Customer Service

[Haley]

I know this has been discussed before, but I had an experience today at my local RS. I bought a Pro-164 on Sat. May 2nd for $199.99 on my credit card at a franchise RS 50 miles away. I asked when I bought it if I needed to return it to my local (corporate) RS , which is all of 2 blocks away, if there would be a problem. Answer was no, not at all, even gave my a 2nd copy of my reciept just in case.

Well today Monday May 4th, 48 hours after the intial purchase , I changed my mind and went to take it back. I have the reciepts, box ,everything, looks like it just came off the shelf. The very polite 17-18 year old was all set to return it , until he looked at my reciept, and said " oh we cant take anything from a franchise store".

Even though they had several 164s setting, seriously 5 feet away in identical boxes. He said he was told by his manager not to accept anything from franchise stores. I nicely asked him if I were to call and speak with the district manager would I get the same reply. He told me he was the one who told his manager. The reasoning was that thier inventory numbers do not match up. It says right on my reciept model #20-164.

I proceded to call another RS (corporate), that is about 50 miles away, same story. I have e-mailed RS about this. I am very disappointed, I now have to drive 50 miles , instead of 2 blocks to return the scanner. I am not kidding when I say I will NEVER shop at RS again. This sounds like a bunch of BS to me, has anyone else had this problem. By the way I could see if I was buying at a corporate store and returning to a franchise store, but the other way around , what the hell! Mike

 

[kevins669]

Well today Monday May 4th, 48 hours after the intial purchase , I changed my mind and went to take it back. I have the reciepts, box ,everything, looks like it just came off the shelf. The very polite 17-18 year old was all set to return it , until he looked at my reciept, and said " oh we cant take anything from a franchise store".

Even though they had several 164s setting, seriously 5 feet away in identical boxes. He said he was told by his manager not to accept anything from franchise stores. I nicely asked him if I were to call and speak with the district manager would I get the same reply. He told me he was the one who told his manager. The reasoning was that thier inventory numbers do not match up. It says right on my reciept model #20-164.

I proceded to call another RS (corporate), that is about 50 miles away, same story. I have e-mailed RS about this. I am very disappointed, I now have to drive 50 miles , instead of 2 blocks to return the scanner. I am not kidding when I say I will NEVER shop at RS again. This sounds like a bunch of BS to me, has anyone else had this problem. By the way I could see if I was buying at a corporate store and returning to a franchise store, but the other way around , what the hell! Mike

It's probably just a lack of knowledge. You are right, they are wrong. I would politely ask them to call their boss, or their bosses boss, for guidance. They can accept returns from franchise stores, those having store numbers beginning with 22-xxxx.

-- Kevin

 

[Haley]

Kevin thank you for a reply, I am sure it was a lack of the help understanding policy. I bit the bullet and drove 100 miles round trip, took a half day of vacation and returned the scanner to the store I purchased it at.

I guess if I had wanted to exchange for a higher ticket item, they would have told me sorry we cant do that either, yea right!


I have been a lifelong RS customer, buying many items from them-----at least half a dozen scanners, many radios, ect. But I will not go back or order from them again. I did e-mail corporate about this district managers "policy", but I am sure I will never hear from them.

I actually ordered a BC346XT today, i will not buy from RS again. Mike

 

[scansalot52]

deleted

 

[abqscan]

Mike, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. I wish you would have waited a couple of days for I could have saved you an extra trip, and time.

The store should have gladly given your money back. I'm pretty sure it was a misunderstanding at the store level. We (the corporate stores) can take back an item purchased from a franchise store as long as we sell the item, and it has been less than 30 days. Sometimes the franchise stores sell products that the corporate stores do not. That is the ONLY time we can't do a return. There is only one RadioShack, and it’s frustrating to hear people still think there is them, and us.

Please contact the DM for your area and express your dissatisfaction with the stores action.

 

[Haley]

Erik , thank you for that information. I did ask the young guy working there, if his district manager knew of this policy, and he told me that he was the one who told his manager, and the rest of the employees not to take back anything from a franchise store.

The only thing he wanted to do was to show me the SMALL difference in the RS reciepts, as far as store numbering ect. I asked him several times if there was anything he could do, and he told me NO everytime. Other than the franchise store, the next closest store is still 40-50 miles away.

I actually called one of them the other night, and the manager there was very apologetic, and said there should have been NO problem what so ever. And told me if I ever had a problem to just call him and he would get it fixed. Very nice guy, as a 3rd party to the problem he really didnt have to even talk to me about the problem. But he did restore some of my faith in RS as a company. Although I still have not heard a word from the RS corporate customer service dept. I e-mailed them 2 days ago. As I said though, I wont deal with my local store again. Mike