Radio Crap

[Eventix]

Anyone else out there have horrible experiences with Radio Shack on routine basis? It seems like there service is missing the mark in every state. Stopped there this evening for some spade terminals and over herd a naive clerk ripping off an even more naive customer. I witnessed a customer being pressured into buying a $300 JVC receiver on store credit. Not to mention the Clerks way of exaggerating the power specs on the POS receiver. It was a young guy with no money. I actually think the Clerk was convinced that this was a good deal. Anyway, their conversation made me sick enough to leave and to later write this thread. Hope you guys have had better experiences than I. I believe this is the last time I will set foot into one of their stores. Did I mention I did not buy anything.

[recoveryone]

Anyone else out there have horrible experiences with Radio Shack on routine basis? It seems like there service is missing the mark in every state. Stopped there this evening for some spade terminals and over herd a naive clerk ripping off an even more naive customer. I witnessed a customer being pressured into buying a $300 JVC receiver on store credit. Not to mention the Clerks way of exaggerating the power specs on the POS receiver. It was a young guy with no money. I actually think the Clerk was convinced that this was a good deal. Anyway, their conversation made me sick enough to leave and to later write this thread. Hope you guys have had better experiences than I. I believe this is the last time I will set foot into one of their stores. Did I mention I did not buy anything.

Radio shack, BB,CC or even any Car dealership you step foot on. If you don't do your homework before you go out to do the actual hands on shopping your are only setting yourself up for any and everything. You really can't blame the clerk he only doing his job. If you walk in and start telling them what you are looking for and the spec's you want you will see an whole different approach from any sales person. If you show you have knowledge of the product or in the field (any good sales person) will know that they need to watch what is said and not get caught pushing the BS to far.

I go into RS often and walk right to the section/area where the items I'm looking for and at times I tell them this is what I need and the price I'm willing to pay. You would be surprise how some of that inventory they moved off the shelf for the new monster line carp comes back out of the back room.

[PeruvianSkies]

I think that there is an over-arching problem here....

First, you cannot necessarily blame the store person in this case only for a few specific reasons. The clerk is trying to make a living working at a low-paying job that requires him to sell stuff, problem is...they don't really carry great stuff, so therefore they are forced to make things sound better than they are, otherwise they wouldn't sell anything. In stores where there are few walk-in customers they pretty much tackle you at the door dying to make a sale, which is a sad state that we are in since there is so much mis-information out there on both the consumer side and the so-called salesman side.

Second, a place like RadioShack is relying on all of their product to sell, unlike a place like BB or CC they have things like DVD's or CD's to sell and they can use that as bait to lure people into the store, but when someone goes into RadioShack they typically have something that they are looking for on mind, or maybe they just want to play with the remote control cars for a little bit.

[N. Abstentia]

God I hate Radio Shack. Oddly enough we used to have 3 of them here in town....and that was years ago when there was nothing here. Now the town is booming and we're down to 1 Radio Shack. Everything else is expanding and Radio Shack is tanking, and it's not like a Best Buy or Circuit City has opened here. I'm talking stuff like WalMart, Lowes, restaruants, hotels..stuff like that. Radio Shack has no real competition here (other than upmteen cell phone stores) and they can't seem to keep a store open.

[recoveryone]

thats odd Abstentia, RS is one of the one stop shop all cell phone places now days, you can even pay your bill there...lol the ones in my area sale Sprint/Verizon and Cingular. That has been their main stay for the last few years. Their selection of HT gear is way down, mainly only selling (cables & wires). Now they are in bed with the IPOD bandwagon and selling stuff for that too. But as you said the wal-marts/targets are cutting into RS market.

[Rock789]

I remember when radio shack used to have all kinds of electronic gadgets, and lots of diy speaker stuff...
it seems they have gotten away from that stuff (at least the stores around here)...
if you still need a fuse, or something basic, local radio shacks usually have it, but for more advanced stuff... best bet is to get it online somewhere...
(watch short circuit 2 if you don't remember all the stuff radio shack used to have...)
anyway, as for the rudeness... I did have a very rude manager while at a radioshack about 10 years ago, but other than that... I have never seen a pushy salesman at radioshack...

[Vardo]

The owner(s) of Radio Shack are mighty cheap when it comes to
paying employees. They make minimum wage, and the managers
don't make that much more. They are supposed to know everything,
not just stereo stuff. They are asked a ton of questions about cell
phones, coax connections, splitters, cable TV verses Sat....and
so on and on. There is no incentive for their employees to get to
know everything about what they carry. If you work up to manager
your pay increase is very little. The way they can make more money
is getting a commission on selling you a cell phone contract, or
a satellite system contract, thus the hard sell on those items.
I know the salespeople at Best Buy (and now Circuit City) make
minimun wage, thus the attitude, and lack of knowledge and caring.
It shouldn't be that way. A person in their position should try to
get to know what they sell, but the motivation isn't there. The
turnover rate of Radio Shack is tremendous.

When I go to Radio Shack, Best buy, etc., I already know what I
want, and don't rely on the salespeople, who will BS you about what
you need 'cause they don't have any or little knowledge of their
products. My 2 cents....vardo

[Eventix]

Though I rarely ever enter any of these stores (BB, CC, RS) because of their less than desirable product lines, prices, and support, my expectations are too high. Maybe the younger generation is forced to work on commission at these stores which indirectly encourages them to stretch the truth about products. I find it more admirable to back down or admit that a topic is beyond their experience than to continue hounding. Would if your wife or daughter was the one being convinced to buy the item. I went to BB a while ago to assist a friend in buying a computer and witnessed the salesman convince him that an Athlon64 3400+ is a 3.4 GHz processor. I call that a blatant lie, but maybe it's an accident. These companies inflate the prices in many cases to twice the cost from the net and than higher naive teenagers to sell. Is this an honest strategy? Granted they do have to pay for the overhead, advertising, and make a profit. But does it really cause an item to double in price? It's too bad more people don't take the time to research before shopping at these places. Of course, if everyone started shopping online the stores would seize to exist and the online prices would rise. I worked in sales as a young man. I never sold an item I was not educated in, confident in, and believe was an acceptable price. I mean no offence to those that shop at any of the above locations. I have strong feelings about this and wanted to state my opinion. After all, that is what this forum is all about right?