Possible to order PRO-106 on RS.com even if it's Out of Stock?

[Smerri]

I was wondering if it is possible to order the PRO-106 at the $299 price on www.radioshack.com even though it is out of stock. I was wondering if I could place an order at this price and get it shipped to me when it becomes available. I doubt it as I don't see any place to add to cart but was hoping I am missing something others may know of.

I probably waited to long to decide to pull the trigger on this deal but if anyone knows a way to still get it at that price, please let me know.

PRO-106

 

[KT4HX]

There is no way to order on their website when an item is out of stock in the warehouse. And yes, I believe the sale was only good through close of business of the 24th. Now had you gone to this thread http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127437&page=18
then you would have found a post by abqscan, who is an RS store manager in Colorado, who had approval from his District Manager to take phone orders for the $299 sale price, until the sale ended last night that is. There were still some in stores in various areas, but they were few and far between from the sounds of it. It might have been possible to go to your local store and ask them to order you one at the sale price as a backorder item - but that would have been at the local store's discretion to do so. From what I heard, some would do that, and others would not. Once the sale was posted in the early morning hours of the 18th, the warehouse ran out in just a short time due to the advance notice we had of the pending sale, and the overwhelming demand.

 

[ind224]

I was lied to by the Noblesville store who said they had one on hand and would hold it for me.
Christmas Eve comes and I get there..guess what? They try to pawn off a 96.
I thought it was a pre-order mumbles Cory....
District MGR will here about that one,Maurice.:twisted:
Then I call the 53rd street store Indianapolis and the girl can't tell me if a raincheck is available for this item. I have no way to tell and the MGR is gone she says.
1745 and I call the 73rd street store where Larry the MGR says should be no problem to get a raincheck.
Go to the 53rd street store now 1750, and the guy at the counter is so freaked out I thought he might start shooting. He calls Larry to find out how to do the rain check and calls Larry an ***hole as he hangs up,loudly and in front of me and and other customer.
Still can't get it to work, he has to call Larry back and I get my raincheck timed 1759.
Good until Feb. Merry Christmas at RadioShack.
BTW, the inventory you see posted on the website is a day behind when posted.
One store told me this was probably not going to be restocked and it would probably be discontinued.....a new item? Too bad the "answers" they have are usually lies or clueless drivel.
In closing, raincheck was the way to go and I don't know that a store could refuse to issue one. I should have bought two the day I bought my first one from AJ at Fishers.

 

[KT4HX]

Thats quite an interesting ordeal. I'm almost sure that I heard something about some stores may or may not honor backordering at the sale price. I know the store manager I mentioned in Colorado had to call his DM to obtain authorization to take backorders at the sale price. I am not totally clear on what their policy is regarding this type of situation. Now you understand why people always made fun of their former slogan - "you've got questions, we've got answers". Most see it more as "you've got questions, we've got blank stares". :roll:

To be fair, I have run across the occasional employee who is very knowledgeable about scanners, and about how to conduct customer oriented business. Many of them just see it as a temporary job on their way, hopefully, to a better one. Thus they have no real drive to learn the products in any depth, nor focus on customer service aspects.

 

[james32746]

The PRO-197 (base/mobile version of the 106) is still on sale for $299 on the RadioShack website through tonight if interested and is still in stock.

 

[kd7ckq]

I tried to get a pro-106 on wed.. Called all over and no one had one. I asked the local RS store if I could back-order one. The guy acted like he had better things to do than sell me one. But, the three stores I called all told me 'No back-orders'. One store the guy was really helpful, checked the region for inventory and said there was none. So none in the region and sold out on-line means no Pro-106 for me.

 

[JulietAlphaKilo]

If I were you, I would head over to a local Radio Shack, and try your best to convince them to order you a Pro-106 at the Sale Price. My old man purchased me a Pro-164 for Christmas, because the Pro-106 was Out-of-Stock, but the Sales Assoc. did say that he could order a Pro-106. I don't really know anyone personally at my local store, but I do go there quite often, and they seem to be pretty cool. I would definitely make an argument for the Sale Price if I were in your shoes though, especially seeing how most stores failed to achieve their Sales Goals during this Holiday Season.

 

[k4gps]

I was in electronics retail for many years and knew a district manager in Florida many years ago.

Many items in the flyers and advertised are properly called "lost leaders" they lead you in, you get lost and buy other more overpriced items. In the industry we called them "Burn's" if you sold one you got burned since it was at or BELOW cost. If you were on comission you made nothing on it and at hardcore stores in the NYC area you would actually have money taken out of your comission check for allowing one of those items to be sold.

When a regional manager assists a customer it's to keep face and reduce bad publicity, quite often than not it costs them money on the item that hopefully can be made back by programming cables, rechargeable batteries and chargers. A burn item sold with two set's of batteries and a charger can be made into a profitable item!

Even though the economy is doing horrible right now selling more Pro-106's is not going to do the store, the company or the employee any good if it's at cost or below. Now R/S does discontinue products like most people change underwear and it's their best interest to ditch the items as quickly as possible in that situation. I highly doubt that the Pro-106 is one of those items.

Some would GUESS that maybe the economy is so tanked that someone high up in Fort Worth TX looked at sales figures prior to black friday, the state of the economy knowing black friday would be piss poor and their bank account and are looking to sell out all high priced items that they have in stock getting ready for some major "changes" early this year. As everyone has noticed R/S has over the past several years restructured, re-modeled, and changed their target market several times, often not for the best. They have been in trouble in the past and right now even the best of companies are hurting, nothing would surprise me, I have even noticed many stores have a lot of empty shelf space regularly.

 

[kd7ckq]

My parents ordered me a Pro-197 that will arrive tuesday. But, for some reason I really like the style of the Pro-106. When I knew there was no 106 under the tree. I started headhunting for one. I did get a Pro-160, and a Pro-197 (Still coming) for Christmas. I started calling around locally then stores about 80 miles from me, finally ending with a few calls to the Phoenix metro area (200+miles away). Nothing. I only asked the three closest stores to backorder for me. mainly as a matter of convenient pick ups. I never had 300 bucks burning a hole in my pocket like I did on Christmas eve looking for that Pro-106.

 

[kd6ecz]

Many items in the flyers and advertised are properly called "lost leaders" they lead you in, you get lost and buy other more overpriced items.

I may be mistaken but I always thought the term was "loss leader" referring to the store selling an item at a loss in order to attract customers.

 

[11001001010]

Problems with Radio Shack Pro-106 Sales

Even now, with the latest sale on the Pro-106, you can't find them in stock. I gave up on Radio Shack, the run arounds calling on Dec 18, conflicting policies on if you could back order at the sale price, blank stares, and then putting tthe sale price back up, from $299.99 to $399.99, and still having none in stock, with no replacements coming anytime soon.

Ordering a GRE 500 or 600, and getting all the accessories, and real customer service might be worth it, then the run around, even if you have to spend 200 to 300 dollars more.

It really was a bad experienced dealing with Radio Shack with this sale, and how the entire thing was handled, and still is being handled.