RadioShack

The store needs to better train it’s staff on customer management. Not being acknowledged, let alone greeted, by two members of the staff who were busy talking to each other in a store empty of customers was bad enough to start with but things got worse at the time of checkout when the person at the register sounded irritated when asked a question about a product feature, provided wrong information about it, rudely asked for id with a dead pan «Your ID» — which I am always happy to provide, and was typing into his cellphone while entering the sales. It felt like he had time for everybody else but the sole customer present in the store. Good bye Radio Shack, I will miss you — not!

This place SUCKS! the ppl who work there are wicked dumb, rude and are not informed about what they are selling. The guy was telling me things about the s5 that I kno are false and not true. They have a very limited selection. My main complaint is that they have no idea about what they are selling, trying to just make the sale,.
Moral of the story… RADIO SHACK IS OVER PRICED, AND THE OVER ALL EXPERIANCE SUCKS. I would rather take the bus all the way to the galleria to buy the exact same thing just because, the ppl are more knowledgeable and more professional vibe @ best buy!!!

I am surprised that they are still in business. Pretty poor selection of tech products, and incredibly bad customer service.

Worst customer service I have ever experienced in a retail store. Avoid it at all cost. There is nothing in it you cannot get on Amazon. Only enter this store in an emergency.

One of the requirements of being a functional business and continuing to generate revenue (unless the reality is that the operation ceased any meaningful operations years ago and now it just functions as an elaborate ruse that allows the brass to use it as an expense account and/​or otherwise avoid taxes while taking money out of it) is to be open.
Closed around 10:30am on a Sunday. That’s funny considering the hours. On encountering a locked door and a darkened shop, a man not obviously an employee told me it was closed. I inquired if he worked at Radio Shack and he told me he did, and he’d like to open the store, but he doesn’t have keys and the person that does has not responded to multiple texts and phone calls. Thus, I was unable to give them my money (after also failing to do so at Central Square) and continue the charade that Radio Shack is still a real company.
There is a good chance that the upstanding and present employee who at least tried to be helpful will, rather than be promoted for demonstrating comparative excellence by showing up to work, get fired for demonstrating initiative that is not in line with the current company values. I wish him well in his future endeavors when that happens; he deserves better than to be associated with these clowns.

do NOT buy a mobile phone from Radio Shack and especially from the one at Harvard Square. I was told that if there were future deals in the next 30 days, that Radioshack would match them 100%, but after buying a MotoX for $ 99.99, and a verizon special for $ 49.99, I was then told the fine print would not let me match that deal. Even better, the manager tried to tell me I couldn’t return the phone, until I noticed it had been less than 14 days since purchase, at which point she simply told me to return it and buy another one.
This is horrible customer service and why brick and mortar stores are going bankrupt. I’ve learned my lesson about making big purchases at places like Radioshack.

Confronted by a bullying salesman
On the afternoon of Wednesday February 27^th, my mother and I purchased an iPad at the Radioshack located at 28 JFK Street in Cambridge. We were helpfully assisted by a member of the staff — a friendly, informative fellow with glasses. Midway through our purchase, however, a second salesman (shorter and wearing a red shirt) interjected himself into our transaction and began to harass my mother and me. This may sound strange, but this is what happened. He began by butting into my conversation with our salesman and throwing his iPhone at my feet and ordering me to pick it up. I don’t understand what he was trying to illustrate — it had something to do with demonstrating the efficacy of a protective screen-​protector he wanted to sell us. I was not interested, and I knew at once that I did not want to interact with him at all. I was polite enough to pick up his iPhone and return it to him, but moments later he told me that he had eavesdropped on my conversation with my mother and wanted me to know I was wrong about something pertaining to iPad insurance. I was shocked and not interested in his views about my conversation with my mother. When I told him I didn’t want to hear what he had to say, he talked louder, and then told me that I was insulting him by asking that he stop talking to us and by shushing him.
I told him that we would make our purchase elsewhere if necessary, and he immediately said that we should. At that point I asked him to get his manager, but after going to the back of the store, he returned and told me that his manager was busy. I’m not convinced that he had in fact summoned a manager, as I had asked. He then insisted on checking my mother’s credit card and ID, which was not necessary, given that we were already being helped by a perfectly competent and polite salesman who was ringing up our order as quickly as he could. While completing our purchase, the offensive salesman stood next to the helpful salesman, as if waiting for a chance to engage us again and escalate the situation. I can’t say that I understand what possessed him. He wasn’t going to get any trouble from us, though. My mother and I ignored him. As quickly as possible, we retrieved our receipt from the pleasant salesman, thanked him and left. I share this information here with hope that the story reaches the manager of that Radio Shack, who hopefully cares enough about good business practices to address the terrible behavior of that staff member.

The Radio Shack in Harvard Square is basically a good place to shop for those small parts, accessories, earpieces, headsets, cable extensions, plug converters, and other odds and ends your stereo system, TV, computer, phone, BlackBerry, X-​box, cable box, CDs, etc., etc., wouldn’t be complete without. It’s the only place I know that carries the full-​width jewel boxes for CDs I need when I sell CDs online and want to present them with new cases to make them look closer to a new product, and I’m grateful for that.
However, sometimes you have to watch what you buy. Their motto, «You have questions, we have answers» should be fully heeded: ask lots of questions to get all the answers you need to get EXACTLY what you’re looking for. Case in point: I bought an earpiece for my LG Verizon cellphone, complete with the plug conversion I needed to downsize it to fit into my phone. The earpiece didn’t work at all. I returned it, and the clerk suggested I try another earpiece with a plug more likely compatible to my older cellphone version, because of how the cellphone company kept updating earpiece outlets and plugs as an incentive for us to buy THEIR products. (Good point.) Not wanting to take any more chances, I demanded a full refund, which she did give me. (Of course, if they don’t, they’ve lost a future customer.) But someone else wasn’t doing their job, wasn’t carefully checking the compatibility of their merchandise with my particular cellphone to save me the trouble of having to return my purchase.
In short, if you go to Radio Shack, be sure to ask those questions, and do what Ronald Reagan always said: «Trust, but verify.»

I want to like it, because the people seem pretty nice (though thoroughly stoned). But the fact that all the things I bought reek of incense after I left the store is quite messed up.
Aside from the incense the fact that it sounds like a rave coming in — is a bit off putting.
Its not a huge problem — but it doesn’t give me a ton of confidence when wanting to plop down some money on some electronics.

Radioshack, you’ve got a problem in your Harvard Square store.
I went in about a month ago and I pushed the door to enter. I didn’t look to read if it was a «Pull» or a «Push» door. You know how you come up on a door and you just get a sense of whether it’s «Push» or «Pull»? I got a real «Push» vibe from this Radioshack entrance. And push I did! The door opened up, a little roughly I will admit, but I got inside.
I was immediately accosted by a young employee who came rushing from the other end of the store to tell me, «The door is a pull door. See, it says ‘Pull’ right there on the door?» I told him that if a door is a push or a pull it should be physically impossible to make it go the other way. Since I pushed the door and got inside it’s technically also a ‘push’ door. He did not like this logic at all. We had a back and forth about whether a sign on the door or the physical capabilities of a door constituted whether it was a push or a pull.
He rang up the battery-​tester I wanted to buy. It was a dollar more than its sticker price. Who cares? Not me. That’s not the point of this review. I just care about this door issue and what it’s doing to this employee of yours, Radioshack.
For you see, I went back a few weeks later. The door had still not been fixed. EVERYONE was pushing the door to get inside. It simply has a «push» feel to it! It’s not just me This same employee was now behaving in a manner I’d describer as borderline hysterical! He shouted at each person who walked through the door «It’s a pull door! It says it right on the door!!!» Jesus Christ, Radioshack, fix that door. It’s a Pull door than it should only swing one way. A door that swings both ways has no right to boast a sticker claiming otherwise.
Fix your door, Radioshack. [UPDATE: THEY FIXED THE DOOR!]

This place is tiny and overpriced. Its there if you need a last minute phone charger or set of headphones, but you’ll pay double.

outdated in most cases, but when you really need a headphone splitter it’s kind of nice to have it there…

I think one of the requirements of working at Radio Shack is that your knowledge about technology shouldn’t go past the age of radios. Shouldn’t RadioShack change its name to something more modern? MP3Shack, BlueRayShack, CompShack… heck, even GigaPetShack has more relevance today.
NOTE: I’d love to hear better name suggestions from fellow Unilocalers. There has got to be a way to pitch our suggestions to RS and get some $$$$$ for them… they’d be dumb enough to do it too. Don’t believe me? They paid someone to come up with this:
. Who’s in?
Anyway, I asked for help with a simple HDTV cable, and they didn’t have what I was looking for. Also, this place looks dirty… I’m not sure how, but it just does.
The few times i’ve been here, the items I wanted were very expensive (a lot more than Best Buy). This place has just not assimilated to the new wave of technology (iPods, iPhones, etc.). I wonder how they stay in business??? Oh yeah… probably from the ripping off they are doing on their items.

You can get all the same stuff much cheaper at another big chain electronics store. And while at that chain store the service is hit or miss, here it’s just miss. Even though this is only two blocks from my work I have stopped going here after three consecutive experiences of being ripped off by someone rude. No thanks!

I got the cheapest headphones they had — a Radioshack brand — and it was $ 10. The next step up was $ 15, so I decided to go cheap-​o.
When I got to the register, the manager (or someone wearing a blazer) suggested I try their «better» pairs. I told him I was going cheap-​o. Then he asked if I had any cell phones to turn in. I said «no.» He kept talking about the cell phone thing, and then I finally said, «I have an iPhone.» Then he acknowledged that turning that in would not work — because Apple doesn’t partner with Radioshack…
Anyway, this is just to say that my errand could have taken half the time. I’m not the biggest fan of Radioshack in the first place, but I have in the past valued its quick service.
AND the ear buds didn’t fit in my ears!

My only experience at this RadioShack has turned me away from ever shopping here again.
I walk in looking for compressed air to clean my horribly dusty keyboard, after roaming around the store like an idiot for 5 minutes (it’s not that big) and nobody notices how lost I am, I decide to walk up to the counter to ask a question, the guy at the counter doesn’t even look up at me. Dialogue is as follows:
«Excuse me»
:silence:
«I just have a quick question…»
:holds up finger in a one-​minute pose, while still not making eye contact then walks away:
After being so rudely regarded, I thought about walking out, but my keyboard was really starting to stick and I was desperate. The guy comes back and when I ask for compressed air, he points to the empty counter and says, «If it’s not here then we’re out.»
I walked out of there fuming to come home to a still-​sticky keyboard. I will not give my business to people who can’t even give me a quick «I’ll be right with you» when they’re busy.

Like many chains, the experience in a Radio Shack is pretty much across-​the-​board. My friend Aaron and I were discussing this yesterday after I’d gotten back from shopping at this particular location, and we agreed that Radio Shack is pretty much the place you go when you need some obscure little electronic doodad or connector, don’t have the motivation to go to Best Buy, and invariably get hounded by sales staff to buy a fancy-​schmancy new cell phone («Goddammit, I’ve told you before, I don’t WANT an iPhone!»).
I’ve been going to Radio Shack far more frequently than I’d choose to lately. This is what happens when you have a rambunctious cat who likes to chew up your earbud cords into tiny pieces, eat them, and then proceed to puke them up on the bathroom floor the next morning. Thanks, kitteh!
As I mentioned before, I didn’t feel like trekking to the wilds of scary scary Cambridgeside, nor was I particularly up to braving the D line to get to Best Buy. Thus I was stuck with Radio Shack.
The first time I went, I managed to snag a two-​fer: giant headphones that look like the old school ones you wore for those hearing tests back in elementary school, and a set of earbuds which proved to be painful and uncomfortable to my delicate little oreilles, and which Rugen delightedly chewed on. Oh well, no loss there. At least I have the ginormous ones for long trips when I want to ignore my fellow passengers and pretend I’m not on a Greyhound bus up to Vermont.
I should mention here that the selection of earbuds at Radio Shack is teh suck. Hence the main reason for giving them a two-​star review. Do I want the fugly pink buds? Or do I want the Koss monstrosities, of which there seem to be endless varieties? Better yet, do I want the $ 30 official iPod buds, which served me well in the past, but seem ridiculous to buy sans a new iPod? I think not.
I ended up at this location yesterday and resignedly bought a $ 40 pair of Sonys which, while seemingly extravagant, turned out to be a wise purchase. These are, without a doubt, the most comfortable earbuds I’ve ever owned. I’m notoriously hard on my hearing accessories (aside from the cat, I also tend to fray and bend my earbud cords quite easily), so I really need to be careful with these because they rock and I’d hate to see them end up in my cat’s gullet.
I’m rambling here, so I’ll wrap it up. The other things that irked me about this location are as follows:
–The sales staff, while friendly, are pretty oblivious. Usually when I’m hanging around the earphones display, that means that I want you to come and unlock one of the racks so I can take that $ 40 pair of buds I wish to buy. To their credit, though, it was semi-​busy when I went.
–The music. Oh, the music is godawful. I kind of expect this now from most stores, but I was ready to stab my eyes (or ears) out. Every single song that played while I was in the store was some terrible amalgam of cover songs and/​or samples from old songs. Sirius=FAIL.
At any rate, I hope that I don’t have to come back to a Radio Shack for a long time. I’ve had enough for a lifetime.

The only Radioshack that I’ve ever had a good experience in… so I keep going back. If you are nice and don’t act like an ass they’ll take really good care of you. If you sigh a lot and vulture around and moan because you’re waiting you will be miserable because well… you’re miserable.
They’ve helped me with iPod accessories SD cards, iPod purchases… they’ve even been honest about expensive items that just don’t work as well as less expensive alternatives.
It is a bit confusing to know who can ring up a purchase and who’s on hold with customer service but you can always ask.

This store is hit or miss depending on how knowledgeable the employees are about whatever questions you may have or what you need. Keeping in mind that their employees are on commission, if you happen to fall upon an employee interesting more in making the commission than your needs, than chances are your experience there won’t be so great.
They carry all kinds of electronics, cables and various other parts. The store is packed, every square inch stuffed with products of all sorts. It’s pretty easy to navigate this awkwardly shaped store; it’s very long but not very wide. It all comes down to what you’re in there for in the first place.