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Is this where Apple's Geniuses get their training?
Is this where Apple's Geniuses get their training?
How appropos that you post this RS and Sprint-related post on the very next day after I went to a local RS to upgrade my 3 year old Sprint phone. The RS guy was very helpful in my decision to pick out a phone. He had to call Sprint to activate the phone (normally they are able to do this on the computer, but I have my phone through a business account). After spending about 30 minutes in the \"choosing\" mode, and waiting about 15 minutes on the \"activating\" phone call, the Sprint operator told him that they couldn't activate the phone, as it had been reported \"stolen or lost.\" He told the Sprint tech that it was a new, out of the box phone at RS, but she couldn't do anything further. It was, of course, the last such phone they had in stock at that store.
Maybe today I'll have better luck. I'm going to yet another RS store to try to get the same phone.
The simple explanation is that Radio Shack employees get paid on commission (6.75% when I worked there in high school in 1991). Not a bad living for a high school senior, but only if you convinced people to buy a $1500 Tandy Computer during their stop in for their free battery of the month.
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I got completely scammed by RS recently... As in, Three-Card-Monte scammed.
A couple of months ago they were having a huge clearance sale on certain items. I saw that a high-quality S-video cable from Monster (the good but extremely overpriced brand) that usually cost $40 was marked down to $10. I went in a store and couldn't find one on the shelves, so told a sales dude exactly what I was looking for. He went into the back, came out and said \"Here, we've got one left.\" I said \"Great\" and paid for it without looking at it carefully.
When I got home and looked in the bag, I discovered that what I had actually purchased was a p-o-s Radio Shack store-brand cable (whose packaging looks exactly like Monster's), at full price.
Good job, RS employee! You made me into a sucker... though I'm not enough of one ever to shop there again.
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I have a powerful disdain for Radio Shack.
Tiny, cramped, cluttered spaces. Retarded staff. Overpriced crap. Awful, awful, awful marketing and brand image.
Were you to offer me a choice between the death of AOL and the death of Radio Shack, I could be entertained for weeks as I fantasized about either delicious outcome.
from the point of view of trying to solve your problem. I recently picked up a cheap ($15) bluetooth headset for my PC. I have a bluetooth dongle on the PC so that it can talk to my phone for dial-up and moving files, but I wanted to skype my family/friends in England. I can connect the headset to the PC and use skype just fine. All the rest of my sounds come from my PC speaker only the skype calls have the voice and audio routed through the bluetooth headset. I know the software you are using is not skype - but you should be able to choose what audio device TeamSpeak uses somewhere in it's options. Check TeamSpeak's options first and verify that you can pick your audio device, then go ahead and pick up a cheap BT headset and dongle online for $30-$40 inc shipping (try geeks.com that's where I got mine)
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\"What, you want batteries? I'll have to get the manager.\"
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Bluetooth headsets work fine. I use my Bluetooth Motorola one (that funny enough I bought from a deals thing on this site) to run Vent and route the audio from vent to that speaker while FFXI plays through the normal speakers.
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I haven't been inside a RS in years, after I went in to buy batteries and the salesguy tried to sell me a satellite dish. Grrrr.
Well, occasionally when I need spare audio bits(adapters and such) Ilike going there. They've usually got what I'm looking for and it's notatrociously difficult to find. But I wouldn't be caught dead gettinganything else from them.
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You've got questions, we've got answers. They're wrong answers, but we got 'em.
Radioshack: You've got questions, we've got blank stares.
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Jim writes:
\"Their motto should be \"You have questions, we have blank stares\".
They are a useless store. They once tried to convince me to buy a FRS radio to replace the HAM radio I had on my hip saying that the FRS is a lot smaller and has more powerâ¦.
They didn't even know what a HAM radio was⦠nor did they know it was 100x more powerful than any stupid FRS radio.\"
On the good side... My wife wanted to upgrade her Verizon phone something from this century. We were going to upgrade online at Verizon, but stopped in at the local RS to take a good look at the phones themselves.
Suprisingly, they had a better deal than Verizon was offering online -- $100 off the phone and good discounts on the accesories we wanted.
Otherwise I don't step into a Shack without knowing exactly what I want and calling ahead to see if it is in stock.
A friend of mine managed a RS for a few years. It really is all about the phones. That's where the salespeople make their money. Oh, they get comission on everything else, but a good sales person can sell 3 or 4 phones a day + accessories and more than double their take-home pay.
\"You've got questions, we've got Phones\" Seriously, RS needs to be renamed, or shut down completely. I do not need to go to them for Cell Phones as there are four other Cell phone stores, five including Sears, in my local Mall. Radio Shack is supposed to be an electronics components store. When I was a kid in the early 80's, getting into the electronics hobbyist world, Radio Shack was freakin' great! It was staffed by fellow electronics hobbyists or retired engineers looking to stay busy.Now, it is a freaking disaster. Did anyone see the \"Trekkies\" documentary? There was a guy featured who was building Captain Pike life support chair. He went in to RS and asked advice on what resistor he needed to use with a certain L.E.D. The Radio Shack employee stared at him like he was speaking Tagalog to a group of Rednecks! Even 10 years ago, RS had slipped severely. They are selling stuff they have have no business of messing with now. Why are they selling Thermaltake computer components when they cannot possibly compete with Newegg.com's and Fry's service or pricing?
In all my above ranting, I forgot to mention one thing I like about Radio Shack: The Xmods RC Cars. I find them to be quite fun, and there is a decent sized Mod community for them.
Back in the day, when Radioshack used to employ adults, and was actually in the business of being an electronics and hobbyist retailer, instead of a low-rent Sharper Image clone, you used to be able to get decent service there. Even when their service took a shit (I attribute it to the backlash of people constantly saying NO to being asked their phone number and the bigwigs at RS acting impetuous about it) they were still the only game in town for a/v connectors. Now you walk into a \"new\" radio shack and the connectors section is a 4' strip of pegwall in the back, most poorly lit dingy corner adjoined to the break room and bathroom in the store. When they're not busy trying to peddle Spring or Verizon phones to you or trying to explain why their rebadged low-budget RCA knock off Home-theatre-in-a-box is worth the $50 premium over the Klipsch unit at best buy, the only thing they can tell you about your audio connection needs is \"It needs to be the gold plated one, that's the best one\". Never mind that their gold plating comes off after 4 or 5 uses, and that once it's gone you get a worse connection than if you'd just bought the regular one in the first place.
God i Fucking Hate Radio Shack.