Game shops make me angry

[hankwangford]

Think you have me confused edanderson.
You want paying for what exactly?
Drop me a PM if you think I owe you something, think you'll find I don't.

LOL

Don't worry Bowser, Ed's just into Mr. Tourette at the moment...

http://www.****flap.com/gallery/tourette

[RLench]

I agree with Bowser - you can't expect every worker to have the same kind of knowledge about niche products as you do. I work in an office for a subcontractor - does that mean I should know everything (EVERYTHING) about electrics, plumbing, heating, joinery, masonry, glazing, painting etc? Of course it doesn't...I know the basics and that's all I'm expected to know. Same thing applies to EVERY SINGLE industry.

But, even though I can accept that I know more about games than the person selling them, it pisses me off so much that so many of them have such an attitude problem. These kind of employees are arrogant enough to tell me I'm wrong, call me a liar, try and sell me something I don't want, accuse me of piracy (after all, importing = piracy according to these twats) and generally treat me with contempt for having the audacity to ask a question about prices, release dates etc. Because of these idiots I refuse to buy from any shop apart from my two local indies, because they are decent enough to be polite to me, admit when they're wrong, and do anything they can to help.

I'm not saying every Game/Gamestation etc employee is an idiot, but - in my experience - most of them are. I've met some who were very good, and if everyone was like that I'd be shopping there more often

[bowser123]

:hankwangford


Know I see.
Thank you for enlightening me.


Oh and the people described by RLench. I'm in no way trying to defend them. They sound utterly rude and repulsive, they're the sort that have a little knowledge and think they know everything. By far the worst type of colleague too, I'd rather work with a non gamer any time.

Customers can be just as bad, as a customer at my GAME told me he'd been playing the finished Xbox GTA SA for a few weeks. He had a go when I dared to suggest that the game wasn't even confirmed, never mind made.

Horses for courses, people are arseholes.

[mid]

Get some perspective TBH. Somebody in a high street store doesn't know about something and you all go ballistic, shouting at how inadequate the world is. TBH if you want specialist knowledge shop at a specialist store.

Funny - I thought Gamestation and Game were specialist stores. Explains why I've taken to going into the games section of Virgin if I want intelligent counter staff, instead.

[RLench]

Oh and the people described by RLench. I'm in no way trying to defend them. They sound utterly rude and repulsive, they're the sort that have a little knowledge and think they know everything. By far the worst type of colleague too, I'd rather work with a non gamer any time.

You should have heard the argument I had with a manager once about Animal Crossing. I was talking to a friend about it and he overheard. It went something like

Him - "No you haven't got Animal Crossing...it hasn't even been released yet"
Me - "I have the US version"
"No you don't...it hasn't even been finished"
"Err...yes it has and I've had it for about six months"
"Then it's probably a download and you've got a chipped Gamecube"
"Yeah, ok. Whatever"

*Puts down the two games he was about to buy and walks out. Friend puts down the game he was about to buy and follows me out the door*

Like I said there are some employees who are fine, and I don't have a problem with them. Trafford Centre's Game stores are very good, as is Wigan's.

[bowser123]

Please, they're not specialist in the slightest. The average demographic of my store (and the company in general) is tired, disinterested parents buying games that aren't suitable for little Johnny. And Chav kids wanting said products that they're not allowed being turned away.

Seriously, if you know about games, why shop at GAME?

Customers can be just as bad, as a customer at my GAME told me he'd been playing the finished Xbox GTA SA for a few weeks. He had a go when I dared to suggest that the game wasn't even confirmed, never mind made.

Update. Last seen applying for a job at GAME.

[bowser123]

You should have heard the argument I had with a manager once about Animal Crossing.

That's really weird that, basically the manager not realizing import games exist and that Japan and the US get them 1st. Especially seeing as quite a few GAME stores got sent US Cubes in mistake before the launch of the format.
What happens is the manager gets sent the H/W that is theirs to keep. Our manager puts it in the staff room, so we have all of them to use. Anyhow, in typical Nintendo fashion, they ballsed up and sent us a US machine and games.

Trafford Centre's Game stores are very good, as is Wigan's.

Eek. Bet you haven't been served by me if you think that.

[RLench]

If he didn't know about imports then I don't have a problem with that. I wouldn't expect him to if he's not into games as a hobby. But what annoyed me so much was his attitude and the fact that he basically called me a liar and a pirate ANY manager could tell you that you never insult your customers!

I didn't know that about Nintendo sending US cubes instead of PAL ones!

I was going to come and say hello the last time I was in the Trafford Centre but I didn't see you. I was all ready to start asking loads of hardcore questions and everything

[gIzzE]

I have to agree with Bowser here, I would think that 80+% of sales are to people who will pick up a couple of titles each year or parents buying for kids.
You lot talk about being arrogant but I can imagine how you would all look down your nose when a parent comes in asking for Fifa for their kid, and probably start to try and sway her over to ISS. We all know ISS is a better game but what happens xmas morning when little Johnny wakes up and not got the game the rest of his class will be playing??

Rather than get pissed off that these people don't know a game release or whatever, smile and explain to them what the deal is, they can then pass the info on to the next customer.

I am an employer, we have a retail store and an aganecy selling to retailers, in the retail store I can afford to pay around ?18k a year to someone, a sales rep. on the wholesale side would be expecting around ?30k basic with the chance to double that after commision.
I don't seriously expect someone to put as much effort into working in a shop as they would if they were selling out on the road with the chance to earn 2x as much if they learn the product.

As long as staff are not rude to me I don't really care, if they are then I just don't give them my business.

[Flompy]

This thread reminds me of how I love retail when it's quieter: if a customer wants to chat about games or buy a console I will happily chat for as long as they like even if they don't buy anything (I don't make any profit myself if we do sell something or not so I don't care either way) but unfortunatly when my service is most needed, it is too busy to give people the time required (Saturdays or xmas time).

As a matter of fact I wrote in my Blog (http://haribokart.blogspot.com/) on saturday regarding this:

"Picture the scene, quiet for half an hour with 1or2 people coming into my shop in the whole time. Then suddenly, all at once, 33 people come in, and all decide to que at once. These people are called ***** and nearly all of my customers deserve that 'special' name. But no! Thats not enough, we will wait until somebody is on their lunch break then even more of us will come in: then we will all bring in our ****ty Gamecubes and 100's of **** games to trade in- all at the same time!

To be honest I would not be upset if most of my customers died, I have never met such a rude, arrogant and amazingly dumb bunch of twats in my life. If it were legal I would happily kill them myself. Todays best question: (after picking up Fable on the Xbox) "So my mate told me this games just like GTA, it is yeah?". No you ****ing dick look at the back. It is NOTHING like Fable you chav scum. Go and watch Eastenders, ****.

If these people are going to be ruling the country in xxx years time, I would advise everybody to use contraception- would you really want your kids living in a world where Mike Skinner (of The Streets fame) is is charge?"

[Duddyroar]

Totally agree with what Bowser is saying here. You simply can't expect staff at any videogame store to be up to speed on everything. I suppose we're all forgetting one key fact - people work in game stores to earn money first and foremost. Sure it's nice working in the industry you're interested in but from my own experience it's not all fun, fun, fun.

I worked in a videogame store for a few years part time and I have to admit the customers annoyed me just as much as the staff do in GAME. You get some really stupid questions sometimes and although I made every effort to be nice to them, I was a little rude to some of the more annoying customers (usually little kids trying to exchange discs that are scratched to fook). When someone came in who actually knew about games it would be like a breath of fresh air. The staff at GAME are probably no less informed than your average 'mainstream' gamesplayer.

[Paul3704]

Agree with Bowser.

If you're writing on a specific games thread, you can talk about games on here and make better informed decisions. Don't expect all the staff to know as much hardcore gamers, they more than likely have a passing interest and work there for the money.

It's nice when you finally do meet someone in a gameshop who knows what they're talking about, but if not, I don't worry about it. I think I've seen Bowser a couple of times to be honest without realising its him.

[Friction]

Just going to add to what's already been said really.

I worked for almost 3 years for HMV in charge of a games section. I think customers do appreciate someone who knows what they are talking about, but then you don't need to be (or want to be) too rabid about it. Help people out, be honest but just don't go overboard!

The amount of times I've had people talk utter **** to me 'I completed Vice city in 1 hour' 'I've got game X' when it wasn't even out.

I think the worst thing is when people argue with you when you know you are right, asking for games which aren't out, claiming they know this and that when they simply don't.

The most common example being:

'Have you got game X?'

'No it isn't out yet'

'It is! I've seen it in GAME!'

..... I've never understood this one - you apparently have seen the game you want in another store locally, yet you come over to HMV and ask for it, then tell me you saw it somewhere else - GO AND ****ING BUY IT THERE THEN! Retards!

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly no gaming expert, nor do I claim to be, whilst I now own the 3 main consoles (PS2, XBOX and GC) and obviously a PC, when I started my job I had a Dreamcast and not much else other than a childhood history of Speccy, Megadrive, SNES, PSX and Saturn.

I think where HMV was concerned (certainly at the time I was employed) Games were not the main focus they just didn't give a **** who worked in the sections - sure you had to provide good customer service but knowledge wasn't essential. I guess to a certain extent it was more a numbers game getting the right amounts of the right title and that was that.

The head office games team were not the best in the world initially - almost like they didn't give a **** either and later on them became really good - so good that at least 75% of the top people make the walk over to Gamestation's head office!

Also where the staff where I worked didn't make things easier at first. Initially it felt like my job was the least important in the store, and not to mention colleagues would rile me and call me a 'Geek' and 'Nerd' just because I liked my games. I could never work out why I was named the above just for playing a few games yet the man who owned well over 3000 CD's was considered perfectly normal?!

Anyhow enough of me

[chopemon]

I used to work in GAME and there were only two staff i met from the store i worked at and other store who knew much about games. One of those staff was me and the other got fired for stealing.

anyway, the other staff knew very little. well, one guy can tell you all about final fantasy and the other can tell you about eve online (for hours and hours) but nothing else. anything they did know was gleaned from glancing at mags and from what i told them.

GAME's view is that they just need staff, not wise and informative staff just people willing to work for minimum wage

its a shame as GAME are missing out on a customer service by not having informed staff

i can also say that an awful lot of my knowledge wasn't used a lot as people would come in and ask "when's san andreas out innit?" and "which is the best dance mat game?"

if you want intelligent advice head to an idie

[mid]

Then suddenly, all at once, 33 people come in, and all decide to que at once. These people are called ***** and nearly all of my customers deserve that 'special' name. But no! Thats not enough, we will wait until somebody is on their lunch break then even more of us will come in

1) Calm the **** down, mate. Seriously.

2) You're complaining that lots of customers turn up when your staff are on their lunch breaks? You find this surprising? What the hell do you do on your lunch break yourself? If it involves going to any shops you can't reach during the rest of the day, because you're busy working, then you're a hypocrital **** apparently.

To be honest I would not be upset if most of my customers died, I have never met such a rude, arrogant and amazingly dumb bunch of twats in my life. If it were legal I would happily kill them myself. Todays best question: (after picking up Fable on the Xbox) "So my mate told me this games just like GTA, it is yeah?".

So, a paying customer described a game that attempts to build a semi-coherent world, where performing 'evil' acts gets you in trouble with the rest of the population, and interviews with the developers ineviatably involve liberal use of the word 'sandbox', as being 'like GTA'. How very arrogant and rude some people can be.