Radio Shack would be one of my favorite stores if they’d stop having the sales people follow you around like a puppy that wants to hump your fucking leg!
God Damn it! From the minute I walk into the store at 2942 SOUTH 108TH STREET, here in West Allis this fuckhead followed me around “What can I help you find? What are you looking for? Do you have all your holiday shopping done? Do you want to buy ear buds? Heres a cellphone you can get for free.” Blah bla blah! Finally I turned to him and said, in my best Robert Deniro, "are you gonna propose? " He then backed away from my personal space, but only about 5 feet.
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THEY FUCKING DO THIS SHIT AT EVERY FUCKING RADIO SHACK! EVERY ONE!!!**:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Jezus Fuck! Let me browse without you standing behind me!
Then when I check out he gets pushy about some fucking cellphone. I DON’TFUCKING WANT IT!
I have a lot of projects I enjoy doing that involve audio/video and such. Radio Shack has all the cables and connectors I need and decent prices. But shit like this is why I go in there only about once a year instead of 30 times a year like I could. What could be a great place to get supplies is a miserable trip into Assholeville! FUCK OFF!
Isn’t it a well known fact that 99% of the population despises such behavior? For the life of me I can’t understand why 30-40% of all retail clerks I encounter act this way.
Because their bosses tell them they have to. I used to manage a RadioShack store, and we managers were constantly badgered to push our people to ask every customer to purchase a cell phone, satellite TV plan or whatever the focus du jure was.
But Radio Shack must encourage it. I’ve been to literally dozens of the stores, in several states, and have encountered this same bullshit. Female sales people as well as men. What the fuck?
I need to add that the reason I was only mildly stern with the guy is that my 6 year old niece was with me. I’m putting in some additional tv outlets in my brothers house for him. I certainly didn’t want to curse in front of her.
Maybe that is true about Radio Shack (I have been to one in years), but I’m fairly certain that this isn’t company policy at places like the Gap & other large outfits. They are smart enough to know that pushy sales reps discourage people from stopping by to browse.
I usually see it in smaller, independently owned shops.
Like QED I used to manage a Radio Shack store, and employees are going to do as they are told. There is a fine line, however, with being helpful and being annoying. If it’s more than one store with this approach it sounds like some District or Regional Manager in your area wants to make a name for himself, and is pushing managers and retail personnel to be very aggressive about helping people or suggesting items.
I was a top salesperson with Radio Shack (granted this was 20 + years ago) so I’m not entirely against the hearty, proactive meet and greet, BUT, depending on your personality (as a salesperson) this can work some circumstances, but backfire in others, if you can’t carry off the hearty “hail fellow well” vibe that needs to go with it, and instead you have some clerk with personality like a worried ferret trying to engage in an assertive sales style he can’t pull off.
Salesmen are one of the reasons why I prefer to order stuff over the Internet rather than go into stores. Put your stuff on display with decent signs showing features and prices and then let me browse! Be available when I am ready to ask you something, but otherwise, go away. Thank you.
Meet & greet is fine. In fact, it’s great. “Hello, welcome to Radio Shack. Is there anything I can help you find?” Fantastic!
But when the sales person is told “no, I’m just browsing” (which I said) don’t fucking follow the customer around and play 20 questions. Back off! And they’re bugging people in every RS I go into. I had my niece with me because my wife & Sis-n-law were over at the Chuckie Cheese reserving a party for her. I was distracting her.
Had she not been with me I would have been quite more forceful than just “are you going to propose?”!!
:mad: Christ! I could feel his breath on the back of my neck as he followed me around. He kept giving sales pitches on things I wasn’t even looking at but was only stading near!
He’s lucky I bought anything at all. But then at the checkout he gets all pissy because I wouldn’t listen to the schpiel about the cell phone.
“but you don’t have to pay for it” he says. I don’t pay for the one I have. My employer does. Then he goes into how I should switch them over to whatever plan he was pushing because it will cost less (how the fuck does he know how much we pay). Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going into work on Monday and telling my boss that I switched our cellphones over! :rolleyes:
God! I was only in that store 15 minutes and I’m so fucking irritated!
Ugh, RadioShack. I can’t remember the last time I actually bought a piece of electronics from them. When I go into a RadioShack I am generally looking for a component or a connecter or a piece of cable. A few weeks ago I had to go to RadioShack to get a four-wire connector as my new DSL modem wouldn’t work with my existing cable setup. It took me ten minutes of looking around (with help from an employee, no less) to actually find what I was looking for. I don’t want a cell phone, I don’t want a TV or a DVD player or whatever gadget you’re pushing, I want a $3 piece of plastic that will allow me to get back on the internet. It’s harder and harder to get any electronic parts these days at RadioShack and is only slightly easier to get things like connecters and duplexers and cables.
The thing that always bugged me about Radio Shit, even if you’re just buying one damn resistor, they want your full name and address. I haven’t been in a long time, do they still do this?
I haven’t needed to go to Radio Shack for several years, but they were asking for your name, address and phone number at the register back then, too. I always decline. I’ve had to tell them that I’m not interested in receiving their catalogues and flyers, and that my telephone number is unlisted. When a guy pressed me for my address, I said, “make one up,” grabbed my patch cord and walked out.
The employees, who must be bound by some company policy to have as little idea as possible about the stock they sell, are the reason why I don’t go there unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Ditto. I nearly always would be buying a connector ir a battery or something similar and would pay the $1.29 or whatever in cash. My name therefore was C.Ash with a bogus address.
I work retail and we are supposed to push some stuff on people (protection plans, in home services etc) but I don’t push. The services are expensive as shit - I’ll mention them but never push. If they want it, fine, if they don’t, fine. I don’t give a shit. And I only greet - if you say “just looking” I will walk away but make myself available for questions - “if you have any questions or anything just let me know.” But I don’t exactly follow policy word for word because I don’t like to annoy people. If you have a question, I will answer. I know that when I go in a store I like to look around. If I have a question, I’ll ask someone. I don’t need or want someone breathing down my neck. And I want only what I came in for - if I am looking for DVDs I don’t want a phone, if I am looking for a phone I don’t want a DVD player. When I am working I just try to be helpful and not annyoing - it works, I have a lot of people happy with my service. It’s why I prefer shopping for clothes - they say hello when you walk in and usually leave you alone unless you look lost or something.
And we ask for phone number and name - apparently just used for rebates (when it’s in the computer it prints out on their rebate form) and we don’t use it to call or mail stuff. If you decline, we make one up. It is helpful to give us a phone number so we can look up past purchases for issues that come up, but some people don’t like to give out their number and that is fine. We only ask it once, then the next time the phone number brings it up so its quicker. The computer prompts for number and address if a credit card is used or the purchase is over $100 or something. You have to put something in there so I use 573-5555555 and put ‘M’ in all the fields and the local zip code.
But I totally agree a lot of stores’ sales practices turn me off from shopping at those places. I just want what I want and then I want to go home.
They do this at Bath and Body Works as well, drives me insane. I’ll listen to their 90 second spiel when I walk in (honestly, they sound like telemarketers trying to get as much in as possible before they get hung up on) I tell them I’m just looking. Then, every time I stand for more than 2 seconds in front of something, they’re breathing down my neck, giving me yet another spiel targeted towards the item I’m looking at. They do this every time I stop walking.
I’ve left more than once without buying anything because of it. I know they’re doing as they’re told, my issue is with the management making them do it. Do they honestly think annoying customers to the point where they flee the store is going to help them get any more sales??