Hi guys,
I've been wanting to do this for a bloody long time now, but I have to ask.... what is the most annoying this a worker from gamesworkshop has ever said to you?

For me personally when I asked a guy in the store, "What's a good ork vehicle to paint?" he replied...

"Well the wartrakk has turbo engines and so it can ZOOM across the board! It also has a crazy ork driver who is sooo cool!"

How the gribblies does this answer my question!

So post away my fellow war gamers, and tell me what the most annoying thing they said was!

I once called their 800 number to ask where I would call to complain about the pages falling out my White Dwarf and I got a few seconds of mumbling followed by a really uncomfortable silence. To which I replied "Well, that about answers my question."

Brilliant! Classic "um... I really don't know what to say here..." moment.

Gen con 1990-something. A friend of mine is at the GW stand and wants to buy a unit of choas dwarf blunderbussers. He wants to buy a whole unit at once, not have to make three trips to the FLGS to get them.

(This was back in the day when GW only let stored order in multi code sleeves, so you couldn't really get single packs as a retailer. The result was the store would have 2 packs at a time, and he needed 6 packs for a unit of 12)

Anyway, we are at the GW booth. He has three packs in hand, and asks the redshirt if they have any more (there were loads of boxes piled under the tables).

Redshirt looks, and holds up a handful of blisters answering "yes, we have a dozen right here."

My friend: "Good, I need three packs."

Redshirt: "Sorry I can't sell them to you."

Friend: "Why not?"

Redshirt: "We are only allowed to restock the racks with one of each blister per hour. You'll have to come back each hour to pick one up."

My friend proceeds to hand the redshirt the three boxes of Blunderbussers as well as the other $400 worth of stuff he was buying.

We had a good laugh shopping at Napoleon's for the same stuff the next day.

Always makes me chuckle when someone says.......

"Why yes, I have it. But it is mine. Not yours. Mine. Muhahahah! Ahem."

= me

- redshirt


I'm looking for a Demolisher, your shelf is empty, do you have any in the back?

Did you know that we've got new orks!

Yes, very dandy but I'm here for a Demolisher

Don't you like orks? You really should play them, they got a new codex after oh-so many years you know? Look at these plastic kits, cool huh?

I know, but I really want a Demolisher

You sure you don't want any orks to go with that?

...

Just the total I need to pay.



Oh, hang on.... ages ago, when there was a different manager they used to have these incredibly inane "discussions" about "stuff", as you do I guess when you all work together a lot.
I caught the tail end of the "Would you rather have sex with another man or a female wolf" debate, made my excuses and left. Wow,..just wow.

You're fired. (I'm not kidding)

i think shane wins this one



most of the people at GW portsmouth know me, so its never a problem until they hire a new person, when some fething kiddo asks me for ID so he can sell me glue it really does take the piss
ok, im 19, i just spent over £300 here, and im now going to buy a tub of £5 glue to sniff......... dill weed

I called ahead to the local Gw store and asked if they had something in stock.. I drove an hour to get there and when I asked where it was I was told they don't stock that item.

While working for Gw I was told by my manager to 'take care of that guy' (meaning the manager was too 'busy' to run a demo game.) I ended up with a huge sale and my manager said "Looks like you've been watching me run those demos, I've taught you well." (in my mind I was thinking, I've never seen this guy do a demo ever.. lol)

(edit for errors)

My (then girlfriend now wife), a friend of hers, and a buddy of mine came to pick me up from the Chicago battle bunker. They sat behind the table I was playing at, patiently waiting and they pulled out a deck of cards... No harm done right, Honor Guard walks over and says, "Sorry, but we don't allow non-GW games to be played here." *Smacks hand into forehead.*

To top it all off, I felt like a goober with three of my non-initiated close friends standing by while I did epic battle with Bretonians, asking me what ever little piece on the table was for.

From a number of years back:

"I don't use Black Templar vows because they're cheesy."

Wanted to put my fist through his skull.

Brilliant, these are funny as hell guys.

And btw JD, that happened to me!

GW guy- " do you need any glue?"

me- "yes please"

GW guy- "well you're gonna have to get your dad to buy it for you because its not solvent free."

Me(thinking)- "You absolute gribblie. I just bought like everything you have on your ork shelf, and you have the balls to tell me that I can't buy glue by myself. Screw you."

My least favourite is when I have all my stuff at the paypoint and they go "and one blah, yeah?" blah being an item I don't have at the paypoint. Usually a white dwarf, but I've had everything from space marine battleforces when buying LOTR to a Stompa.

Another highly annoying one was when I popped in for a quick look around, checking the price on some terminators, place was nearly empty. I wasn't planning on buying anything as I was unemployed, but had been passing and decided to stop in. When a staff member asked me what I was in for, and I replied to that effect, he pretty much walked me out of the store. Politely, I mean, but he covered me from going further in and walked me out while saying goodbye. I thought that was pretty bad form.

*Phone

Hi i was wondering if you have some Eldar battle forces?

GW: yes we do !

* gets on a 40 min long trip to GW shop.

GW: sorry we dont have any eldar battle force... i thought we did....

oh yay............

GW in Reading, PA, when i was really young.

i was going down to philly for the day, and decided to play at the GW in Reading. i had my orks with me, this was around 1996.

so me and my friend are playing, and a redshirt walks over to our table and asks "what are those" pointing to my obviously scratchbuilt battlewagons. i replied saying they are battlewagons. he then tells me i can't play with them because they arn't GW battlewagons. a lil confused, i asked him if GW makes battlewagons, he told me "thats not the point"

that was my intorduction to how GW stores were run.

This is pretty much how it goes for me now.

Me- "Hey, do you guys have any Genestealers in sto--"

GW - "BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS? BUY ORKS?"

Funny, I play orks and they're always trying to sell me space marines...

They do need some sort of investment in their poster boys, I guess...

But even the independent hobby shops around here are loaded with Ork stuff.

simple
take in an ork model, burn it infront of them (a lighter should do the trick, please remember that it will get hot and may cause an injury, so wear safety gloves), then explain you do not want any orks.

Probably cos of the second wave ork stuff. They did try hard to sell me a stompa, but I figure I'm fair game as an ork player with more than one of everything.

boss, that last part in some respects is somewhat worrying 0_0

JD21290 wrote:simple
take in an ork model, burn it infront of them (a lighter should do the trick, please remember that it will get hot and may cause an injury, so wear safety gloves), then explain you do not want any orks.

But then you'll have lost an ork model.

Which means you'll have to buy another model to replace it... or buy a battleforce... and the new stompa kit!

I used to travel to London a lot. I'm American. I would occasionally visit the GW store on Oxford St. They'd always have loud horrible music, and often loud kids. That' s OK. And the staff was nice enough, and helpful (I think). Problem was, between the noise and accents, I couldn't understand half of what was said. They could have been calling me every name in the book, I'd have never known. I had the same experience at the GW store on Victoria St. in Sydney.

I wish more countries spoke English.

I know, British is a terrible language.

But then you'll have lost an ork model.

Which means you'll have to buy another model to replace it... or buy a battleforce... and the new stompa kit!

you dont work for GW by any chance do you?
if not then that line is too close to what they would say

I know, British is a terrible language.

you mean english?
if thats your opinion, then start learning french boyo

My friend and I just bought 2 Epic starter sets. My younger brother was sitting at the painting corner busy with an undead model so we joined him. A few minutes later a red shirt came over and told us we were loitering.

Gobbla wrote:I used to travel to London a lot. I'm American. I would occasionally visit the GW store on Oxford St. They'd always have loud horrible music, and often loud kids. That' s OK. And the staff was nice enough, and helpful (I think). Problem was, between the noise and accents, I couldn't understand half of what was said. They could have been calling me every name in the book, I'd have never known. I had the same experience at the GW store on Victoria St. in Sydney.

I wish more countries spoke English.

G... what? Was this post meant to be intentionally ironic?

I couldn't understand anyone in England therefore I wish more people spoke English.

Wh... huh?

Mine is situation specific, and the GW employee (a nice guy I might add, in every other situation I've dealt with him in) was speaking to an entire room, which is part of what made it annoying.

At a Games Day Baltimore, after it shrunk to a single day. 10-5, so 7 hours. Ticket was $40, so this was two years ago, I believe.

Finishing up a seminar by the GW talent (WH/40K seminar). So the nice GW designer starts taking questions, and a decent number of folks get up to go downstairs to the main hall (and presumably other attractions). The GW manager in charge of the room very loudly berates the folks for being rude to the guest speaker. It took a moment to register with me (I was still in my seat), but it dawned on me a moment later what happened.

An employee blasted customers for how they chose to use their time after paying a $40 entrance fee. It hasn't happened since, but if it does, I will lose my ****. You are charging me $40/7 hours --> $5.75 an hour to visit your convention. It's MY time, not yours.

If the talk had been free, the guy would have a small point. At $40 a head, it was totally out of line. I think he was forgetting the business-customer relationship. It's not show friends...it is show business.

Aside from that, my experiences have been reasonable and normal.

when i go in they always tell me about the days they have games even tho i go in like everyday... idiots

WAIT! There's an age limit on the glue??? ... The guys at my local GW are awesome then. Me and my sister are under 18 or what ever the age for the glue is and they sell it to us all the time =\ Also one of the guys there was selling his ork army that was worth about 400$ to us for 300 and when we said we couldn't afford he offered it for like 200 or something because we have a small ork army so far... of course not being eligible to work yet we had to say no =\ are some GW guys really suck jerks? All the GW near us have awesome employees.

JD21290 wrote:

I know, British is a terrible language.

you mean english?
if thats your opinion, then start learning french boyo

Feh, the British language, what a load of rubbish. 'Chips' indeed.

HBMC: dont you understand? all of us over here speak chinese, not english ...... or so some may think 0_o



orkish, of course there is an age limit on it
ie: people tend to sniff the stuff.

now, if you wanted to sniff glue would you really go and spend around £200 on models just for the glue to sniff?

Oh also I can't believe they would make you leave for loitering XP The last like 5 times I went (usually go once every other sunday) we didn't buy anything and they're fine with that. One crazy kid once ran around our local GW shouting KILL the snipers! KILL the snipers! Also ORKS ROCK!!!!
EDIT: Hmm they let me buy the glue and ya I hate the smell of it anyways though...

Feh, the British language, what a load of rubbish. 'Chips' indeed.

Dont know if your trying to have a bubble or if your just being a bengal, either way your still a crown.





Edit:

One crazy kid once ran around our local GW shouting KILL the snipers! KILL the snipers! Also ORKS ROCK!!!!

redshirts possibly offered him money to advertise orks for them, lazy fethers!

Hmmmwhut? Oh.

JD: You speak English, we speak Americanese.
...
All joking aside, just take a theatre class, people. A lot of good playwriters are British, and you tend to pick up on the dialect.

You know, every time I've been to a GW store (and I've been to a lot in several countries), I'm always treated with respect. They always ask what game I play and what armies and ask if I've seen the new xxxxx but it's never pushy and always cordial. I'm not old but I'm not young so maybe that's part of it but I've never had one of ^those^ moments.

My wife has been to the store without me a few times (picking up presents and the like) and she says every time it's like the old western movies where the piano player stops and everyone looks at the door.

Oh he didn't say orks rock. I was posting that part lol.

EDIT: brb in about 10 minutes guys gtg eat so i'll answer quotes later XP

i hate when we get new redshirts in mlgs.

i come in and they walk up and ask me if i have played before. and then we do the whole ive been playinglonger then you dance.

and then the guy will ask me what armies i play. so i have to list the main ones i play, and then i am asked if i know about the new releases and i reply that i probably knew about them a month before they went up on the announcement board.

psh, im probably not the nicest to the new ones, but i believe in a small degree hazing.

i got into it with one of the new guys the other day, over who knows more fluff. he didnt know about malal (sp?). it was funny

All joking aside, just take a theatre class, people. A lot of good playwriters are British, and you tend to pick up on the dialect.

spend a week walking around london, its less work and you pick up alot more, and learn how to avoid being mugged aswell






Orkish: fair enough then
was just hoping that GW staff were not taking advanatge of kids by offering them toys for promotion.

I dont have much proble with the british dialect

No I know this kid he's a regular there... he's kind of a spaz lol. He's like 8 or 9 and he was running around because he wanted this guy to kill another players snipers in a game 0_o He had to be told to calm down like 20 times by the GW guys.


EDIT: oh lol i thought you said you hope he's not BEING not that you were just making sure =P

EDIT: If they paid me models to advertise then lets just say the whole mall would be informed about GW +P.

He said,

"Don't tell your parents about us. It'll be our little secret."

:(

Malfred wins the thread.

lol, trust malf to bring his fantasy into a dakka thread

Oh funniest thing a GW dude ever did was when my sister got her first BW she asked for help on one part of it. Meanwhile I'm playing a game thinking she's working on it. I finish my game and go and see the BW fully finished after it had only been the wheels that were done. I say "WOW! You finished it that fast?" her response is "No, every time I told him I could do the rest he said wait one more piece, until he finished the whole thing."

At a RTT (the shop invited some GW employees down) Basically it went like this on my turn. GW: Ok, take that unit and you can move it up to 6" in any direction, being that they are orks with choppas I would move them 6" towards my units (repeat for every unit) Now you can shoot this is how it works, That unit has (looks at models) 26 shootas and 3 rokkit launchas they can shoot up to 18" because they are assault weapons, Now they get 2 shots each so you get a whopping 52! shots! Now take 10 dice and roll them....you get the picture for every unit for every phase. He did give me props and tell me hes never seen anyone run maddok with 30 ard boys and that it was very tough and probablly shouldnt be ran in a RTT (in which Im sure he gave me a very low comp/sportsmanship score, especially because the same unit pretty much ate 2k worth of Tau)

I did eventually tell him that I know how to play and run my army, which he took with a grain of salt and kept telling me how everything worked including how many saves to take and what type and why I got saves and the history of saves and what the difference between a save a invulnerable save and a cover save was and when to take each type and that cover saves dont work in CC blah blah blah blah blah blah save blah blah blah 2 wounds blah blah blah my god that army is tough blah blah blah blah blah blah I dont think this is how GW intended for the orks to be played blah blah blah blah was all I heard after turn 2.

Maybe years of watching the Bill have gotten me used to the varying English accents.

Anyway, my experiences are much like Ozy's - I'm honestly surprised by the stories in here as stuff like that has never happened to me. The glue thing doesn't surprise me, as the UK is a fething nanny state devoid of all common sense (it's PC to the nth degree, moreso than the US could ever dream of being). But the rest of it... wow.

I mean, other than that one staffer who was constantly going on about cheese (the BT player) and didn't know the rules, everyone else has been pretty normal. The old manager of the Hornsby store in Sydney, Jimmy, was a great guy. And one of the staff at the Chatswood store, guy called Alec (I think... we went to the same school when I was like 5 and he was in the year above me, so it's been a while) is a good guy as well.

most annoying thing?

In Edinburgh whilst on holiday i went in to see if where store was up to much and if they had any new news or such like.... only to be bombarded with BUY ELDAR THEY WILL ROCK IN THE NEW RULES. i replyed, no they suck and are expencive. but no he never listened... after about half an hour i desided to not buy anything and wait till i got home...

The only problematic british dialect is geordie: Scots is fine, cockney no problem, welsh (if you avoid the spit and the places where they 'still actually speak in welsh') ok. Even my mix of yorkshire and scouse causes no problems. But geordie? no chance. I pity any of you yanks who turn up in newcastle for your first taste of the british isles; If i can't understand the buggers, what chance have y'all got?

Ahem..

Last september, I went into a GW store for the first time in around 14 years. Asked for a demo of the new rules and very nearly walked straight out again when the redshirt started providing sound effects for the game. I stuck with it and left with a codex and some harlequins in spite of his efforts to sell me what seemed to be the ENTIRE range of Eldar stock they had on display! Sigh.... It really was just like the old days

Well, the guy who tried to sell me a Blood Angels Dread comes to mind, but the one who took the cake (and actually happened twice) was the douche who told me to go back to Florida (first time) and Montreal (second time) to exchange a mini which had come broken in the box.

Now, admittedly, I'd gotten wise the second time and rang back the next day. The subsequent chap I spoke with was polite, friendly and efficient as he shipped me a new box.

Guys at my local GW rock though n_n they all awesome!

I've got a few so I'll start with my most recent.
For Black Friday last year I drove all the way to the local GW store (45 minute drive) I'd called the night before to ask when they opened, they respond 7am.
I show up at 7am when they open and I see that they must have been open for about an hour already so I'm a little upset.
I start asking about the day exclusive merchandise and RS - "Well we have this button here you can have one."
Me - "Uh thanks, what about the special chaos shirt."
RS - "Oh well that's going to be given away."
Me - "But the website says they're for sale."
RS - "Yeah we're different here."
Me - "WHAT?! I drove 45 minutes for a button?"
RS - *Disappears in back* "Here's a poster."
Me - "Uh thanks..."

6 Years ago I used to hang out a lot at the same GW store as my friends worked in the arcade a few doors down.
Well I show up for the Ogre Kingdoms promotion day, its a conversion contest, you're given an Ogre and a box of bits and you get to convert what you want. So I make a sentinel legged Ogre with a bunch of bionic parts. Some people like it, one staffer HATES IT.

So a week later, Tuesday, it's painting time, and I come back with all my paints and I had a few non GW paints. I start painting using the GW paint and the same GW employee starts talking about his rocky immigration to America and how he's been discriminated against because of his accent and other stuff. Well he's going on and on so I keep painting nodding and smiling at the right times.
I start painting with some non GW paints, and he goes crazy. He starts yelling about how dare I paint with tis crap and to close it up right now.

Well I came in again that weekend with my folks as they wanted to clear up the fight. I notice they're having a sale so I start picking out some boxes. After picking up the second box my father asks what we had fought about, and the second I mentioned non GW paint he starts yelling at my father about how he's a horrible parent and it's my father's fault I've become such a horrible person, how all the employees hate me and they have tons of complaints every week against me. So I decide to put back the boxes I've been holding as I don't feel like buying stuff from someone who's yelling at my father, and the GW employee starts yelling about how I'm now being rude and huffy.
The ironic part was the sale was for customer appreciation.

JD21290 wrote:i think shane wins this one



most of the people at GW portsmouth know me, so its never a problem until they hire a new person, when some fething kiddo asks me for ID so he can sell me glue it really does take the piss
ok, im 19, i just spent over £300 here, and im now going to buy a tub of £5 glue to sniff......... dill weed

You have to show ID to buy glue?... Just wow... There are times I feel bad for bitching about my country and state so much.

You have to show ID for the sprays too.... But not the modelling kits.

okay here you go;
rs; so did you hear about the new lotr
me; no (cutting him off)
rs; but its going to
me; no
rs; you sure?
me; no
rs;you get a
me; no
rs; free
me; no
rs; pair of
me; no
rs; games day tickets
me; no
rs; arent you going?
me; already have aticket, i dont need to win one
rs; but
me; no, i have skitarii to make. go away. now
other rs; john doesnt do lotr since its stupid

H.B.M.C. wrote:Maybe years of watching the Bill have gotten me used to the varying English accents.

Anyway, my experiences are much like Ozy's - I'm honestly surprised by the stories in here as stuff like that has never happened to me. The glue thing doesn't surprise me, as the UK is a fething nanny state devoid of all common sense (it's PC to the nth degree, moreso than the US could ever dream of being). But the rest of it... wow.

I mean, other than that one staffer who was constantly going on about cheese (the BT player) and didn't know the rules, everyone else has been pretty normal. The old manager of the Hornsby store in Sydney, Jimmy, was a great guy. And one of the staff at the Chatswood store, guy called Alec (I think... we went to the same school when I was like 5 and he was in the year above me, so it's been a while) is a good guy as well.

Sorry, bit OT here, but what has an age limit on glue got to do with Political Correctness? Your post sounds like the Daily Express...

It's to do with the whole 'nanny state' thing in the UK. Political correctness has bred a situation where the government tends to try to wrap everyone in bubblewrap lest someone get hurt or offended. Protecting people from harming themselves (physically, mentally, and so on) to a crazy degree.

But that's not a discussion for this topic, so I'm dropping it now, as should you.

I don't have these experiences because the only GW store around here, although owned by GW, is co-owned by a comic/TCG/other minis store.

Ouch, my new GW staffers are cool. This one dude who used to barely work there was promoted to manager and they've hired this new guy who's great!

I rarely go to the GW closest to me (its over an hour away) But the last time I went my brother and I were there looking at some of the stuff. Apparently they were having a converted bike contest there. They had some of the staffers own conversion on display and there was one that honestly looked like it was made from melted crayons. I laughed and made a small joke to my brother about it. Well apparently the only staffer there at the time was the crayon guy. He got pissed and told us to "JUST HELP YOURSELVES THEN!" and stormed off into the back closet thing. It truely WAS funny

JD21290 wrote:

I know, British is a terrible language.

you mean english?
if thats your opinion, then start learning french boyo

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Gobbla wrote:I used to travel to London a lot. I'm American. I would occasionally visit the GW store on Oxford St. They'd always have loud horrible music, and often loud kids. That' s OK. And the staff was nice enough, and helpful (I think). Problem was, between the noise and accents, I couldn't understand half of what was said. They could have been calling me every name in the book, I'd have never known. I had the same experience at the GW store on Victoria St. in Sydney.

I wish more countries spoke English.

G... what? Was this post meant to be intentionally ironic?

I couldn't understand anyone in England therefore I wish more people spoke English.

Wh... huh?

I know what he meant. And I agree with him as well.

Judging by the blantant attempts at trying to transcribe chav-like brighton 'english' on the the intrawebs ("wots aw dis den ay mayt? Fokkin roob I sed."), I find a large portion of british people who post on the internet have much less of a grasp of their own language than their english speaking counterparts abroad. Just because you hail from England, doesnt mean you have even a basic grasp of English. Those particular posters make pikey look legible.

Hence the 'people speaking british' and 'I wish more people spoke english' remarks.

I notice this trend mostly when I am playing online games such as poker and what not. Seriously, they say american children are lacking in education and that may well be true, but if the 'english' I see many britains posting online is any indication of their intelligence level, then I fear for the EU.

[edit]
On topic. I have never been to a GW store, mostly because of threads like this one over the years.

After going to games day chicago in 2002, that was the closest I have ever wanted to be to a GW store.

But if that counts then while I was waiting in the far too long FW line, a redshirt there talking to my ex-GF about how much he likes dark eldar because he can have an excuse to make the models be topless girls and stay inline with the fluff was quite borderline to me reporting his ass to his supervisor/manager/gimp herder.

She said she would never attend another GD with me due to the social retardation and lack of any redeeming social skills present at that event. I think she went a little far with such a blanket statement, but on the whole I had to agree.

After reading this I have to ask. Where does GW get some of these complete idiots to work at the GW stores?

I know if I was being bothered with endless banter for more than 15 secs I would look him straight in eye and say "get the feth away from me".

Like selling hundreds of dollars in product isn't enough?They try adding white dwarfs and paint.

Miserable!

My local staff are OK. They don't like people who make up their own fluff though.
I was shouted at and threatened for theorising the Legion of the Damned are the "Emperor's daemons"......

The worst that's happened to me is that I've gotten told off for loitering a few times. Since then, I just started taking some minis to paint with me, and haven't been bothered since.

My local redshirts arent all that bad, though they refused to confirm or deny whether or not they had a preview copy of the new IG codex. I shrugged and went to an indep near me, who had the book on the counter and basically let me riffle through it at my leisure.

The manager at my most frequented GW is a peach.
Not only does he have teeth that look like they're made of toffee (eeeww), he's also the "upsell" king.

Apart from I told him not to upsell to me, or I'll stop going in there.

Case in point. Over a two week period I went in wanting only weeny little things.
Week 1.
Redshirt: "Alwite fella, wot can I getcha?"
Me: "Erm, I just want that Farseer with the SS. It's in my hand"
Redshirt" "Eldar, eh? 'Ave you seen the Eldar Battleforce? In there there's blah blah blah.. saving of blah% etc etc"
Me: "Yes I've seen it. I don't want it"
This goes on a bit for a while until I buy my ONE thing and go home...

Week 2:
Redshirt: "'Ello again mate, whatchu in for?"
Me: "Well I just want one jetbike. I'm going to convert a Jbike Warlock."
Redhirt: "One jetbike eh? Oh, you need the [jetbike boxed set thing], it's a steal at only £50"
Me: "Yeah, you need to stop upselling to me. I don't like it. I'm never going to part with my money becuase you want me to. Do that again and I'll never but anything from you again."

Admittedly, I had been a cheapskate these two times, but that annoyed me even more. I've been in and spent £100+ and they've let it go. There's clearly a tactic to it.

The second worst was when I went into GW to buy my FIRST IG models, to start my FIRST army. The douchebag there tried to convince me to buy Kell and Creed at the same time.

These are just hilarious guys!
Keep 'em coming, because it's keeping me laughing

And 67 replies after 1 day- something tells me this is gonna be a popular thread!

Feel free to post more than one incident people!

Thanks,
Jack.

This one really gets me, i had an EB bag in my hand and the guy goes:

"i see you like computer games, have you bought the dawn of war [this was when the first one only just came out] or is it just another WoW? Get a real hobby like 40k"

But what he didnt see is that is was a console game, i had just bought around $300 worth of stuff and he was right next to me doing nothing

What an ignorant gribblie!

It's to do with the whole 'nanny state' thing in the UK. Political correctness has bred a situation where the government tends to try to wrap everyone in bubblewrap lest someone get hurt or offended. Protecting people from harming themselves (physically, mentally, and so on) to a crazy degree.

But that's not a discussion for this topic, so I'm dropping it now, as should you.

off topic or not, i gotta agree with you there.
PC has become too heavy and its just starting to piss everyone off now




and on topic now

after saying how great the staff in GW portsmouth are, i went there yesterday to pick up a few things (makes a change since i order online alot now)
walked into there and theres a polish staff member behind the counter, who for some reason seems to think i speak polish 0_o
after spending half hour trying to tell him to speak english he started shouting that im discriminating against him.
and my reply: (rude - yes, un PC - very, pissed off - very)
if you want to speak polish then feth off back to poland and speak it, no one in the entire store can understand you, and most people dont like it when someone could be speaking about them and they have no idea what you are saying.

another staffer then turns to tell me that he doesent speak a word of english, nor can he read english.

what fething use is that?




sorry if i offended anyone there, just pissed off that apparently now a days i need to know around 30 different languages to walk through london.

Tek: you should do what i do to the new staff, if they ask if i need any help start loading them up with box's to carry for you


and loitering? never heard of any staff saying about that till now lol.
ive spent hours in the local GW talking to staff before
to the point where i was actually helping some newer kids play a test game.

(was a fair deal, while i was doing that i had another staffer spraying up 40 boyz for me)

Sorry guys but I really am going to have to take issue with this thread. If you want to make genuine complaints about GW's upselling policies or company rules regarding what goes on inside GW stores thats fine. This thread however is little more than a thinly veiled excuse to make personal attacks on GW staff.

For example that post earlier when somone called a staff member a dill weed because he had the audacity to obey the law by refusing to serve solvents to minor was bang out of order. I was strongly tempted to report it to a Mod.

Well, I'm off to work on the allotment with my Dad, I'll be back in a few hours.

Looking forward to read more posts when I'm back!

Tek wrote:
There's clearly a tactic to it.

Yer it's called hostage negosiation [cant spell tonight] where they are holding all the cards [and the keys to get out]

Tek wrote:
The douchebag there tried to convince me to buy Kell and Creed at the same time.

Wheres the store commissar to shoot him on spot?

It's mostly the utter newbie red shirts and the massive tool type of employee that is blindly loyal to the brand that do the most stupid things.

In regard to females in the store, I don't know what's worse: a girl stepping in and the red shirts secretly fighting for "an audience" with that mythical creature that obviously either plays Elves or Sisters because she is a girl (HUR!) or the oh-so proud red shirt taking his girlfriend to work, hugging her like a plushie whenever he isn't occupied and someone is looking.

Birthday shopping will be fun this year as I asked the lass to get me some plastic crack for a change, I can already imagine how irate she could be by the time she gets home again.

LuciusAR wrote:Sorry guys but I really am going to have to take issue with this thread. If you want to make genuine complaints about GW's upselling policies or company rules regarding what goes on inside GW stores thats fine. This thread however is little more than a thinly veiled excuse to make personal attacks on GW staff.

For example that post earlier when somone called a staff member a dill weed because he had the audacity to obey the law by refusing to serve solvents to minor was bang out of order. I was strongly tempted to report it to a Mod.

Oh come on now, they do the same to us when we leave the store.

"Vallejo paints are a bad rip-off, the quality's terrible."

That's the last time I'll shop in GW Covent Garden.

sA

smiling Assassin wrote:"Vallejo paints are a bad rip-off, the quality's terrible."

That's the last time I'll shop in GW Covent Garden.

sA

I'd like to see them try that at the Amsterdam store, their main painting guy has his own case of non-GW paints in the back.

just remember then, if a staff member isnt using something that was produced by GW then he must leave the store to use it




Lucius, a few points here as to what you said.

1: no one is forcing you to read any of this, you have done so by choice.

2: read the comments and you will find alot of good ones aswell, you cannot post about it all being bad comments when it is not.

3: if you feel it was an excuse then feel free to report it to a mod, no one is stopping you from doing so.

4: by any chance, do you work for GW?

JD21290 wrote:
Lucius, a few points here as to what you said.

1: no one is forcing you to read any of this, you have done so by choice.

2: read the comments and you will find alot of good ones aswell, you cannot post about it all being bad comments when it is not.

3: if you feel it was an excuse then feel free to report it to a mod, no one is stopping you from doing so.

4: by any chance, do you work for GW?

No I don’t currently work for GW, though I was a redshirt in my student days. However that's neither here nor there.

This whole thread just reaks of 'Oh lets laugh at the silly minimum wage earning peons. Grovel before me peasant.' The attitudes on display are the same as when middle class idiots berate waiters. Its basically snobbery.

I didn’t report the thread to a Mod because I would rather come on here and state that I though he was out of order and give him the opportunity to retract or defend that statement. I don't want to go to the mods except as a last resort.

I once took abuse from a customer because I wouldn’t sell him superglue as he was 15. I was perfect polite about it and explained it was the law. He though it was appropriate to mumble a personal insult under his breath. I banned him for a month and very much enjoyed doing so. I didn't get paid enough to put with personal abuse from customers.

Attack the policy fine, you may even get my sympathy. Attack the staffer and you’ve crossed a line.

"do you need a starter paint brush set since your buying fantasy?"

I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again*

LuciusAR wrote:

JD21290 wrote:
Lucius, a few points here as to what you said.

1: no one is forcing you to read any of this, you have done so by choice.

2: read the comments and you will find alot of good ones aswell, you cannot post about it all being bad comments when it is not.

3: if you feel it was an excuse then feel free to report it to a mod, no one is stopping you from doing so.

4: by any chance, do you work for GW?

No I don’t currently work for GW, though I was a redshirt in my student days. However that's neither here nor there.

This whole thread just reaks of 'Oh lets laugh at the silly minimum wage earning peons. Grovel before me peasant.' The attitudes on display are the same as when middle class idiots berate waiters. Its basically snobbery.

I didn’t report the thread to a Mod because I would rather come on here and state that I though he was out of order and give him the opportunity to retract or defend that statement. I don't want to go to the mods except as a last resort.

I once took abuse from a customer because I wouldn’t sell him superglue as he was 15. I was perfect polite about it and explained it was the law. He though it was appropriate to mumble a personal insult under his breath. I banned him for a month and very much enjoyed doing so. I didn't get paid enough to put with personal abuse from customers.

Attack the policy fine, you may even get my sympathy. Attack the staffer and you’ve crossed a line.

I think this should be applauded and perhaps the people posting about not being able to get glue have missed the point of the thread. Would these same people say its annoying to go in a shop/pub and be refused alcohol?

And you can't really take issue with Sales staff trying to sell you things, especially when any bonuses are based on it. I will concede however that to continually try to do so to someone who has declined it is disrespectful to the customer.

Is this thread becoming a rant about GW customer service and its sales policy?

Old Man Ultramarine wrote:After reading this I have to ask. Where does GW get some of these complete idiots to work at the GW stores?

Pay peanuts, get monkeys...

Now there are many fine people working for GW. But even for the retail sector which is renowned for low pay , GW is known as a low payer. £13k for a store manager?

If they paid more they'd likely get people who considered the job a career, rather than simply as an opportunity to become King Geek for a while.

Still, even if GW paid handsomely and all staff were trained well, there'd still be a few ... erm ... less well socially-adjusted types to amuse us with their wisdom I guess.

jackinthetank wrote:


JD, this is a topic that is brought up quite a lot in my head and as much as I want to discuss it fully I know I can't in case I offend anyone.
However, I totally agree with you. If you come to THIS country, then you speak OUR language, you follow OUR rules. This is a really "iffy" topic but I am on your side with it.

If you can't speak English, don't move here.
The government is too soft (I'm 13 and I already no this) and it is ruining the country. Although in some respects you could blame the Americans for introducing the "suing".

No matter how you look at it you and I ( this generation ) will pay for it in the end because we are the ones who are going to have to live in a worse state of affairs later on in life.

This is off topic, I know, but it's my thread and I'll do what I want And btw, something went wrong with the quoting thing so it doesn't look like I've quoted JD, but I have!

Thanks,
Jack.

Irony FTW.

When I went down to the Glen Burnie battle bunker 2 (1.5-2 years ago?) I was asking if they had the new battlefleet gothic rule book in yet.... turns out they didn't even know it existed. They then told me the person who told me about it was lieing to me and there was no such book.

I then went home and ordered it online.

Silly GW battle bunker didn't even know what products they had....

frgsinwntr wrote:When I went down to the Glen Burnie battle bunker 2 (1.5-2 years ago?) I was asking if they had the new battlefleet gothic rule book in yet.... turns out they didn't even know it existed. They then told me the person who told me about it was lieing to me and there was no such book.

I then went home and ordered it online.

Silly GW battle bunker didn't even know what products they had....

To be fair that more likely down to the fact that GW make no effort at all to inform staff of whets going on with regards to specialist games than any incompetence on the staffs behalf. I guess because they see no need to tell them more than necessary and as they only stock the core games….

The only way the staff would know that a new rulebook was coming out (or not) for an SG was if they themselves followed that SG.

Have to say most of my experiences with GW staff were entirely positive. They were polite and told me what I need to know.
Most positive experience.....finding some ancient , weathered broken in half mini on the street near the store. After taking it in and giving it to the red shirt asking if anyone had lost it he let me have a blister pack for free!

Most cringeworthy experience was last year when I was buying one of those imperial guard primer books for my brothers birthday. After I had bought it on the way out my girlfriend stopped to look at some of the T shirts they had hanging up. After flicking through them I discerned this voice behind me describing the t shirts for me. From across the room was the store manager shouting out......"Harry the Hammer (?), another harry the hammer, 40k logo" etc.
Unintentionally hilarious, but I have to say that GW is unique for it's obsessive and ocassionally socially inept staff. And as a result, love the place lol

Lucius - Your apologetics are killing the fun in this thread. Please stop defending funny stories.

LuciusAR wrote:Sorry guys but I really am going to have to take issue with this thread. If you want to make genuine complaints about GW's upselling policies or company rules regarding what goes on inside GW stores thats fine. This thread however is little more than a thinly veiled excuse to make personal attacks on GW staff.

For example that post earlier when somone called a staff member a dill weed because he had the audacity to obey the law by refusing to serve solvents to minor was bang out of order. I was strongly tempted to report it to a Mod.

You don't seem to understand. This thread is for having a laugh because, lets face it, no matter how much the staff may seem like idiots sometimes they are just doing their jobs and following the law. The worst part is that no matter what happens we're still buying their stuff so if all you intend to do is come here to complain about us having a joke- then don't post.
Many thanks ( and laughs to all you killjoys out there ),
Jack.

LuciusAR wrote:

JD21290 wrote:
Lucius, a few points here as to what you said.

1: no one is forcing you to read any of this, you have done so by choice.

2: read the comments and you will find alot of good ones aswell, you cannot post about it all being bad comments when it is not.

3: if you feel it was an excuse then feel free to report it to a mod, no one is stopping you from doing so.

4: by any chance, do you work for GW?

No I don’t currently work for GW, though I was a redshirt in my student days. However that's neither here nor there.

This whole thread just reaks of 'Oh lets laugh at the silly minimum wage earning peons. Grovel before me peasant.' The attitudes on display are the same as when middle class idiots berate waiters. Its basically snobbery.

I didn’t report the thread to a Mod because I would rather come on here and state that I though he was out of order and give him the opportunity to retract or defend that statement. I don't want to go to the mods except as a last resort.

I once took abuse from a customer because I wouldn’t sell him superglue as he was 15. I was perfect polite about it and explained it was the law. He though it was appropriate to mumble a personal insult under his breath. I banned him for a month and very much enjoyed doing so. I didn't get paid enough to put with personal abuse from customers.

Attack the policy fine, you may even get my sympathy. Attack the staffer and you’ve crossed a line.

Jesus once said "He who has not sinned may through the first stone."

So I say now " If you haven't complained about staff before, then go ahead and tell us off for complaining about them. However if you have complained about staff before, then you have no authority to come here and ruin our fun!"

Many thanks,
Jack.

LuciusAR wrote:

frgsinwntr wrote:When I went down to the Glen Burnie battle bunker 2 (1.5-2 years ago?) I was asking if they had the new battlefleet gothic rule book in yet.... turns out they didn't even know it existed. They then told me the person who told me about it was lieing to me and there was no such book.

I then went home and ordered it online.

Silly GW battle bunker didn't even know what products they had....

To be fair that more likely down to the fact that GW make no effort at all to inform staff of whets going on with regards to specialist games than any incompetence on the staffs behalf. I guess because they see no need to tell them more than necessary and as they only stock the core games….

The only way the staff would know that a new rulebook was coming out (or not) for an SG was if they themselves followed that SG.

Except it was dwain? (I think?) And he went into the back room to check with the marketing people and web people!

Lets face it, we are allowed to post our on views and opinions on this, i dont see how 1 person will somehow stop everyone or find an answer for everything.
this is life, it can be cruel, you can either face it or walk away.

JD21290 wrote:Lets face it, we are allowed to post our on views and opinions on this, i dont see how 1 person will somehow stop everyone or find an answer for everything.
this is life, it can be cruel, you can either face it or walk away.

You.

Just.

Got.

Told.

"Whoever shouts WAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH the loudest gets first turn"

WAAGGHHHH- sounds like a baby crying doesn't it?
Hardly strong and orky if you face the enemy crying like a 2 year old.

Hence the reason I don't play in GW stores - the people who do (in my local store) make 2 year olds seem sophisticated and mature.

And 2 year olds don't smell as much...

I hate it when they refer to me as young man,I hate it!Oh that and when I inquired if I could be warhammer stuff and the guy kept talking about how they had just gotten a shipment of Space marines,when I clearly said I was there to buy elves.

Aww, now my best one looks like an insignificant piec of... meh, here goes.

This november or something, we decided to get the foundation paint set. Now I was not really completely sure if they still sold it, because for some reason I suspected it to be limited issue. So, some time before I buy it, I decide to walk in and check. The box wasn't clearly shown anywhere, so I ask one of the staffers. He manages to find it, but not before he decides to suggest the mega-paint-set. (a set nearly five times more expensive, for those who don't keep the figures in their heads). Me being so unlimitedly dense, I don't realise what had been the perfect response until on my way out of the store.

"And when I ask you for a russ, will you point me to the baneblades?"

LuciusAR wrote:Sorry guys but I really am going to have to take issue with this thread. If you want to make genuine complaints about GW's upselling policies or company rules regarding what goes on inside GW stores thats fine. This thread however is little more than a thinly veiled excuse to make personal attacks on GW staff.

For example that post earlier when somone called a staff member a dill weed because he had the audacity to obey the law by refusing to serve solvents to minor was bang out of order. I was strongly tempted to report it to a Mod.

Report it then. The entire nature of the thread is to whine about such things as share bad experiences. Whether right or worng.

So you go run along and report everything to the thought police because you view something as wrong. Its the internet. Welcome to 1995.

Perhaps there should be a thread of annoying things that customers have said to GW staff?

Just for balance.

It looks like there's some hysteria going on here: I don't think this thread was intended to support or condone customers who have no legitimate right to complain (i.e. refused glue) or to abuse staff as a result. Frankly, if you're abusive to someone, you SHOULD be thrown out of the shop at the very least. Being abusive is not the solution. It's not big and its not clever.

However, I think it is fair to point out the reasonably common trait of the hard-sell tactics of SOME staff. SOME people find that kind of thing annoying and would rather ask for assistance, rather than have someone hovering by their shoulder trying to sell them things they don't want. However, SOME staff also view this as a way of engaging customers in conversation and to providing personal service.

Someone else also posted about the staff's over enthusiasm: why shouldn't they seem enthusiastic? People don't work for GW unless they like the hobby so why shouldn't they promote it to. Would you rather walk into a shop where the staff are miserable, surly and barely say anything to you. Would that help?

You know what's a larf? Watching the entire store react to reasonably attractive teenage girls walk into the store.

My friend will sometimes bring her teenaged daughter with her when we go pick up some random thing. She has absolutely NO interest in 40k, and it's absolutely hilarious to watch the Redshirts try to sell her on it.

But I think the funniest (Guess it was borderline stupid) thing I've heard a redshirt say was when she was hanging around the counter while we were checking out, he says to her (first thing he said to her since she walked in the store, the only time I've seen them not try to sell her a starter kit from the get go) "So.. you a girlfriend, friend, daughter...?" and she just kinda stares at him like a deer caught in the headlights. I think she thought he was coming on to her. The minute or so of uncomfortable awkward mumbling was one of the most hilarious experiences of my life until her mother cleared it up.

The GW employees around my area are actually pretty savvy. They still try the upsell and "Have you seen blahblahblah?" tricks, but you tell them you aren't interested and they'll back off. The really bad ones are the redshirts fresh out of Games Workshop Brainwashing Camp. Luckily they're usually gone in month or so.

I had a good laugh when I was buying a Cadian Battleforce the other day for the new Codex. Granted, the guy was new, and had no way of knowing I had about 8,000 points of Guard at home, but when he asked me "So! Starting Imperial Guard?" I couldn't help but bust a gut chuckling (the other staffers who know me heard that and shared a guffaw).



Also: I love this thread. So much.

Report it then. The entire nature of the thread is to whine about such things as share bad experiences. Whether right or worng.

So you go run along and report everything to the thought police because you view something as wrong. Its the internet. Welcome to 1995.

QFT.

LuciusAR wrote:

frgsinwntr wrote:When I went down to the Glen Burnie battle bunker 2 (1.5-2 years ago?) I was asking if they had the new battlefleet gothic rule book in yet.... turns out they didn't even know it existed. They then told me the person who told me about it was lieing to me and there was no such book.

I then went home and ordered it online.

Silly GW battle bunker didn't even know what products they had....

To be fair that more likely down to the fact that GW make no effort at all to inform staff of whets going on with regards to specialist games than any incompetence on the staffs behalf. I guess because they see no need to tell them more than necessary and as they only stock the core games….

The only way the staff would know that a new rulebook was coming out (or not) for an SG was if they themselves followed that SG.

Complete failure. Please stop defending these actions. You are apologizing for GW staffers not knowing their own product lines.

What's the most annoying thing a GW worker has ever said to you?

To me:
"You play Space Wolves?!! Why the hell would you waste your money on those ?!!! You should start start a new Dark Eldar army. Have you seen the Battle Force ?? blah, blah, blah ..."

To a kid (maybe 12) and his younger sister as he ran an intro game for them while their parents sat at the painting table:
"... so this Badass Ork Mo'fo rips the Pansy Marinez head off and skull f**ks it !!!"

Same guy, both incidents. The one with the kids happened about just before he was told to turn in his redshirt.

Can't really remember much annoying things from GW workers, as I haven't been in a GW store for years, last time was the year of 3rd ed 40K...

I do remember that every single time I visit a GW store, I used to get the "noob chat", it always turned out poorly for the Redcoat:
Redcoat: "Soooo, you ever played before?" (They ALL seem to do that 4-second long "Sooo", most often with their hands clasped together, why is that?)
Me: yup.
Redcoat: "Well, what armies do you play? Have you seen the new..."
Me: Well, in Man O'War I've got a Dwarf and Empire fleet, got Chaos for bloodbowl, but I don't play that very often anymore, got some Chaos for 40K.
Redcoat: (Deer in headlights look) So, 40K, how do you like the new edition?
Me: Okay I guess, but it does lack some of the detail that Rogue Trader used to have.
Most back of at this point, with some comment about "know your way around the store then", the cool ones actually start chatting about the good old days. Every once in a while I got one that was fully servitorised and kept pushing a sales pitch. Those I just asked about things like Dragon Masters, Lost Patrol or Squats...

Not so much annoying thing said, but it runs pretty close to the topic:

My local GW was clearing out "some old stock". It was labelled as a load of plastic kits, in a big unmarked box. On the box was a sign saying that you could get something for free!

Basically, you got to pick something from the box if you spent a certain amount, £20 or something. And you weren't allowed to look in the box.

As it happened, I had bought a bunch of stuff, and it was well over double the £20 limit.

I got my son to pull something out of the box; he was about 4 at the time and liked "the big tanks and things"

It was one sprue from a grav-tank; upper body.

So I said, "I've spent double, can I have another go?".

RS: "Err, no."

I then proceeded to split my order into two and asked again.

RS: "That's not really what we're supposed to do...but, err..."

After some more of the same, they finally agreed, so I got my son to have another go. He was getting as fed up as I was. I thought a grav-tank might keep him happy (his own "big toy").

He reached in for another go. It was a duplicate of the same grav-tank sprue.

I asked if I could swap it for the other part of the tank. I don't play Eldar but I figured that my son would soon get bored of the tank and I could use it for scenery - 4 year olds not being known for their long-lasting devotion to things.

RS: "Err, no. You can't swap."

A protracted discussion ensued, by the end of which, the RS's agreed that two upper parts of grav-tanks were about as useful as a chocolate teapot. They said, (actually, they leaned over the counter and whispered) that I could have another choice instead.

In goes my son's arm again. Lo and behold, a grav-tank upper body sprue.

A silence followed. I don't believe words were necessary.

Finally the RS (sheepishly) added, "Err, actually, that's all that we put in the box...there's twenty of the same sprue, and that's all"

I'd like to clear a few issues up.

If you don't like what is going on in this thread ( telling everyone what the most annoying thing a GW worker has said to you) then do not bother to leave a comment.

If you intend to be a killjoy then it is going to be much easier for you to just count to 10 and walk away.

We are here to have fun and laugh, so no 1person (unless your name is over mod or admin) is going to stop this thread.

I am beginning to like this thread

Many thanks,
Jack.

Roze wrote:"do you need a starter paint brush set since your buying fantasy?"

I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again*

Please don't call people gimps. I have cerebral palsey and take offence to it when people who do not have that or a simular disorder are called gimps. Call them Morons, lame brains, stupid, ugly, whatever. But please do not use the word Gimp.

On Topic:

So I keep going back to the GW store I started playing 40k in hoping for a Tournament to pop up on the schedule. A redshirt asks me if I want to place an order for the Ork Stompa.

Me: But I don't play orks....
Redshirt: Thats fine you can still field it with your army in apoc...
Me: (cutting him off) But I don't like playing apocalypse
Redshirt: Well you could still buy it and paint it in case you ever started to..

Has anyone tried being as enthusiastic / persistent / condescending back to the staffers? Did they notice?

I would try but I don't think I could keep a straight face for long enough.

Konrad Carstein wrote:Perhaps there should be a thread of annoying things that customers have said to GW staff?

Just for balance.

It looks like there's some hysteria going on here: I don't think this thread was intended to support or condone customers who have no legitimate right to complain (i.e. refused glue) or to abuse staff as a result. Frankly, if you're abusive to someone, you SHOULD be thrown out of the shop at the very least. Being abusive is not the solution. It's not big and its not clever.

However, I think it is fair to point out the reasonably common trait of the hard-sell tactics of SOME staff. SOME people find that kind of thing annoying and would rather ask for assistance, rather than have someone hovering by their shoulder trying to sell them things they don't want. However, SOME staff also view this as a way of engaging customers in conversation and to providing personal service.

Someone else also posted about the staff's over enthusiasm: why shouldn't they seem enthusiastic? People don't work for GW unless they like the hobby so why shouldn't they promote it to. Would you rather walk into a shop where the staff are miserable, surly and barely say anything to you. Would that help?

I actually enjoy going into my local GW store. I've always found them friendly and helpful. As I'm a 40k noob I don't mind being told about stuff as it's helpful to me. Obviously if I'd been playing for years and they wouldn't shut up then I can understand that it's probably annoying. They've never tried hard sell on me just answered questions when I've asked them.

I went in there recently with a female work colleague to buy two paperback Heresy novels and she said loudly to me "You're spending £13.98. You must have spent hundreds on this crap". The guy at the counter was not pleased at all. I had to explain to her that £13.98 for two paperbacks is the standard price for such books in any bookshop. I had to ask her when she had last bought a book but she said she uses the library. I personally just think she doesn't read but just spends all her dosh on clothes that she doesn't need. I admit that I also didn't appreciate her calling the hobby crap just because it's not for her. I go in there alone from now on.

Yeah my folks tried to tell me about spending to much money. So now when I buy a bunch of stuff there, I bring in an empty case so I can smuggle it into the house.

Worst experience was when I came back for the summer from freshman year of college they had a new redshirt, and it was the usual annoying sales pitch until I stopped him, so I just introduced myself and said I have plenty of models, but would love some painting advice if he could give it.

Thankfully all the guys are great, talked to a new guy the other day, but still in college so I'll see what he does when I get back for the summer.

LuciusAR wrote:

JD21290 wrote:
Lucius, a few points here as to what you said.

1: no one is forcing you to read any of this, you have done so by choice.

2: read the comments and you will find alot of good ones aswell, you cannot post about it all being bad comments when it is not.

3: if you feel it was an excuse then feel free to report it to a mod, no one is stopping you from doing so.

4: by any chance, do you work for GW?

No I don’t currently work for GW, though I was a redshirt in my student days. However that's neither here nor there.

This whole thread just reaks of 'Oh lets laugh at the silly minimum wage earning peons. Grovel before me peasant.' The attitudes on display are the same as when middle class idiots berate waiters. Its basically snobbery.

I didn’t report the thread to a Mod because I would rather come on here and state that I though he was out of order and give him the opportunity to retract or defend that statement. I don't want to go to the mods except as a last resort.

I once took abuse from a customer because I wouldn’t sell him superglue as he was 15. I was perfect polite about it and explained it was the law. He though it was appropriate to mumble a personal insult under his breath. I banned him for a month and very much enjoyed doing so. I didn't get paid enough to put with personal abuse from customers.

Attack the policy fine, you may even get my sympathy. Attack the staffer and you’ve crossed a line.

Modquisition on:
I am a Mod. I strongly defend he poor hapless retail employee on this board in the past when it was Dakka. Everyone should be forced to work crappy retail before they do anything else in life-to understand.

Having said that, this is good natured 'funnin.' As long as it follows Malfred's rules of courtesy, its ok.

Lets move back to the topic people. Former GW employees who want to post 'most annoying thing a GW customer has ever done' can post a nice thread about it. Now THAT would be funny.

I agree.

asugradinwa wrote:

Roze wrote:"do you need a starter paint brush set since your buying fantasy?"

I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again*

Please don't call people gimps. I have cerebral palsey and take offence to it when people who do not have that or a simular disorder are called gimps. Call them Morons, lame brains, stupid, ugly, whatever. But please do not use the word Gimp.

I deeply apologise for any offence this has caused you.
I hereby said that if anyone wishes to refer to someone as a gimp, simply replace it with the word moron.

Many thanks,
Jack.

I find the use fo the term moron objectionable, because everyone calls me one

Frazzled wrote:I find the use fo the term moron objectionable, because everyone calls me one

Your a mod I know, but shut up

Nah just kiddin, I hereby enforce the law no one may use the term moron. Instead please replace it with the word Frazzle(d)

Example " He was such a Frazzle."

Nah moron works. On Malf's Forum of Much Goodness, To "Frazzle" means to be a crotchety old man. "I just got Frazzled" means some crotchety old man waved a cane at you, and when you didn't listen, came out from behind the house with a tank...

THE ADMINISTRATUM DECREES

The worst thing for a salesman to do is to denigrate a product or customer subjectively.

As ruler of Dakka, I will do my best to keep those idiots from talking trash.

I for one welcome our new Overlords.

As do I.

Kneel before MOD

One day out of the blue, a redshirt told me that they were no longer letting people use their paints unless it was a painting lesson. I was pretty confused, as the next day the painting station was full of people clearly not getting painting lessons.

Also when I dropped off my resume at a local GW once the redshirt started asking about all the armies I had, and after every one he mentioned "OMG WHY?!" Needless to say afterwards I waited till said dude left the store before returning.

I hear redshirt a lot now. Must be for every other country because in England, the guys wear black GW shirts...

Stalking is the top of the mark thing I fear. When you interested in going into the store, picking up you stuff and leaving. You get a strange individual who stands next to you, smiles, and follows you around the store without saying anything. You can see he wants to discuss 40k stuff, but he just stands there staring at you, like he wants to eat your soul!!!!!!

ricekake87 wrote:You can see he wants to discuss 40k stuff, but he just stands there staring at you, like he wants to eat your soul!!!!!!

Psshaw!

You're in a GW store, you've already lost your soul.

ricekake87 wrote:Stalking is the top of the mark thing I fear. When you interested in going into the store, picking up you stuff and leaving. You get a strange individual who stands next to you, smiles, and follows you around the store without saying anything. You can see he wants to discuss 40k stuff, but he just stands there staring at you, like he wants to eat your soul!!!!!!

Since GW pays next to nothing, the redshirts rely on victims. Its how they get paid. In souls. Kinda like tips.

Final OT bit: I've created a new thread in the OT forum dealing with Political Correctness and some other off-topic posts in this thread so as not to de-rail it. Here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/235096.page#643640

See you there!

Jack in the tank said: I hear redshirt a lot now. Must be for every other country because in England, the guys wear black GW shirts...

Actually redshrits are the underlings in the store while Blackshirts are managers. I thought in England it was Blueshirts are the underlings and Blackshirts are still managers.

You are mistake corpses, that is a freak.

(OT Note: I'm going to start a new thread in off topic to discuss the language issue, since I think it's interesting. Come join me!)

Here's one that made me laugh (But only after I had calmed down!)

Young customer: What's the latest you have stayed after closing time when playing a game?

GW Drone: Man, I've playede here until 2 in the morning!

Same staff member comes over to the table where myself and my opponent are playing an excellent game of LOTRSBG.

GW Drone: Okay lads, finish up after that turn! (Store closes at 6pm, it's now 5:40pm!)

Ozymandias wrote:You know, every time I've been to a GW store (and I've been to a lot in several countries), I'm always treated with respect. They always ask what game I play and what armies and ask if I've seen the new xxxxx but it's never pushy and always cordial. I'm not old but I'm not young so maybe that's part of it but I've never had one of ^those^ moments.

My wife has been to the store without me a few times (picking up presents and the like) and she says every time it's like the old western movies where the piano player stops and everyone looks at the door.

That's a good one - funny scene, I'll bet.

Wait - you're married???

I hate tension when you walk into the room. If people go silent after someone does/says something who I know I always go....

"Soooo..... anyone watch ----------- last night?"

The only time I've ever been in a GW was when I was in New Zealand. They were playing Lord of the Rings and having fun with it, and were polite to us as we shopped around, but not at all pushy.

That was the first I'd ever heard of GW, come to think of it.

The only local store that sells 40k products used to be run by a couple of friendly stoners, but now it's under new management from a couple of mousey old cat ladies who only want to talk about Boggle or Scattergories. Bleh. Ha, actually, I got yelled at once for swearing (with no children present!) and asked to leave the store.

I only shop for 40k stuff online nowadays.

what has been said is kinda true, as when ever i walk in there it's "soooo, what armies do you play", and regardless of my answer they try to sell me case.

Dumbass Redshirt's reply after I asked a question about 40K:
"You'll have to ask the other guy when he gets in. I don't play 40K."

You know, while I've never been to a GW, I feel uncomfortable wearing my red work shirt to work now.

Konrad Carstein wrote:Perhaps there should be a thread of annoying things that customers have said to GW staff?

Because you would never believe any of it?

jackinthetank wrote:I hear redshirt a lot now. Must be for every other country because in England, the guys wear black GW shirts...

Odd, at GW Bedford the staffer wears blue...

Red Shirts? Blue Shirts?

In Australia, they just wear regular clothes. That's right, if the store is full the staff blend in and can just ambush as you don't know they're staff until you get close enough to see the nametag!!!

Goliath wrote:

jackinthetank wrote:I hear redshirt a lot now. Must be for every other country because in England, the guys wear black GW shirts...

Odd, at GW Bedford the staffer wears blue...

Bottom rank UK employee's have blue shirts and upper rank have black shirts

Heh. Over here, blueshirt is a euphamism for facist.

In the UK, they went from Red, to Black, to Blue.

IF I've got the job with my local store (I have a Trial Hour in Brighton. Not sure what that indicates, but am guessing it's good) I'll have examples of all three.

doc, does that mean you will set up a hate thread against this one if you get the job?

No, I prefer to rise up above such pettiness

glad to hear that
was worried for a mo that i would need to cut parts out of my posts

Love the thread so far guys. I have a great story from about 10 years ago for the thread.

I was 11, it was my birthday, and I went into the local GW to pick out an item for $30. I was taken there by one of my older brothers of 25 years. Now he was and still is completely uninterested by the hobby as a whole. He has no problem with it, and respects the time that goes into the painting/ modeling/ strategy of the game. He was the sports type while I was the gamer in the family.

We got into the store, which was packed to the gills on a saturday afternoon,and while I shopped around for what I wanted he stood by the doorway waiting for me. A GW employee approached him, and this is the conversation:

GW: So, you play with any of our products?
BRO: No, I am just here to help my brother pick something out.
GW: Oh, yea? What armies does he have?
BRO: I dont know, I do not follow the hobby.
GW: Really, you sure you don't know? Come on man your his brother you should know! Well what does his army look like?
BRO: Like little toy figures.
GW: We sell models not figures, you can take your brother to buy toys in the toystore.

At which point my brother calmly walked over to the counter, asked the employee behind it who the manager was and after 5 minutes of conversation with the manager managed to get me a free blister to go with my purchase because the guy was a jerk.

So there was a good and bad side to the story.

Meh. At least 90% of the tales in this thread are exaggerated in my opinion.

And you won't find complaints about me, unless someone is a real arse, as I intend on turning round my would be Store Community to make it kick arse again.

lol, i could never work in a shop
my "customer service skills" are not the best in the world lol

all the best to ya though, and might have to pop in at some point since i got some time away from the base comming up soon.

I think the most annoying thing I have ever seen was a redshirt stopping a couple of twelve year olds from playing a game with unpainted models.

"Sorry, to use the store tables the models have to be painted at least 3 colors."

I couldn't believe it. This is a hobby store that sells one line of products and has a gaming space built into it. Anyone who throws down $45.00 for a plastic tank should be able to play on the table for as long as they like, in my opinion. It disgusted me that they could be that disdainful of their own customers.

No, it's pretty common to ask for models to be painted.

After all, consider the gaming tables an exchange. You don't pay to play on them, but instead are asked to use painted models to promote the bigger hobby.

doc, how many kids want models for thier birthday or xmas?
once they get them and put them together they will want to use them.
chances are they wont be painted, but they will want to be using them anyway.

You are right., even now when I get models, i have several to paint at once, and then I get another one which gets pushed further back on the waiting list, so most of my army is unpainted.

Which is why they also offer free painting lessons to encourage it.

Doesn't take long to get the models table ready after all. Three Colours and Base is a cinch.

Very few Stores will allow completely unpainted armies. Works in progress? As long as there is genuine week on week progress, then fair enough (still showing off the Hobby)

But bare metal models? Play at home.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Meh. At least 90% of the tales in this thread are exaggerated in my opinion.

Good to see Dakka's moral compass (and soon-to-be GW employee) has chosen to grace us with his presence.

Can I just say for the record, before you run crying to the mods about me, that I knew from the moment this thread was posted that you'd come storming in here to tell us all how we're bad people, or lying, or exaggerating, or to get all apologetic about everything in the thread.

And slap me silly, I was right!!!

Doc, please do remember that painting may not allways be someones interests in the hobby, alot prefer the gaming side, some prefer fluff, some prefer the models etc etc.


on a side note, i used my old kroot mercs in store without a single bit of paint on them
allthough, they had just been finished and GS had only just dried.

Regardless. It's up to the Store Staff to get all the gamers painting. It's an important part of gamer retention. People are less likely to drop the hobby if they have painted there gubbins.

And HBMC, bite me matey. It seems anyone who has an opinion deviating even slightly from yours is automatically wrong, which is a pretty sad outlook on life. And how did I come storming into this thread? Or is that just your persecution complex working over time?

Once again doc, painting is not an important part of the game atall, no more than reading the fluff is.


i dont mean to follow into your discussion with HBMC here, but that was the attitude i got from you about the PC thread doc (the 1st part of your post to HBMC)

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:And HBMC, bite me matey. It seems anyone who has an opinion deviating even slightly from yours is automatically wrong

What... umm... what opinion have I put forward in this thread beyond this:

"Anyway, my experiences are much like Ozy's - I'm honestly surprised by the stories in here as stuff like that has never happened to me." - Me, three pages ago.

See I'm taking this thread at face value - some humerous stories. I've had virtually nothing but good experiences in GW stores, like when a guy gave me a bunch of free blisters when I bought $300 worth of Tyranid stuff when I was like 12 years old, to the most recent one where the store manager made a point to learn my name and went out of his way to ensure I would get any pre-order I put in on the day it came out.

You and that other loon are the only people who've come in here decrying what is otherwise a fun thread, trying to apologise for or explain away the examples - right to the point of calling everyone liers by saying that they're exaggerating.

So think for a second Grotsnik, think very carefully about who's pushing the "I'm right" opinion - a bunch of people having fun telling silly stories, or the one guy telling everyone they're lying?

Indeed, Painting and Gaming are two seperate things which don't need each other per se.

But, as a Staffer, you are paid to promote the overall Hobby, not just the gaming. Focus on one thing too much, whichever it might be, and you will lose customers. But when it comes to playing in store, you have to follow the rules, as long as they are reasonable.

I used to have masses of unpainted models until I sold my 2nd hand stuff last month, but my main armies are either fully painted (Dark Angels and Dark Elves) or well on their way (Savage Orcs). I don't especially enjoy the painting, but like to have a painted army. And the staff need to encourage this. One way is to request armies be painted in store for gaming. Plus, if you have painted your won models, it makes it harder for unscrupulous peoples to pinch them, which can be a problem.

In there credit they mostly go a good job!(refering to the "redshirts" funmly enough i have seen one in my store commonly waring a green shirt...) as long as they know you there fine, well unless they dont like you.

[rant]

theres one inperticular at my store that seems to be in that column.... even when i want to buy something i seem 2 be bottom of his prioratys....(yes if you reas 90% of my posts longer than 7 words there will be a spelling error).. one time i even shouted him over and he proceded to go out to the back! but this is an exception, as the manager was there and i got him to help and had a wee moan about this other member of staff...

[/rant]

and why does nearly all off topic threats turn out to be a festival of hate?

bah, isnt the customer allways right?

thought so....

In which case doc i would find that even more off putting, if i was a gamer that didnt really paint and i was told i must do so or i cannot play then chances are i would feth off and find something better to do with my time.
which also leads on to pushy staff members.

rule or not, i do not see how that is reasonable in any way, shape or form.

Because certain people like to throw their (imagined) moral superiority around in threads like this. That's why.


But as to what you said about doing a good job - I've never envied anyone working in a GW. Friend of mine actually worked there for a few years... and putting up with the kids all the time can't be an easy job, especially when parents treat GW stores like free daycare. You go in there when it's busy and it's like being a giant in a sea of tiny people - all of them yelling and asking really silly questions (which is fine, they're only 8 years old after all). And then there's the staff, wilfully breakin rules simply to keep things going and feining enthusiasm to keep everyone happy. I doubt most in retail could put up with that for that long.

Is easy enough. Just have to put your foot down with the parents and not Intro-Game anyone under 12. IS a simple question. If the parents get antsy, just quote Health and Safety. That usually does it. Point out you are not qualified Child Care Staff, and that to leave little Timmy in the shop has lead to prosecutions for neglect in other stores.

Biggedy biggedy bong, one white lie, and the problem is cleared up.

And see my original post on this line of conversation. GW offer boards to play instore to promote the product. They put painted models in the window, painted models on the Intro boards. All part of promoting the whole scope of the Hobby. So it's not unreasonable at all to ask that if you wish to game in store, one of the conditions is to use painted models. If this is a problem, then you can always play at home.

so you cannot break store rules for any reason but its fine to lie to a customer to make your life easy? theres a good start i guess.


in which case i see more and more people playing at home then.
you did say that not many people play in that store right? have a look and that may show you as to why this is.

And HBMC, bite me matey. It seems anyone who has an opinion deviating even slightly from yours is automatically wrong

just to bring back your previous quote doc, look at the PC thread thats going, you have just done that one yourself.

Goodness why all the hate people?

I can see why Mad Doc and others are getting annoyed at the thread- because hidden among the funny stories (and there are some true blinders.... hell i haven't added mine in about an older staffer years ago trying to sell me glue to go with my book....) there are plenty rather spiteful and jerkish comments about GW staffers.
such as:
"ok, im 19, i just spent over £300 here, and im now going to buy a tub of £5 glue to sniff......... dill weed "
"Wanted to put my fist through his skull. "
"Where does GW get some of these complete idiots to work at the GW stores? "
"I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again* "

Just a few of the things from a wee glance over the thread... not really funny eh?
Actually quite insulting- and if you are/were a GW staff member, or know one well who isn't an idiot- then how would you react?

To put it in a different perspective... if someone started slagging off Eldar players and calling them all <insert insults here>.... the eldar players would kick off- its not really fair to tar them all with the same brush- some of them may fit the stereotype- nor indeed to GW staff members-
So why is it that somepeople feel the need to be so abusive, negative and insulting towards GW and their staff?
and surely by doing so... someone is going to be insulted and say something- or at least point out whats happening.

And just to point it out from a dakka perspective...
Rule number one...

"This seems obvious, however many folks can sometimes forget that common courtesy goes a long way to lending respect to both you and your opinions. Just because you don't see the other users' faces doesn't mean they don't have feelings and won't be hurt by rude comments or offensive images. When you see something that you find silly, rude or insulting first assume that perhaps there is more to it than you initially thought. Look at it again, keeping in mind that tone and inflection is difficult to convey in a visual format. It may be that the person is attempting a joke or is exaggerating on purpose. It is best to politely request clarification before accusing someone being ignorant, a liar, or worse.

If after clarification you still disagree with the person then politely outline your points. Try to avoid name-calling or even implying insults wherever possible. These tactics generally only inflame a situation and lead to what are known as "Flame Wars." Whenever a flame war starts it usually ruins a perfectly good discussion. Others will lose interest in the thread and the site in general if this kind of interchange becomes a common occurrence."

I'm just thinking some of the comments break that due to people who may be or may have been GW staffers....


And now I feel all quoted out

nutter, mine tended to relate to common sense really.
if i wanted to sniff glue then i would buy a cheapo pack from a £1 shop.
i wouldnt go out and spend £300 on models just so i could sniff the glue i get with it.


as for trying to sell glue for your book, did you get a new daemons dex?
it needs it lol, alot of people have had them falling apart after a few days.


Edit: i also did not sum up all staff in any of my posts.
if you check through previous threads i have posted in i do actually give loads of great comments about the portsmouth staff and staff from other GW's.
this thread will of course have hate for staff in some posts, after all, it is to do with some of the funny and stupid things staff have said or done.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Meh. At least 90% of the tales in this thread are exaggerated in my opinion.

Good to see Dakka's moral compass (and soon-to-be GW employee) has chosen to grace us with his presence.

Can I just say for the record, before you run crying to the mods about me, that I knew from the moment this thread was posted that you'd come storming in here to tell us all how we're bad people, or lying, or exaggerating, or to get all apologetic about everything in the thread.

And slap me silly, I was right!!!

As much as you annoy me at times with your posts, this right here is why I like you H.B.M.C.. So yeah, /clap or something ;-)

you know, all this talk of kicking kids out of stores for not having a fully painted army is becoming less and less stunning...

i mean think of it from a gw POV...
if kids want to have fun games at home, theyre gunna need a table...

"!

lets make a $290 set of plastic squares that fit together in a table shape so they have to either paint to play here or buy that...!
$40 plastic buildings? sounds good!
hmm...theyll need theyre own dice and tape measures if theyre not borrowing ours..."

just another one of theyre endless ruthless salesmen tactics...

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Which is why they also offer free painting lessons to encourage it.

Doesn't take long to get the models table ready after all. Three Colours and Base is a cinch.

Very few Stores will allow completely unpainted armies. Works in progress? As long as there is genuine week on week progress, then fair enough (still showing off the Hobby)

But bare metal models? Play at home.

...

Indeed, Painting and Gaming are two seperate things which don't need each other per se.

But, as a Staffer, you are paid to promote the overall Hobby, not just the gaming. Focus on one thing too much, whichever it might be, and you will lose customers. But when it comes to playing in store, you have to follow the rules, as long as they are reasonable.

I think this is the crux of what makes GW stores less appealing places to spend time than FLGS. Officiously prohibiting people from participating unless they live up to arbitrary standards doesn't promote the hobby. I understand that GW would like people to play using beautifully painted armies since it functions as a live action advertisement, but stores should be places where people can come to participate in the hobby, play on nice scenery, work on their models, and not be involuntary subjects to some guys imperative to "promote the hobby".

Other than one GW store, I have never seen a store that prohibits unpainted armies. FLGS are happy to have people in playing games and usually go to great lengths to make the store a nice place to hang out. GW stores tend to have very limited seating and staff members that give you crap about your non-GW army carriers.

Y'know who really pisses me off? Those jerks in Canada with their 'free health care'... and 'maple syrup'...

Where do they get OFF?!

And seriously... what is the deal with Starbucks?!?

Tall, Big or Twenty? What the hell kinds of sizes are those.

Also; I hate Star Trek.


*leaves the thread satisfied he has contributed equally*

Mine is that every single time I walk in to a GW store they look at me like something the cat dragged in and then
they go; "Hey... Do you even know what kind of store this is? We really just want costumers..."

And I just answer that "Yes I know what kind of store this is, I've been playing for several years..."

So what answer do I get!? "Oh... You don't look like a gamer..."

And I just can't understand why, If it was just the one time, ok, but it have happened in several stores...
Annoying...


//Edge

anyhow; everyone but the one guy that tries to get me to play lord of the rings, all the guys at MLGS are great. we debate fluff, talk about theries, mathhammer stuff out, work on scratch builds.

on a bit of a strange note; the word skitarii, is spelled S-K-I-T-A-R-I-I.

double I not T

OnTheEdge wrote:Mine is that every single time I walk in to a GW store they look at me like something the cat dragged in and then
they go; "Hey... Do you even know what kind of store this is? We really just want costumers..."

And I just answer that "Yes I know what kind of store this is, I've been playing for several years..."

So what answer do I get!? "Oh... You don't look like a gamer..."

And I just can't understand why, If it was just the one time, ok, but it have happened in several stores...
Annoying...

That's weird. Sure, the staff around here tend to ask people if they're familiar with the products, so they know what kind of service is appropriate. It's usually not apparent whether someone's a gamer, a parent shopping for a kid, an interested onlooker or an elderly gentleman interested in the finer points of injection moulding technology (the latter being the most esoteric customer I've seen).

I was in a GW store buying a battlewagon and there were two kids playing a game, one wanted to know a rule about orks so as the redshirt was busy i stepped in with the answer. When the redshirt heard this he came over and said my definition of the rule was wrong and then proceeded to make something up......

Hearing this odd rule i told him he was wrong only to be told "I have worked for GW for a year and a half, I should know what the rule is"

I had to reply "I have been playing for 20 years and have rule books older than you!"

I really hope you guys haven't been arguing whilst I've been sleeping..... because if you have...... I'm gonna sign you up to work in GW.

I like the guys at the local GW, but they keep getting promoted out of the store!

I like most the guys at my local GW, they are rather helpful and at least one is actually trying to get me to paint my army by offering to some me so different painting techniques, to help me get over my if its not up to my ridiculous standard its not being fielded ways.

Which brings me to the most annoying thing they used to ask.

Them-"When are ya gonna come in and play a game?"

Me-"When my army is done."

To my credit I got around to playing in the store, with an unpainted Tau Rapid Insertion Force. Not the army I would have like to debut with but it worked.

Foda_Bett wrote:I've got a few so I'll start with my most recent.
For Black Friday last year I drove all the way to the local GW store (45 minute drive) I'd called the night before to ask when they opened, they respond 7am.
I show up at 7am when they open and I see that they must have been open for about an hour already so I'm a little upset.
I start asking about the day exclusive merchandise and RS - "Well we have this button here you can have one."
Me - "Uh thanks, what about the special chaos shirt."
RS - "Oh well that's going to be given away."
Me - "But the website says they're for sale."
RS - "Yeah we're different here."
Me - "WHAT?! I drove 45 minutes for a button?"
RS - *Disappears in back* "Here's a poster."
Me - "Uh thanks..."

6 Years ago I used to hang out a lot at the same GW store as my friends worked in the arcade a few doors down.
Well I show up for the Ogre Kingdoms promotion day, its a conversion contest, you're given an Ogre and a box of bits and you get to convert what you want. So I make a sentinel legged Ogre with a bunch of bionic parts. Some people like it, one staffer HATES IT.

So a week later, Tuesday, it's painting time, and I come back with all my paints and I had a few non GW paints. I start painting using the GW paint and the same GW employee starts talking about his rocky immigration to America and how he's been discriminated against because of his accent and other stuff. Well he's going on and on so I keep painting nodding and smiling at the right times.
I start painting with some non GW paints, and he goes crazy. He starts yelling about how dare I paint with tis crap and to close it up right now.

Well I came in again that weekend with my folks as they wanted to clear up the fight. I notice they're having a sale so I start picking out some boxes. After picking up the second box my father asks what we had fought about, and the second I mentioned non GW paint he starts yelling at my father about how he's a horrible parent and it's my father's fault I've become such a horrible person, how all the employees hate me and they have tons of complaints every week against me. So I decide to put back the boxes I've been holding as I don't feel like buying stuff from someone who's yelling at my father, and the GW employee starts yelling about how I'm now being rude and huffy.
The ironic part was the sale was for customer appreciation.

Man I hope they sacked the gakker

Maybe he just had mental problems...... you know... so into wargamming that he's become affected by the warp.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

You and that other loon are the only people who've come in here decrying what is otherwise a fun thread, trying to apologise for or explain away the examples - right to the point of calling everyone liers by saying that they're exaggerating.

I'll assume the 'loon' you are referring to is me.

I've got nothing against silly stories per say and I could quite happily write pages and pages about the stupidity, bitterness and downright cretinous behaviour I observed from my fellow hobbyists during my time as a red shirt so its quid pro quo really.

My objection was founded on the fact that it had diverted from being a place to recant amusing tales to, in some cases, outright abuse. The person who called a redshirt a dill weed from refusing to sell him glue without ID (Which I'll remind everyone again is the LAW in the uk, there is no get out clause that its ok to sell solvents to minors as long as they have bought models) was bang out of order.

Incidently calling me a 'loon' is a personal attack, which is a violation of forum rules. If you disagree with me then feel free to argue back but I'll thank you not to resort to name calling. If anything such behaviour devalues your own arguments.

Going back to the non GW paints incident, yes the redshirt may have delbt with the situation in a questionable manner (assuming its literally true, this is the intwebs after all!) but the policy is sound. I'll admit I use allot of Valejo and Coat d'arms paints at home but I wouldn't use them in a GW store. It's the same reason that pubs and cinemas tell you that you can't consume food purchased off the premises, it hurts their business!

As for the painted armies, I think the 'work in progress' rule is acceptable. In other words its ok to see and unpainted or half painted model on the board as long as work continues and it has more progress next time you bring it in. I'm the first to admit that painting can sometimes be a chore but with dry brushing and quick shade (seriously brilliant stuff!) bashing out core units can be done be even the laziest painter.

asugradinwa wrote:

Roze wrote:"do you need a starter paint brush set since your buying fantasy?"

I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again*

Please don't call people gimps. I have cerebral palsey and take offence to it when people who do not have that or a simular disorder are called gimps. Call them Morons, lame brains, stupid, ugly, whatever. But please do not use the word Gimp.

Fair enough. Although I had never really understood "gimp" in this context. Personally my experience had been towards the lower end of the list of definitions on Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp

LuciusAR wrote:I've got nothing against silly stories per say and I could quite happily write pages and pages about the stupidity, bitterness and downright cretinous behaviour I observed from my fellow hobbyists during my time as a red shirt so its quid pro quo really.

That sounds like fun! I for one would love to read a thread about the idiotic behaviours exhibited by some gaming store customers! Even though I am one (occasionally) its still fun to read about the doings of my fellow morons!

1: HBMC did not break any forum rules.
he simply called the "other person" a loon, if you feel you should rise up and claim that title then by all means do so, but he did not direct that to anyone, it was a free ball that you picked up.

2: maybe not everyone wants to quickly paint models.
i love getting the time to spend 2-3 hours painting a single tactical marine.
i dont feel the need to rush and paint them all to a stupidly low standard so i can be accepted and play at a store.

3: you wont let my comment drop will you?
now, he has asked me for ID 3 times in a row now, 3 other staff members have told him to stop asking me since they know me well, and at one point i went there twice a week, sometimes more.
i was simply bringing up my point (which you seem to miss for some reason) that if i wanted to be sniffing glue i wouldnt spend loads of money to do so.
also, just a thought here, but i also buy blades from there, yet they do not ID me for those (which also you have to be 18 to buy)
i have never been asked to show ID for buying spray from there either.
so he is a dill weed, he just seems to be on his glue rampage.

while im here with that i let my girl buy the glue last time, needless to say she did not get asked to prove her age (she is 18), so he now also has double standards.



and HBMC is right in what he says, as are alot of people here.
this is a thread about a certain subject, if you dont like it, leave it.
even a MOD has said that the thread is fine, and now since you cannot get your own way you start to moan about everything said.

Osbad wrote:

asugradinwa wrote:

Roze wrote:"do you need a starter paint brush set since your buying fantasy?"

I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again*

Please don't call people gimps. I have cerebral palsey and take offence to it when people who do not have that or a simular disorder are called gimps. Call them Morons, lame brains, stupid, ugly, whatever. But please do not use the word Gimp.

Fair enough. Although I had never really understood "gimp" in this context. Personally my experience had been towards the lower end of the list of definitions on Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp

well my definition of gimp was a submissive person in full "Gimp" waer which is the marketed name for it. and i'm actually rather offended that you would assume i ment otherwise.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Which is why they also offer free painting lessons to encourage it.

Doesn't take long to get the models table ready after all. Three Colours and Base is a cinch.

Very few Stores will allow completely unpainted armies. Works in progress? As long as there is genuine week on week progress, then fair enough (still showing off the Hobby)

But bare metal models? Play at home.

1. Plenty of GW stores do here. I've never had that as an issue. At worse I've seen them have the requirement of some progress. Myself-it takes years to do an army. We'll show up with half painted armies, bits from different armies, even paper stand ins. Of course GW employees don't harass Pappy gramps-I remind them too much of their insane great grandfather.

2. Your competing FLGS definitely don't.

LuciusAR wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:

You and that other loon are the only people who've come in here decrying what is otherwise a fun thread, trying to apologise for or explain away the examples - right to the point of calling everyone liers by saying that they're exaggerating.

I'll assume the 'loon' you are referring to is me.

I've got nothing against silly stories per say and I could quite happily write pages and pages about the stupidity, bitterness and downright cretinous behaviour I observed from my fellow hobbyists during my time as a red shirt so its quid pro quo really.

My objection was founded on the fact that it had diverted from being a place to recant amusing tales to, in some cases, outright abuse. The person who called a redshirt a dill weed from refusing to sell him glue without ID (Which I'll remind everyone again is the LAW in the uk, there is no get out clause that its ok to sell solvents to minors as long as they have bought models) was bang out of order.

Incidently calling me a 'loon' is a personal attack, which is a violation of forum rules. If you disagree with me then feel free to argue back but I'll thank you not to resort to name calling. If anything such behaviour devalues your own arguments.

Going back to the non GW paints incident, yes the redshirt may have delbt with the situation in a questionable manner (assuming its literally true, this is the intwebs after all!) but the policy is sound. I'll admit I use allot of Valejo and Coat d'arms paints at home but I wouldn't use them in a GW store. It's the same reason that pubs and cinemas tell you that you can't consume food purchased off the premises, it hurts their business!

As for the painted armies, I think the 'work in progress' rule is acceptable. In other words its ok to see and unpainted or half painted model on the board as long as work continues and it has more progress next time you bring it in. I'm the first to admit that painting can sometimes be a chore but with dry brushing and quick shade (seriously brilliant stuff!) bashing out core units can be done be even the laziest painter.

Just shut up and stop posting on this thread.

The more you talk clap-trap the more fun we'll have.

I'm 13 years old and I can assure you I have bought super glue alone ( nobody else was with me ). So either the store you worked at was run by a member of parliament or they're just being over cautious.

And I can tell you for free, if I intended to get high on glue, I would not buy a 25ml bottle for £5. I can think of much cheaper places to buy it.

Many thanks,
Jack.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Meh. At least 90% of the tales in this thread are exaggerated in my opinion.

Good to see Dakka's moral compass (and soon-to-be GW employee) has chosen to grace us with his presence.

be nice HBMC. MDG is a cool hard drinking Scot soccer hooligan, when not sucked in by the Man.

how we're bad people, or lying, or exaggerating,

Wait, we're not? That sounds like your average Texan to me.

I'm 13 years old and I can assure you I have bought super glue alone ( nobody else was with me ). So either the store you worked at was run by a member of parliament or they're just being over cautious.

You've been lucky or look older then, they can get fined thousands of £s or even shut down for selling glue to under 16s.

Meanwhile....

He's long gone now, but there used to be a member of staff who used to drink the paints. Initially he did it, I believe as a bet or forfeit, but then, oddly, he seemed to get quite addicted to drinking them. Most bizarre, especially when he used to smile at you !

reds8n wrote:

I'm 13 years old and I can assure you I have bought super glue alone ( nobody else was with me ). So either the store you worked at was run by a member of parliament or they're just being over cautious.

You've been lucky or look older then, they can get fined thousands of £s or even shut down for selling glue to under 16s.

Meanwhile....

He's long gone now, but there used to be a member of staff who used to drink the paints. Initially he did it, I believe as a bet or forfeit, but then, oddly, he seemed to get quite addicted to drinking them. Most bizarre, especially when he used to smile at you !

Well have you ever tasted the paint on accident by going to make a fine point on the brush with your lips and tasted the paint? Regal Blue tasted like some kinda berry, and bleached bone like bananas... Taught me to clean the brushes more thoroughly.

To the best of my recollection I don't think I've tasted the paint in said manner. neither have I accidentally drank the water pot instead of beverage or dipped my brushes into my drink.

Clearly I fail as a hobbyist.

thats what i allways do stynier, and i can say that flesh wash may smell like chocolate, but it dont taste like it
inks are pure evil, and the old smelly primer is like acid.

Yes I do look older as I am quite mature and tall for my age (5ft 10) and the workers often respect me.

I have tasted bleached bone paint by accident and I am afraid I didn't think it tasted like bananas.... it tasted of paint. Those of you (brotherstynier) who think it does, need to check into the nearest mental home.

I haven't drank out of my water pot.... although I must admit that I have dunked my brush into my coffee.

Well it smelt like em, so my brain went "mmm... bananas.." then "OH GOD thats paint.

JD21290 wrote:thats what i allways do stynier, and i can say that flesh wash may smell like chocolate, but it dont taste like it
inks are pure evil, and the old smelly primer is like acid.

I made the I wash mistake once, never again... Never tasted the inks or the primer so I'll trust your judgment on them.

reds8n wrote:Clearly I fail as a hobbyist.

No you're just one of those careful hobbyists.

Not an annoying story - not in the slightest - but I post this with fond regards of the staff of one particular GW store.

Back when I was at uni, me and my friends would spend much of our time hanging out in the local GW store. We were quite well-known for it (and often used to get asked questions by more casual visitors to the shop, but that's besides the point).

I'm also going back to a time when almost all models were metal and were in blister packs; about the time when GW sold Bolt Thrower and Wraith vinyl.

Sometimes, those blisters would get delivered in a damaged state. The GW manager told us that the correct policy was to send them back, but he never did. All the split blisters, plus bits left over from the shops own collection, got put in a great big box. This we'd happily rummage through, searching out all the parts of a snotling pump wagon or giant, for example. I once got an entire Orc blood bowl team for a £1, including the utterly useless kicker! I still have this team now (some 15 years later).

Some months later, after (nearly) daily visits to the shop, the manager knew what we all collected and pretty much what we had for our armies. He also knew what we didn't have. Lo and behold, split or broken blisters of those items turned up in the box. *Dreams wistfully of such things happening again*

I guess the only annoying bit would have been the times when you'd find all of a model except one part. Damn we were fussy!

Fussy!

Call yourself fussy you ungrateful git!

Nah I'm joking- I know the frustration.

Looking back on it, if I was the GW manager, I'd have banned our asses...

I'm proud of this thread.

It's rapidly becoming one of the most popular threads with 200answers now!

Well done guys!

watch out though jack, luna's pube thread was on a roll yesterday

BrotherStynier wrote:Well it smelt like em, so my brain went "mmm... bananas.." then "OH GOD thats paint.

JD21290 wrote:thats what i allways do stynier, and i can say that flesh wash may smell like chocolate, but it dont taste like it
inks are pure evil, and the old smelly primer is like acid.

I made the I wash mistake once, never again... Never tasted the inks or the primer so I'll trust your judgment on them.

reds8n wrote:Clearly I fail as a hobbyist.

No you're just one of those careful hobbyists.

Try getting the taste of ink out of your mouth....

Or the stain from your tongue...

*shudders with distant memories*

good tip here that works well
if you do have ink on your tongue simple eat a polo (you have them where ever you are right?)
it absorbs the paint / ink, spit it out after a few mins and its gone
and since its a mint, it also kills of the bad taste (allthough it does nothing to boybands :()

Ok I appear to have touched a nerve here.

JD21290 to be fair It’s only the 2nd time I mentioned it and it wasn’t your comment exclusively that I was attacking, it just sprung to mind as an example. I apologise if you feel I have singled you out for criticism.

Now regardless of what a customer buys, how old that customer looks or whether you knew damn well that the customer intends to use the glue legitimately or not is, quite frankly, neither here nor there. It's illegal to sell a minor Glue, end of. Silly law? Maybe. That doesn’t mean the staffer wasn’t in the right for refusing the sale and it ok to referring to him in an abusive way for doing so.

Like I said, no objection to the basic premises of the thread. All I objected to was the fact that some comments had crossed the line from amusing recollections to abuse and name calling. That I objected to. That and the fact that many of the comments had an air of smug superiority.

It's not just a case of don't like it, don’t read it. I took allot of flak in my time as a redshirt so yes I'll admit to being on the defensive when a threat arises which invites people to berate those doing a job which brings a surprising amount of stress (seriously no day in a 'real job' has ever left me as tired as an average beginners day!) and less money than a McDonalds toilet cleaner. I'll admit the constant targets regarding Into Games and Boxed set sales where a real pain in the proverbial and constant pressure to up sell and push new releases to all and sundry is annoying. It is however the nature of sales and Redshirts are essentially salesmen. Veterans with a superiority complex are amongst the worst customers you have to deal with, I'm sure many will agree with me.

My point is if you want to berate people for following policies and laws, which generally are in place with good reason, your going to annoy people. Attacking the rules and laws is one thing but taking it out on the people who enforce them is crossing a line. Especially when the attacks incorporate name calling.

Again sorry if I've seemed flamey. That wasn’t my intention but I still stand by my initial points.

LuciusAR wrote:Ok I appear to have touched a nerve here.

JD21290 to be fair It’s only the 2nd time I mentioned it and it wasn’t your comment exclusively that I was attacking, it just sprung to mind as an example. I apologise if you feel I have singled you out for criticism.

Now regardless of what a customer buys, how old that customer looks or whether you knew damn well that the customer intends to use the glue legitimately or not is, quite frankly, neither here nor there. It's illegal to sell a minor Glue, end of. Silly law? Maybe. That doesn’t mean the staffer wasn’t in the right for refusing the sale and it ok to referring to him in an abusive way for doing so.

Like I said, no objection to the basic premises of the thread. All I objected to was the fact that some comments had crossed the line from amusing recollections to abuse and name calling. That I objected to. That and the fact that many of the comments had an air of smug superiority.

It's not just a case of don't like it, don’t read it. I took allot of flak in my time as a redshirt so yes I'll admit to being on the defensive when a threat arises which invites people to berate those doing a job which brings a surprising amount of stress (seriously no day in a 'real job' has ever left me as tired as an average beginners day!) and less money than a McDonalds toilet cleaner. I'll admit the constant targets regarding Into Games and Boxed set sales where a real pain in the proverbial and constant pressure to up sell and push new releases to all and sundry is annoying. It is however the nature of sales and Redshirts are essentially salesmen. Veterans with a superiority complex are amongst the worst customers you have to deal with, I'm sure many will agree with me.

My point is if you want to berate people for following policies and laws, which generally are in place with good reason, your going to annoy people. Attacking the rules and laws is one thing but taking it out on the people who enforce them is crossing a line. Especially when the attacks incorporate name calling.

Again sorry if I've seemed flamey. That wasn’t my intention but I still stand by my initial points.

Can we summarise this then?

Both GW customers and GW staff are capable of being completely abusive and neither should be tolerated.

Both GW customers and GW staff are occassionally prone to saying something daft / ridiculous / stupid / funny / annoying (all without the intention of malice).

We all agree the first type are basically idiots and want nothing more to do with them.
We want to hear about the latter. Seem reasonable? Can we all shake hands and move back OT?

fair enough there, just wondered why it was what i said that kept comming up.


silly? not really, it does make sense.
me buying spray paint fine, then asking for glue and getting asked for ID, that is stupid, if he has allready sold me a solvent then why ask for ID to sell me more?

you may object to it, but your the 2nd person so far, how many people here have nothing against this thread?

congratulations, you just described what its like to work
there will allways be problems no matter where you work, these range from pissy little children to getting shot at (a slightly larger problem)
if you dislike a job for whatever reason to the point where it is effecting you, find a new job, dont kill yourself through stress.
veterans are in your opinion the worsed to deal with simply because they know what they want, they cannot be swayed into buying random crap they dont need like most kids.

your now telling me about attacking the rules and laws, which is fine in most cases, but read what i have written regarding the spray, thats hardly the law is it?
also, you must honour the laws and rules, yet you still find it ok to lie to parents to make your own life a little easier?

i dont plan on moving with what i have said either, i stick to what i say.

JD21290 wrote:fair enough there, just wondered why it was what i said that kept comming up.


silly? not really, it does make sense.
me buying spray paint fine, then asking for glue and getting asked for ID, that is stupid, if he has allready sold me a solvent then why ask for ID to sell me more?

you may object to it, but your the 2nd person so far, how many people here have nothing against this thread?

congratulations, you just described what its like to work
there will allways be problems no matter where you work, these range from pissy little children to getting shot at (a slightly larger problem)
if you dislike a job for whatever reason to the point where it is effecting you, find a new job, dont kill yourself through stress.
veterans are in your opinion the worsed to deal with simply because they know what they want, they cannot be swayed into buying random crap they dont need like most kids.

your now telling me about attacking the rules and laws, which is fine in most cases, but read what i have written regarding the spray, thats hardly the law is it?
also, you must honour the laws and rules, yet you still find it ok to lie to parents to make your own life a little easier?

i dont plan on moving with what i have said either, i stick to what i say.

So what you are saying is that we all have a social responsibility, and that if we are prepare to judge others, we must accept judgment ourselves.

It's all very well people crowing about how they've been sold glue at 13 or whatever but that doesn't mean that people aged 13 should try to do it? I remember being 15 or so trying to buy alcohol and getting irate because I got turned down. Looking back, I wasn't exactly helping matters. Its the same principle with glue.

The most annoying thing a staff member has said to me was after a game I had against Grey Knights. I had my rear end handed to me in no short order, mostly due to a Grey Knight Grand Master with some bit of wargear which lowered his opponents WS and I (or one or the other I can't remember exactly). After the game I recounted my tale to my mate Rob (the staff member) and he then said:
"the wargear only works on daemons, not any other race."
Aargh!!!! . I know it wasn't his fault, but it was so annoying to hear that after the point of it being of any use to me.

krusty wrote:you know, all this talk of kicking kids out of stores for not having a fully painted army is becoming less and less stunning...

i mean think of it from a gw POV...
if kids want to have fun games at home, theyre gunna need a table...

"!

lets make a $290 set of plastic squares that fit together in a table shape so they have to either paint to play here or buy that...!
$40 plastic buildings? sounds good!
hmm...theyll need theyre own dice and tape measures if theyre not borrowing ours..."

just another one of theyre endless ruthless salesmen tactics...

Actually? No. Promoting home play is a good way of keeping a gamer gaming. A Veteran cannot be a Veteran if they depend entirely upon their local store for a venue. See my thread about how I hope to improve my local store should I get the job. Yes, the Realm of Battle Board is expensive. Exceedingly so. Which is why I would point out the alternatives of building your own board. Store I'll hopefully be working in has mainly hand made boards with a pretty simple construction. Big that up the Dad, and you promote father/son bonding time, and might just entice Dad into collecting an army as well. Home play, you can do whatever you damn well please, and I intend to see that the Community round my way is solid enough that the shop becomes a venue for specific events, with the gamers going to clubs and houses for the mainstay gaming.

As far as the "only painted models rule," that seems extremely lame. On the one hand they want fancy models to go with their fancy tables and sell their product. On the other hand, if someone has paid $300 for an army, they should be able to play with it. I have plenty of FLGS around that allow unpainted models, maybe that's weird. I always play WYSIWYG and my models are fully painted, but I don't shove it on everyone around me. I also know what it's like to work retail, and can imagine that cocky, elitist customers are just as annoying as cocky, elitist workers. So the best thing we can do is not be either, understanding that the store has the right to not sell you anything if they so choose. You're a guest in their "house," slowed policies or not.

I've known people who have built armies and NEVER painted anything. In fact, they've had no interest in doing so. That's fine.

Me personally, I like painting as much as I like playing. I think its therapy, of a sort.

The GW tourney rules state that models must have at least 3 colours on or they cannot be used but I've seen plenty of GW store games using unpainted figures. This happens most when new models are released and the GW guys are showing people how "cool" this new figure is in game.

Perhaps I am a snob, but there is nothing as impressive as a fully painted army on the table, from a visual point of view. Does it make people play any better? Not in the slightest, so I think its a dumb rule myself.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:A Veteran cannot be a Veteran if they depend entirely upon their local store for a venue.

What a crock. My flat's way too small to have my mates round to game, I am totally dependent upon my local stores (not a GW thankfully) to game. “Promoting” 'home gaming' is part of the (necessary) GW churn designed to make room for the next bunch of recruits and nothing more.

I used to game in a GW a few years ago. I don't now and I miss their ridiculous, ‘how to play with your dollies’ rules.

GW only expects you to be in the hobby for 18 months (perhaps that’s the average amount of time it takes someone to realise their rules suck these days).

Although in fairness I long since surpassed whatever definition of a veteran GW are using at the moment. I prefer the term ‘post-veteran’ or 'super-veteran' depending upon how I'm feeling at the time.

[edit] For those with bad eyesight.

George Spiggott wrote:
GW only expects you to be in the hobby for 18 months. Perhaps that’s the average amount of time it takes someone to realise their rules suck these days.

What's with the tiny font?

Got something to say; then say it proud!

GW Aberdeen had a policy that models used in store to game with had to be at least undercoated, then they changed it to fully painted only. However that only lasted about a month as too many people stopped coming to game, as most people don't have the free time to paint all the models in an army. We do other things in our spare time, not just wargaming. So for the last year or so the policy has been reverted back to all models have to be at least undercoated to be used in the shop.

That's not much of a step-up from being unpainted but I guess there's no great effort in spraying figures...but it does mean you have to buy the spray of course....

...aha...those Scottish guys, they're a canny lot.

Roze wrote:

Osbad wrote:

asugradinwa wrote:

Roze wrote:"do you need a starter paint brush set since your buying fantasy?"

I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again*

Please don't call people gimps. I have cerebral palsey and take offence to it when people who do not have that or a simular disorder are called gimps. Call them Morons, lame brains, stupid, ugly, whatever. But please do not use the word Gimp.

Fair enough. Although I had never really understood "gimp" in this context. Personally my experience had been towards the lower end of the list of definitions on Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp

well my definition of gimp was a submissive person in full "Gimp" waer which is the marketed name for it. and i'm actually rather offended that you would assume i ment otherwise.

However, you did say that you "wanted to punch his gimp face in." In general when people use gimp to decribe a body part they are using it in reference to having some sort of physical disability. This might be a difference in culture, however I did take offence to it and all that I ask is that you don't use the word anymore.

Konrad Carstein wrote:That's not much of a step-up from being unpainted but I guess there's no great effort in spraying figures...but it does mean you have to buy the spray of course....

...aha...those Scottish guys, they're a canny lot.

They are, although I'm not a Scot myself, I just married one. I'm North Yorkshire through and through.

Slightly off topic now, but I remember the days when the metal models were lead, not white metal, therefore you had to at least undercoat them to make them safe to use. I remember being told by shop staff to wash my hands thoroughly after handling the models and (rather weirdly as I was 12 years old at the time and not an infant) not to put them in my mouth????? Why exactly would I have done that .

Foda_Bett wrote:
I start asking about the day exclusive merchandise and RS - "Well we have this button here you can have one."
Me - "Uh thanks, what about the special chaos shirt."
RS - "Oh well that's going to be given away."
Me - "But the website says they're for sale."
RS - "Yeah we're different here."
Me - "WHAT?! I drove 45 minutes for a button?"
RS - *Disappears in back* "Here's a poster."
Me - "Uh thanks..."

This.

Konrad Carstein wrote:Perhaps there should be a thread of annoying things that customers have said to GW staff?

Whenever someone in the store has a rules question, I buy something (usually a pot of paint) and then proclaim that as I am the customer, I must be right. (Doesn't hurt that I actually am either)

asugradinwa wrote:

However, you did say that you "wanted to punch his gimp face in." In general when people use gimp to decribe a body part they are using it in reference to having some sort of physical disability. This might be a difference in culture, however I did take offence to it and all that I ask is that you don't use the word anymore.

Isn't it somewhat ironic that a person who felt a GW staffer had annoyed them would respond by wishing to attack them with physical violence...?

Grow up and act like a person, not a mindless thug.

Perhaps that's just a statement about modern society though...

Gosh, you people just yak yak yak don't you?

Alpharius wrote:

Ozymandias wrote:You know, every time I've been to a GW store (and I've been to a lot in several countries), I'm always treated with respect. They always ask what game I play and what armies and ask if I've seen the new xxxxx but it's never pushy and always cordial. I'm not old but I'm not young so maybe that's part of it but I've never had one of ^those^ moments.

My wife has been to the store without me a few times (picking up presents and the like) and she says every time it's like the old western movies where the piano player stops and everyone looks at the door.

That's a good one - funny scene, I'll bet.

Wait - you're married???

I know, wierd right?

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Actually? No. Promoting home play is a good way of keeping a gamer gaming. A Veteran cannot be a Veteran if they depend entirely upon their local store for a venue. See my thread about how I hope to improve my local store should I get the job. Yes, the Realm of Battle Board is expensive. Exceedingly so. Which is why I would point out the alternatives of building your own board. Store I'll hopefully be working in has mainly hand made boards with a pretty simple construction. Big that up the Dad, and you promote father/son bonding time, and might just entice Dad into collecting an army as well. Home play, you can do whatever you damn well please, and I intend to see that the Community round my way is solid enough that the shop becomes a venue for specific events, with the gamers going to clubs and houses for the mainstay gaming.

With all due respect, that attitude horrifies me. I only game at my FLGS. The only time I ever gamed at home was back in college, we set a table up in the basement of my Fraternity house. He had like 5 guys playing, so it got plenty of use.

jackinthetank wrote:Gosh, you people just yak yak yak don't you?

*insert yakface joke here*

Polonius wrote:I only game at my FLGS.

Same here. It's just not worth it to slog over a mountain range to get to my closest GW.

I ask two things of all of you,

The first: don't use the word gimp

The second: if you have any personal insults to dish out please do so like this..

Dear Blahblah,

You suck!

Yours kindly,
(insert name here)

This way it's funnier for the rest of us.

Dear jackinthetank,

You suck fail fail harder <3

Yours redundantly,
NP

NinjaPenguin wrote:Dear jackinthetank,

You suck fail fail harder <3

Yours redundantly,
NP

Dear NinjaPenguin,

This is my thread and I hereby allow myself to say

"SUCK MY TOXIN SACS!"

Yours kindly,
Jack.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Meh. At least 90% of the tales in this thread are exaggerated in my opinion.

And you won't find complaints about me, unless someone is a real arse, as I intend on turning round my would be Store Community to make it kick arse again.

Get your head out of sand. I have been to 2 different GW stores and this is the general attitude.

Dear Jack,

Can we stop before the anti-spammers get on our respective asses?

<3,
NP

Polonius wrote:With all due respect, that attitude horrifies me. I only game at my FLGS. The only time I ever gamed at home was back in college, we set a table up in the basement of my Fraternity house. He had like 5 guys playing, so it got plenty of use.

I think "horrifies" is too a strong word to be used here, but I certainly don't agree with his assessment. For personal reasons, I am not comfortable with the notion of inviting other people to where I live, even if I had the dedicated space to set aside for gaming purposes. Playing outside, in this case at the local GW, is an alternative that's served me decently well, and it's gotten me games with an assortment of people ranging for newbies to top-of-the-line tournament juggernauts.

JD21290 wrote:ok, im 19, i just spent over £300 here, and im now going to buy a tub of £5 glue to sniff......... dill weed

QFT

Generally I give redshirts benefit of doubt, I figure their job probably sucks with managers always telling them "I didn't see you try to sell Orks to that shopper!"

One time I was trying to get some information about the box SM battle force set (the one that's like 400 bucks with pretty much an entire company in it). But I could tell the guy didn't really care about answering my questions because he didn't think I could afford it. I just turned to someone else and asked them to get it down so I could buy it (don't know if they have commissions, but I didn't want that dick getting credit for selling it).

The one thing that was said to me that ensured I never came back; a redshirt was trying to get me to come by and play. I told him that I didn't want to show up in a mall and get my ass kicked by a 14 y/o who knows the game better than me. He laughed and said that wouldn't happen, oh yeah, and watch your cursing. Cursing? I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, then I realized he meant ass? Whatever.

Mad Doc is in for a surprise if he gets the job.

Isint it called the Queen's English?

I wonder if GW gets their business model after King John's rule or Edward II.

Eh. Most of the guys at my local GW are really nice, if a bit... odd...

When I first started I bought a Dire Avenger Box, a Wraithlord and a seer council but underestimated the price of the glue, and they said not to worry about it. They are really cool guys and I pity them aboiut the "Hey, free chilcare" attitude of many parents. I also hate the 8 year olds who go there. So I mainly rock up on free lines during school hours.

NinjaPenguin wrote:Dear Jack,

Can we stop before the anti-spammers get on our respective asses?

<3,
NP

Agreed.

General Hobbs wrote:
Mad Doc is in for a surprise if he gets the job.

No, no I'm really not.

Worked for them before, albeit part time. Three Colours and Based is an accepted practice, and some whingers won't change that. As I said, if things are a work in progress, then fair enough as long as the progress is there.

studderingdave wrote:GW in Reading, PA, when i was really young.

i was going down to philly for the day, and decided to play at the GW in Reading. i had my orks with me, this was around 1996.

so me and my friend are playing, and a redshirt walks over to our table and asks "what are those" pointing to my obviously scratchbuilt battlewagons. i replied saying they are battlewagons. he then tells me i can't play with them because they arn't GW battlewagons. a lil confused, i asked him if GW makes battlewagons, he told me "thats not the point"

that was my intorduction to how GW stores were run.

hmm, sounds like that redshirt missed the memo.. As long as it wasn't a tonka toy, our GW stores were ok with scratchbuilds.. However, if you had some obvious tonka toy model with stuff glued on it, that was a nogo.. lol

Gobbla wrote:I used to travel to London a lot. I'm American. I would occasionally visit the GW store on Oxford St. They'd always have loud horrible music, and often loud kids. That' s OK. And the staff was nice enough, and helpful (I think)


. Problem was, between the noise and accents, I couldn't understand half of what was said. They could have been calling me every name in the book, I'd have never known. I had the same experience at the GW store on Victoria St. in Sydney.

I wish more countries spoke English.

Sounds to me like you wish more countries spoke American. Because no one in America speaks English..

jabbakahut wrote:
One time I was trying to get some information about the box SM battle force set (the one that's like 400 bucks with pretty much an entire company in it). But I could tell the guy didn't really care about answering my questions because he didn't think I could afford it. I just turned to someone else and asked them to get it down so I could buy it (don't know if they have commissions, but I didn't want that dick getting credit for selling it).

The one thing that was said to me that ensured I never came back; a redshirt was trying to get me to come by and play. I told him that I didn't want to show up in a mall and get my ass kicked by a 14 y/o who knows the game better than me. He laughed and said that wouldn't happen, oh yeah, and watch your cursing. Cursing? I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, then I realized he meant ass? Whatever.

No commissions for red shirts.. There was a time where your sales were tracked and you were negatively reinforced if you weren't selling enough core systems.. but usually it was store wide. if goal was met, all staff got the bonus.

As for you second response, Gw stores have young kids in and a no cursing policy is in effect. All he is doing is enforcing the rules as he has been asked to. Is it so hard to follow those rules? So, you can't say ass, did that really bother you so much?

You're forgetting how swearing makes you seem soooooo much harder.......


But are you allowed to say "Gak" in a GW store?

Konrad Carstein wrote:You're forgetting how swearing makes you seem soooooo much harder.......


But are you allowed to say "Gak" in a GW store?

We allowed 'proxy' swear words, so Gak, Frak, Fething, Frag, etc were ok..

Fethin' A!!

I've said ass kicking and they didn't bat an eyelid.

Please don't visit the Amsterdam store if you're uptight about language. No feths of course, but gak isn't beyond them.

Somehow or another I was talking to one of the local red shirts about our respective budgets and I said "the only thing I ever splurge on are models and my girlfriend." to which he replied "dude, that's gross." Granted it's not exactly "substitute cussing" but I found it amusing.

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Somehow or another I was talking to one of the local red shirts about our respective budgets and I said "the only thing I ever splurge on are models and my girlfriend." to which he replied "dude, that's gross." Granted it's not exactly "substitute cussing" but I found it amusing.

It's because he thinks it is bad for the imperium to tend to a women of the species.

You know Mad Doc Grotsnik, I've thought about this for a while. I really have. But you are just detracting from my Dakka experience. Your lack of intellect, your level of buy-in, and your mindless blah blah blah splortch is just painful. So you know what? I'm putting you out of my misery. That's right, you're getting the Iggy. I know, I know; it's an honor you've been wanting, because with your idiotic behavior you have certainly been requesting it. No more will you sleep restlessly knowing that I am trying to wash the stains of your moronic posts from my mind. No more. You have what you've asked for. Take care.

What is the iggy?

Putting someone on your ignore list.

Konrad Carstein wrote:
Fethin' A!!

I always encouraged our gamers to come up with unique army specific curses.. That way at least they were being original.. And it wouldn't offend the kiddies or mom or whomever..

asugradinwa wrote:

Roze wrote:

Osbad wrote:

asugradinwa wrote:

Roze wrote:"do you need a starter paint brush set since your buying fantasy?"

I wanted to punch his gimp face in....*rages once again*

Please don't call people gimps. I have cerebral palsey and take offence to it when people who do not have that or a simular disorder are called gimps. Call them Morons, lame brains, stupid, ugly, whatever. But please do not use the word Gimp.

Fair enough. Although I had never really understood "gimp" in this context. Personally my experience had been towards the lower end of the list of definitions on Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp

well my definition of gimp was a submissive person in full "Gimp" waer which is the marketed name for it. and i'm actually rather offended that you would assume i ment otherwise.

However, you did say that you "wanted to punch his gimp face in." In general when people use gimp to decribe a body part they are using it in reference to having some sort of physical disability. This might be a difference in culture, however I did take offence to it and all that I ask is that you don't use the word anymore.

Hormonal and being schooled on what i can and can't say EVEN after pointing out that your definition and mine are very different. Hmm i think i'll refrain from tell you what i think for fear of "offending" you.

Stop bringing the issue up about gimps!

It offended someone and I put a "ban" on saying it...

SO DON'T!

and how is there offence any more valid than my offence at them insinuateing i would say something so hurtful?

How is it that ever good thread ends up getting locked cause people can't stay on the subject at hand. (I.E. Nerd Hierarchy)

I can sympathise with the whole thing where GW guys think that they're a notch above the gamer.
Several times have I experienced irritation when I help someone with a rule, and some douche of a GW employee comes up, tells me I'm wrong, and when asked to qualify this replies, 'I'm a GW employee, which means I should know'.

It's like as someone said before, they feel they get to be 'King Geek', which puts them above the gamer.

I must admit it's scarily good fun to whip out a rulebook and prove them wrong though.

Here's a nice quote from the local Canterbury manager
,'See, the thing is with those people on Warseer..'
*I interrupt* 'Actually, I read DakkaDakka'
'Pfff. Whatever. Any of those crappy little gaming forums. You have all these older gamers who think they know everything, and most of the time, they're wrong. After all, if they were half as good at the hobby as they think they are, they'd work for GW'.

After this, I stumbled outside chuckling to myself, and realising that there was no worse fate I could wish upon that man, as he ALREADY works for GW!

That is classic gold.

two_heads_talking wrote:

jabbakahut wrote:The one thing that was said to me that ensured I never came back; a redshirt was trying to get me to come by and play. I told him that I didn't want to show up in a mall and get my ass kicked by a 14 y/o who knows the game better than me. He laughed and said that wouldn't happen, oh yeah, and watch your cursing. Cursing? I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, then I realized he meant ass? Whatever.

As for you second response, Gw stores have young kids in and a no cursing policy is in effect. All he is doing is enforcing the rules as he has been asked to. Is it so hard to follow those rules? So, you can't say ass, did that really bother you so much?

I don't like being edited in any way, yet I understand everybody has different values. I make sure not to drop feth and gak in front of people I don't know. But ass?

To be fair, I don't know their policy, is it posted at the stores? And if they have a list and 'ass' is on it, than I can see how it's my fault for not being aware of their policy-although now that you bring it up, I wonder if there is a legal stance on this. A GW store isn't a private place right? Only clubs in which you have to pay to participate like COSTCO are considered private places of business? I know this legal distinction effects many rules they're allowed to impose.

In either case, how is ass a curse word? One thing that blows my mind about a GW store is how they seem to cater to folks who don't have money. I personally don't really like kids (which is the real reason I don't frequent GW stores). I'm an adult, I enjoy being around adults who don't feel the need to run a PG organization. However in the end I agree with you, it's their rules, if I have a problem with them, don't go there.

jabbakahut wrote:
(snippity)
To be fair, I don't know their policy, is it posted at the stores? And if they have a list and 'ass' is on it, than I can see how it's my fault for not being aware of their policy-although now that you bring it up, I wonder if there is a legal stance on this. A GW store isn't a private place right? Only clubs in which you have to pay to participate like COSTCO are considered private places of business? I know this legal distinction effects many rules they're allowed to impose.

In either case, how is ass a curse word? One thing that blows my mind about a GW store is how they seem to cater to folks who don't have money. I personally don't really like kids (which is the real reason I don't frequent GW stores). I'm an adult, I enjoy being around adults who don't feel the need to run a PG organization. However in the end I agree with you, it's their rules, if I have a problem with them, don't go there.

It's not posted and that's why the staff member asked you to 'watch the profanity...' In other words, he's just asking you to refrain from using those while in the store. Of course, as you say, if it does really bother you, you can refuse to go there.

as for curse words/profanity, here's a good link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity (as you can see, profanity isn't just the 7 dirty words, but can be any form of taboo words that refer to race, creed, religion etc.. As a result, "profane" and "profanity" has therefore come to describe a word, expression, gesture, or other social behavior which is socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude and vulgar or desecrating or showing disrespect.

and here's a good list and yes ass/arse is on there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categoryrofanity

here's the 7 dirty words.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

Look, I'm not here preaching about what is right and wrong word usage, although I hope I answered your questions, even if you still disagree with the answers. I'm merely pointing out that if you go to a friends house and pull out a cigarette to smoke and he asks you not to light up in the house, do you tell him to 'eat one?' or do you rather, go outside, light up and come back in when you are done? that's all GW is asking, just to not 'light up' your language while in the store.. It's not so tough really..

I love how this has just turned into a "fight amongst yourselves" thread.

jackinthetank wrote:I love how this has just turned into a "fight amongst yourselves" thread.

Such is the way of the internets.

Well said.

BrookM wrote:

jackinthetank wrote:I love how this has just turned into a "fight amongst yourselves" thread.

Such is the way of the internets.

jackinthetank wrote:Well said.

Wow, people love to complain about anything for sure. A thread concerning GW store incidents, with points and counter-points, in which two of the parties contributed their opinions in a very rational non-accusatory manner, and yet people still have to find some sort of selfish flame war in it. And the irony is that your statements really have nothing to do with the thread, and now like an idiot I've been pulled in.

The thread is somewhat pigeonholing GW to begin with. It insinuates that there is going to be something annoying to everybody about a GW store employee. I'm glad to see some people have reported that they haven't had any encounters. I'm wondering if there would be different reply's if you included'; What's the most annoying thing any local game store worker has ever said to you?" Which asks the better question, given a choice between the two, which do you prefer?

And yet despite all of this, we still sink hundreds of dollars in the company

dameanone said:
And yet despite all of this, we still sink hundreds of dollars in the company

Yeh, well, despite regularly having incompetent jobsworths for employees, the product is fun, and brings people together

I remember writing a letter to WD, at the age of about 13 no less, basically asking why my IG had flashlights for guns, crepe paper for flak armour, and why the one thing in their army that could withstand any amount of fire - the LRBT - would get destroyed by a shokk attack gun in the first turn every time I played against my friend. Admittedly I was naive to expect them to print it in WD, but their reply could have been a little bit more polite - basically criticising my gaming skills and writing ability and basically asking me to write more 'complemetary' letters in future. Needless to say, once my mum read the reply she promptly wrote to complain! - Never got a reply to that

After that though, I stuck to citadel journal (RIP) and decided to play GW games that required less financial input - Necro, BB, WHQ etc etc

GW employees can be utter c**ts sometimes

It wasn't to me, but a child once asked a guy in GW Belfast how he should paint his troll, to which the staffer replied "Whatever way you want, you don't live in China!"

Hilarious as that is, the guy was a jerk. He got sacked. Not for that, but sacked nonetheless.

The staff there now are fantastic to be honest, and I have no problem not swearing if there are children in the store, or even players I don't know well enough to tell if they'd be offended. Models have to be undercoated to be used, but if you just glued it together, or have an acceptable reason you can usually use them once just as it is (such as an early morning game that has to be over by lunch)

The atmosphere is great, and, since I don't work Mondays or Tuesdays I usually spend most of the day sitting in the store either painting or playing, I just always assumed the majority of stores were of similar quality, though from what some of you are saying perhaps I was wrong.

grizgrin wrote:You know Mad Doc Grotsnik, I've thought about this for a while. I really have. But you are just detracting from my Dakka experience. Your lack of intellect, your level of buy-in, and your mindless blah blah blah splortch is just painful. So you know what? I'm putting you out of my misery. That's right, you're getting the Iggy. I know, I know; it's an honor you've been wanting, because with your idiotic behavior you have certainly been requesting it. No more will you sleep restlessly knowing that I am trying to wash the stains of your moronic posts from my mind. No more. You have what you've asked for. Take care.

Pwnd

Seriously, has it really come to that point?

Can't say I especially care to be honest. Just a shame he felt it necessary to make such a song and dance about it.

Do you get Dakka points for throwing the toys from the pram?

Why is it that when you roll in and have a couple boxes to purchase and they throw out that question. Did you find everything, ok? or You need any paint or brushes?

I know they are trying to be helpful, but if I wanted or needed that stuff more than likely it would be in my pile of items to be purchased.

Trying to force items on customers is just bad business and usually backfires on GW long term.

BUT

We do get laughs from posts like this.

Again, not really.

Glue and Brushes are things relatively easily forgotten when out shopping, and for Mums and Dads it's a good add on sale, as the kid will make use of them sooner or later.

But of course. I am wrong from understanding certain things in a certain way. This much has been established.

So how exactly does it backfire on GW long term? Please explain such statements.

Old Man Ultramarine wrote:Why is it that when you roll in and have a couple boxes to purchase and they throw out that question. Did you find everything, ok? or You need any paint or brushes?

I know they are trying to be helpful, but if I wanted or needed that stuff more than likely it would be in my pile of items to be purchased.

Trying to force items on customers is just bad business and usually backfires on GW long term.

BUT

We do get laughs from posts like this.

So let me get this straight? You've never forgotten something in your life?
Heaven forbid the guy does his job right and suggest something you may need to go with what your buying. The number of times I've forgotten to get glue, or paint, or brushes when needing them and reminded makes me glad that the staffers usually remember to ask- and the number of times i've heard it asked and has resulted in someone needing something that they would otherwise have forgotten makes me feel its well worthwhile for the staffers to ask.

Old Man Ultramarine wrote: Did you find everything, ok? or You need any paint or brushes?

as annoying as it seems being consistantly asked it sometimes does remind you that you ran out of black two nights ago and need more... ow you got realy annoyed and stabbed some child in the eye with your paintbrush and consiquently need another as to get rid of the evedence quickly.

Well if you read and catch on to the general vibe it's like this.

Just what do you expect when me, the customer for example, who wanders around the store for say 30 minutes slowly accumilating (sp) a handful of items I want to purchase. Having seen everything in the spralling mega store and I'm ready to check out. Only to hear "you need some more stuff?" WTF! If I needed it, I'd have it on the counter. Being an adult of age 38, I can function in society and get what I need on my own.

then

Say I wanted to crack a blister and quickly try a new unit/figure on the "holier than holy" GW tables. Ahhh, since my just purchased item isn't painted I'm told "no, no, no painted figs only" Once again, WTF?

At some point I say "See ya, wouldn't want to be ya".

Capeesh?

Longterm prognosis......You irked me enough to chase me away for good. I will play at home or at store that welcomes gamers of all kinds and conditions of armies. I will spend my money online on ebay or some site that features a hot discount of 20+%. Make sense?

Now granted I responded here in a horse's ass sort of way, but that is the mind set of some of the peeps.

If you haven't caught on, yet. You are beyond help.

So basically your entire problem stems from the staff doing what they are paid to do?

Wow. They really are idiots aren't they!

It's a polite question. It is not, as you put it, forcing a sale. It is asking if you need Glues or Brushes. Simple yes or no answer really. If you don't, say so. If you do, say so.

And to be perfectly honest, given your attitude, would I really want you in the store? Would anyone?

Now, buying something there and then for game, more than likely cool to play with it straight away. But if not, it's their store, not yours. It could be the manager or area manager enforcing the fully painted rule, but you feel free to take it out on the minimum wage mook, after all you are so clearly and evidentally superior, it's only right and good you put the vile little urchin in his place. And why not cut a switch to beat some manners and humility into the uppity little oik.

You say you are 38. Really doesn't seem it.

Bignutter wrote:

Old Man Ultramarine wrote:Why is it that when you roll in and have a couple boxes to purchase and they throw out that question. Did you find everything, ok? or You need any paint or brushes?

I know they are trying to be helpful, but if I wanted or needed that stuff more than likely it would be in my pile of items to be purchased.

Trying to force items on customers is just bad business and usually backfires on GW long term.

BUT

We do get laughs from posts like this.

So let me get this straight? You've never forgotten something in your life?
Heaven forbid the guy does his job right and suggest something you may need to go with what your buying. The number of times I've forgotten to get glue, or paint, or brushes when needing them and reminded makes me glad that the staffers usually remember to ask- and the number of times i've heard it asked and has resulted in someone needing something that they would otherwise have forgotten makes me feel its well worthwhile for the staffers to ask.

C'mon, man.

You go to hobby store with an idea of what you might be needing. You waltz in store and completely go blank? Maybe scribbling it down would be good idea.

Yes, I know they are doing their job, but pouncng on everyone like they are your next meal is extreme.

(My story above is just an opinion. Not my natural reaction, but it could be if pressed. )