Radio Shack Complaint - Why Employees Are Pushy

Posted by Contrary 2 Ordinary on 2009-01-08:

Funny thing about RS is that in all my years of living, and the countless number of RS's I've been in, I have yet to find an employee that knows a damn thing.
Guess I should have been buying cell phones.

Posted by ejack053824 on 2009-01-08:

Radio Shack is the last place I go for electronics. The stores looks like a stripped down flea market now.

Posted by RestaurantGuy on 2009-01-08:

I haven't seen a radio shack in years. I thought they went out of business long ago... huh guess not

Posted by D. Aliff on 2009-01-08:

Managers don't have to work 55 hours a week, my manager routinely works 48 hours a week, with two days off a week (usually Sunday and Monday). The only time managers are made to work 6 days a week is during the Christmas holiday. This is because there is increased volume, so employees are required to work more hours regardless of status within the company.

The managers do get paid a salary, therefore they don't get paid overtime, but that's the same way with any job with a salary. I have friends who work on salary in the prison system that get paid $1,000 a week no matter if they work 24 hours or 48 hours.

I can't speak on other districts firing employees after 3 weeks if they don't sell a cell phone, but I can say that I haven't sold a phone in probably that long and I'm not in danger of losing my job.

The company wants us to accessorize because they're a company. It gets annoying as hell offering every customer every thing we're supposed to, but if you think about it from a business stand-point, it makes sense. I can sell you a computer for $700 and the company may make $30, but if I sell you a computer for $700, a case for $30, a service plan for $200, a wireless mouse for $25, and some screen cleaner for $20, the company will make probably around $120 in profit. Irritating? Yes, but it makes sense when you think about it.

Radioshack.com is a terrible entity. There's an entire stock of SKUs that stores have absolutely no access to. Like the OP said, we can put the money on a gift card, but nine times out of ten, customers throw their gift cards away, making it impossible for them to get a refund. They usually don't read the EXTREMELY fine print on the website, so they don't understand that the return must be done that way, nor do they understand that we can't refund their money in the store. That leads to us having to deal with ridiculous complaints and not wanting to take the time to do any online transactions at all.

I've not worked here for two years yet, and I technically have two weeks of vacation (9 days). The amount of vacation you earn depends on your hire date, if you were hired later in the year, you'll get less vacation days.

The policy on managers used to be you had to work here for 2 years before you could even enter the manager training program, but when profits dropped and they had to cut benefits, a lot of the "Senior Managers" left, which is why you were able to become a manager after such a short time. Unfortunately, you were probably thrown into a shoddy store with shoddy employees whom you didn't trust, and I'm sure they returned the feelings. I've personally seen one store around here that has went through 4 managers and the store has only been there for 3 years, but it's not the company's fault that these managers are retiring and the new ones that are appointed either decide to steal from the store themselves or get stolen on by the employees that they effectively "inherit."

I've noticed that most of the complaints on here are people who have seemingly never worked retail in their life. It's a snowy day here, school has been cancelled, some of the highways were closed due to wrecks, needless to say business is slow. Including the people I just stopped to ask if they needed help, we've had 10 customers today, 4 of these 10 customers were less-than friendly. One man came in to "price antenna," when I showed him our antenna, his first words were, "The dollar store has those rabbit ears for five dollars, you guys need to lower your prices." The next person I talked to was angry because I asked him if I could help him find anything before I asked how his day was.

While there is no doubt in my mind that some of our associates have terrible customer service, as I've experienced this in other stores even during my time here, that doesn't mean we're all bad. I'm sure there have been instances where I was less-than friendly to customers, but for every customer that I am less-than friendly with, I'd say I've had to deal with atleast two customers that treated me the same way or worse.

I also don't deny that there are some blithering idiots working in our stores, again, I've experienced this in my short time here, but that's what you get when you have new trainees training new trainees.

Posted by Ytropious on 2009-01-08:

I agree that every time I go to RS (all one or two times a year) they associates are some of the pushiest people I've ever encountered in retail. Thanks for showing me why, though I've worked in retail and understand the system. RS is way over prices in my opinion. I went there because I needed 12 watch batteries, would have cost me I believe 24 dollars at RS. Got them for under 10 at Walmart.

Posted by D. Aliff on 2009-01-09:

See, you think the prices are high, which is a completely valid argument 95% of the time. The thing is though, whatever associate you speak with has been looked at that day and told, "They have that cheaper at Wal-Mart," and was then given a blank 'what are you going to do about it' stare.

It's VERY hard for me to do job and not be a d*ck to some customers who are being d*cks to me. The person in the store doesn't set the prices, the person in the store doesn't make the policies. The person in the store doesn't have all the power in the company. Those go for all retail chains everywhere, and that's the main reason a lot of people find retail employees difficult to deal with.

Posted by Ytropious on 2009-01-09:

Oh I understand completely D, where I worked there was a Walmart right across the street! People would always murmur "I wonder if it's cheaper at walmart". I worked in electronics so prices are set by the manufacturer, it's never cheaper at Walmart more then 11 cents. I never told the RS associate it was cheaper at walmart, I just thanked him for the price and walked out.