Nayas Admits Errors, Promises to Be Honest Going Forward, Switches to Verizon

I was at Costco recently to look at cellphones/service for a friend who was attracted to their "replacement" warranty. (despite the fact that, in general, I despise that place)

First of all, Costco rents the kiosks to a 3rd party who actually operates them.

Secondly, they have (as is usually the case at Costco) an extremely limited collection of devices and accessories.

Thirdly, the salespeople are on commission and pushy.

Lastly, other than the Costco loss/damage warranty, the prices on phones aren't that great, in many cases higher than the carrier's company stores.

I also doubt that if what you want is "great service", you will find it there, other than the replacement warranty, which I hear has (unsurprisingly) a healthy list of qualifications and limitations.

Oh, and there is no way to call anyone there on the phone, you have to make a trip down there if you want to talk to anyone.

No thanks. Personally I think I'd rather patronize Radio Shack than Costco for a cellphone.

Yes, this is true. The handset selection is limited.

Hmm, which Costco was this. I've been to Mountain View and Sunnyvale, and didn't experience this.

The price on the V276 I bought there was $25 less than the Verizon store. -$25, versus $0 at the store (for a renewal under new every two). Plus it includes a car charger, case, and headset, all low quality, but similar to the Verizon after-market accessories.

Not true. Call the main store number, and they'll give you the phone number for the wireless kiosk. I did this.

My personal anecdote... Radio Shack is the *worst* place to buy a cellphone. As best as I can tell, Radio Shack refer every phone problem back to the cellphone manufacturer (even when the Moto phone is packaged with a Radio Shack branded manual and warranty statement).

Cingular/Verizon/TMobile stores as well as most small independent will provide vastly better service in the event of a bad battery, broken antenna or other common problem, based on my albeit limited experience.

Radio Shack seem to think it's acceptable to tell the customer to return the phone to the manufacturer for 6 weeks just to get a warranty replacement of a bad battery. Fortunately, other stores, from whom I had purchased nothing, were very willing to help me out in the face of Radio Shack's refusal. And yes, even the Shack's store manager and regional manager steadfastly refused to help.

In terms of obtaining service, Radio Shack is the worst. If you take a Radio Shack purchased phone to one of the carrier's stores that has level 2 service (where they can fix minor things like antenna replacement, etc.), they won't touch it. You might find a Radio Shack that has parts for the most popular phones, but it's unlikely.

The carriers give Radio Shack a sweet deal on pricing, because of their volume, but they don't want their own stores to be servicing Radio Shack's phones.

My experience is different. I've had no problems find non-Radio Shack stores that will service Radio Shack sold phones.

I was just never able to get Radio Shack to service a Radio Shack sold phone. And that sucks. Sending a phone back for factory repair which may take 6 weeks also sucks. Therefore, don't buy a phone from a store that doesn't offer a loaner in such situations. Many do, but needless to say, Radio Shack is not one of those.

In general, I think Radio Shack service sucks, not least because the caliber of their employees tends to be pretty low. Unfortunately, my experience with cellular retailers as a whole is *worse*, in general. With Radio Shack, there are vast differences from store-to-store. Some are actually pretty great, others are pretty abysmal. Unfortunately the abysmal side is more common - but like I said, cellular retailers (particularly the independents) are pretty damn low on the retail evolutionary scale in my experience.

I actually purchased a (SprintPCS) phone from Radio Shack some years back. The experience was fine, although I must admit that I didn't go back to them very much for support, and when I really needed something, I went directly to the SprintPCS store. (who were glad to help me out and didn't care who I bought the phone from - despite the fact that, in general, SprintPCS service overall was sucky.)

That's a shame. No surprise you got soured on them.

These days many if not most national "tech retailers" seem to be pretty bad, which is why I try to do business with a good local company if I can. (A friend recently had a crappy experience trying to buy a car stereo from BestBuy, which led me to do some research on local dealers, where we found basically the same unit for the same price from a company whose service quality and overall attitude were stellar by comparison.) These days if I have a need to make a retail purchase of a relatively common computer item and for some reason need to patronize a national chain (ie they are closer, or have an item in stock, or open at an hour when other choices are not), I generally end up at an office-supply store like Office Depot or OfficeMax where at least the staff tends to be courteous and available and the store policies and atmosphere are halfway-decent.

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YMMV -- I've had some pretty dismal experiences at the big office supply stores in this area (East Bay, Tri-Valley), so I now tend to avoid them.

Batterys, or at least the last time I was there that was what the bulk of the 'crowd' in the store was there for. Again no claim of this being an accurate survey of the typical client at the shack. I still use them for the occasional part etc especially on weekends when some of the bigger parts houses are closed (locally). I personally am hoping the store near me isn't one of the 480 that are mentioned in this thread.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Did you know Costco is not all over the country (US)?

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Sadly, I realize this. Still, they're in most metro areas. I have also been to Costco in Taiwan (GSM) and Korea (CDMA). The Korea Costco's have the best food and drink samples, including Korean beef and kimchi, as well as beer (hof) and Korean rice wine (SoJu). The food sample servers are also very different than in the U.S..

Ditto for me. In recent years I've had a lot of success with Walmart. They carry more products than one might expect.

Recently, I needed urgently a miniDV head cleaner. No luck at my local Fry's, Radio Shack and several other stores but Walmart had 'em on the shelf.

Not sure where you are, but in the Bay Area they are closing six out of

122 stores, in Hayward, Alameda, Newark, San Jose, Richmond and Marin. I think what helped keep the total down is that so many of their Bay Area stores have closed already. Near my house, we've lost four out of six stores in the past ten years or so. Unless Radio Shack finds a way to get Verizon back, the 480 stores is just the beginning.

Yep. And Home Depot, for cabling and accessories.

Cables, especially odd combinations (e.g., 15' male stereo mini jack to male RCA plugs) that aren't readily available locally someplace else. And yes, the occasional cellular accessory -- couple of friends got great deals on Bluetooth headsets in Radio Shack sales.

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How silly -- Verizon was part of the problem (in 2005), not the solution. Radio Shack needs to find a different and more sustainable business model for its stores. Its cellular kiosks (now carrying Cingular and Sprint-Nextel) are reportedly working well, but the store model is still clearly broken -- cellular and batteries aren't able to carry the freight alone.

And yet no proof of your stupid and silly claim- how silly.

Interesting- you claim that they are the biggest distributor in the nation, but cellphones don't make your list. Backing away from your false claim?

Maybe they already found the solution- I just saw one of the new national Radio Shack TV ads. Great promo for one of the Sprint phones.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

Radio Shack home page features Motorola L6 on Cingular. Also the Phones & Radio Communications page.