Has RadioShack gone too far with its sales quotas? Allison wrote us to say that when she tried to upgrade her phone recently, the employee had to add accessories to the transaction before the system would approve it. She said he canceled some, and she ended up paying $2 for “two plastic covers for phones I don’t own.” But she says her mom had an even more bizarre experience at a RadioShack, where the assistant actually paid for the accessories herself.

Earlier this week I went in to RadioShack to upgrade a phone. Of course it was a hassle trying to get RS and my phone company to actually make this work, but eventually things were going through and I was happy just to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly the assistant says something like “Oh hold on, they don’t let us do mobile upgrades, we have to sell you an accessory.” He spoke quietly so it was hard to understand his explanation, but that was the gist of it. He randomly grabbed accessories off the wall, rang some up, canceled some, and tossed some in my bag. So now I have two plastic covers for phones I don’t own. Together they were like $2 and I was ready to get out of there, so I didn’t complain.

When I told my mom about it (my whole family recently upgraded our phones, in RS stores in different states), she said the same thing happened to her–except in her case, the assistant added the items, then insisted on paying my mom cash out of her own pocket! My mom tried to refuse, but the assistant pressed the 5 bucks on her. She said that the employees would rather pay a little of their own money than catch hell from their higher-ups about not selling accessories–even dinky little dollar accessories, apparently.

With great policies like that, no wonder RadioShack is in such great shape.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.