While in the Mall a funny thing........

[Frank Jr.]

Yesterday while in one of our shopping malls here in Cola. S.C. I had some time to kill so I went into Radio Shack just looking around. I saw a 522 on a shelf that was hooked up to a 27" television and was on. A salesman approached with another customer and said to me, Here's the remote give her a spin young man. I told him that I am an existing customer of Dishnetwork and can't get a 522 but am familiar with it's abilities and tried to give him the remote back. He would'nt take the remote back saying show us how it will pause live tv. Well I did and after resuming play the audio dropped out. The customer asked where did the sound go? The salesman quickly took the remote out of my hand and started pushing buttons trying to get the sound back which he was unable to do. He murmered must be something wrong with the tv. He then looked at me and asked , do you know how to get the sound back. I replied I think so. He gave me the remote back and as the customer was looking in great interest I pushed fastforward and then pause and pause again. The tv started playing with sound. The customer shook his head and took a quick glance at the salesman as he turned and walked out the door. The salesman took the remote out of my hand turned saying something like thank you,(i think)and walked away leaving me standing alone by the 522.

 

[MikeD-C05]

It's typical. I actually sold a customer on Dishnetwork in my local Radio Shack when the clerk couldn't . I knew more about the service and the receivers than she did. I even helped them with getting locals by "moving". They are now happy dish customers with Houston Locals. I think Dishnetwork would sell a lot more if they did training sessions for their providers in the stores. Sears is just as clueless about Dishnetwork and even how to call up the guide on the tv. I had to show him how to do it with his remote.

 

[David_Levin]

Let's give the Radio Shack salesmen some 921's. That should be VERY amusing.

 

[Frank Jr.]

I can excuse the salesman from Radio Shack not knowing. I didn't know much about dbs until I purchased a system and started reading this site. It has taught me a lot thanks to Scott and many others. I promote Dish every chance I get, but it is not good when a demo model used to show prospective buyers what a product will do malfunctions. That leaves the salesperson in a bad situation and the prospective buyer wary of the product.

 

[boba]

I can excuse the salesman from Radio Shack not knowing. I didn't know much about dbs until I purchased a system and started reading this site. It has taught me a lot thanks to Scott and many others. I promote Dish every chance I get, but it is not good when a demo model used to show prospective buyers what a product will do malfunctions. That leaves the salesperson in a bad situation and the prospective buyer wary of the product.

And this is one of the know and admitted faults of the 522.

 

[Mr Tony]

Was at a Radio Shack in Duluth about a week ago and I stopped and was playing with the 522 when the manager came over. I asked him "I understand locals are now available". He tells me "yep, they are." I wanted to see them and he told me they didn't have them. They were suppose to, but didn't. He had called Dish and they said locals should be on there. So I "monkeyed around" with it (as he went to help other people) and I did a switch check.....it comes back as no switch detected. The only satellite they were using was 119.

Yep, they were probably using a Dish300 and Duluth locals are on 110.

As I left and got on the highway (you can see the roof of the mall from the highway), it looked like all they were using was a DirectTv dish.

How the heck are you suppose to sell the product when you don't have the right product yourself??

 

[Van]

Not all radio shacks ( 4700 ) have been upgraded to the dish 500 /dish 300 and or superdish to recieve all available programming yet. Some are still using a a direct multi dish to recieve signal from the 119 and the 101. Before anyone says that all of this should have been done a long time ago you have to realize that in most malls it takes an act of god and a legal degrea to be able to do the service work. I just finished upgrading one of these mall radio shacks and it originaly started back in march.

Unfortunately many of the sales clerks are your basic hourly store minders and shelve stockers but you can find a few that know what theyre talking about. One of the clerks at the store I upgraded knew enough about cabling and satellite that he was able to help out a customer with some information about phone line runs but did refer to me questions about super home nodes and reciever types and line runs, ofcourse the customer was getting direct and Im an E installer but hey Im all about customer service so he left knowing what he needed to know for building his new home and setting it up for satellite, phone, and internet.

 

[rtt2]

I was at Costco today and have some good news though. I havent been to Cosco in a while because my wife usually goes. Usually the Dish Network display is a beat up piece of crap that is a few years old and is disconnected with outdated brochures.
Today, there was a new display and all the TVs in the store were connected to Dish via a 510. The picture was very good on most of the TVs and the display was different.
In addition all the brochures had a business card of Ecosphere rep stapled to them with his personal number attached.
My only complaint is that it could get a better shelf space - but that is more Cosco's issue.
Overall I was very impressed. You could test out the unit and it was fully functional with all channels available. I saw foreign language channels that I did not even know were available.

 

[CRB]

The guys at Radio Shack, in my experience, know thier inventory better than most places. Try a smaller store rather than the mall-based ones.

 

[David_Levin]

They have 10,000,000 subs - thay can't upgrade 4700 Radio Shack stores so they can do a proper demo?

 

[Mr Tony]

Not all radio shacks ( 4700 ) have been upgraded to the dish 500 /dish 300 and or superdish to recieve all available programming yet. Some are still using a a direct multi dish to recieve signal from the 119 and the 101. Before anyone says that all of this should have been done a long time ago you have to realize that in most malls it takes an act of god and a legal degrea to be able to do the service work. I just finished upgrading one of these mall radio shacks and it originaly started back in march.

Seems weird......there are 3 in the Duluth/Superior area and the 2 are done (the 2 in the mall malls)
Then one I was at was in a strip mall. And they had a 522

Unfortunately many of the sales clerks are your basic hourly store minders and shelve stockers but you can find a few that know what theyre talking about. One of the clerks at the store I upgraded knew enough about cabling and satellite that he was able to help out a customer with some information about phone line runs but did refer to me questions about super home nodes and reciever types and line runs, ofcourse the customer was getting direct and Im an E installer but hey Im all about customer service so he left knowing what he needed to know for building his new home and setting it up for satellite, phone, and internet

very true...use to work at one myself...I did know what I was talking about (or at least made it sound like I did)

 

[Mr Tony]

The guys at Radio Shack, in my experience, know thier inventory better than most places. Try a smaller store rather than the mall-based ones.

There is one about 2 blocks from me and I refuse to go to that one unless I have no other option...they are dumb as a brick. The guy told me there was no difference between RG59 & RG6 (!!!)

My favorite was I went in for 25' of cable. The guy grabbed it and I asked if it was black. "All of the cable is.....except for some lengths".
The last thing I needed was a white cable next to 4 black ones outside.

I usually go to the one either 15 miles away or about 40 miles away (buddy of mine manages that one).

 

[Jahntassa]

The radioshack my in-laws got Dish from (instead of directly..I have NO idea) said they didn't need an off-air antenna to recieve the local HD signals. Even Dish said that! What the hell? Then they wouldnt' believe me when I told them otherwise. I had to bite my tounge when they went to BestBuy for their new $80 off-air antenna...

Radioshack doesn't have answers..they have idiots..