Ahhhhhh....Radio Shack personnel drive me nuts again!

Rant on.
Have any of you experienced less than decent service from Radio Shack employee's? I'm sorry but I've had it. I'm painting this with a broad stroke and I know that there are many great RS employees's in America but my experiences with them around the San Francisco Bay Area have been just awful. Some don't know anything about the products they sell.

What set me off today? I asked my daughter to pick me up a bulb since she was going out next door to a local RS. I know she has no idea what I want so I printed off the page from the RS website the info for a XPR103 bulb. I even wrote the catalog number down in large red printing on the webpage printout so there would be no misunderstanding, even though it is already on the printout. My daughter gives the RS printout to the RS employee. The RS employee comments on how great it is to have the catalog number and asks my daughter where she got the number? She tells the employee from the RS website. (You know, from the RS printout the employee is holding). The employee gives my daughter a KPR104 bulb after rummaging around for awhile and says that bulb will be fine.
Now I have to admit that I don't have any formal electronics background and really don't know much about electronics but it certainly doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure this out. This type of service has kept me out of the store more times than not.

Rant off.

How disappointing. I can certainly understand your aggravation, especially since you spelled it out so clearly for them!

I've had several "duh" experiences in Radio Shack (and even a coupla scary ones!) but lately I've also recently stumbled across a couple of especially helpful and courteous RS employees. It's nice to know that there are still some bright and hard working employees out there.

I rarely step in a Rad Shack myself anymore. I worked for 9 months as a Shack salesman back in 1987. The stores have changed but the sales staff is still on commission. The staff are more concerned with learning the ins and outs of the high priced items that give a bigger commission. Five percent of a < $5 bulb is not much of a reason to learn about it. This is ingrained in the sales training they get too. The parts are considered to be a reason to get bodies in the store so they can window-shop the more profitable merchandise. That's why the parts are in the very back of the store, you walk past all the goodies on the way to what you want.

I was going to vo-tech school for a degree in electronics during the time I was working for the Shack. I had a handful of customers that were floored that somebody who knew the difference between a resistor and a capacitor actually was working in the store.

People ask me why I prefer to shop online.

Perhaps it's because a webpage gives me more detailed information.
Perhaps because salespeople don't pester me and look at me as if I'm out to steal something.
Perhaps it's because web pages actually know what they are talking about.
Perhaps computers do understand the difference in one letter of an SKU or item ID can indicate a totally different item, unlike sales twits.

*shakes head*

No Radio Shack in my area but the problem is pretty much endemic. Yesterday I walked into a shop and as a friend said "The salesman looks like he's waiting for God to arrive, the way he's staring at the ceiling". Yeah, but but I too am under the impression that he's going to be waiting for quite a while.

Another hardware shop tells me "No we don't have the stock for the bulb you want, but why can't you take any other bulb? They're all the same"

I felt inclined to retort "So, any woman will do when you're desperate? All of them are women after all." (remainder of my comments are WAY too inappropriate to post here even with the stars and blanking characters).

Bottom line is that Osram instant-strike flourescents are way better than Philips and I am not interested in the Philips very very long warmup delay - they're instant strike, sure, and they take minutes to reach max output. I don't have time to wait. Osram doesn't start at max output either but takes seconds to come up to it instead of minutes.

you have questions .?we have blank staires and wrong answers

raggie33 said:

you have questions .?we have blank staires and wrong answers

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Ahh, such is the mantra of salespeople the world round! Well said raggie..

Recently I had another run-in with a salestwit over two items with similar specs. I'm aware the company has released two versions of the item, one is a newer version which costs less and performs better. Naturally, I am after the newer model! But I'm also aware it can cause some confusion because I get my info early and often, not many others know about it.

So I asked and I was told the wrong price for the older model. I told him "Oh, no, I meant the newer version." and he still insisted that the price was $2K. I corrected him twice, and basically he insisted on telling me the same price. I figured that either he doesn't believe me that there's a newer model, or wants to sell me the newer model at the old price, either way he is NOT going to get the deal.

I bought it from my regular reseller at $1K, which is the price I should have paid.

And these aren't small peanuts items either...guess that's why my regular reseller has the patience to sit down with me and go through every detail and let me play with it till I'm comfortable. But then again, is it any surprise that my regular reseller gets all my business?

BF Hammer said:

...The parts are considered to be a reason to get bodies in the store so they can window-shop the more profitable merchandise. That's why the parts are in the very back of the store, you walk past all the goodies on the way to what you want.

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While I can understand that from a retailing standpoint, it's just sad... :shakehead

raggie33 said:

you have questions .?we have blank staires and wrong answers

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LOL Great twist on their lame slogan, Reggie!

Everytime I go into a RatShack, it's a :hairpull: experience.

Usually when I head into a RS store I'm looking for parts, so I breeze right past the sales folks and head towards the back of the store. I'm always impressed when a salesperson takes the time to help me locate an obscure and inexpensive part, although it's usually a rare event.

All the RS's in my area are becoming cell-phone and digital camera stores. Last time I went there I found rocker switches and banana jacks were endangered species.

Nick

I am slowly giving up on them for anything. The local one in the mall here has been reducing their parts section everytime they restock (which isn't often) I did manage to find the right sized DC power jack there to extend a wall wort supply a few months ago, went in last week to find any project box at all as the size wasn't crucial and they had none, and the little drawer section had gone from 2 stacks to only 1. They have more heat sinks and computer fans though.

More and more useless every day, it's so sad considering how much time I used to spend as a kid staring at the IC's and then going to look up what I could do with them and going back and buying LEd's and all sorts of fun things.

Soon it will be mail order only, but thats OK, it's just a shame that you can't have instant gratification anymore.

270winchester said:

All the RS's in my area are becoming cell-phone and digital camera stores. Last time I went there I found rocker switches and banana jacks were endangered species.

Nick

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One thing that annoys me is when a sales clerk (RS or elsewhere) needles me about buying a new cell phone. My answer is always "nope - got one already." But the persistent ones get into an argument with me about whether the one I have "fits my needs." I've got better things to do that waste my time arguing with a sales clerk over something that I don't want or need.

One thing I do not like about some stores is they check on you every 5-10 minutes and have every employee ask you if you need help. I went to a hardware store and I was asked if I needed help 10 times while there and that was irritating. Going to a radio shack and being asked 3 times if I needed help and knowing that I knew more than they did I almost chuckled to myself thinking.... they are the ones needing help not me.
I had one kid that was trying to talk me into working at radio shack saying he was making a lot of money and I thought to myself... I am not into selling stuff at a stiff markup higher than perhaps everyone else and feeling good about it. I like to be honest and give people a decent price for stuff and a lot of the radio shack stuff you can buy 20% less somewhere else. It used to be their generic brands were slightly cheaper than everyone elses name brand but now most of that seems gone also.
The stores are more and more pushing stuff everyone else is selling and doing away with parts. I applaud their drawer cabinet of parts but my guess is they only did that so they could get more wall space for cell phone stuff.

I cant stand them, they are never helpful.

Last time I went in to get alittle audio cable adaptor for my computers sound card.
The guy is trying to tell me I needed some ofther unrelated cable,
and is rambling on about how he wants to goto 9.1 surround sound soon.
Now, it was hard, but i just went along with it, even though there is NO SUCH THING !!!

Then, I get the cable *I* wanted, take it to the register,
and they as me if I want any batteries..... ah no, I think the cable will work just fine without them.
We are having a deal on cell phones, can I give you the info on how to get one started with us?
ah.. no, cable, just a damn cable please. arg

~John

Thats one reason my electronics hobby was stopped dead in its tracks. The one I use to frequent in the early 90s had former and current ham radio geeks running the show. They were smart, knew where anything was and willing to give advice to mod circuits in the forest mins books they sold. I bought one of each copy and a few beginers electronic books with my allowance and parts to build the projects. Finally the staff was replaced with some late high school or early college folks who knew nothing about electronics than to crank up the music on the stereos and operator the cash register.

I found another store in the mall who had a guy who was a star trek geek. He wasnt quite as helpful. I then only visited them for watch batteries, aaaa cells and spacial parts. Got to the point nothing special was in stock and had to go online. I just ordered online after that.

I went into an RS once to buy a resistor. When I brought the little cardboard package containing 5 1/4w resistors over to the counter (all of 15 cents, I think), the clerk said "I suppoose you won't be needing the extended warranty with this."
:laughing:

yeah, like the time the guy insisted a 1000 Ohm resistor would do, when I knew I was looking for something in the lower 100's.

jtice said:

Then, I get the cable *I* wanted, take it to the register,
and they as me if I want any batteries..... ah no, I think the cable will work just fine without them.

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Can I use that?

Back in the day you would be met by a guy that could build a radio from scratch.

I was told I needed to go to a "Big Store" because the little ones have very little. The "Big Store" isn't very big but larger than the walk-in-closet a few miles from me. My last visit was recently.

A simi-hot blonde rep was patrolling the isles much like a two pound large mouth...had the tail shake too.

Twice she walked right up to me and said "excuse me" indicating she was trying to get by me. The first time I moved and waved her on. The second time I told her "that's pretty funny." and gave her a nice smile but didn't move. She smiled back because she knew she had been busted...in a nice way. She did a little shimmey move then wiggled on her way. No, she wasn't flirting or acting like she was flirting. She was trying to sweep me away from clearance stuff.

When I got to the check out with my bag of bulbs two dude reps were talking to each other. 15 seconds passed and no action. So I interrupted saying, "Can I shoplift these?". One replied, "Uh...no. You have to pay." To which I responded, "Exactly." They both chuckled a little and one rang me up. "Sorry about that." "No problem. You guys were talking about a project." I was a little irritated with their customer skills but since they were into electronics I was fine about it.

Does Radio Shack think I'll buy a robot from a cute girl?

BTW if they don't have the lamps you want you can order them in the store, request that the lamps be sent to your mailing address and no shipping will be charged. They won't offer this service but they did it for me last year and others have reported the same.

Icebreak said:

No, she wasn't flirting or acting like she was flirting. She was trying to sweep me away from clearance stuff.

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She was trying to herd you over to the higher-priced stuff?!! :scowl:

HAAA!! RatShack's got nothing on Fry's when it comes to stockboys masquerading as customer service employees. I dread going to Fry's if I ever really NEED something because it's a real crapshoot not getting someone giving you a dear-in-the-headlights look and snake eyes is the only winning roll to get a manager who's any better and not one of the sleezy commisioned ones with dollars signs for eyeballs. Arrgh! Don't get me started. I better stop here. Hrumph