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KingCracker wrote:Back when I played Chaos, I had a VERY fluffy army I called the Hammerites. Every single Aspiring champ had a thunder hammer as per the fluff and it was also infantry based that used alot of havocs. Anywho, I went into a GW shop for once......and the manager asked me what I play and was interested in. I was thinking about buying a commander mini or some type of command squad to converting into my own command squad, and I tell him about how my army is more of a radical SM chapter then actually Chaos as they completely despise Chaos. Immediately he says, "well Plague marines are pretty tough!" and grabs a box, expecting me to pay for it.

I just turned around and left.

I dont get it >.<

I said my army was very fluffy and hated Chaos. So he offers me Plague marines.................... in one ear and out the other

All the guys at Manchester store are great, friendly and enthusiastic. They can be a bit pushy at times, but they do take note when you politely decline.
Never really spoken to the manager, but seen him / heard him talking with other people and he seems like a nice guy, of course he wants to make his bonus, but seems to appreciate that you get better customer loyalty by being friendly and welcoming.

Ah sorry i couldnt focus >.<
i thought havoc were Chaos version of devastators?

At least it was for the same army...

Only by the manager.
But god damn it, that guy is pushy. If he was a travelling salesman, he could sell a washing mashine and a dryer to a nudist family. He doesn't to subliminal or liminal, only SUPERLIMINAL, in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME.
It was funny the first two or three times, but then it got annoying.

It wasn't me, but a friend wanted to start a Vampire Counts army. He went in and asked and what he should buy first, asking if a box of Skeletons and a Vampire would be a sensible idea. But the Employee said a better way to start an army would be 'An Unstoppable' two boxes of blood knights. 'Nuff Said.

Well i have been lucky, my GW eagerly shows me all the new stuff whenever i visit, but they know i am an Ork 40K and Chaos Space Marines collector and i have never been pressured to buy anything, although they showed me the Stompa kit as they knew i would be interested in it and bought it on the spot.

I did this also with a Baneblade they said it would look good in my Chaos Army, i thought yeah why not and again i bought it on the spot.

But i have also walked into some GW stores and have been left alone.

So i gotta say i have only good experiences.

Hmmm , next time pay attention to this.

Do they have a name tag or not.

I bet you 90% of the really stupid bad sales staff are the ones without name tag.

SilverMK2 wrote:At least it was for the same army...

thats true. A buddy of mine told me once he was talking to a GW employee and telling him about his nids. He only played nids and just kicked ass with nids, the dude LIVES for nids. So the manager starts telling him how much better IG are and started to plop IG boxes on him




Automatically Appended Next Post:

LunaHound wrote:Ah sorry i couldnt focus >.<
i thought havoc were Chaos version of devastators?

I guess I should of been more specific. I played Codex Chaos Space Marines, but I ONLY used the Space Marines to fill my army, they were basically just radical Space Marines and they hated all types of Chaos. Which I told the guy, who then offered plague marines

I was in GW in Dublin last monday, I was one of the first people in the store so I was being watched by every staff member, all waiting for a chance to sell me something. One of them cornered me at the books, sold me a night lords book, pretty darn good book, he also told me all about the finecast, his manager was behind him,watching, so I played along like the sterotypical customer, untill he started getting cocky and tried to push a trio of ravagers even though I said I already had 1 and I wanted a cronos so I wont be able to play the other 2, I also said that I didnt want to fill my last heavy support choice before the razorwing comes out. But he kept pushing the ravagers saying how uber beast 9 dark lances are.
So i left, went too my FLGs and got a crap load of DE stuff cheap from nice people

KingCracker wrote:I guess I should of been more specific. I played Codex Chaos Space Marines, but I ONLY used the Space Marines to fill my army, they were basically just radical Space Marines and they hated all types of Chaos. Which I told the guy, who then offered plague marines

Ha, same with me. Used to play omega marines but with the white and black on different sides too show how evil they were, anyway, was explaining my fluff too a mate who I introduced too the game (He was playing space marines aswell, and I didnt want the same 2 armies too be his first battle, so i remodeled mine to be chaos and used the choas codex)
and a blueshirt come over and said how much better my list would do with Calgar and the honour triplets,
I told him, 'ehh their not ultramarines, or even loyal marines, their chaos'
He said 'You should defo get him man, slap him in a land raider, boost up and let him rip'
I said 'yeah but their not ultramarines'
he said, you can paint him any colour you like and count him as calgar, awesome!' as he proceeded to try and get a high five from my mate.
He was soooooo close to quitting the hobby their and then, but my soundeffects, home rules and in game fluff made him change his mind, he ended up with an immobilized dread, his captain and 4 men, I had 1 unit of raptors I forgot about for the entire game, good times

Toastedandy wrote:I was in GW in Dublin last monday, I was one of the first people in the store so I was being watched by every staff member, all waiting for a chance to sell me something. One of them cornered me at the books, sold me a night lords book, pretty darn good book, he also told me all about the finecast, his manager was behind him,watching, so I played along like the sterotypical customer, untill he started getting cocky and tried to push a trio of ravagers even though I said I already had 1 and I wanted a cronos so I wont be able to play the other 2, I also said that I didnt want to fill my last heavy support choice before the razorwing comes out. But he kept pushing the ravagers saying how uber beast 9 dark lances are.
So i left, went too my FLGs and got a crap load of DE stuff cheap from nice people

I have spotted this Vulture behaviour from managers before, not in any GW store but other stores, Vulture Behaviour is when a shop assistant approaches you to help you but they themselves are shadowed by the Manager who is putting a lot of pressure on his staff to sell you something, i have told several managers to bugger off and gives his staffer a break.

Achaylus72 wrote:

Toastedandy wrote:I was in GW in Dublin last monday, I was one of the first people in the store so I was being watched by every staff member, all waiting for a chance to sell me something. One of them cornered me at the books, sold me a night lords book, pretty darn good book, he also told me all about the finecast, his manager was behind him,watching, so I played along like the sterotypical customer, untill he started getting cocky and tried to push a trio of ravagers even though I said I already had 1 and I wanted a cronos so I wont be able to play the other 2, I also said that I didnt want to fill my last heavy support choice before the razorwing comes out. But he kept pushing the ravagers saying how uber beast 9 dark lances are.
So i left, went too my FLGs and got a crap load of DE stuff cheap from nice people

I have spotted this Vulture behaviour from managers before, not in any GW store but other stores, Vulture Behaviour is when a shop assistant approaches you to help you but they themselves are shadowed by the Manager who is putting a lot of pressure on his staff to sell you something, i have told several managers to bugger off and gives his staffer a break.

That is the manager training a new staff no? ( hence i mentioned the name tags )

BrookM wrote:Until recently it was "I heard about your army, sorry, how about a few new boxes of this, that and that to get you started out again?"

What happened to it?

LunaHound wrote:

Achaylus72 wrote:

Toastedandy wrote:I was in GW in Dublin last monday, I was one of the first people in the store so I was being watched by every staff member, all waiting for a chance to sell me something. One of them cornered me at the books, sold me a night lords book, pretty darn good book, he also told me all about the finecast, his manager was behind him,watching, so I played along like the sterotypical customer, untill he started getting cocky and tried to push a trio of ravagers even though I said I already had 1 and I wanted a cronos so I wont be able to play the other 2, I also said that I didnt want to fill my last heavy support choice before the razorwing comes out. But he kept pushing the ravagers saying how uber beast 9 dark lances are.
So i left, went too my FLGs and got a crap load of DE stuff cheap from nice people

I have spotted this Vulture behaviour from managers before, not in any GW store but other stores, Vulture Behaviour is when a shop assistant approaches you to help you but they themselves are shadowed by the Manager who is putting a lot of pressure on his staff to sell you something, i have told several managers to bugger off and gives his staffer a break.

That is the manager training a new staff no? ( hence i mentioned the name tags )

Not necessarily. The managers come under a lot of pressure from upstairs, and many see the best way to respond is to make sure that their staff are behaving exactly as the company customer service policy dictates. This means trying to up-sell on every purchase, and to attempt to diversify customer purchasing practices. Besides, the 'conversation' that the staffers are meant to engage in is meant to feel natural and friendly. If the manager is conspicuous in his manner to the customer during it, it's being done wrong.

LunaHound wrote:
That is the manager training a new staff no? ( hence i mentioned the name tags )

No he had a name tag, and the manager seems like a nice enough bloke. It was the day that finecast was announced instore, so he was probably checking if he got the super boring sales pitch right. I was given it twice in 1 hour, both with the exact same buzz words, same questions, same everything
I just played along, used to be a salesman so i know what its like. Yes rolling (asking questions were the obvious answer is yes, eg Is that a window?, SEE principles(smile, eye contact, enthusiasim) and all that sales stuff.
But they really should let the grunts freestyle instead of using a script, make it less like I WANT TOO SELL YOU SOMETHING

Toastedandy wrote:

LunaHound wrote:
That is the manager training a new staff no? ( hence i mentioned the name tags )

No he had a name tag, and the manager seems like a nice enough bloke. It was the day that finecast was announced instore, so he was probably checking if he got the super boring sales pitch right. I was given it twice in 1 hour, both with the exact same buzz words, same questions, same everything
I just played along, used to be a salesman so i know what its like. Yes rolling (asking questions were the obvious answer is yes, eg Is that a window?, SEE principles(smile, eye contact, enthusiasim) and all that sales stuff.
But they really should let the grunts freestyle instead of using a script, make it less like I WANT TOO SELL YOU SOMETHING

I too have worked in Sales. Electronics to be specific.

But there are different approaches and the method GW uses is outdated against the thinking customer.

AvatarForm wrote:

I too have worked in Sales. Electronics to be specific.

But there are different approaches and the method GW uses is outdated against the thinking customer.

Yeah I was shocked when I went in. I worked in sales/customer service for 4 years with 5 different companies (they were contract based so you make a certain amount of sales in a few months, then you move onto selling something else, great system tbh, sold everything from house alarms, washing machines, toys and video games) so i had alot of training, and I could sell ice too someone who had no need for ice, but GW need to fix their broken SELL SELL SELL CUSTOMERS ARE STOOPID method.

Local store wasn't too bad... now it is.

Manager is alright but a bit hit and miss (sometimes really talkative and helpful, other times is in his own world ignoring everyone).

Anyway, wasn't going to bother posting anything but couldn't resist adding this... I had one of their newer staff pull this c*&p...

Me : (browsing tyranids as thinking of starting - around same time as DE launch)
GW : "heya, getting into 'nids?"
Me : "yep"
GW : "seen the new dark eldar?!!?"
Me : "not really, but heard they were cool, am starting nids though" (have codex in my hand at this stage)
GW : "you should SEE them! They are awesome! Have you seen them on the website? On our little 'customer service station' here?" (hurries me over to the terminal)
Me : "yeah, i'm getting nids though"

.... now this is what broke me...

GW : "did you know we have the DE codex in store??!"
Me : "oh? no... not on the shelves yet, thought it wasn't released for a week or so?"
GW : "oh no!! WEEEE have it in store.. right now! Want to SEEE it?"
Me : "sure, why not!?"
GW : "well you CAN'T!! because it's not RELEASED yet!!" (and yes, full intonation there as well - He then raced out back, grabbed the new DE codex, waved it in front of my face flipping pages then held it against his chest...)
Me : (put nid codex back on shelf, shed a tear for humanity and prayed that he never procreates, and walked out)

If i walk past the store and see him in there... i don't go in. Quite possibly the worst salesperson I have ever had the misfortune of interacting with.

@snowman40k

Were his parents around? I'm pretty sure a child of six, like him, shouldn't be left unsupervised.

That is shocking. If I were his manager, he's have been lucky to have a job after that.

@snowman40k

Were his parents around? I'm pretty sure a child of six, like him, shouldn't be left unsupervised.

That is shocking. If I were his manager, he's have been lucky to have a job after that.

It's like GW waited for the most obnoxious, naive kid to walk into the store and went "Hmm... Johnson! Bring him to meeee, we could use someone like that who fits our ethos..... yes yessssss"

Pretty much everyone I know who has met him in store has been ready to deck him. It's a shame too since the manager had two staffers who were outstanding but both were relocated (another GW blunder if you ask me). They were replaced with two younger guys, one who is actually okay (but still not as good as the previous ones) and this douche outlined above.

Manager is now lamenting his decision in a way as a few of us have complained...

I live with a GW Manger. He and the managers of the other two stores in my city have been good friends of mine for quite a few years.

It's honestly been difficult to watch how the company culture / indoctrination / training has affected their behaviour. They seem fairly incapable of critical thinking or reasoned analysis when it comes to wargaming. I guess that's what GW HQ wants, but I'd like my friends back.

Alot of people seem to miss the fact that GW staff aren't personally affected (and thus, don't/won't really relate) by price rises, Maelstrom embargoes etc, because of their in-store 50% discount. I worked for GW for ten years, and none of the staff who have left have paid, or wanted to pay, full retail for their models after leaving. They all have a still-serving staff member buy for them.

TBD wrote:

BrookM wrote:Until recently it was "I heard about your army, sorry, how about a few new boxes of this, that and that to get you started out again?"

What happened to it?

Someone took it along, afterwards claimed it was on accident and in no way on purpose. S'yeah right. But I have my resin babies again, just need to get around to fix them when I get to it.

snowman40k wrote:GW : "well you CAN'T!! because it's not RELEASED yet!!" (and yes, full intonation there as well - He then raced out back, grabbed the new DE codex, waved it in front of my face flipping pages then held it against his chest...)
Me : (put nid codex back on shelf, shed a tear for humanity and prayed that he never procreates, and walked out)

The Amsterdam store had a gakky idea around the time the Blood Angels were popping up as the latest codex release. Winners of the in store tourney could each win a sneak-peek at the new codex!!! Which IIRC was the winners naming a page number, getting a look at said page and that's that.

Haringoth wrote:
The people who shop there are a it odd however. A buddy of mine and I were shopping for Mordheim figures and I picked up a box of Saurus Warriors, and this guy practically attacked us and launched into a 10 minute monologue about how the Lizardmen are the weakest...blah..blah..blah. Kind of an awkward situation.

He wasn't Irish, from Kerry, collected orcs and called 'grenade' by chance?

Haringoth wrote:
He wasn't Irish, from Kerry, collected orcs and called 'grenade' by chance?

I think i remember that guy, had a bumblebee space marine army?

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Because Custodes are all about infantry, right?

Oh wait...

Yes. Custodes are cool. But they're "heroes" not "soldiers".

And here comes The Kan again - telling us what armies we can and cannot have, even when it's 'Counts As'.

Sorry, where did I say that? Context is important here, HB.

Kanluwen wrote:

Sidstyler wrote:lol, it just seems so odd.

"I'm thinking about a custodes army that's infantry heavy."

"Buy a dreadknight!"

...because the custodes are all about dreadknights, right?

Because Custodes are all about infantry, right?

Oh wait...
Yes. Custodes are cool. But they're "heroes" not "soldiers".

That statement comes from the most detailed accounts we have now of the Custodes, from "The First Heretic". You know, where the Word Bearers come to the realization that the Custodes while being amazing fighters--don't really have good synergy or a good grasp of fighting as a group in ranked fighting.
It's a case of "every Custodes is a hero, not a soldier". The 'closest fit' for a Custodes force would be a Draigowing force, where pretty much every individual Terminator is a hero in their own right.
That's far from "infantry heavy"--which really is counterintuitive to the whole idea of Custodes.

Notice that I said nothing at all about "You can't have this!". In fact, I never really say anything of that nature. This seems to be something you've worked up yourself.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrookM wrote:

TBD wrote:

BrookM wrote:Until recently it was "I heard about your army, sorry, how about a few new boxes of this, that and that to get you started out again?"

What happened to it?

Someone took it along, afterwards claimed it was on accident and in no way on purpose. S'yeah right. But I have my resin babies again, just need to get around to fix them when I get to it.

Whoa. That would be a major bummer. Good you got them back though.

snowman40k wrote:GW : "well you CAN'T!! because it's not RELEASED yet!!" (and yes, full intonation there as well - He then raced out back, grabbed the new DE codex, waved it in front of my face flipping pages then held it against his chest...)
Me : (put nid codex back on shelf, shed a tear for humanity and prayed that he never procreates, and walked out)

The Amsterdam store had a gakky idea around the time the Blood Angels were popping up as the latest codex release. Winners of the in store tourney could each win a sneak-peek at the new codex!!! Which IIRC was the winners naming a page number, getting a look at said page and that's that.

...That's so ridiculous it's brilliantly stupid.

Wow, I thought I was socially awkward but I have yet to flee from a store and avoid it forever just because one employee was sorta pushy.

I don't frequent a GW much anymore but there's one staff member who covered my local for a week. He basically kept trying to get us to buy stuff so GW could afford to 'keep the lights on' and 'offer hobbyists a place to paint and play.' This was made all the more confusing when I got turned away from an *empty* store because I hadn't booked a painting lesson.

The SOP of GW continues to boggle my mind with its unrelenting stupidity.

L. Wrex

I've only been to one GW store ever. The one in San Fransisco that used to be in the mall in the Financial District. I'd never have a problem there. The only time the Manager ever went a little overboard is when I told him I was interested in maybe starting a Warhammer Fantasy army (which was apparently his passion) and I got sidetracked into a two hour discussion about tactics, armies and models.

I laugh at the fact after leaving the store i get into my car and scream wagh! in my red Mercury Sable lol.