Radio Shack -- what a bad experience. I've always known that RacShack is an ideal place to get hard-to-find cables, connectors and whatnot. However, buying other things there, such as stereo components, batteries, etc. has never been a good idea. Radio Shack has always been higher priced (and in my opinion) lower quality than other stores. If you're an electronics engineer needing an obscure transistor or a kit for your kid to learn how electricity works -- Radio Shack is the place. Other wise, it never has been.

Now, though...they are completely off my list!

Because it was convenient, my wife and I stopped off to buy some headphones for traveling. The kind that just sit in your ear and wind up into a pretty little case. Being the kind of person who hates to go from store to store wasting time to save a buck, I went ahead and bought the ones they had, even though the were about $12 for each set.

We tried to use them for a while, but the earbuds are too big for our ears and fall out all the time. So, thinking they might have some others or something else in their store we would want, we attempted to return them. Of course, having paid cash, I didn't have the receipt anymore and was willing to accept store credit. No dice. We were told that they wouldn't accept them as a return without a receipt. We could've left the store, returned home to try to find it (if we had it) and come back to even further problems. Knowing, however, how these things go, my wife requested to speak to a manager, who told her the same thing, in addition to telling her that receipt or not, Radio Shack wouldn't accept them as a return without the receipt or the original packaging!

Now, what's funny is that these clearly come from Radio Shack, as the little case has their logo on it and so do the headphones themselves. So this isn't a question of "Did we really sell this to them?" This was a case of a poor return policy. In this day and age, the customer is always right. After all, since there isn't anything in their store that sells for less than $24, I would've probably spent more money to buy something else. In addition, they would've gotten a satisfied customer. Not this branch! I can buy something at Wal-Mart for far less, wear it for a month, return it torn and still get store credit, maybe even cash back regardless of a receipt or original packaging. Wal-Mart understands customer service. Radio Shack does NOT understand customer service. Not even close. In fact, I haven't written a Soapbox article in three and half years...but this prompted me to get it done.

Bite me, Radio Shack.

- Will Belden, July 19, 2005