I had 2 customers come in ready to upgrade their cell phones with Cingular, however they both had Razr’s and wanted to try something different. Neither wanted a Blackjack and to be honest it didn’t fit their needs. I tried selling them phones with our wireless direct service, and even offered to go to another Radioshack to pick them up different phones, but the couple told me that they will just go down the street to the Cingular store where they have a wide selection of the coolest new phones.
We may have made our day had our prices been more competitive. I had a customer come in for a set of RCA cables, he complained that our prices were just way too high. He told me that he saw basically the same cables over at Wal-Mart for almost half the price. I tried to explain to him that ours were superior cables and they were gold tipped-thus giving him better conductivity and would last a lot longer. He responded with “I am hooking up a 10 year old VCR what the heck do I need gold tipped RCA cables for?”.
In order to make our day tomorrow, I suggest we fire Julian Day. He has depleted my store inventory, cut my pay, and forced me to send employees home thus leaving the store short staffed. Since he has taken over this company, our prices have been raised to a level that we are no longer competitive, the quality of our products have dropped, our customer service department has been pawned off to us at the store, and normal store upkeep (window cleaning, carpet shampooing exc) have been out of the question just to save money. I also suggest that Radioshack as a whole takes a good long look in the mirror. All Tenured managers are leaving and it is getting harder and harder to keep knowledgeable sales associates around as you can no longer live off the money you make here. The one asset this company does have is good employees… but because corporate has cut our pay and the crap we have to go through is getting ridiculous most of these people are leaving.
So don’t blame me that we didn’t make our day.. I am doing everything possible given what I have to work with. I will own up to not shoving a cell phone down every customers throat, if you own up to trying to run a company on a outdated, unrealistic, business model.
Thank you for listening
its funny to still here the claims that go on, but as ive said before happen everywhere…why are people upset Radio Shack is trying to stay competitve, is annoying salespeople good …no!!!! but it isnt that killing radio shack….its competition that wasnt there before…best buy is stronger than ever, wal mart and target are attacking CE like never before and are popping up everywhere….in my state we went from 8 to 14 walmarts and 1 to at least 8 or 9 targets over a 5 year span. There are stores that have annoying saleman, just as much as going into a wal mart you cant even get help. Radio Shack doesnt tell their associates tro be pushy they do it on their own to try to make money. The thing GO and others forget is Rado Shack is in business to make money…just like everyone else…or they wouldnt be there. As far as the return with ID…never heard that before. i could only think that store has a issue with fraud and implemented it themselves or that ANON is mistaken???….
As far as service plan….i have never heard a problem with customers getting their gift cards…i dont like the new way…(old way customers got in store service…but RS was losing money, so they sold it off) but it has its advantages.
And lastly loyal…if you are seeing good people leave its because they arent making money…if they arent making money….train them better…that simple…the avg person in RS is at 10.50 an hr…and hiring wrong or bad people is on you or your manager….do a better interview.
PS..Mike if your reading…long time no talk…hope all is well
I agree with “long time mgr”, one of the best parts of the job is knowing that a customer has a problem (generally the elderly), solving it for them, and then seeing the look on their face when they understand. I am not here because I want to make millions of dollars, or because I want to retire when I’m 50. I am here because I love the job. Because we have such small stores, any manager worth his pay is going to have very close relationships with his associates. It’s like a small family.
For the R.S. employees who are complaining; YOU are the problem. You bitch and bitch about customers attitudes, and questions, the pay, the hours… THEN LEAVE!!! All you are doing is pissing customers off and in turn, we make less money because they stop shopping here.
I never have worked for RADIO $HIT, but I’ve been a long time customer since the 1970’s.
I can remember when R$ only had ONE store and it was in Boston, MA. They wanted to “grow”
so they bought “Allied Radio” a parts supplier in Chicago, IL. Smart move, but now they don’t have ANY radio or television parts…it all has to be “ordered” and a fee added to
do that for you PLUS shipping. The $hack has turned it’s back on experimenters, Hams,
CBer’s, professional repair folks and is nothing more than a cell ‘phone store.
The ONLY reason I ever go into Radio $hit now is to buy Ni-cad batteries or check and
see if one of their radio scanners is on sale.
Radio $hit…You have questions, We have deep pockets to take your money.
Hey Buck,
Its funny you mention the 70’s….Do you know how much in this world has changed since then. Im guessing you have not. By your accounts we should still have 8 track and turntables galore. TV parts…with the way new tv’s are made 99% of america doesnt know how to fix a TV. let alone a radio. Is it a different world from the 70’s yes….Do you actually think if we only sold parts and radios we would be in business. The internet has taken that business from MOST retailers that dealt in that. Its too hard to compete. So like everything else this planet has seen Radio Shack evolved. Are there customers and even employees who are upset about not having those parts…yes….but they are tooo few and far between…no matter what you change it will have the positive as well as the negative.
When you carry a product line that doesnt move do you believe it should be kept???… Lets be realistic for a sec…if we sold 3 ham radios a year should we keep dedicating valuable space to it…remember most of our stores are very small. should we boycott circuit city for eliminating appliances???
The world listened to a lot of Jack Welsh’s theories…if you arent tops in it…get rid of it.
I worked for the shack in small midwest markets from late 70’s thru early 90’s. I started as a sales rep and over the yrs worked my way up thru DM. I did work hard and yes I got lucky a time or two, but I made excellent money, $24K/yr to about $70K/yr over the yrs. Although I have moved on to other endeavors, I still own a dealer RS store.
In my opinion, during the last 15 yrs, due to some self inflicted factors and some external factors, it is only a matter of time before RS goes belly up or gets bought out by a company who can figure out what to do with all those stores.
External Factors:
Over bearing competition such as Wal-Mart, Big Box stores, CVS, Walgreens, K-Mart, Toy stores and many, many other retailers. For years, RS more or less had a monopoly on a lot of the merch that they sold. Obviously that’s not the case now.
Internal Factors (Not an exhaustive list):
Gross negligence in the top management. RS should have been Dell, but with better distribution. RS should have been the preeminent cellular carrier and cellular retailer. RS should have been Cingular. No need to cry over spilled milk.
My advice to most of the better, hard working RS store level employees is to “get out”. You will probably make more, be appreciated more and be happier almost anywhere else.
To RS customers:
If you know what you want and don’t mind paying a premium for the convienience of a local store, RS is still a good place to shop.
If you don’t know exactly what you need, find a knowledgable employee. That may be difficult.
Good luck to:
RS employees
RS Corp
RS customers
The company that buys RS
See ya,
RP
I just read this whole page from 1 – 164. How did I get here? I googled “I hate radioshack.” You’re still #1, Mike. Why would I google “I hate radioshack?” Because I hate my current position in Radioshack. I spent a year working for a wonderful manager with 35 years of experience and moved to a different town and realized that I would save $50 a week by transferring to a closer store, which also had the perk of being a higher market store. I’m a college student, graduating in December (16th!), so the job was just to help me pay rent while I was getting through it. I started in my new store on August 3rd and wasn’t paid for the day and my sales weren’t reported (I was in the system). It was a Friday, so I had sales earlier in the week, but the difference scammed me out of the day’s salary and performance spiff (to the tune of $150). My manager basically told me that I had to figure it out on my own (I’m just a sales associate) so I called the district office, the district manager, my old manager, and payroll. Everyone wondered why my manager wasn’t the one making the phone calls. She started working for Radioshack in the middle of April and had the store ($1.3 million annual) by the end of the first week in May. She doesn’t know anything about electronics, doesn’t know how to handle inventory (Never clears orders but is a vulture over ICST’s), doesn’t know how to close a store, had 8 people leave the store over the month of August alone, and countless other issues. We also had “computer issues,” which means that when she worked, the computer would shut down and I would call Texas’ POS support center (Brian and Dave are the only two people left who can do anything useful) to fix the problem when I got back. I spent one night working on getting the system back up until 1:30 AM. I’m pretty sure she’s sabotaging it. Anyway, Back to the week before Labor Day: The computers are messed up and we have to be restarted as a new store. This happens on a Thursday and all of our sales for the week are out of the system. All she had to do was input everything back in before submitting sales. Anyway, I catch her error (She didn’t input the sales so people who should have had $8000 in sales only had $1200(myself and others)) by finding the payroll paperwork, which she hides in a different place every week (nobody ever gets to sign it). We have done tons of manual tickets because of the system being constantly down, which she inputs and credits to her own sales. I left her the paperwork showing her “error” in shorting everyone their pay and she said that she called payroll the Tuesday after Labor Day to have it corrected. I came back in on Thursday to check my pay online and see that the information didn’t go through. She insists that she called and sent the paperwork in, so she calls payroll to see what happened. The woman who handles my region said that she was on vacation and never got any information, much less a phone call on Tuesday. My manager looks at me and says “See. It was her fault. She was on vacation.” Now Radioshack owes me about $400 more than it did to begin with. I asked for a transfer, but since I’m a very knowledgeable sales associate with great numbers I was told I couldn’t leave the store until after Christmas. I said “This place is taking $550 a month from me. By Christmas you’ll owe me another $3000 (probably accurate since I’d be making more money during the holiday season). I’ve collected the necessary documentation to show that I have been defrauded and am going up to the Department of Labor on Wednesday. I also called the corporate whistle blower line (she took down the paper with the number, but I got it from a friend in a different store). I have always been good to my customers and will continue to be good to them until my last day working for the company (I have my new job waiting and have given my two weeks recently). I backed myself up through the bureaucracy so she wasn’t able to fire me on the spot. The last straw was the day that I had to be at the store on my day off for a “mandatory meeting” after which she accused me of having acted unethically in a perfectly normal cell phone sale in front of two other employees. Later in the day she called me and accused me of not having made two bank deposits because she couldn’t find the paperwork for them (they were filed already) and told me that I needed to come back up to the store so she could explain to me the proper procedure. I explained to her the proper procedure over the phone and she said “Well it seems like you already know what’s supposed to happen, but don’t do it again.”
Perhaps I am the problem with Radioshack.
Mike,
In comment 19 you do state that you do own the number one political debate blog on the internet. I know there was a spot where you were having a discussion with someone about how you never claimed to have the #1 political site. I believe that was the comment to which they were referring. Either way, you definitely have the #1 Radioshack inside information and bitchfest site, and you should be very proud of it.
I also want to declare that my situation is absolutely a rare one and that it is possible that my difficulties with my manager are because she was never fully and properly trained for her position. Incidentally, none of the new employees have even gone through fast track (basic training for new associates) much less any other training. I have tried to show them the training materials, but my manager tells me to stop and get back on the sales floor.
An important side note – If you watch fashion shows with the “stretch” feature of a television on, the women actually look pretty hot. Stretch is often found on 16:9 (widescreen) televisions and are intended to fill the screen when the source is in 4:3 aspect ratio.
Oh yeah… I knew they offered you 278-1509 the second I saw that you asked for 75 Ohm cable. Of course you have to take the good with the bad, but I feel that a person is much more likely to find a knowledgeable associate in a Radioshack than in damn near any other retail environment. Of course, the chance that you’ll find a good guy to go who can or will stay with the company is not as high.
Soon to be ex-RS SA-
I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I hope you get it cleared up.
Yeah, this is my personal blog– far from the #1 of anything. I was referring to my main site (America’s Debate), and was trying to point out that to the person who commented.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the post, though– it’s amazing how one post from two years ago can keep on going. I have another one about telemarketers that is also a bit over two years old, and it has almost 2.5x the number of comments!
I should look through my logs and see if anyone from RadioShack has read this…heh.
I was actually in RadioShack just last week. I needed some solder and a replacement tip for my iron. I was in and out, as I listened to the employee struggling to offer up his best explanation of SD cards to a customer who was just not understanding how digital cameras worked. I’m sure the employee and I shared a laugh– on the inside.
Oh, and by the way for long time mgr, I’m doing fine, thanks for asking. I hope you’re also doing well.
Mike
Hey all,
Don’t let me be confused with “Soon to be ex-RS SA”, as mine would be the exact opposite. I know from that statement alone you’re probably wondering two things. Number one being, “why would you want to work at radio shack”. And number two being “if you are, why in the hell would you be here”. My interest in working there is mostly due to the fact that I have no real other choices. I want to work with electronics, and the other stores just aren’t close enough to be worth the commute for a part time job. My full time job is satellite and wideband communications, in the USAF. I see working at radio shack as an opportunity to familiarize myself with electronics on the commercial side of the house and possibly carry some of this information back over to my “real” job.
That being said, my main reason for coming here is to ask for you guys to help me not make the very mistakes your posting about. I’m not concerned with cell phone sales or longevity, advancement, etc. Its just a job to me. All I really need is someone to point me in the right direction to learn what I need to to help satisfy customers and give them the assistance they require. I know there probably isn’t just one place I can go to learn everything about the electronics world and keep up-to-date with new products, but a few places to get me started would be very helpful. I apologize in advance if my posting here has bothered any ex(or future ex) RA employees.
Soon to be RS SA
All I really need is someone to point me in the right direction to learn what I need to to help satisfy customers and give them the assistance they require. I know there probably isn’t just one place I can go to learn everything about the electronics world and keep up-to-date with new products, but a few places to get me started would be very helpful.
There are a ton of great training resources that RS gives its new employees. I blew through them all in about 2 days, but I’m very familiar with pretty much everything RS has to offer, but if you take your time, you’ll be able to learn a lot from the books (I think everything is online now). I am no longer technically “Soon to be ex-RS SA” as I have been gone from the company for about a month. It sounds to me like you’re getting into the job for all of the right reasons and I’d bet that your customers will be very happy to see you when they come into the store. Good luck!
Dear Mr XXXX,
We appreciate you writing to us about your experience. I have forwarded your information to the district manager in your area for resolution. You will receive a call back within 48 hrs.
Thank You,
Gloria A Machuca
Customer Escalation Team
——————————————————————————–
From: XXXX
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 9:07 PM
To: RadioShack Customer Care
Subject: West Lebanon, NH Store
Hi,
I had a terrible customer service experience at your West Lebanon store. At approximately 4:53 I entered the store with my son. An employee approached me and said, “Okay, what are you looking for…I want to get out of here soon.” I told him I was looking for recordable DVD’s and asked if he was the Manager. He replied that he was not. I said that was understandable. The employee then said that I could find them myself if I was going to be a jerk about it. My son and I located the DVD’s, but I decided not to purchase them because I was angry with how we were treated by your employee. He walked into the stockroom and I asked another of your employees, Aaron, what his name was. Aaron replied that his name was Jim. My son and I left the store and Jim locked the door at 4:55. During the next 5 minutes, five other customers approached the door only to be given an impolite “wave-off” by Jim, even as they gestured towards their watches.
It would be an understatement to say that Jim’s customer service was sub-par. In the course of 7 minutes, Jim turned away 5 potential customers and one could only guess at how much revenue and goodwill were lost. I completely understand that this was at the end of the busiest weekend in retail. However, that is not an excuse to let your customer service to lapse into abuse. Frankly, I am embarrassed that my son had to even hear this exchange. Jim is not fit for retail and should not remain in your employment.
If I do not hear a satisfactory response from you, I will be sure to tell my family and friends about this incident. If I hear no response, then you can assume my PR assault will include the blogosphere.
Thank you for your time.
As promised in the above letter, I have taken my bad experience to the internet airways. I did receive a phone call, but it was not from the District Manager. Instead, it was from someone named Jenna @ 413-731-6520. When I called her she couldn’t remember what the issue was in West Lebanon. This was only a few days after she had left a message with contact information. Apparently, Jenna makes so many of these phone calls that details of a customer service complaint escape her. Once I made her aware of the details, Jenna asked what she could do for me. There’s customer service for you! Not an offer to apologize…not any kind of empathy.
The conversation went downhill from there. Jenna explained that the employee was going to be reprimanded and that they had had a recent turnover in management at the store. First, giving these details to me is probably not part of Radio Shack protocol (although, I wouldn’t be surprised). Second, I, the customer, am more concerned about how they can repair this wrong to me and my son.
Signed,
Never to shop at Radio Shack again!
Firstly, I’d like to commend Mike for somehow managing to keep this blog topic running as long as it has. I do guess that RadioShack’s own faults do assist in this matter.
Secondly, to Disgusted Customer, as a current RadioShack employee, I’d like to extend a personal apology for your debacle at the store in New Hampshire. I do want you to know that not every RadioShack employee acts as such and you may find the occassional few with a joking demeanor who don’t mind taking an extra few minutes to assist you.
Now for everyone reading this. Don’t think of me as a brain-washed loyal employee of RadioShack, because I am about as far from that as can be. I work two jobs, RadioShack and at a tiny Wireless store in Boulder, CO. I have my frustations about RadioShack, even as an employee. I would like to say this to the defense of some of the employees of RadioShack (specifically mine, I don’t dare to wander into too many other RadioShacks simply for the reasons listed above in the many pages of text). I know that probably 3 of the 6 members of “the team” at my RadioShack don’t mind taking time to converse with a customer about topic matters pertaining to their problem as long as we’re knowledgeable about the subject matter. I won’t lie, I don’t know everything there is about capacitors, resistors, diodes, or relays. TO be quite honest, I’ve never used those or thought much of them in my day-to-day life. One of my other employees does. I’m going to direct them in his general direction if they start asking questions. Now ask me a question about computing, setting up a network, or something similar dealing to something I am knowledgeable about, and I’ll help explain that problem to you until you understand it. Here’s an example:
Back in October, I had two customers from Italy who wanted a cell phone here in the States. I explained to them that they would probably be required to pay a deposit of about $500 PER PHONE. He mentioned that this was fine, and we proceeded to get him two phones and activate them. After about 1 hour and 45 minutes of assisting him and his wife, (and running to the back room to get things and be yelled at by my manager for taking too long) I returned out to the floor to finalize the transaction and answer any further questions he had. Well he did have a few questions more, that required my calling of Sprint authorities and after 2 1/2 hours of interaction, they finally left the store, HAPPY with their new phones, HAPPY with their customer service.
The big thing missing from RadioShack and other retail venues that is plaguing our society is 1)common courtesy and 2)customer service. There a very few stores any more that really preach customer service. I find that in my past experiences working retail nobody trains anyone on customer service. It’s really a lost art. There are a few good-hearted souls who try to revive that only to be crushed by corporate policies and regulations. You may only find them in your “Ma and Pa” shops in some towns.
Well I don’t really have much else to type about, but if you’re ever in Boulder, CO and want to say hi to a friendly face who wants to build a relationship as opposed to sell you an item and send you off, swing by Advantage Wireless, and we’ll chat for a bit.
-Josh
Hi Josh, thanks for stopping by and commenting. I haven’t done anything to keep this post going. Heck, I don’t even know how it got to 170+ comments. I post once every few months, and beyond that, I just moderate the comments– approve, approve, approve, approve…
It’s amazing which posts take off. This is my #2 commented post, a distant second to a joke post about annoying telemarketers that I posted in August 2005 that currently stands at 426 comments. Only 3 of the comments are from me. The rest are people sharing their experiences (and investigations) about a few select telemarketers.
Thanks again,
Mike
To Josh and “Never to shop at RadioShack again”
I have worked for RS for a long time. I have also worked at other retail establishments. I am not brainwashed in the least. I know what problems our company suffers from, and yet I am still here. The problem of customer service is industry wide and its a cultural thing. As we have deteriated to a fast food type society and retailers like Wal-Mart are king because of price, companies that were once known for customer service have sacrificed that for lower gross margins and paying people less money so you don’t get cream of the crop. The applicants you get at Target, Shopko, Sears, RadioShack and Walmart are from a generation that don’t have a very good work ethic. It is very seldom that you find someone that believes that a job well done is it’s own reward…someone who has the ethics to do the best job they can no matter what the pay, just because that is the right thing to do because it is so much easier to go on unemployment or welfare because in so many places the pay doesn’t even pay for what you spend in gas and daycare. So why bother with a little thing like customer care?
I am lucky. I work in an are where at least 75% of the employees(including managers) are great. When we, that hard working bunch, read things about a fellow employee or hear about it, whether they are across town or across country, it makes it hard for us to hold our heads up high and it makes us ashamed to say where we work. I can guarantee that it never would have gone past our district manager and would have been resolved quickly.
On a good note…those techies wanting parts, we have extended our parts division. But keep in mind, we still have to compete against big box retailers, and if you don’t at least give us a shot to fulfill those other electronic needs, then you set big box retailers to win. When that happens, anyone that had any hopes of having a “mom and pop” type of business is gone. WE all will work for “The Man”.
Thanks for your time
Coralee
To be honest, I’ll be out of RS in about a month. The real truth is that they don’t pay you what you’re worth unless you cram cellphones, credit cards and service plans down people’s throats. I’ve had orders that total over a thousand dollars, and I essentially got paid nothing for them because even though my dollar per hour was over the requirement, the items were not performance spiff (spiff = the RS version of commission) eligible. As someone who likes troubleshooting, I don’t mind the people coming in saying “my phone doesn’t work,” but they should at least pay us some kind of compensation for it, because while we’re spending anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour (depending on the problem and how many times we are forced to explain said problem to an indecisive customer, or even rummage through the store room for a part or product because it’s not organized in any way) solving the problem, we could be selling one of said cell phones to a customer.
All the best,
Gone in a month
ANyone here actually work at the coorperate office? The den of decatence, as I here it is called.
Assistant Managers now make $9.20. Given a set 32 hours MAYBE more / week…Average $500 paycheck without pushing crazy spiff amounts results on the ASM qualifying for welfare as they do not make more than $12,000/year.
Post 179 – Anonymous
9.20*32hours*52weeks= $15308.80
Any ASM worth their salt should be picking up good spiffs and get themselves over $500/week. What do you expect? They’re not going to make millions pimping Made in China crap at a Radio Shack.
After having read some of these posts (not all 180, that would make my eyes bleed
), I realize just how horrid the company I work for is. Many others who work for RadioShack seem to be facing just the same problem I am.
Now, I work in a RadioShack located in the Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. I have worked there for roughly 6 months now, and after this period I can say that my job SUCKS. I make minimum wage as a Sales Associate, due in part to the rediculous prices we charge. People do not want to spend $6.99 on a 2-ft piece of coaxial cable that only costs $0.69 to make. Those who posted before me covered how RadioShack uses underhanded tactics to turn a profit by metaphoically sawing the legs out from under their employees.
There are many more examples I could give, but for the sake of those reading this, I will keep things concise. Even so, I have much to say.
I struggle on commission. I want to get out of RadioShack and go somewhere where I can make enough money to support my girlfriend and our now 7-month old daughter. I got the job at RadioShack, originally, because I thought it would be better than working behind a deli counter in a Pathmark, which for a little while it was. Don’t get me wrong, I would never go back to Pathmark, but it seems I traded my soul for a Service Plan.
My pay is $7.15/hour, plus RadioShack’s token 2.5% commission. Monday to Thursday, our store is very slow, and I would need to make at least around $75 and hour in sales to see any of that commission. So, as you might surmise, I do not get that commission. Every check I get seems to shrink from the previous one, and every week the manager plays yo-yo with my hours. There have been a few weeks recently when I only had 6 hours, being that I worked for 3 hours two days out of the seven.
I was told recently that if my sales don’t improve (namely, in the areas of wireless sales, service plans, and answers plus credi cards), I would continually receive less hours, until I had no more hours at all.
It was by this point that I realized COMMISSION SUCKS. Someone of my nature, who is more interested in providing true solutions to customers problems, getting the customer what they need, and providing honest advice has no place in such a company as RadioShack. I must be a true failure in the eyes of this tyranical company, maybe even in it’s parent corporation Tandy. I suppose it is wrong to wish to know how to best help a customer, HOW TO DO THE THINGS I WAS SUPPOSEDLY TRAINED TO DO.
As a current RadioShack Employee, All I can say about my job is I want to find another. I hate being given unpleasant looks from customers, told that the price is too high, that I don’t know what I’m talking about, that RadioShack sucks. To anyone who does not work at RadioShack, stay away, for your own good. If you are in this with me as another employee, I feel your pain.
Thank you for your initial post Mike. It has made me seriously see the evil that thrives in the corporate heart of RadioShack.
As a current radioshack store manager, i am extremely disturbed by all of the experiences that many of you have had. Not only do I take pride in my associates and their skills, i also take pride that i have a very knowledgable, courteous friendly staff. I have three associates that have been with us for over four years, and i take pride in hiring the best of the best that i can find. And honestly, my guys make an average of eleven to fifteen dollars an hour, and i am no where close to the busiest of the stores. I love going into work every day, and my associates do as well. as far as the actual selling of the products…as far as i know we have ALWAYS been a comission based company. I train my associates not to sell sell sell, but to sell a solution to the customer. They leave happy and with everything that they need, my associates make money and the company stays in business. it is a win win for all in my store. I have managed three stores in my career, and i have customers that have followed me around to whichever store i belong to. i also see long-term relationships formed with my customers and my associates, because we care about the cusotmer. maybe all of the other stores have had improper management, but if you ever need anyhting, i will be happy to take care of you myself, just pop by the Bridgewater, Ma store, and you will leave happy and content with your visit.
I just read the last comment and I worked for the shack for 8 years. I had my customers that followed me around and employees that would do anything for me, I had a knowledgable crew and here is where the crap starts….. This job that I was way under payed for since I put in more than 80 hours a week, since we dont get hourly we cant go over on payroll… There were some nights that I had to sleep in the store since I worked in a bad area and was broke into once a month and I asked if we could do something about this. They said it was not in the budget to get security gates for the store… I had a DM that didnt know how to deal with people and enjoyed micr-managing everyone. A old friend that was a regional manager was told he had to come pick up a corporate personal at the airport even though he was 4 hours away and he had to drop everything and drive him to the regional headquarters… After picking up this piss-ant and bringing him to the regional office he was fired….. (what professionalism). Well i was let go for trying my best to help the customer with what ever they needed and I didnt go directly by thier SOP (store operating procedures) which is wrote to help the company not the customers… My DM didnt like that I handled the customer complaints that happened in my store since being the manager I felt it was my responsibility…. That it wasn’t my job, and a JOB (just over broke) it was…
i heard that area vice president chris stelzyl was let go today
i myself is a radioshack employee. when i started working with radioshack i honestly did not what anything was, but i learned as i kept working.
have you ever considered that the person you talked too just started working and does not know what an OHM is.
when i started at RS, i didnt know what a memery card, bluetooth, was, let alone OHM.
my point is if the employee is not getting you to ehere you eant to be than approach another employee. maybe they have more knowledge than the employee who just started working.
i work for a radioshack in a corn field (iowa) and i was reading for a bit then jumped to the bottom (lazy, but its also 3:28AM -6 GMT), im only posting to say (and i do not know if anyone posted about this) is that, if you want your original recipt back, we can copy it for you, we just have to have it so the manager can validate it when he does paperwork at the end of the week. we (at least at my store) have no problem giving a copy (which remains valid) back to the customer.
P.S. mike, please respond to my email (or at least send a copy of your post) thanks.
i am a radioshack manager at the moment. if your store is unorganized and just hire anyone you have a shitty manager period. i agree the pay isnt all that great if u live in a location that dont sell to any phones. i know u think we just want to annoy the hell out of you but they want us to offer you products to find the full solution for you to give u a great customer experiance so u wont say they sold me a antenna rotor and didnt give me the damn cable ect ect. if u dont like being helped go to walmart so when u ask a ? they look a you like your a idiot and give u the finger. you know the finger. its right over that way>>>>> not a great feeling to be pointed away.
i would say that KC is a stupid fuck for working at radio shack. if he is so smart why is he working for one of the biggest loser companies in the world?
this is what people are complaining about here you stupid fuck……….rude,arrogant jerks like you. do you get it yet??????????
radio shack must be on corporate welfare (getting money from our tax dollars) or they couldnt afford to be turning away business with their rude and sometimes anti-social customer service. last time i spoke with a radio shack customer service and didnt catch an 800 number the representative wouldnt even repeat the number to me,assuring me he gave me the right number. in other words i do not deserve the courtesy of having the number repeated just to make sure i got it right because you cannot question a god. these guys sound like cops. repeating phrases and numbers is just common phone and radio courtesy.
i was inquring about a digital converter,but i bought it somewhere else. there is evidence that “rat shack”i mean radio shack intentionally sells overpriced defective junk (i guess they were taught that by dell computer company).
just exactly who are these little snotty punks who work at radio shack? what is their malfunction? they sure must not fear losing their job or they would not bite the hand that feeds them so much. it was this punks job to repeat that number to me. im not here to serve radio shack. if radio shack offers a customer support number to the public its they who should serve me.
if we consider radio shack to be an extension of the fascist government here than radio shack people are just typical government employees,lazy and rude,not worrying about losing their pay check because they have no competition and have to commit murder in order to be fired.
Here is a YouTube video which illustrates the return process for RadioShack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhDUBV4La2s
This is very informative.
RADIO SHACK IS KING!!!!
For Christmas my husband bought me a Megellan GPS from our local Port Orchard, WA Radio Shack. Immediately out of the box we noticed the power port in the side of the unit was pushed in alittle, but the connector cord inserted and amazingly this little device fired up without a hitch – no set-up, loading of maps. It was so simple. We used it 2x locally just playing around to see how accurate it was. Everything was fine. First trip to CA, within three weeks of owning this device and it would not come on. I thought, well heck, maybe it only works in WA. Tried it a couple more times on this trip, no worky – so just packed it back into the case for it, brought it home and returned to the Radio Shack store with all the parts and pieces, including the receipt AND the extended warranty my husband bought for an additional $39.
What a nightmare trying to work with these people. The story is too long to go into here, but suffice to say the manager of that store is incompetent. They called the Radio Shack service center as I stood there. They were told that pushed in power port is not something that can be fixed. Give me a new one (the unit is less than a month old, and only used 2x now remember). So this store doesn’t have one. They locate another store who will sent it t them. I go home and they call me a week later to come pick up the new one. So I venture over to the store, now they say, oops, we can’t give you this one, we have to send in your original one to Service. What!? You called Service already and …blah blah. Anyway, I leave it w/them. They send it in. I finally 2+ wks later get a call, come pick up the unit…the original, UNREPAIRED, unit. Some stupid policy now requires I take the unit home, Service (CyberTest) will send me a box, and I have to mail the unit back to them…the same damn place that just had the unit to repair!!!!. Ok, calm down – send the unit in with all the paperwork as requested. 2-3 more weeks go by and now I call to find out the status of the repair. They have declined repair as they say it’s ‘Abuse’! What!!!
Unit was used 2x. I kept it in a case. The power port was damaged, but I thought would be ok from the onset. Mind you, I’ve been back to the store in P.O. 3x by now. I call Radio Shack Service myself and did get a very helpful rep who said the Megellan unit is still covered by Megellan. So I call them when I finally get the unit back – 1 week short of the 90 day timeframe to file a claim. Megellan were wonderful to work with. Said no problem – send the unit now to them. Ok, that’s where it is now. Let’s hope it comes back in working order – maybe even a replacement. I don’t care. I just want the darn GPS we bought in December, along with an extended warranty (waste of money with Radio Shack). And, I will never buy anything else from Radio Shack. Just send several hundred dollars at a competitor for electronic equipment, and Radio Shack has lost a good residentual and commercial customer.
Meant to say, I just ’spent’ several hundred dllars at a competitor for…
Anyway, needed to vent, and I’m hopeful resolution from Megellan will be coming soon with the return of a working unit. Radio Shack was terrible to work with and the extended warranty spent with them was a joke.
Wow,,,,,,,,, there is an incredible amount of uneducated folks that come to this page. I guess I better leave right now!!
I hate the shack. Literally.
I work for it. Or at least I did.
I was tipped off that I will be questioned by lp next week, and all my hours have been dropped to zero. Ive never taken so much as a battery… They just fired my co-worker because he didnt sell any cellphones this week…
This company is treating its workers badly. It pays us base wages, and an impossible commission.
We strive to do as much as we can, but our customers still give our under paid asses hell.
Am I mad at the Shack? Yup. They are screwing me with a cactus
I just dont think that they should honestly be in business any more.
I was married to a radio shack employee.He started as a part time employee and worked his way up to a store manager. He related that at the manager training in Ft Worth, female employees were giving lap dances to male employees, people were partying and drinking all night and barely stayed awake in class. My ex husband came from a middle eastern country and was naive about sex but after working for RS and attending those meetings in Ft Worth and Vegas he got quite an initiation. Apparently there’s a lot of sex going on between managers and employees and customers in the back rooms as well. He was able to use his position as a district manager to seduce stupid young women who are susceptible to men they preceive to have power. It’s not RS fault that our marriage failed due to his infidelity but you’d think a company would show more responsibilty and discipline over the behavior of its employees. After all a company is responsible for its own corporate culture. Anyway, I’ll be going elsewhere for batteries from now on. I can’t help but think of RS as a meat market disguised as an electronics store. Their stock deserves to be in the bottomless pit.
I work for Radio Shack of over two years. First, i was in a store where the manager was a crazy loony women who had went through 4 different crews of people before they figured out she was the problem, and how did she become a manager? Her brother is a district manager canidate. Oh and when you talk about all the sexuality, it is all true.
Then i got a transfer to a new store, which was very difficult to get to everday(oh they will make the associates travel to the ends of the world). Even though it was a far a tough commute, it didnt matter. My manager, and the entire crew at that store made it worth coming to work every day. This location, with these people help me succeed to become an asst. manager. And i am was very proud of that store. Although we were one of the lowest grossing stores in the district, we helped the customer. I never forced the customer into cell phones, i only pursued when they came in and directly asked for cell phones, or when a district manager was there.
But then i get transfered to a different store. I come back from a 5 day vacation, to only have 7 hours on my schedule. When i make phone calls to find out why, i cant get a hold of anybody. it takes me 9 hours to find out that i am getting moved to a different store. Also, that it is happening in two days.
So i go to the new store, and everybody seems really nice, but this store has a reputation of firing people for stealing. So i am unsure of if its setting people up, or if they are really thieves. But i get there, and realize really fast that the manager is a great guy, and that all of the employees except for one are all really good too. So for 2 week i put in lots of extra hours to help the manager get the store into perfect display position. the next day i come in and there is some women sitting at the managers desk. She doesnt even say a word to me for 30 mins, and then comes out and tells me that she is my new manager. This women over the course of 2 months basically treats me like garbage, and decides that her store has to have her people. So she starts cutting my hours well below my 32 and then giving me tons of menial tasks. Then tells another female employee to snatch all the cell phone sales from me. Which i still got out a few. Then at the begining of april decides that my cell phone numbers are not high enough(even though my numbers in every other catagory are great). She procedes to completly take me off the schedule, and tell me that she is going to have our district manager fire me. Which is what happened.
Then on top of that, they challenge my unemployment, just to be shysters. I go for 8 weeks with no income. and they also rob me of all my earned vaction days.
If there was ever an evil company, this definatly it. Employees do steal. Corporate steals you will, you drive, and pretty much your time.
I work at Radio Shack, and yes, sexuality does take place at work. But yes employees do steal and that is alll radio shacks fault!!! They keep letting the same person work there even when they know that he is stealing. They keep him just cause they are short on employees. Then I go to a meeting just to be told if something is stolen out of the cage again we will all be fired!! I have never took one thing outta that store, I am sooo pissed.
So, here is my story:
I started working for RadioShack on December 1, 2008 as an Manager in Training (which with RS basically means that you do all the crap work for only $1 an hour more). The store that I started at was in a great location. I had a wonderful manager, and for the most part the staff was made up of very educated sales associates. We took pride in providing educated answers, solutions, and wonderful customer service.
I was made aware of the horror stories of working for RS before I began my employment there, but I dismissed all of that because simply put I needed a job. I was aware that the starting pay wasn’t all that great, but I was under the impression that if I met the sales benchmarks set by the company that I would bring home a pretty decent pay. Considering that I started during the busiest time of the year, it was easy to make the sales numbers in the beginning. In fact I performed quite well, but never saw that reflected in my paycheck. I quickly came to find out that RS was only concerned about you as the sales associate engaging every customer in a cell phone conversation.
I understood that it was a sales position, and that RS wanted to push the wireless phones because this is where they made their money, but the fact of the matter is that not every customer wants to be hassled with a “cell phone conversation”. Many of our customers would come in for a handful of electrical parts, or a particular cable, and just couldn’t be bothered for the umpteenth time about the cell phones that we sold. I did my job to address cell phones with every customer, but I kept it away from the overbearing “salesman” pitch.
Anyways, about two months after I began my short career with RS I was informed that a vacancy had come up in another store, and that I would be given the opportunity to step into a management position. Understandably I was excited at the opportunity of being able to climb the ladder, and the increased pay. Little did I know how “little” the increase in pay was going to be. I was reassured however, by my district manager that the pay would be increased because the store had to be “reevaluated” since it was no longer a corporate store. On top of that, he informed me that with bonuses, and cell phone sale commission I would be making “much” more than what it sounded.
It didn’t take long for me to realize just how much of a headache working for RS was! As a manager I was required to work 6 days a week with a minimum of 52 hours (closer to 60+). I no longer received any commission from the typical sales (aside from cell phones)… even when I sold a service plan I didn’t see a penny of the money. Even though I was making commission when I sold a cell phone, I felt it was only fair to pass on those sales to my associates since their pay was lower than mine. However, when I began to break things down based on the hours that I was working I was making less per hour than many of the more skilled sales associates.
On top of all of this, my store was located in a very small town with a low traffic count. My DM was continuously on my back, because we were failing to meet the “made up” sales figures that he had set for our store. Mind you the goals that were in place were higher than our sales figures from the prior year, and we were deep in a recession! Everything I did was always questioned. I was micromanaged to a T, and I was told that I needed to get rid of my entire sales team even though I felt like they were a great group of individuals who were simply stuck in a crappy situation, in a crappy store, that was poorly positioned, with sales goals that were unreasonable.
In 2008 the district that I worked in experienced a 90% turnover rate in management (not exactly numbers you want to brag about). During my time at RS, out of 19 store managers (me being one), I saw six leave the company – that’s over only a 7 month span. Many of those who left did so, because A.) They couldn’t agree with the companies policies B.) They were underpayed c.) They could no longer work for a micromanaging nitwit who had a pee for a brain.
I left RS as a manager and went to work for another company of about the same size. I am now an assistant manager, and despite the lesser role I am making $14k more a year than I did with RS… and that’s before bonuses. I can’t say it enough: If you are thinking about working for RadioShack PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE think it over long and hard… the company sucks to work for, and the pay is insulting to say the least. Don’t expect to be able to support yourself on the pay that you’ll make by working for this company let alone a family.
Sorry for the rant, but thanks for listening!
Sorry, I forgot a few things in my rant.
Here are some numbers to chew on:
A standard sales associate is payed minimum wage. This is justified by the company telling you that they are paying you commission, so how much commission do you make?
You are payed 2.5% (yes that’s pathetic) of all RadioShack branded items that you sell as long as you are at $75 in sales an hour.
So, how much does RS make off of RS branded items? Here are a few examples:
A button cell battery such as CR2025 (the type of battery that you use in a car remote) is sold at RadioShack for $5.49. Now that same exact battery cost the company 22 cents! That’s a 250% markup if my math is correct.
An HDMI cable that RS sells for $59.99 cost the company less than $5!!!
These are just two examples, but roughly half of a RadioShack store is made up of RS branded items all of which see the same type of markup as what I listed above.
The ONLY way to make any type of money as an associate is if you sell a wireless phone. With a wireless contract you can make anywhere from $5 all the way up to around $50. Most of the time you are in the $15 range. That might sound pretty good, but when you consider that the average store may see two wireless phone sales on a given day you can figure out that the chances of one of those being your sale is drastically reduced.
I am amazed at what RS gets away with when it comes to the price markups. It’s no wonder that so many of the customers that come in walk out without making a purchase, because they say the prices are to high!