Beware of Radio Shack

I do. Anything high-value or fragile, I keep the original packing long after warranty--in case I ever want to change addresses.

But I agree about Radio Shack in general. Not a great place to buy.

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And maybe some day you will have a loft full of boxes with no use.

If it's an exchange, use the box from the replacement to return the old one. mike

Take it up with them in small claims court.

-- Bob Day

Heh, the ONLY things I buy at radio shack are little electronics components (fuses, diodes, transistors, switches, etc.). That's all the store is good for.

This is probably good advice, but many packaged items these days require repeated assault with a very large, sharp machete to remove from a plastic shield that rivals steel in strength and durability.

Just this morning I installed a new ink cartridge in my Epson printer, and I marveled how tough the packaging was -- absolutely impenetrable without sharp tools!

They never mentioned that the packaging has to be in one piece.

I've had good luck with small doo-dads at RS. They recently stopped asking for phone # etc... I believe they are francises, so don't compare one with another. You may have a good one in your town and a bad one somewhere else.

Jeff K

Ahh yes. Packaging so sturdy that you have a 50% chance of destroying the enclosed merchandise before getting the package open. Ya just gotta love it!

I do, too. I have speakers that are 15 years old and we still have the original packaging for them. Comes in very handy when we move, since we usually trek long distances. Still have the boxes my computers came in, too.

Yep, same here, although the selection of discrete components has vastly diminished over the last twenty or so odd years.

Jon

They *used* to be. Back in the 80s I had a Tandy Color Computer 3 and also bought stereo equipment from them and other computer stuff (including a PC once). They used to make good on things, packaging or not. I have noticed recently that they have went downhill over the years though. Such a shame. My problems were that the staff weren't as well informed about their products as the staff they used to have in the 80s.

!?! Back in the 80's, I bought TRS-80 model I I also bought the schematics and dumped it as soon as I discovered how incompetent the designers were.

Back in the 1980s was also the time when I asked for a BNC connector, and the guy pointed at a wall that I had already been looking at for a while. After a little discussion, he finally pulled something else off the hook, handed it to me, and said "THIS is a CB connector!"

CoCo was later--and I have no clue whether it was any good, because by then I was thoroughly prejudiced against RS.

Radio Shack started going down hill back in the early 70's when they finally dumped all of the Archer line(British) of electronic components. Used to be able to get just about any Cap/Transistor/SCR or any other electronic component there. Hasen't been that way for nearly 3 decades.

Seems strange that they should have depended on a UK sourced range, but we do still have that kind of product range over here at other retailers (Maplins for example) and the amateur constructor still lives here too.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

My biggest problem with Radio Shack is that I happen to be female, so they automatically assume that I don't know what I'm talking about. I happen to have a degree in Sound Technology (audio engineering), and I know more about computers and electronics than a lot of men. Yet every time I go in there, they act like they don't know what I'm talking about and then they try to talk me into buying something else. Recent example: I needed an RF converter to hook an old game system up to an old tv that wasn't cable ready. I figured I could get a simple A/B switch type converter for a couple of bucks at Radio Shaft. WRONG! The guy had NO IDEA what I was talking about (I'm thinking, "this guy is a moron!), so I explained the usage, and he tried to sell me this $60 converter that has inputs for Cable TV, Satellite dish, and video games, etc., but STILL won't hook-up to the antenna. I suppose he was too young (he was EARLY 20's), so maybe he doesn't remember that TVs used to have antennas or that video games ever used anything besides an A/V connector. At any rate, he couldn't seem to figure it out, and I couldn't find what I was looking for in the store, so I drove 30 minutes to the local True Value Hardware Store and found exactly what I needed for approximately $2.

There was absolutely no correlation between Archer components and any particular country of origin, including the UK. "Archer" was just one of countless RS store brands, like Micronta, Realistic, Optimus, etc.

-- jm

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Entity Peter A Forbes spoke thus:

That looks like a nifty gadget. Does anyone know if it will work with Mac OSX? I know it plugs into PS2 and Macs don't have them, But I use a PS2 mouse with an adapter. Any hacks for this?

-- Gnarlie I think, therefore I'm single. Lizz Winstead

You may want to do some more homework, just a couple days ago or so, I seen a series of posts of the "Cuecat" being used as "spyware". Not sure if it would do the same on your set up since it's not a "PC" as such as the rest who are affected by the crap Macs aren't. I have a Cuecat on my desk top, but the DT hasn't been on in months, so not much spying going on there. Besides, when I DID try it, it didn't seem to work as it was cut out to, so OUT IT GOES!

L.