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Well, to answer this troll for anti-FLGS sentiments...

I left my FLGS today because I was done with the tournament I played there today. After 3 rounds I was beat, so it was time to go home...

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
I left my FLGS today because I was done with the tournament I played there today. After 3 rounds I was beat, so it was time to go home...

I laughed.

I left my FLGS because it was closing time at the shop.

Though I'm not sure if I can call it my friendly LOCAL game store, I go there so rarely that the clerk thought I was completely new to the hobby, was halfway through a starter game with him before I was able to get a word in edgewise and tell him I just haven't been able to get to the shop recently !

baritowned wrote:

Doctadeth wrote:LOL, sounds like the OP has a attitude problem with people who LARP.

Anyway, there are quite a few reasons why he could have snapped at you, from being chewed out by his boss, to derided by some of the customers. Perhaps it would be worthwhile talking straight to the manager of that store, accentuating the fact that this employee has actually done all those things.

Has anyone else had him be rude to them.

I don't have a problem with LARPers. While I personally can find better ways to spend my time, I don't have a problem with them or what they do. All I said was that he is supposed to be there to monitor the gaming days, but instead he neglects his duties and goes LARPing.

As for other people having problems, I'd imagine the people who had most of their models run over by his RC car aren't very happy either.

Uh, wow, what can I actually say here that people will listen to in regards to LARPing..... If you KNOW he's going larping on his gaming days, that suggests very poor relationships with his boss, and also that he has other problems. I'd strongly suggest talking to his manager face to face or over the phone about his conduct to you.

What you are basing this on, I presume, is your own recent experience, and the RC car incident. Again, I'd say talk to the other gamers there, ask them about him and try and get some backup. I strongly suspect that there are related incidents that you aren't talking about to do with this.

My FLGS hired a manager who was a complete tool. One of those veteran gamers who thinks all the old versions of a game are always better.

When MageKnight was big, pushed D&D.
When Mechwarrior Clix was big, pushed the out of Print Battletech, Inner Sphere only, no clan mechs.
When D&D 3rd edition came out, ran weekly D&D 2nd edition campaign.
The store didn't carry OOP product. Half the regulars were driving 45 minutes to another gaming store to get D&D books and Battletech mechs to play in the campaign.
He also talked trash about 40K and didn't have time to paint or assemble a Warhammer Fantasy army, even though those two games were the bread and butter of the store.

carmachu wrote:Play with your friends in each others basement and order all your needs online.

And what if I can't play at home? I mean, I've got a table and a decent amount of terrain, but I don't have the space where I live now to actually utilize it. My friend has so little space we have to play in his carport (and it's winter right now, and freezing). My brothers place is really too small for gaming as well, and my other friend that plays lives about 2 hours away (and lives with room mates, who while being gamers, likely won't appreciate us taking over their terrain and table for the whole day).

Some people simply don't have any option but to play at a store. I know you like spouting off the virtues of at home gaming - and I agree with them, since I used to be an avid home gamer - some people simply can't.

I am not inclined to believe there is nothing more to this story than what we are told here.

People will not suddenly come out of the blue to tell you to quit whining, etc, especially when a customer (aka their income) is concerned. Something has to be up.

Ha. I like how people are blaiming the OP. Working in a customer facing roll i would never accept my staff acting like that, if it is true, no matter what the customer did. Got a problem with the way a customer is acting? Politly but clearly ask them to stop. They carry on? Ask your manager to deal with it and he can ban them if needs be, but never speek to them in that way or act like jerk.

I do have to say I have never found any mamber of staff in a GW store to be anything but helpfull and friendly. A little overbearing at times, yes, but never a jerk, and if there are any i'm sure that GW would do something if they were are told. To many people are worried about complaining incase they get somone in to trouble. Treating a customer with basic respect is not difficult, I have been doing it for longer than i care to remember, and with far more difficult customers than a few kids hopped up on sugar.

Kneecapping and firebomb the store from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.

Alternatively complain to his manager, dude sounds like a total ork butt scraping.

Steve steveson wrote:Ha. I like how people are blaiming the OP. Working in a customer facing roll i would never accept my staff acting like that, if it is true, no matter what the customer did. Got a problem with the way a customer is acting? Politly but clearly ask them to stop. They carry on? Ask your manager to deal with it and he can ban them if needs be, but never speek to them in that way or act like jerk.

As usual with this kind of thread we simply do not know the whole story.

Maybe the staff has already done all that, and this is a last resort. Maybe they haven't and they really have been jerks. Maybe the OP really is a whiny person and people got sick of him. Maybe he isn't and a great injustice has been done upon him.

Like I said, IF what the OP said they did is true then there is never any excuse no matter what the OP had done.

Treating a customer like that is not on no matter what they have done. The last resort is to ban someone from the store, not treating them like crap and being rude.

TBD wrote:I am not inclined to believe there is nothing more to this story than what we are told here.

People will not suddenly come out of the blue to tell you to quit whining, etc, especially when a customer (aka their income) is concerned. Something has to be up.

I agree, something doesn't quite smell right as far as that goes. That said, no matter how the OP was acting there's no excuse for store employees to treat him that way. If there were a problem with him they should have politely discussed them with him rather than being a jerk about it.

I can't say I've ever had a problem in any game store at all, apart from the usual annoying sales pitch on the rare occasion I wander into an actual GW store. My current gaming group was a bit less than cordial with me when I first showed up but they've since apologized for allowing themselves to be prejudiced by outlandship stereotypes of Americans.

The only store I've ever refused to purchase from is the one that is ridiculously close and convienent for me currently. The store owner screwed up multiple special orders (including stringing me along for almost a month on a preorder 40k codex before admitting he never bothered to order it) and berated me for playing a game at a table that was empty for 45 minutes while I waited for my delinquent opponent because it wasn't "minis" day (yet he never ever said a thing to card gamers who did the same during the minis day). This was after I organized the local 40k league for mini-campaign tournies (which collected money and gave out store credit as prizes), organized terrain days, and was the guy who promoted group orders through him. Now I game alot less frequently as the next store is 25 miles away but the owner is very nice, the terrain is great, and the atmosphere is the great. Thanks Treefort and screw you Heroes!

I would at least complain to the owner and stop buying stuff there until the situation is resolved.

I've never left a FLGS willingly. Some have gone out of business - the level of competition in gaming stors here in St. Louis has to be seen to be believed! - but the majority of the stores I've left behind, I left behind because they stopped being F LGS'.

If you don't carry product I want, you won't become my FLGS in the first place. If you can't handle basic customer service, you won't get me to come back anymore!

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:Well, to answer this troll for anti-FLGS sentiments...

I left my FLGS today because I was done with the tournament I played there today. After 3 rounds I was beat, so it was time to go home...

I'm not trolling, I actually support the other stores in the city. It's just that this had me so upset yesterday, because I have dropped at least $3k there in the last 8 or so months. If you're going to treat a customer that has dropped that much money in such a short time, don't expect them to return.

TBD wrote:I am not inclined to believe there is nothing more to this story than what we are told here.

People will not suddenly come out of the blue to tell you to quit whining, etc, especially when a customer (aka their income) is concerned. Something has to be up.

There is nothing more to this story. I have always been fairly nice to him, excluding the RC car incident. I only go there 1-2 days a week depending on my work schedule, and even then I have only seen him three times in the last two months because of how much he LARPs.

Informing the corporate office/owner is a good thing to do. No owner wants to hear about how thier employee or manager or whatever is treating customers poorly.

In this economy, it is all about keeping the existing customers you have, and hoping to occassionally get new ones. Certainly can not afford to lose any, except for extreme circumstances.

Why I have a hard time going back to my LGS

Starting about a year or so ago, my LGS was starting to do events to try and re-invigorate the Warhammer 40,000 scene. The events went alright for the most part; however, there were a few hiccups here and there that frustrated the individual who worked at the store that was making the effort for jump starting enthusiasm. With that being said, as time went on he became more and more unapproachable about 40K and began offering bargains on Privateer Press items as it was the game system he had moved to and wanted to build up more. Whenever anyone would be playing a game of 40K while he was working, he would come over and make off hand comments and such. Sometimes, he would make personal verbal attacks and say that he was just kidding. Eventually, he began to focus more and more on pointing out the flaws in the 40K gaming system or in someones modeling and/or painting. After some time with that, he lost interest for lack of a better term and became consumed with Heroclix.

Eventually, the product wall that contained Miniature Games became barren of just about everything but Heroclix. This really didn't bother me so much as I could still order items that I wanted but it was disheartening to see new players of any system other than Heroclix walk in and find the same product month after month and be forced to order if they wanted anything in particular. As time went on, the individual that was in charge of gaming began asking for payment up front for orders as the budget for miniature gaming was decreasing due to lack of purchases. This didn't really sit right with most customers as placing orders had never required payment, but they begrudgingly complied. About a month or two of this happening, instances of orders being placed in advance not showing up became an issue. Some individuals would ask for a model and after a month be informed that the model was never ordered. Even still, if you asked and did not have a receipt, you were told that without proof of the order there was nothing to be done.

As time has gone on, sales dropped even more and the atmosphere could be described as hostile at best. No new items are ordered unless paid for and the only events schedule by the store in terms of miniatures are Heroclix. The Warmahordes players have taken the initiative to start their own campaigns and tournaments and that has been alright for the most part. With respect to 40K, many of the players refuse to come to the store because of how they were treated and talked to. The few that still come to the store do so for the off game at the behest of the manager as he feels our presence is good advertising (and he misses our faces and jovial nature).

Overall it is extremely disappointing and now I have almost no desire to go to my store for gaming, shopping or anything for that matter and that is rather unfortunate. I just hope that the owner and manager see what this individual has done and make some effort to change things up. As a community we have spoken up and done what we can so now it is up to them to make the changes.

So it was a single employee who did that or the manager?
God i am so hapy we have our FLGS that has a strong community of almost everything(except wfb)
A good FLGS is like a girl who is up for anything, you gotta make sure you treat it right and it will continue to perform great.

Usually what stops me going to a FLGS regularly is that it is no longer "local" because I moved.

I still managed to find a way to get to it when I was in town though.

I stopped going to the local GW BB because one of the other stores closed, and the munchkins descended upon ours - all of the older vets left at that point, too.

I don't mind kids - if they can behave, NOT screech endlessly, ASK before touching stuff and put stuff away when they were done with it. Shame none of them could manage any of those.

My shift ending, usually.

baritowned wrote:Hey everyone, I want to apologize ahead of time if my post comes off as a bit angry or short, but after today's events, I'm not in the greatest of moods.

So this afternoon, I went to my usual FLGS (which is actually a chain hobby store that sells models, RC cars, and scale trains). As soon as I walk in, the employee that is supposed to oversee the designated miniature gaming days walks up to me and says "You need to quit being whiny, Kevin (the owner) is getting really annoyed by it". So I just ignored him, and continued to paint. Well, about 10 minutes later, he walks up to me again and asks if I want to play one last fifth edition game. I told him that I only had my WarmaHordes stuff with me, because I'm more or less done with 40k. He responded by saying "Okay, well you can just get the F*** out of the store". At that point, I was starting to get a bit agitated, as up to that point I was having a pretty good day. Then about 15 minutes go by, and one of the other guys there points out the Stormwall I was currently working on, saying that it's my $130 waste (I only really paid $80 for it), because I "never play, but will sit there and paint". After him going on some more about how PP's prices are crap compared to GW, I finally say "Okay, I get it, you message me on facebook all the time saying the exact same thing, I'm tired of hearing it!". At that point, the employee says "well, not everyone is a whiny rich piece-of-s*** like you". at that point, I just lost it and packed my paint and stormwall up, and left. As I was walking away, I heard the employee say "As long as he still buys from us, I don't give a s*** what he does".

Well, little do they know that I'm not coming back, and I'm probably going to be emailing their corporate office about how I was treated.

Have any of you ever had a similar experience that made you leave your FLGS? Not counting GW stores, because we all know that 99% of them are run by jerks anyway.

Wow.

Never had an experience like this. Sounds like a store full of D bags, good riddence to !#@$tards. As to the chonebook, if they do that, Whats really going on in there?

A shining example of a FLGS, or a Den of the fabled Assclownasurous Rex?

What did you do, pee in thier Cpt Crunch?

In my 15 months or so war gaming, I have removed myself from 2 flgs communities. The first was mainly a comic store with warmahordes. They refused to carry GW and the community kinda scorned gw converts like myself. After a while of not feeling welcome I decided it wasn't worth the 45 min drive.

The second was closer. The paint bar here was Nonexhistant to say the least. I never really felt comfortable coming in and painting while waiting for a game cause I felt hidden in the back and couldn't socialize. If I wanted that I could have stayed home. Anyways they still had my patronage for a while. Even after one of the community members threatened me with violence. I put it past us and tried to forgive and forget. Then their first fantasy tournament happened. Before the final round I was in 5th place. The people in contention for 3rd were battling out. One of which was the community member mentioned above. After my massive victory, and receiving 5 battle points for being completely painted I was in contention for third. If either the 3rd or 4th player won, they'd take second and I'd drop to 4th. Game time ended but our to let them continue due to how close the spread was. A full hour after everyone elses games end it was clear the game was a draw. This was when the community member mentioned above tried to quickly withdraw after the end of bottom turn 6. The to ruled he wasn't allowed to because they forced people to wait around so long. I was a rather vocal proponent for this decision. 10 minutes after telling the TO it was a draw, he again tried to retroactively change the victory points. When it wouldn't fly, he just got louder (that's the kind of guy he is). Ultimately it ended with him threatening to kick my ass and the 2nd place winner. Right Infront of the owner. Prizes got given out. I left 30 min later without hearing a word from the owner. I came back a week later and sold my magic cards to the owner, redeemed my prize and made my last purchase. He never said a word to me even when i told him that im selling them because "I no longer feel like inhave a healthy environment to play in." The dude who did threaten me pulled me aside and apologized. I understood but instressed that it had been the third time since I've met him that he's done this. Second at this shop. I can't just forget.

He has begun patroning my current flg, who knows of the previous issues. Theyve assured me he has one chance. I've told them I'll be a patron until it no longer is a positive, healthy place for me to spend my time. And for the past 2 months or so it has been.

If a flgs isn't a positive, healthy place I don't need it in my life.

Edit: damn iPhone posting

Why did I leave my FLGS?

It closed fifteen years ago when GW opened their store just around the corner.

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:Well, to answer this troll for anti-FLGS sentiments...

Wow,

He gets treated badly by the staff and you call him a troll? seriously?

You're suck a LFGS suck up.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

-Loki- wrote:

Some people simply don't have any option but to play at a store. I know you like spouting off the virtues of at home gaming - and I agree with them, since I used to be an avid home gamer - some people simply can't.

And some people simply cant play at stores- in the US geography some places its over an hour just to FIND one. Thats not to say find a good one.

TBH, if you cant play at home and you dont have a store or cant find a good one....do what we did from 2004 to 2011ish- get together with a bunch of good folks, form a club, rent your own space.

CAN'T isnt exactly something you accept if you dont want to. You have options.

carmachu wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:Well, to answer this troll for anti-FLGS sentiments...

Wow,

He gets treated badly by the staff and you call him a troll? seriously?

You're suck a LFGS suck up.

I think some people feel that the OP is not posting part of this story to try and get dakka to side with him over a matter that may or may not have been unprovoked or exaggerated or the dozen other things stories can be on the internet. We can't confirm anything anyone says.

One of my FLGSs made two warhammer players move all of their stuff to a different table during the middle of a tournament so the store owners could play pathfinder. The only two things that are really supported there are RPGs and Magic. Fortunately, the other FLGS is fantastic.

op, I'm sorry to hear that :( the guy sounds like a royal ass

me and a few mates have stopped going to our local GW as the owner has made a numder of decisions that pretty much made it impossible for any of use to play games there. we are now working on getting our own place and gaming there and also buying online as opposed to paying GW prices for crap customer service

Send an email to corporate, and cc the owner of the store.

Call the owner of the store.

Ask for an explanation of why you were treated that way, and if this is there normal policy.

cincydooley wrote:Well you love in Cincy so I have to presume this is HobbyTown USA. Good news is that there are about 5 better stores all within driving distance.

Epic Loot is by Springbori and is a great store.

My experiences with this particular store have been less than stellar.

The staff tends to be unfriendly, unhelpful and acts like you are bothering them even when you walk up to purchase something.

In addition a large part of the 40k community is so insular that even trying to play a game in the store is a chore. On the off chance that you do get one you'll generally have half a dozen people standing around the table telling you and your opponent everything you're doing wrong and pointing out the horrendous choices you've made with your army building skills.

To each his own, however.

baritowned wrote:Hey everyone, I want to apologize ahead of time if my post comes off as a bit angry or short, but after today's events, I'm not in the greatest of moods.

So this afternoon, I went to my usual FLGS (which is actually a chain hobby store that sells models, RC cars, and scale trains). As soon as I walk in, the employee that is supposed to oversee the designated miniature gaming days walks up to me and says "You need to quit being whiny, Kevin (the owner) is getting really annoyed by it". So I just ignored him, and continued to paint. Well, about 10 minutes later, he walks up to me again and asks if I want to play one last fifth edition game. I told him that I only had my WarmaHordes stuff with me, because I'm more or less done with 40k. He responded by saying "Okay, well you can just get the F*** out of the store". At that point, I was starting to get a bit agitated, as up to that point I was having a pretty good day. Then about 15 minutes go by, and one of the other guys there points out the Stormwall I was currently working on, saying that it's my $130 waste (I only really paid $80 for it), because I "never play, but will sit there and paint". After him going on some more about how PP's prices are crap compared to GW, I finally say "Okay, I get it, you message me on facebook all the time saying the exact same thing, I'm tired of hearing it!". At that point, the employee says "well, not everyone is a whiny rich piece-of-s*** like you". at that point, I just lost it and packed my paint and stormwall up, and left. As I was walking away, I heard the employee say "As long as he still buys from us, I don't give a s*** what he does".

Well, little do they know that I'm not coming back, and I'm probably going to be emailing their corporate office about how I was treated.

Have any of you ever had a similar experience that made you leave your FLGS? Not counting GW stores, because we all know that 99% of them are run by jerks anyway.

Man, the nasty Natti! I know that place all too well!

Look, to be honest, I feel that if you were to stop going and spending your money their that would be a big enough action to take.You could waste your time writing an email to Hobbytown or whoever has control right now but why bother. Why sit down when $$$ speaks louder than an email? I am sorry that someone was a serious dillhole to you but I see a good bit of patience in your personality if this was unprovoked.

Point the first: LARP is awesome, and y'all can take a flying fornication at a rolling fried confection if you can't understand that.

Regardless of what you think about toy soldiers vs beating people with sticks, this is how most people see us anyway:



Point the second: I smell something fishy in the OP's tale of woe. I'd love to hear the other side of this, though we likely will never hear it.