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Now I remember why I avoid RadioShack like the plague...

#41
ZB158 said:
The greed of the company is causing them to use the same workers as stock and sales/fielding questions - which leads to a poor customer experience/poor work experience, causing resentment between the two.

If they had people assigned to go in the aisles and field questions/assist customers and do nothing else, this would make for a better customer experience, work environment and more (precious) profit.
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So you think that the massive, successful company is deliberately forgoing profits. Because they're greedy. :rollno:
 
#43
I think it could (and should!) be done differently. I don't think that'd reap more profit for the company. Because if it did, the company would most likely be doing it already. Like you said, I'm sure they're very very concerned with maximizing profit. The fact that none of the Big Box stores go that way is a pretty strong indication that it wouldn't be profitable for them.
 
#44
BassChuck said:
This actually happened to me at Radio Shack. The clerk is a very perky 18 girl.

Clerk: May I help you?

me: I need a quarter inch mono female jack.

Clerk: I think they're in this drawer over here.

She opens it and I see what I want and pick it out. She takes it from my hand.

Clerk: I can see it says quarter inch, but what makes it female?

me: Well... it just the way its made.

Clerk: But why do they call it 'female"?

me: uh... well... ya know.... we've just met.

She thought about for a second and then the blush came on.
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Priceless!

So does fixing some of the jacks on the back of my receiver qualify as gynecology? :D
 
#45
WalterBush said:
At my local Radio Shack, they generally greet me once and ask if they can help me find something. I tell them "Just checking your components, thanks." And then they back off. At checkout, I say "no, thanks" to everything, and they back off.

Maybe it's a regional thing.
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This is pretty much what happens around here. Most of the time it's just "Can I help you?" and then "Do you want to donate to...?" at the register if they have a promo or a warranty if it's something $20 or over. They've never asked for personal info even if I paid credit.

I do have the problem of them not having parts, but that's why I check on their website if they have it at the store before I go. And yes, they're overpriced, but I'd be paying more in shipping depending on what I'm getting and how much.
 
#47
Simo98 said:
The problem is you're wanting good customer service and rock-bottom prices in the same place. As unfortunate and inconvenient as it might seem, the two don't go together, and it makes good sense if you think about it. You want a pleasant shopping experience with great customer service, you're gonna have to pay for it. Where does the extra money go? Into providing good customer service and a pleasant shopping experience.


I work in retail and to be honest I get pretty over people complaining about "all sales people" and how they are pushy and useless (granted, most of them are unfortunately). Generally these same people are also complaining about how expensive things are and how they can get it cheaper on the internet.

Sure, in our store you might pay more than online, or even full retail. But the extra money you pay, pays for my wages, as well as the services we provide, and I appreciate that. I do the best I can to make sure you enjoy your shopping experience, from extensive product knowledge, to free test and demonstration equipment, and the best backup and product support I can possibly offer. I'll often spend an hour or two with a customer ensuring they get exactly what they need and what will work best for them, it's not about what I can sell the customer to make the most money, it's about what works for them.

What's important to me is that you walk out of the store with a smile on your face, even if you didn't buy anything. And with good reason too, happy customers are good for business.

Radioshack don't care about happy customers. Unhappy customers will shop just the same as shown by this thread and their continued existence, because they're shopping by price, not service. The people up the top in control don't see the faces of the people on the floor, so it doesn't make any difference to them, and nothing ever changes.


If you want to enjoy shopping, or want good service, go to a smaller independent owned store and enjoy before they're extinct. If you want the cheapest price, are happy to do you own research and don't want to deal with pushy sales people, buy online.
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While I dig what you're saying, I think it may be a little bit of a false dichotomy. Take Wal-mart for instance. Now, Wal-mart has some business and management practices that I'm not particuarly a fan of, but my shopping experiences have been pretty good there. When I go up to the check-out line with a medium-grade widget, the cashier doesn't try to upsell me a high-grade widget. Now, obviously Wal-mart isn't making its profit on per unit sales, but it's low prices with low hassles.

I've come to accept that upselling has become the norm and is a necessary evil in the world of being a consumer. I always try to be respectful to the sales people because I know it's really some Stephen Covey-reading douchey type of manager who's really behind it (and I even use it as an opportunity to flirt a lil when the sales person is female, like I did this past August when the associate at a clothing place I shop at was trying to sell me some cologne they keep at the counter :D).

But the warranties kind of annoy me. I know a thing or three about stats, so I know that someone like RadioShack probably has someone with a statistics or an actuarial background who's created a model that shows that the warranty is actually going to make money in the long run (i.e., most people are never going to use the warranty). Therefore, it makes no sense getting a warranty. It's the same thing as going to a casino and thinking that you're going to break the house. Of course, warranties are nice if you're an outlier, but the people making the decisions aren't going to be offering warranties if the outliers were the average.
 
#48
Balog said:
So you think that the massive, successful company is deliberately forgoing profits. Because they're greedy. :rollno:
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Once you start diving into the world of managerial economics, you see that businesses - many of them successful - actually make decisions that are detrimental to them in the long run. It's tautological to assume that because a company is successful that it is doing the right thing, managerially speaking.

I guess you could call it greed. But short-term thinking without consideration of long-term gains would probably be a more accurate way of putting things.

P.s. I am aware of the irony that I just said in the above post that warranties wouldn't exist if it weren't for people with stats backgrounds building models to show that the warranties are, on average, not beneficial to the consumer, and then saying it's a tautology to assume that because a business has some success then it is making good managerial decisions. :D
 
#49
LiquidMidnight said:
Once you start diving into the world of managerial economics, you see that businesses - many of them successful - actually make decisions that are detrimental to them in the long run. It's tautological to assume that because a company is successful that it is doing the right thing, managerially speaking.

I guess you could call it greed. But short-term thinking without consideration of long-term gains would probably be a more accurate way of putting things.

P.s. I am aware of the irony that I just said in the above post that warranties wouldn't exist if it weren't for people with stats backgrounds building models to show that the warranties are, on average, not beneficial to the consumer, and then saying it's a tautology to assume that because a business has some success then it is making good managerial decisions. :D
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Sure, success is not prima facie evidence of a solid business model. But, if I had to choose which opinion to give credence to and the choice is between every manager/actuary etc at a number of huge and hugely successful companies and some dude on the internet, I tend to think that the people at the co's may have a better idea of profitablility.
 
#51
Balog said:
Sure, success is not prima facie evidence of a solid business model. But, if I had to choose which opinion to give credence to and the choice is between every manager/actuary etc at a number of huge and hugely successful companies and some dude on the internet, I tend to think that the people at the co's may have a better idea of profitablility.
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Of course, a for-profit business needs to eventually be profitable to survive. Sometimes, though, that short-term profitability can have longterm consequences, like destroying their brand. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, you can only understand what happened through hindsight, and the debacle is now a case study in an MBA textbook somewhere.

With that said, part of the fun of being some dude on the Internet is that you can argue this stuff without really needing to have the credibility to back it up. :D
 
#54
I work at a RadioShack. Unfortunately if you don't offer a warranty and try to sell you a phone, you get written up or get a talk with the manager. I know it sucks sometimes but hey I'm sure he wants to keep his job. Although you didn't have a good experience I'm sure as soon as you walked out his superior told him good job. I hate it so much lol. (I'm posting this from RadioShack. The irony lol)
 
#57
I've worked at a Staples, in the electronic department, it was hell on earth for us if we didn't sell enough of these garbage warranties. When a customer said no, I didn't push. I was suffering the consequences of not pushing, ****** shifts, not a lot of hours, etc.

Heck, I was even told once to be more like another salesmen who had just told a customer to get an extended warranties because dust could get in the hard-drive of the camera he was about to buy. The camera worked with SD-cards...
 
#58
The thing I don't get is how the OP states that the sales clerk was insinuating that he would be needing to insure the purchase. Why would anyone want to buy insurance on something that was junk? Why would they want to buy the item at all, if that were the case? That'd be enough for me to change my mind about buying anything. Talk about a self-defeating sales pitch. :hmm:
 
#59
The one I went too a few days ago to get a monitor cable had a meth addict at the helm. Teeth rotting out and he even showed me phones he rooted and played with to run completely different from factory standards. Nothing wrong with that I guess but as someone who sells phones and other electronics based on their factory specs, I wouldn't tell people you changed it so it ran better.
 
#60
Unfortunately that's starting to sound like basically every non-food/clothing retailer these days. The RadioShack around my way isn't so bad actually unless you expect the employees to be well informed (something that no one should expect from any retail employee :/). I walk in, they ask if I need help, I decline, grab what I want, pay and roll. That said, they are still a last resort because of how expensive they are. I only go if I need something right that second.
 

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