RadioShack

The posted hours are not correct!
10 – 8 not 9−9…
I drove way out of my way to find out they open an hour later!
Inconvenient!

Initially I called the radioshack at Lamar and Oltorf, asking if they carried a particular firewire cable. Their response was ‘we don’t carry it, and radioshack doesn’t even carry this product at all’. That didn’t sound quite right to me, so I called the Riverside Austin location, 5 minutes away, and they said, sure we carry it.
At this point, I called Radioshack to get a balance on my radioshack giftcard. They tell me that the card has money on it and give me the balance amount.
I head down to the Riverside location. I approach the store on the Riverside entrance and the door is locked, with the security chain barrier drawn half way across the locked glass door. It was 5:30pm at this point, so I thought this isn’t quite right. I knock loudly on the door, and there is no answer. The store is empty with the lights on.
I start to walk away, but then I thought, I’ll check out the back entrance. You have to walk a small distance into a residential area in order to reach the back door.
Sure enough, to my surprise, the back door opens. After about 30 seconds a young girl comes out from the back room, apparently the only employee. Her name was Jen. I ask why the front door was locked, she responds ‘I’m the only one here, I’m not going to unlock the front door’. Given that she didn’t respond to the knocking, she is probably quite accustomed to giving people the impression that the store is closed.
I pick up this AV cable (which at $ 20 is a ridiculous price for a firewire cable). I tell her that these cables are sold for $ 3 online. She says that «radioshack will price match, but it must be a print ad, nothing digital, corporate policy». «Print ads? Who even uses paper anymore?» She runs my gift card and tells me that there’s zero dollars on the card. I tell her that I just called radio shack and they gave me the balance. She calls her manager who tells Jen there’s nothing we can do with this giftcard, and she points to some writing on the back of the card that says Radioshack has the right to take money off your card if time passes. California however, has laws against it, so you might still be able to use your card in California. I repeat to her that Radioshack’s customer service just told me there was an active balance. She says «there’s nothing we can do about it, that’s a corporate issue».
I walk out.
For anyone who’s thinking of giving the gift of a radio shack gift card: remember that Radioshack will freely remove money from that card. Only California has caught on to Radioshack and other companies who take away gift card money, by recognizing it as a crooked practice and outlawing it.
If Radioshack really wants to recover from their image issues as a place that people used to go for overpriced electronics, the company should start by not stealing giftcard money, and not employing people who are content to drive away customers with the false impression that a store is closed.

Address doesn’t come up right, this is just off 35 and Riverside. Prices here for items are always up to par, bought a Roku and router and both were the same price as Walmart at Radioshack. Didn’t used to be very helpful, but I think that guy is gone, the lady the past few times is great!

Meh…
I went in with the corpse of my AC adapter, hoping to find a new one. At least the dudes working there were very eager to help. They were nice, at first.
They did have what I was looking for (kind of) but at an outlandish price that I simply could not pay (on principle). Almost 100 dollars for a laptop charger? Nuh-​oh.
The sales reps were really pushy and got unnecessarily offended when I said I wanted to shop around (BestBuy, Amazon, etc). They insisted that the price would be the same everywhere I went.
… Which they were totally wrong about. I found their so-​called-​hundred-​dollar-​product on Amazon for $ 5. With overnight shipping, it was $ 15 and I got it the next day. So, I saved about $ 85 dollars by not shopping at Radio Shack. Yay.

Went in with the button battery from a Toyota keyless entry fob that isn’t working. Just bought the car so not sure if problem is battery or fob. Could have gone to closer CVS for betters but figured RS could tell me if the battery itself was good or not, narrowing down the possible problems. Young woman at register told me they didn’t have a battery tester. I said I’d bought one back home in California from RS. She pointed down an aisle. Young man approached and I explained. He pulled battery tester off rack and said, «I don’t think it comes with a battery,» looked, «Nope.» I said, «Do you have a spare one around here?» «Nope.»
My guys back in CA would have ripped open a pack and tested that sucker for me. Not dopey nopey. Bought the battery for an outlandish price and still don’t know if that’s the problem. Next time CVS…
Plus, I also went to RS over CVS because I usually find something good I hadn’t come in for. Not this time. Too POed to shop. Quality of service makes me think quality of management must be bad at this store. Teach these kids to think, please, not be mindless animatrons looking forward only to the day they break minimum wage.

Ah… the Shack.
I usually only come here when Fry’s is too far of a drive or on the rare instance they actually have some random electronics thingy that Fry’s inexplicably does not have in stock.
Random audio cables, resistors, solder — these are what I come for. No idea who would buy a phone at this place.
And don’t forget the batteries — the clerks certainly won’t