Radio Shack Has Lost My Business, Forever
Published by Dave September 12th, 2009 in Misc
Last night, I decided to end my relationship with Radio Shack. Over a $10 item.
Radio Shack has always been on the periphery of my tech life. When I need an audio cable, oddball adapter, or remote control toy at Christmas, I’d head to Radio Shack. Not anymore, though. And I guess I’m posting this to ask: Did I overreact? It was such a small thing. But so telling and, in an important way, a meaningful peek into the soul of the store.
When I stepped into the store, a salesperson asked me what I wanted. I explained I was looking for a splitter to connect 2 headphones to an iPod. He pulled one off the rack: $10. We rang it up, but on the way out of the door, I noticed that the exact same items was hanging from a hook marked $5. The label on the bar was accurate: it said something like “dual headphone jack for iPod.” Which was exactly what the item actually was. I showed it to the salesperson, who was perplexed, but said, “sure, I can match that price,” and started the process to give me the difference. But the manager apparently intervened, said it was a different item, and refused to refund me the difference.
When pressed, he found a slightly less expensive product than the one I paid for (about $8) and offered that to me instead.
I politely told the salesperson I would not shop at Radio Shack again. I took a complete refund and bought a similar item at Target, which is right around the corner.
I think that there are a couple of salient points here. After all, you can learn a lot about the character of a store in the way it handles little customer issues like this.
The manager claims the hook was for a different product that he didn’t have in stock, and apparently a customer must have placed this more expensive item on the hook for this less expensive product.
But through my eyes – the eyes of a customer – I saw the description on the hook EXACTLY matched the product, and the price was reasonable – it wasn’t like the price marked was clearly an order of magnitude off. The right thing to do would have been to honor the price marked on the hook.
To add insult to injury, the manager managed to find a less expensive product to try to placate me. Why did the salesperson apparently give me the most expensive item in the store when I walked in and asked for what’s obviously a commodity item – an audio adapter – and then only found a cheaper item when he refused to do the right thing to match the marked price of the item I was trying to buy?
Bottom line: I felt like the store did not respect me and clearly tried to take advantage of me.
And really, was the manager willing to permanently lose me as a customer over $5? Apparently he was.
And to reiterate, yes, it was just a $10 item. The dollar amount in question was only a couple of bucks. So, am I overreacting? I feel silly standing on principle over a couple of bucks. But a big part of me feels it’s the right thing to do – it was a slime move by the store on two different levels.
As you said, “Bottom line: I felt like the store did not respect me and clearly tried to take advantage of me. ”
Two comments for your blog.
1. Yes, I agree , the manager should have handled your visit better.
“The right thing to do would have been to honor the price marked on the hook.”
Yes and no, if the part number matched the tag, then YES. If the part number did not match, then NO. In the stores, customers move products all over the place. This is a fact, we watch them all day.
There is one 5 dollar product that looks like the right adapter, but is in fact a stereo to left & right splitter. I have customers waving those in my face every day. I show those customers why the product they are wanting is not the correct one by taking the time explaining why it won’t work.
If they still insist I say okay, sell it and write on the ticket, “customer told will not work.” Then when they come back in screaming bloody murder, I remind them, I told you this was not the right one. Pointing at the receipt.
Again, in your case, yes, they should have treated you better.
2. From the employee’s view, they get paid for what they sell. If they gave you the lowest price item each time, then employees do not make squat.
It a shame they have to work this way, but it’s how the company has the compensation set up.
The employees have a quote they have to beat in sales, or they make min wage. If an employee has not beat their quotes over a period of time, they are written up. Three times and your out.
It’s a very cold and nasty world behind the counters that customers don’t know about, and in most cases customers say, hey, it’s not my problem, I want my 5 dollar trinket.
Walk into your near by car dealer, they are set up much the same. You are not going to get that car without the dealer & the salesperson making a profit.
Sorry your gone, hope you will come back sometime. The salesperson was doing his job, earning a living, not his fault.
I am not a fan of Radio Shack. They seem like an artifact of the 70s, and tend to sell second or third tier stuff. Though they are convenient if you just need a cable. But as you say, you can often get the same thing at Target or Walmart.
I also had an experience with Radio Shack a few years ago which ended my shopping there. My wife purchased a battery backup for our computer from Radio Shack. While she was purchasing it, I was in another store also purchasing one (we were shopping separately). When I got home, she showed me what she had purchased. As the unit I purchased was a better unit, I returned the one to Radio Shack. They would not give me a refund but a due bill. I asked if there was an expiration date on it and they said no. A few months later, I went in there to purchase an antenna. I presented the due bill to cover part of the cost of it. They said they would not honor the due bill as they did not issue it. According to them there was a change in management. No amount of talking to them would change their minds. I told them I would not come back and they said that was ok with them. I have since been telling people not to go to Radio Shack.
My opinion: It was not an overreaction for you to be upset with the way you were treated, but it sounds like you’ve shopped at Radio Shack for many years (?) and have been a happy customer (?). If so, I wouldn’t let one incident with poor employees change my view of Radio Shack as a company. I would, however, (a) talk to the manager’s boss, and (b) never shop at that store again unless you are satisfied after (a). If it comes to (b), hopefully you have another Shack you can shop at in your town.
Follow-up: I got an official response from Radio Shack’s coprorate customer service. Here is what they sent me:
Mr. Johnson,
RadioShack offers a good-better-best product selection within most of our product lines. The product you initially were presented is a Monster Audio Splitter. It has 24k gold-plated contacts that will resist corrosion and provide maximum signal strength integrity. It also has a short cord that provides convenience and flexibility as two headphones are connected to an input jack. In doing a quick search online, I found it sells anywhere from $10.62 to $18.95 on Amazon.com.
When I asked the associate why he presented only the Monster product, after you asked for a headphone splitter for your iPod, he said, “Most people that shop in my store want the name-brand stuff. They want Monster. If they say they don’t want to spend as much, then I’ll show them something that’s less expensive.” We coach our associates to ask customers a series of questions to help them find just the right solution to their needs. In this case, however, the associate simply recommended the product that most of his customers buy.
While the product description on the Monster product and the lesser priced out-of-stock product tag may have appeared the same, they carry different SKUs in our inventory system; the SKU number differentiates one model from another.
Like most businesses with multiple locations, our pricing is determined based on a variety of factors; individual employees don’t have the capability to adjust prices at their discretion. Changing the price because you requested it may have seemed right to you, but it would have been unfair to our other customers who paid more for the same item simply because they did not ask for a price adjustment.
In the end, when the employees understood that you were objecting to the price, the manager suggested the more economical product, which was not as feature-rich as the Monster product.
I sincerely regret that the experience left you feeling under-appreciated, and especially that we may have lost your patronage over a minor misunderstanding such as this, but I am glad that you ultimately found the device you were seeking. I hope that my explanation has helped you understand why the store manager declined to sell you the Monster audio splitter at the price of the basic audio splitter and that you’ll likely give RadioShack another opportunity to serve your electronic needs at some point in the future.
don’t be sad
I also ended my relationship with Radio Shack. They lost my ipod touch and would not replace it. All they did was give me a phone number to a Maria and all she did was bicker over the phone how it was not their problem.