Ignorant Hypocrites - a topic of sorrow

[bangaio]

Why do you all assume that I'm not a manager then?

Sulking out the back for four hours - manager! ahhahahahaha, seriously though you do have a reporting structure dont you - you have a manager, you need to obtain results for them? Blimey your shop must be awesome!

[Ady]

Some of these anecdotes are funny and remind me of the stories an ex would regale me with from her Gamestation days.

I also think some of you are being a bit hard on Kaladron. He's only expressing his obvious frustration and disillusionment of some of the people his job brings him into contact with. I think it's very unfair to cast judgements on his character and working practice just because he disagreed with someone who was actually being pretty idiotic.

[S0L]

S0L: Some of those take me back, and I never even worked in a games store! One of my best mates used to do it part time, and he'd work all day Wednesday when I only had a single 2 hour lesson in the morning.

So instead of being an intellegent chap and getting all my assignments done I'd just hang out there and play games with him all day. He was usually the only one in on Wednesday's so we had the shop to ourselves. Transformed it into a ****ing arcade, Neo Geo on the big telly, loads of ciggies out the back, and of course opening up the new games that came in and getting first play on them. The fun we had winding up other customers that came in; I miss it so. There was one time when some poor bastard came in begging for the latest Final Fantasy (when, in fact, the PAL version wasn't due for another 3 months or so), and my mate had a flash of inspiration to tell him it was in, plonking down a nice fresh Japanese copy and charging him ?80 for it. The guy didn't blink at the price, he hurriedly bought it and ran out. We couldn't believe it, there was Japanese all over the case and everything. 4 hours later he came back fuming that it was Japanese and didn't work. All my mate could say was "Well you did ask if we had it in." The great thing was, he hated the manager so I managed to get all kinds of free stuff

That was like, the best time of my life. I lived for Wednesday's. Ahhh... but then we both passed our college exams and got real jobs on the same day Life hasn't been the same since (violins, please).

LOL. I actually worked for Just Micro twice, first as a Saturday lad, then during college, I lost interest in doing A Level maths and Physics so used to bunk off. Due to the amount I was spending in the shop, they gave me the Assistant Managers job. Who says bunking off college doesn't pay

Ironically enough, I got pulled up in College for truancy, they kicked me out in the end and the lecturer took great pleasure in announcing 'You'll never amount to nothing you'. Oh how I wish I could see her face now

I'm quite a lot more well behaved now mind. I still look back fondly on my time at Just Micro though, if I had chance to do things over again, I don't think I would change a thing!

I did go back to college a few years later and spent two years doing electronic engineering, bizarrely enough though, this has all gone to waste (aside from the odd bit of soldering). Seems my time at Just Micro was more valuable to me in the end. I was lucky enough to turn my wasted youth into something of a career.

---
Sol
---

[Plisken]

haha, we have this one kid in who we only let play on the set up console if he buys us ?2's worth of sweets from next door. and he does! EVERY DAY! teh lolz.

[TheShend]

You orrible man. ^^

[Kaladron]

I tried to make the job a bit more easy-going yesterday. I let a random child answer the phone when none of us could be bothered. He was actually very polite and managed to answer all of the customer's questions. That cheered me up loads.

[anephric]

If you think working in a games shop is bad, you should try Blockies...

I had dvds returned with man-fat on them (some kind of dirty protest at a fine, I think) and the local estate "gangsta" tried to stab me in the throat (luckily I had anticipated this because he'd left the shop in a huff muttering vaguely psychotic threats sotto voce and come back, so I had a screwdriver in my pocket to fend him off with).

Panic button pressed. Police van shows up. He scarpers. Blockies ban him. He comes back in the shop three days later and my manager (I was asst.) does absolutely **** all (prolly cos she didn't have a screwdriver in her pocket: we can't all have the aforethought to go around tooled up).

I quit. Quitski. Quit. I earn three times as much sitting in an office doing absolutely nothing now, the most dangerous part of my daily travail being venturing near a certain fat engineer that knows I own Tekki (for he also does) and trying to evade his desperate, lonely geektalk.

[Eight Rooks]

If you think working in a games shop is bad, you should try Blockies...

I had dvds returned with man-fat on them (some kind of dirty protest at a fine, I think) and the local estate "gangsta" tried to stab me in the throat (luckily I had anticipated this because he'd left the shop in a huff muttering vaguely psychotic threats sotto voce and come back, so I had a screwdriver in my pocket to fend him off with).

Man-fat, eh? I know not to rent anything from that place in future.

[anephric]

The man-fat could be construed as an "extra", if you like that sort of thing.

It wasn't even a jizz-worthy film, as I recall.

[DjSatansfury]

Some guy traded in a game and underneath was a dvd-r with "Worlds Largest Cocks" in it, the other week.

[Commander Marklar]

I managed to sell a LOT of copies of OutRun2 a few weeks ago, more so than most shops in my region because I was actually reccomending it to customers and explaining why it was fun to play. Predictably most of the copies that were sold were returned within the next couple of weeks. Customers called it "boring" and claimed not to like it for stupid reasons like not racing against opponents, not racing on a curcuit and most infuriating of all not being able to modify or "tune" the cars. They just didn't get it.

I think that's brilliant. Clearly, the customer base that returned Outrun 2 wanted a racer where they could race opponents (etc) but got a game that doesn't satisfy their criteria. Yet the claim is they don't get it. Did you do a survey on the quantity sold?

Seems like someone who works in a retail outlet doesn't understand the needs of the average customer coming through the door, you should be sacked tbh

[MD]

Some guy traded in a game and underneath was a dvd-r with "Worlds Largest Cocks" in it, the other week.

See he knows the CEX staff then.

[Crisp_Rapper]

Kaladron, i think it's the people in leeds mate... i work for *cough*halfords*cough* near the crown point retail park (a lovely area) and i get the same. i'm employed as a bike specialist, you know, the person that knows pretty much anything and everything about bikes yet i get people coming in and telling me i'm wrong about the stuff i sell?!

like last night, i had a guy come in and have a chat about his bike, said he bought it 3 months ago and that his crank arm fell off.

"well did you bring it back for it's 3 month free service?"

'no'

"we advise that all customers bring their bikes back within the 3 month period for a simple safety check"

'oh'

"it's things exactly like that which we check when you bring it to us, there's a slight chance you may have damaged the crank taper"

'so what can i do about it?'

"it depends if it's damaged or not, as the cycle wasn't brought back for it's free service company policy (on the back of the form you were given) states the warranty is from the date of the service... but if you drop the bike in we can look at it to see if you've damaged it, it may be as simple as cranking it on nice and tight"

he then asked me where the allen keys were and went off seemingly happy.

it was only later at about 7.30pm that he wandered in with some old battleaxe who then accused me of being rude! well i apologise for following company policy and giving advice!!! she ranted for a good 20 minutes yet didn't want to hear about the simple facts of maintaining a bike "check things are nice and tight every few hard rides".

stupid bitch.

so i'm kinda feeling the same mate, i'm very under-appreciated for the work i do and feel like just chucking it all away as it's not worth my effort anymore, there's just so few customers that actually appreciate help/advice... that and the company is making it very hard to just do my job.

and how come you don't have name badges in your store? i popped in a couple of weeks ago (to buy yoshi's island for gba) and there was a lanky manager type and a rather unhappy looking employee with black longish hair and several million bracelets... was a saturday though so that explains the unhappy expression.

[anephric]

Some guy traded in a game and underneath was a dvd-r with "Worlds Largest Cocks" in it, the other week.

Was it a documenatry about Busted?

[Spatial]

This thread is aces. Those stories are great stuff