I charged an AKAI 32" from Radio Shack in April using Radio Shacks charge account. I can't tell you how excited I was to own my first flat screen HD TV. But, about a month ago, this t.V. Just stopped working. After contacting Radio Shack, I found out that they could not help me because, according to thier employee, Ann (in the parts depatment)... They no longer have a vendor for the parts because they no longer sell AKAI TV's.
I took my broken 32" TV to a local tv repair shop and paid $60.00 so they could tell me that I need a main board and a power board, both of which are NO LONGER BEING MANUFACTORED. I called Radio Shack back and I was advised to "just by another one". Good grief, I still owe $400.00 on the broken one bought from them. After 5 hours of my day was spent trying to get just one person to talk to at AKAI... (located in Singapore, by the way) and to no avail.
I then called the District Manager for Radio Shack and spoke to the Adm. Secretary, Heather, reporting all of this to this very nice lady, Adm. Sec. Who is the Adm. Secretary to a Ms. Monica Goss and out right accussed them of selling products to the American Pulic that can not be supported. They said they could do nothing for me. I called the Regional manager and spoke to Retha, another Adm. Sec. She spoke to her supervisor and then I was told to go and pick out another TV and they would give me a discount. OK, now we are getting somewhere. I thought. Went down to the store, picked out a $219 TV. (did not want to go to far because I still owed $400.00.) I was then told they would sell it to me for $190 because that is what they paid for it. Wow, a $30 discount... And they want me to spend how much more money in their store?
Now, I have worked in retail before and I know that stores do not mark up thier products 13%. I declined this very insulting 'offer' and further... Told them I was going to cancel my credit card and never buy from them again. She said O.K.
My question to Radio Shack is: 1). How could you do this... You have my $750 and offer me no compensation. 2). I know my tv is out of warranty and I am willing and able to pay for the parts but they are no longer manufactored after 1 1/2 years of the purchase. How can you not do anything? 3). We, the American public made you a multi-billion dollor corporation... What would you do without our support of your store? You would not have a job!
People, please read the following article concerning Radio Shack's CEO... By the way, I tried to contact them, the Corporate Office. And they have not returned my calls. The following is the actual title of this article:
'Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business'
FORT WORTH, TXDespite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open.
CEO Julian Day
"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is, " Day said. "You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."
The retail outlet boasts more than 6,000 locations in the United States, and is known best for its wall-sized displays of obscure-looking analog electronics components and its notoriously desperate, high-pressure sales staff. Nevertheless, it ranks as a Fortune 500 company, with gross revenues of over $4.5 billion and fiscal quarter earnings averaging tens of millions of dollars.
"Have you even been inside of a RadioShack recently?" Day asked. "Just walking into the place makes you feel vaguely depressed and alienated. Maybe our customers are at the mall anyway and don't feel like driving to Best Buy? I suppose that's possible, but still, it's just... Weird."
A RadioShack store that somehow manages to bring in enough paying customers to turn a profit.
After taking over as CEO, Day ordered a comprehensive, top-down review of RadioShack's administrative operations, inventory and purchasing, suppliers, demographics, and marketing strategies. He has also diligently pored over weekly budget reports, met with investors, taken numerous conference calls with regional managers about "circulars or flyers or something, " and even spent hours playing with the company's "baffling" 200-In-One electronics kit. Yet so far none of these things have helped Day understand the moribund company's apparent allure.
"Even the name 'RadioShack'can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?" Day said. "What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the digital age?"
"Well, our customers are out there somewhere, and thank God they are, " Day added.
One of Day's theories about RadioShack's continued solvency involves wedding DJs, emergency cord replacement, and off-brand wireless telephones. Another theory entails countless RadioShack gift cards that sit unredeemed in their recipients' wallets. Day has even conjectured that the store is "still coasting on" an enormous fortune made from remote-control toy cars in the mid-1970s.
Day admitted, however, that none of these theories seems particularly plausible.
"I once went into a RadioShack location incognito in order to gauge customer service, " Day said. "It was about as inviting as a visit to the DMV. For the life of me, I couldn't see anything I wanted to buy. Finally, I figured I'd pick up some Enercell AA batteries, though truthfully they're not appreciably cheaper than the name brands."
"I know one thing, " Day continued. "If Sony and JVC start including gold-tipped cable cords with their products, we're screwed."
In the cover letter to his December report to investors, "Radio Shack: Still Here In The 21st Century, " Day wrote that he had no reason to believe that the coming year would not be every bit as good as years past, provided that people kept on doing things much the same way they always had.
Despite this cheerful boosterism, Day admitted that nothing has changed during his tenure and he doesn't exactly know what he can do to improve the chain.
"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are, " Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."
Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up." You can find this article at:
I don't know about all of you out there reading this, but you would think that these corporations we support by purchasing their products and are making billions off of us and they don't have the decencey to do the right thing.
On Saturday, January 10, I started picketing this Radio Shack on Lexington Road in Athens GA. I stood out there on the sidewalk from 1p to 5p (with a permit, of course) with a BIG BRIGHT GREEN picket sign strapped to my body and handed out 70 flyers. People were coming over to me, asking me questions and really showed a great interest. I was really surprised at this kind of response.
I will continue to picket on that location and other locations weekly in Athens GA until I get some kind of resolution for this matter.
Thanks for your time.
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