Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well having read the other thread in discussions about some less than satisfactory experiences with GW staff- and since I never hear anything positive....

does anyone actually have any nice stories about staff at a GW store they've been at?
I could tell a bunch about guys i've worked with-
From the cups of tea, to the replacing models to the handing out bits from their "personal stash"
but instead i'll stick to one from my time as a normal customer-

Basically the staff member in question swapped out a regiment from a battleforce to save me money (more night goblins!) and then helped me assemble all of them in time for a tournement that afternoon. He invited me back to come up with a colour scheme and come up with a way to paint tons of night goblins quite well in a very short space of time.

It was nice because they guy had been curteous thoughout- he hadn't been patronising (I was treated as the 20 something professional I was) hadn't been pushy about the sales (even when there was the obvious windows of oppurtunity) hadn't sounded like a used car sales man (oh go on, just for you i'll do this deal..... yeah none of that) And then the time spent helping out actually went into his lunch break- Which was nice because at the time I had the painting and assembling skills of a blind armless five year old..... (luckily this was the kick up the bum my painting needed to get me going places- much to the delight of anyone i've taught to paint in the past couple of years)

So come on what nice stories do people have?

A happy customer tells one friend, an unhappy customer tells all his friends.

Something like that.

Im sure there are plenty of nice GW staffers. they are regular people after all. Its like any other store, Im sure a few grumps get hired, but there have to be some nice ones.

I used to run my HC like a clubhouse. This was a few years ago back in the dark days of the 'firebomb the independants' mode of thinking.

Got sick of listening to the same CD's so we'd play the local radio station and everyone came to hang out and paint and play.

Also layed off the customers, just greeted them at the door, and if they were new offered a demo; but other than that we did not do the 'hound'em when they hit the threshold' mentality that I totally hated when I was a customer.

Worked well, and since we were a new store we didn't have to hit daily numbers, but consistently beat out the other stores weekly totals.

The manager of one of the GW stores I visited in London was really nice when I went in 2003. I went the week before the Defiler was out there, mentioned I was leaving the morning of their vet night(when they can sell models coming out that week early), so he called his district manager, snuck one out and sold it to me as long as I told no one in the store(I also picked up the EoT Codex, some Horrors, and some other stuff for a LatD army).

I recently took a trip for a family wedding and actually got the opportunity to visit my First GW store. It was actually a pleasant experience. Though of course it was during the day on a weekday so that probably lent itself to the fact I was the only customer in the store. The two clerks were pretty standard as far as retail clerks and clearly enthusiastic about thier job without seeming over the top. I did enjoy seeing the life sized Space Marine in the window as well.

The staff at my local GW store are great to sit at the paint table and talk to (I usually go there to paint weekdays when there are few customers).

Always willing to look at my new stuff, show off their projects.

Generates a great atmosphere.

When I was living in the UK I ordered 90 praetorians through the store via mailorder. Mailorder sent through only 2 models (stand and aim and kneel and aim) instead of the full range I wanted. So the manager re-ordered my original order, got on the phone to make sure it would be right and 3 days later I got 90 free praetorians.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Mailorder sent through only 2 models (stand and aim and kneel and aim) instead of the full range I wanted.

You wouldn't happen to still have any of these on hand still you'd be willing to let go? I'm crazy for the 2 aiming poses for Praetorians and I need 20-30 to finish the first platoon(in dress uniform) of my Mechanized Guard.

I spent pretty much every Saturday from the ages of 11-16 in GW Harrogate, plus many, many evenings, and most of the staff were great. There were odd ones who weren't so great, but they quickly left. I learnt to play, paint and convert from those guys and had many fun times. I'd stay all day with a couple of mates and just hang around, they let us use their paints, glue and equipment and bought us drinks if we ran to the shop for them. It was my second home in that time. They moved the shop, those guys left and I stopped playing (read: discovered girls and booze), but I still look back very fondly on those times.

Bignutter wrote:Nice staff

That's what she said

never had any problems with the staff down at my local gw - bournemouth

Watford's fine. Of course if it was run by swedish milk maids it would be better, but there you go.

Went to university (briefly) in Canterbury and feel obliged to mention the staff there. All older guys, but with feet firmly in reality. Was nice to hear the managers opinions on GW bigwigs too, and give us a top ten of the worst people in the company. Commendable honesty.

i never had any problem with any of the staff at my local store. theyre all really nice guys. the manager in particular goes out of his way to help people.

its only the other customers that i take exception to.

GW Oak Park got me into Fantasy.

The guys at GW Orland are all good peoples.

Since this thread is here, a special thanks to Barry (now at the Chicago Bunker). I had ordered some Forgeworld parts back in early July, to put on models that I'm planning to take to the Chicago GT. As of September 10th, they're still not here. I had talked to various other people at the bunker, with no results. But, when I mentioned this to Barry, who had previously worked in Orland, he got on the phone, called all the other US bunkers, found what I needed and had it there in two days.

The Chicago Battle Bunker is great. The staff and the environment that they create are the reasons that I purchase from their store and drive an extra 10 miles to game there.

I've found that if there is a store with staff you like you'll make the extra effort to go there.

Like groz I have a slightly different journey- 2 miles to my local store (15 mins bus ride) or 15 miles the other way (with 1.5 hours bus rides) to get to the store i prefer...which i now work at too

GW's closest store is a good 7-hour drive from me, and I don't think that they'll ever open a store in Florida. There's too much other stuff to do for the general public.

I visited Miami once. It seemed a pretty big place. Tourists are going to go to a GW store but if the native population contains enough 12-24 year old boys (plus vets) it could support a store. Wikipedia says Miami has a population of over 400,000. Is that considered big in the USA?

Having co-owned a store in miami, and set up 2 others, it cant support a GW store. The question is beach or toy soilders, and beach always wins.

And when he says beach, he means "all the boobies at the beach."

I've gone to the Richmond, VA store a twice when visiting the in-laws. Both times the manager was very helpful and not on a sell-at-all-cost bent. It seemed like a great store, and there were a good amount of experienced players there. This was only two brief visits, so I could be wrong, but I was impressed.

There are no GW stores in my state.

My first visit to a GW store was the Glen Burnie store back in '01, was visiting Maryland. After the way we got treated, I would have packed it in out of shear spite except that my FLGS back home was the best store I'd ever been in, and I don't mind doing my part to help the owner squirel away nuts for his kids college education.

Yeah, i live in Maryland and go to the bunker, and i feel that about 3/4 of the staff are nice and friendly, while the other quarter are a little unsocial.
lots of times i go in there and the other nicer guys are out jokin with the other store patrons or doing something else constructive in the gaming area, and i find the unsocial types behind the counter, painting and huddled around their friends at the paint counter and they always seem pissed when i ask if they could ring up something for me to buy.

another gripe about the glen burnie bunker is that there are other patrons there who sit and paint at the painting tables and play a game every other blue moon, and when they do they act like they are a king who just had to step down from their throne to fight us underlings (even though they usually get beat to gak-town and back by everyone else). Plus they always question the rules and look up every rule to make sure, which is annoying.

A cool thing though is that since there are offices in the back, a lot of the higher ups and stuff come out and look around and ask whats up, and they always act impressed by what you're doing, which makes you feel cool. Dave Taylor frequently comes by, and i've shown him a couple projects ive done and he always is cool with his response and tips. (BTW its cool to look at his projects, like his 33rd grenswick IG, or his entire space marine company, or his FW imperial gaurd jump troops, or his tyranids, or his other 50 odd projects)
overall i feel that the bunker is chill and i like the majority cool red shirts.

yeah im from Maryland too, I only go up to the bunker for forgeworld stuff cause its a good extra 30 min to get there from my normal store (the Annapolis store in Jennifer Square) I have mixed feelings about the bunker, I have had some great help and some not so great help. The guys at the Annapolis store are some of the most helpful guys ever and are always willing to help out and toss ideas around and generally be helpful as possible.

@Ghost in the Darkness - I agree. (Ian is awesome, I cant help but laugh at all the stuff he says) All the guys at the annapolis store are helpful, but i frequent the bunker more cuz its got more older guys there, rather then the but loads of kids who go there.

P.S. Horse Hair C

After reading some of the successive posts here, I realized I had been unfair to the Glen Burnie store and needed to add a little more to get a better representation out there.
My experience in '01 was abysmal. I left there wanting to do horrible things to the manager with my walker.
Went back in '03. Different crew, different management. Whole place had a diferent feel. Pretty much every staffer I intereacted with was cool. Sanchez was a pretty good fella. Got to meet Dirty Steve. I'm sure some of the big names were around, but I don't know them on sight. Most of the people I met were good to go. There were some feth tards, but you get those im most any gaming store and GB had a lo ratio of them.

Northern VA area myself, been to Springfield, Potomac Mills, Glen Burnie all multiple times, and only time I've had a bad experiance it's been some gamer, not the store staff. Part of it might be that I've been around for so long that most of the older staff know me and the newer staff find out real quick............ Still, I mostly play at and support a couple of the FLGS in the area (Game Parlors in Woodbridge, VA and Chantilly, VA) as they are the "home" stores for our club.

And anyone in the Northern VA/Southern MD area, check us out at www.ironfistleague.com. We're always looking for fresh meat................. errrrrr, new opponents.

GW Franklin Mills, PA - 4 out of 5 stars. (Helpful staff that isn't pushy, but will revert to a sales pitch if just trying to chat. Somewhat sociable. Store is always packed with game play.)

GW Annapolis, MD - 5 out of 5 stars. (Very helpful staff, very friendly and sociable. Decent amount of game play during my visit.)

GW Battle Bunker, Baltimore MD - 3 out of 5 stars. (Staff was friendly and willing to help, but seemed rather timid. Seems like it would be peeks and valley's for game play, but I only made one visit and it may have been an off day.)

My overall impression of GW stores I've visited is very positive.

Kiril (“The Mad Russian”) who managed the GW Liberty Tree Mall store in Massachusetts until it finally closed was a fantastic guy. Super friendly and helpful, and ran fun events.

Pretty much the whole crew who worked at the Harvard Square store were great guys too. They were always polite, friendly, and respectful. They came to know me by name, even though I only came into Boston occasionally (I live in NH). They even let me use store armies to play with on a couple of occasions when I was in town for business or something and had neglected to bring my own figs. The only Nemesis Crown action I got in was thanks to them letting me use store figs.