Rant radio shack staff are retards

Well... to kinda burst the bubble on that one... I am a geek (and damn proud of such) and I went for an interview on my 18th birthday (yes. It was one of the odder birthdays I've had) and got the job straight away (was at Maplin by the way)

All the interview was, was going through my cv, then plonked a catalogue in front of me at the contents and said are you comfortable with any of those subjects.. I said "All but GPS" and I started the following week.

 

I work in retail, ok, granted, it is a food store, but i have a good knowledge of the stock we have, and if i don't know about the product, then i will endeavure to find out, this is after telling the customer that i don't know. Lets face it, i as a customer would rather the 'Can i help?' people to be honest, and show me to someone who does know more, which is exactly what i would do.
Yes, we as a food store do have those who don't give a toss, but you will get that everywere you go, but the majority do know what they are on about, and will help out as best they can.
Well, thats what i find at work.

Sam

 

does it really suprise you??

 

i used to work retail too, i know that some people are good and some just don't give a ****. it seems like electronics/technology stores are the worst. at the grocery store, the big hardware store, the big-box sports store, and pretty much any other big retail store the staff is generally friendly and helpful, and if you are lucky, knowledgeable. at the small local shops, and even the (non electronics) chains, the staff is generally very helpful and almost always knows their stuff. but for some reason, the staff at big-box electronics retail are absolutely useless. i would call radio shack a small chain store, and their service is even worse than most big-box stores, i cant even try to compare them to other small chain stores.

 

Remember the RadioShack "You've got questions. We've got answers!" campain? I'm very glad they quit using it! There was an older guy at the local store that knew a lot and was very helpful. The only good one I've ever met. But they closed that store several years back. Now I only use RadioShack for work, as that is the only place I can locally shop. My point is there is that 1 in 1000 good employee!

 

I worked as a store manager for a while at radiosuck (and yes, it sucked balls) but I knew my stuff and made a killing in commission - most people just talked out of their arses as must customers come in asking for a doo-hickey or thing-a-ma-bob

when I trained new people I just told them to read the little tags or the package - for some reason people think you know a bunch about electronics if you can read the package to them

there are those that came to look at rheostats and transistors - I sent them straight to the back unassisted because come on - 20 minutes for a 3 dollar sale? I don't think so

its a crummy job and you're bound to not want to help anyone out unless they are looking for a pc, cell phone (mobile for you brits), or satellite tv

 

thats the reason I dont buy anyhting in retail when i can avoid it...

because I can read a label myself... and if you got a question the staff wont even be able to answer it...

 

I dont work in retail but I'm sure its impossible for an employee to know everything about every single product they stock. Personally I dont bother going to shops for alot of stuff these days as its cheaper online. And if I wanted advice on a product then I'd rather have the impartial advice of a review website (like bit ) than the advice of someone whos trying to sell me something.. anything.

 

to be honest my worst experiences have been in phone shops like carphone warehouse, my phone broke recently and wasn't accepting sim cards, so we went to the one in liverpool street and told them the problem. the guy proceeds to try with a sim card, says "yeah its broken, but we cant help you, you have to goto a shop with a repair center". so we ask where one is, he says "i think cannon street somewhere...".

the closest was on oxford street. he also had an extremely vacant look on his face and didn't have any people skills.
in the next shop we had to wait about 30 mins while a computer form was filled out so it could be repaired, then they want to charge us £45 for it to be plugged into a computer with some diagnostic program on.

eventually got them to take the £45 off as the phone was under contract and they sold it to us. was hellish and it seems all the people who work in phone shops have no skills needed to get a job, or interact with other humans.

that was obviously the worst experience though, did find someone in a pc world once who knew about computers though, that was surprising