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.

Just a quckie that really annoys me...

How does everybody find their local GW staffers. Some are great, no doubts, but more and more I find them far too over friendly/pushy. it's really putting me off of ever stepping foot in their shops. Below is my most recent experience;

Redshirt; Hi, what do you play etc.
Me; Eldar etc *Starts browsing*
RS; We have loads of great kits etc.
Me; I'm just looking, thanks. *returns to browsing*
2 mins later, A different RS; So, Eldar. Did you know... etc
Me; Thanks, but i'm just looking.
RS; Have you seen the new fortress of... etc.
Me; Yes, but i'm looking for Eldar thanks.
2 mins later, original RS; Just ask us if you need any help. By the way, do you mind if I keep checking back on you every five minutes or so!?!
Me; Yeah, I do, thanks! *Exit's shop*

As a thirty year old, I do not need this kind of babysitting! I have money, I will buy if i'm left to my own devices! Gah! I've seen the future and it's online...

mine plays out where i stop responding open my mouth real wide like i just fell asleep and pretend to daydream during their shopping speech...but everyonce in a while i'll ask for advice

The last time I went to a GW store all I had from the staff there was a few questions as to what I collected and if I needed any advice on what to get. I politely said no and we then just had a chat about 40k in general...

Wow they must have started hiring radioshack and hh gregg degenerates. I know if i ever set foot in any two of those stores mine end up like the OPs story. I surely hope for everyones sanity who shop at GW stores they havent gone commission based salary otherwise i dont see any hope for that going away.

See, this is a prime opportunity to simply mess with their heads.

Redshirt: Hi! We've got some really nice kits! Can I interest you in a shiny IG Valkrie? (while you're looking at Empire Cannons)

Customer: (acting like a complete gaming slow-o with the most annoying voice you can conjure convincingly) No thangsth, I like Spathe Mareenth, do you like spathe mareenth? I've got one with a lath cannon, one with a plathma gun, one with a power thord, and thome tankth. One time I wasth playing a game with my freindth and we had thome spathe mareenth fighting thome Spathe Elfsth. Then we had thith other battle......yaddayaddayaddayaddayadda.....

Eventually, during your tirade the redshirt will excuse himself to go do some "work". We all know its actually to conserve his sanity due to a social gaming reject bombarding him with stupidity in his store.

Later after you choose the Empire addition to your army that you were looking for, you make sure you get the same redshirt at checkout.

He gives you the obligatory "thanx for shopping here" that any good employee would, curt, short, and hoping you'll leave soon.

Redshirt: "I hope you found everything you needed, dont forget that Thunderwolf Cavalry is coming out next week."

You: "Thank you sir, I wouldnt be interested as I only play Fantasy. However, I do sincerely appreciate you're letting me peruse your fine establishment, good day to you."

Watch jaw drop, walk out, triumphant.

I like Deadshane1's plan

Red Shirts near my store have been improving abit when it comes to promoting stuff.

They have completely stopped asking if i want to buy the <insert random new product>

and move onto asking me when am i going to finish painting my army so i can play at the bunker.

Ohh DeadShane.. this might be a better tactic...
Enter a GW you dont regularly use, when/if the redshirt starts with the "HardSell" say wow cool, what else would I need with that? Procced to let the Redshirt stack you up with all the box sets and starter kits (picking an army that has lots and lots of blisterpacks would be particulalry annoying) and paints and glue till the checkout counter is overflowing with with stuff.. let him ring it all up and when he tells you the final price, look in your wallet (using your best acting abillity) go "OMG I left my Credit Card in the other store!" say you will be back in a bit.. and leave....
go back a week or two later.. see if there is a diffrent redshirt working.. do it agin...
Keep doing this until you are asked to not return or you get tired of it...

As a former Redshirt.. this would have cheesed me off. Having to reshelve all that stock would be a pain in the hynnie. But then agin I dont think I was one of those Ubar Hard Sell kind of guys.

I prefer Nicorex's plan.
Althought DeadShanes plan is good also

Thats a pretty sweet plan, but it would probably be MORE awesome if you just told him, flat out, that you forgot you hate the army you both just picked out, and would like to purchase a large quantity of another army... after he gets all those boxes, repeat.

I popped into my local GW to pick up some LOTR stuff for a friend. Unfortunately it was pretty quiet so I drew the attention of the staffers. The new girl reached me first, asking me the usual lead-in questions:

Her: Hello, how are you? What are you after today? Is it for you? What do you play?

Me: Nothing for me today, thanks. Just picking this up for a friend.

Her: Oh, go on - get something for yourself too.

Me: Actually, it's not payday yet, so I can't really treat myself (this usually works).

Her: Oh, OK.

.....

Her: Go on - treat yourself.

She kept this up all the way to the till. I was half-expecting her to follow me back to work.

My working theory is now this: treat a bunch of GW employees as you would a bunch of terrorists - always assume any female in the ranks is, by default, the biggest threat there.

It's basically the reason why I never go to GWS anymore. They're just so freaking annoying. At the GWS back in Calgary, there are 2 redshirts who are fine, do their job like you'd expect, while being helpful with advice when you ask. The rest are all annoying witches who can't shut their faces for five seconds to let you get what you want on your own.

No, I don't care about the fething Space Marine release. The models I've been picking off the shelf are clearly Eldar, someone with your interest should be able to extrapolate from there.

No, I don't care about how nice the space marines are. The fact that I'm at the cashier's desk with a box of Nobz and Snikrot should stand testament to the fact that I'm not looking for fething Space Marines.

I'd never buy my GKs from GW, because they'd probably think they'd have a legitamite cause to advertise those fething Space Marines. Or the Imperial Guard.

"Yea, thatth cool, but then there wasth this time I fought a carnifexth with my terminaterth...it wasth tho cool. Do you have a Land Raider? I've got a predator with Lath Cannonth, I like to shoot thingth with it. Then there wath this time......"

I went into one last week after years.

A young guy came up to me (I had earphones in) and said something. I popped one out "Excuse me?", he looked at me strangely and said "How are you?", "I'm good thanks, mate." he said no more so I popped the earphone back in. He then left me alone...cool story I know.

I have no problem about saying to someone stop pressuring me. You have to say "I'm browsing", with conviction with out being rude.

I hope all of your posts from now on are going to be in that accent, Deadshane!

Here's how I counter it.

GW Employee: 'Hey there, have you seen our latest product X?'
Me: 'You must get so bored having to say that over and over again to all the customers'.
GW Employee:'Yeah, tell em about it. I swear, I dream about saying it these days'.
Me: 'That bad huh? You got long left on your shift?'
GW Employee: 'Rest of the day unfortunately.../Only an hour or so!'
Me: *begins generic natter about anything from weather to models*

People don't usually enjoy working, if you show a bit of sympathy to them, they usually cut out all the sales claptrap to talk about themselves. Which usually takes half the time, and means you all get along a lot better, as its more like a real conversation.

Remember, they don't WANT to talk about the new stompa for hours on end, they're told to by their bosses.

Has anyone tried simple honesty?

I mean once your expended the basic "I'm just browsing" statement....if they carry on, simply tell them that you'll buy if you see something you want, and the endless harrassment will only serve to drive you out of the shop.

I got exactly the same treatment at Warhammer World months ago, and the honest approach not only worked for that single salesman, he then passed it on to the others....BINGO

As a former redshirt I hate to say that this is all part of the training they give you at GW. Their is a set of ten rules on a card you must memorize, and apply with everycustomer. Such as once they enter you have 15 seconds to personally greet them otherwise you can get in a ton of trouble. Then you basically have to become the customers friend, and "guide" them through their selection. Often you must remind them of the bits catalogue, and glue/white dwarfs, etc. .. This is all part of their sales style so saidly I agree as it is much like a used car salesmen, but supposedly it works well. If you don't do this and a secret shopper catches you it can be grounds for firing.

Never go into GW unless I am going to buy something OR take a look at a new miniature. If it's the latter, I have a quick chat about it, when it's released and so forth, before continuing on my merry way.

At the end of the day, they are paid to sell things. Paying somebody to sit on their arse and paint miniatures all day, whilst ignoring anybody who comes into the store is not good business practice.

Deadshane1 wrote:Redshirt: "I hope you found everything you needed, dont forget that Thunderwolf Cavalry is coming out next week."

You: ::jumping over counter and tearing at his Great Steak-stained collars:: YOU GIVE THEM TO ME RIGHT NOW! DO YOU HEAR ME?! RIIIIIIIGHT FFFFFETHIN NOOOOW!"

Fixed.

Frankly I prefer the redshirts over the d-bags at some unFLGS's who never look up from scrolling through emocore on their iPods. Or the d-bags at a hobby shop who can't understand why you'd want to paint little men rather than work on RC cars. Maybe I just had a good GW--it was in Auburn Hills, MI--and poor FLGS here in my part of Virginia.

Is it any wonder redshirts are the first to die in Star Trek?

Maybe we should look at it from the redshirts side:

Do you think they get tired of talking to mouth breathers?
Do you think that it is a retail location, so maybe their job is to sell?
Do you think they like to hear all the lame paint schemes and army ideas?
Do you think(god forbid) they might like their job and they are excited?
Do you they might want to talk about the hobby?

Maybe they do not know who you are and are trying to learn more about you. I have been around tons of great Readshirts and have never had any problems. There are so bad ones, but they have of thankless job that makes them talk to that wierd guy(that no one talks to) that comes into a GW or FLGS. Maybe next time you can strike up a conversion with him and tell him that you have been around the hobby for years or that you stay on top of the new releases.

Cheers

Spacemanvic wrote:Is it any wonder redshirts are the first to die in Star Trek?

LOL


GG

The blueshirts (their uniform has changed here apparently ), I get on well enough. Though, the new manager at the local store annoys the heck out of me. He's nuts for that whole sales patter thing.

And I'm really not surprised that '15 seconds' thing is an actual written rule. The first time I saw that manager, he was talking to a kid who was listening in rapt attention to him. I walked in after work and I swear, I could see the door slam in that kids face after the guy ran up to me.

But yeah, I really don't like this new manager and try to fob him off whenever possible. Today, I took a slight guilty pleasure in this.

Manager runs up to me: *salespatter* "What are you looking for?"
Me: "Just some paints." *tries to wander off*

Me to normal staffmember: "Yeah, I'd like to get that mega paint set."

- When the lids of your paint pots start crumbling off, it's a good time to get new paints.

In any case, in my experience, normal staff, cool. Managers... *shudder*

The odd exception applies.

Manchu wrote:Frankly I prefer the redshirts over the d-bags at some unFLGS's who never look up from scrolling through emocore on their iPods. Or the d-bags at a hobby shop who can't understand why you'd want to paint little men rather than work on RC cars. Maybe I just had a good GW--it was in Auburn Hills, MI--and poor FLGS here in my part of Virginia.

I used to go in one game shop where the staff were useless and uncommunicative. They were the only place that stocked things like Ral Partha, Mongoose, Reaper and various other independent miniature lines which was the only attraction to going in. They'd always be playing Magic the fething Gathering in the corner of the room blocking off access to the miniatures and they'd pull a right face if you asked if you could actually get to their stock. Sometimes they'd hardly move their seats let alone pause their game for a bit and you'd be left having to squeeze beside them still unable to see half the stuff. Then they'd drag their heels over actually serving you at the till. Jeeze it just wasn't worth the hassle of being made to feel like an inconvenience for going to their shop to peruse their stock so I stopped going. I used to really like going but there was a change of staff or management or something in the last few years. It's still going though, so some people spend money there.

@Howard: That's very familiar. That's why I didn't mind the redshirt who at least tried to memorize my name and armies (although unsuccessfully since I didn't come in every week) and would enthusiastically, not just patiently, explain 40k to younger folks who were pretty obviously putting him on. Seemed a good sort to me but that's just my experience.

Weird ive had over a dozen hobby shops (daddy was military by way of explanation) and not one was ever bad. then again all of them were operated by the owner, and not hired staff.
on topic: ive always treated red shirts just like i treat Jahova withnesses. with kindness, (cause if i dont, i feel like i just kicked a puppy...... thru the goal posts, ..... onto a highway..... at rush hour....... (which some one will do in around 30 seconds from the time i say goodbye))) because i never get it out of my head that they wont be killed by the end of act one. poor bastages....

I used to shop at the local GW, but the pushiness has just made it a bad experience to shop there. I buy most of my stuff on-line now, more relaxed and far cheaper.

The FLGS I go to back in Calgary are pretty nice. The one I used to go to while they still had 40k and other GW junk (they simply don't have enough people in the neighbourhood anymore to facilitate having large GW stock anymore) had some really friendly staff who were great to talk to and fun to play against.

And even though I've only been to Sentrybox once, the guys there seem pretty cool (although they were kind of busy when I was last there).

Honestly im wouldnt get mad at them. They are just doing there job. They have to sell some things in there stores that are cluddering up. Are we know starting to get mad at people for doing there job? Oh wait i forgot about telemarketers.