By Andrew

I feel like sharing my experience with The Source (former RadioShack) in Ontario, Canada.

I hope my experience will caution those who want to buy batteries at The Source.

They run a guarantee program for the batteries they sell. The program is called ACP; under it, when buying a battery a customer can additionally purchase this guarantee and get two replacements at no charge if it dies within three years. The idea is good, but it didn’t work well for me.

The battery that I purchased for my watch died in about a year. (It is 379, normally, batteries ran in this watch for 1.5 to 3 years.) I came to a store and received a replacement only to come home and find out that it was dead. I put it into the watch, it didn’t work so I checked it with a multitester - the battery was as dead as a nail. I went to another store of the chain and asked for a replacement. Now I tested the battery right there on the counter in the assistant’s presence, and the battery was dead too. The assistant was trying to help and fetched another battery, which only proved to be dead. He also tested the batteries with his own device, so there was no mistake about it. The manager of that store advised me to call head office in Barrie, and talk to ACP department. When I called there, the gentlemen in the ACP department, by the name of Patrick, said that he could only call to the store and ask them to restock, but it was my responsibility to drive around the stores looking for the good battery, notwithstanding the guarantee. I called to the Customer Care, I the lady there advised me that the best she could do was to call stores and find out if one of them has a good battery, after which I would have to go there to pick it up. Please mind that Thesource is not the kind of the store that you see at every corner, they are scattered at quite good distances from eahc other. The Customer Care lady tried to contact a couple of stores on my behalf, while she was checking for the phone numbers and locations of the stores, she got disconnected. Intentionally or by a chance, I don’t know. I didn’t call back, neither did she.

By then, I had already wasted a lot of time, too much for a watch battery, so I didn’t want to waste any more time pursuing the matter. I went online and found other sources to buy a battery from outside of Canada, cheaper and without even leaving my house. I will have to wait though.

I was polite in all my conversations and never made a big issue out of it, it is just a battery after all. All shop assistants I dealt with and the customer care agent were trying to help. Patrick sounded a little impatient and didn’t demonstrate any understanding, but I had heard worse, and obviously he was unable to do much under the chain’s policy.

No need to say that I am not buying anything at all from The Source in the future. You potential customers will certainly have your own opinion, but I hope that my experience can be helpful.