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just been thinkinwhislt lookin at my brand new paints and wordering how i came in contact with them. that one reason my follow dakka is pushy gw staff.
i hte it when i go into a gw store and ask for a tip or a product and then they start bombarding you with questions like do you have the paints to paint this product or if you ask for a tip eg how to paint yellow. and then they like give you all these tips but then say do you have the paints to do it. their always looking into pushing you into a sale.
like the first time i bought a falcon wat started as a 33 quid budget turned out to be about hundred pound as the guy was just handed me what i was needing to paint it . maybe its me i should be more vigilant but i hate beeing pushed into stuff. dont get me wrong i have nothin against gw staff just their prices and their pushyness. wat do you think?

They're a retailer. They're trying to sell things.

They're also trying to avoid people buying miniatures, and returning a few days later complaining that they have to paint them. Instead of sounding condescending and saying 'you know you have to paint these right?', they just ask 'do you have the right paints?' and newcomers get the idea.

As for asking for a tip and then pushing the paints on you - still, a good idea. They teach you how to paint something, then ask if you have what you need to do it at home. It's not forcing the product on you - you asked, afterall.

I've never really had to deal with GW reps because I've never been to a GW store. I've always went to the local hobby shops.

Funny though, by going to the local places I usually have off-brand stuff pushed on me rather than GW merch.

You have to take into account that making sales is the only things that keeps them in business. The more sales drop, the higher prices get (as is the trend).
FLGS stores are usually much less pushy, but they rely on your sales equally if not more.
Seriously, it's a matter of staying in business. If they can get you with an upsale, then they've done their job. if not, they lost some profits and that adds up

true i get what you guys are saying and i understnd they are trying to make money and do respect thatbut i do get annoyed sometimes

Like if you voted all 3!


Oh wait im on dakka gak!

Oddly enough I've never been in a GW store. From what you've said they should just have a disclaimer sign up stating that the models aren't painted. Saves tons of trouble. They are either being slightly pushy or just don't want another person coming back saying "Why isn't this painted"

Truthfully I thought the models came painted at first, but I actually asked like a smart person and read the box back cover.

Once bitten twice shy

You know better next time.
Do some research online first
Ask on Dakka
make up your own mind about what you need
stick to it

Not sure how you managed to stump up an extra 60 odd quid on accessories.
That is a lot of paint/glue/tools even at GW inflated prices

I hate it, it's really distasteful.

If you go into any other shop the staff will not come up to you and try to convince you to spend your money on stuff you don't want.

GW is the only shop they do, and I bet it drives customers away.

If anyone says they've gone into a major highstreet shop like Topshop and had the girl come out from behind the till and say to you:

"Heya. What kinda clothes do you like? Vintage stuff? Oh right, well we've got some of that, but new in today are these new ultra-modern hats. They're soo cool, aren't they cool? Only £40, what a bargain! What? You don't have £40 you say? course ya do, especially for something as awesome as these hats! When you wear one of these hats everyone will look at you and say, 'wow what an awesome-ultra-modern hat you have!'. Oh, you're sure then. Well, if you only want vintage then you'd better look over here.... £30 you say... Well what about these jeans? They're pretty cool. Hmm, if you get them you'd better get this jumper too, and these shoes to go with them. How about a belt? That might help, yeah, don't forget this shirt too, it's like the coolest shirt in the vintage range. Ready to pay? Wicked, that'll be £120 please......."

I will eat my hat!

*sigh* If GW staff worked in Topshop.

It honestly sounds like your beef is with salesmen and not particularly GW. But I'll agree pushy salesmen can be annoying.

Learn to deal with salesmen, its not hard just tell them you are not interested in a thing they are saying and turn your back to them.

GW stores everywhere have somewhat pushy salesmen but only the weak let themselves be pushed around.

Ever been to Mexico?, GW staff are nothing compared to Mexico's street vendors.

I had a job for a while in retail sales, and the corporate guys would come in and tell you how you should sell, and it was really bad how aggressive they wanted you to be. Sales would spike after one of these meetings (pushy sales do work in the short term, but hurts repeat business), so they would pat themselves on the back about how good a job they were doing, get promoted and not have to deal with the lack of returning customers... Then the new guy would come in and do it all over again. In the 7 years I worked at that store I had 6 store managers, 4 district, and 3 regional managers. They were all but one hired from outside the company (first store manager, who was 30 year career starting at the bottom whom retired) They fired nearly anyone promoted to department sales lead due to poor performance. These people were given impossible tasks (multiple credit card offer completions per shift, even if only 2 people are shopping who already have cards), and had been great employees up till that point.

Honestly retail stores that have a lot of corporate micro management are just going to be like this. If you have seen the GW employees handbook you would know what I'm talking about (somebody leaked part of it on the web a while back).

I'm just happy that the area I live in has 0 GW stores. The US is mostly FLGS, with some GW stores in larger cities. The closest one is 120 miles away in Chicago.

Never understood why GW competes with its customers either. Is it because it has a near monopoly in the UK or something?

Know what you mean YourName.

Did I really need that big sack of jumping beans?

They can be a little pushy sometimes, but it's their job, I don't mind it too much.

GW staff can be annoying as hell sometimes. They'll usually follow you about for a while, but if you act like a stoner and ignore their advances, they usually give up. My usual conversations with the staff at my local now go something like, staff "hey", me "uhuh"; walks by and sits down at paint station. As memory serves the smaller stores that I used to go to had staff with a more laid back attitude than the larger ones-as in spending all day reading manga and wrestling with kids-, but they're all gone now. Uh, so yeah, the staff nowadays are just as commersial as the company, don't like it either ignore them or go to an independant gamer's club.'¬¬

There is one guy at my local GW. He is faintly awesome. He does ask if i need anything but he never pushes it.

Some are, some aren't. I know my parents hate them when they went in and tried to buy something. The guy there apparently was hounding them to get the AoBR box and lots of other things they weren't interested in looking at at all.

I personally have had a small experience of it where a member of staff would catch me eyeing up a model (or in one case the ork megaforce (my poor bank account ) ) and would nudge me many times to get it. Sadly both times I fell for it so it must work However I don't really like it.

My local gw store staff aren't like that.
I asked how to paint red, and they just told me, none of this buy this buy that stuff
probably only ike that in UK and america...

Its annoying. They tried to sell me Daemons of Chaos, and an entire battle company.

Theres a fine line between adding to your purchase, with the inclusion of another boxed set or paints... And pushing sales that you do not need or want.
Sadly at my FLGS, it seems to be the latter.

After attending the store for over a decade i know pretty much what i want, when i want it. If i go into the store i will purchase what i need for the task at hand, i do not need someone trying to push items onto me. I feel my store has a more aggressive approach to retail than others in my area and the only reason i still attend this store is ease of travel.

A long time ago my mother went into the store for my birthday present (or part of it) as i had asked for some new brushes, simply, a fine detail and a standard. They sold her the whole set, including large, medium and small drybrushes (really? whos needs 3 sizes?) and the god aweful stippling brush (weathering effects on Eldar? They'd never live it down...)

They do tend to be pushy, I know its their job but it is off putting. I don't like the pushiness but don't mind the friendliness, there is a fine line that many gw staff don't seam to get right.

I know people that hate going in, especially my girl friend, everytime we go in they try and get her to buy something and start the hobby despite the fact Im going in there to buy something anyway. She now refuses to go in with me and waits outside or goes to another shop.

Its good to be able to buy the stuff and talk to them on the high street, but they should lay off the hard sell.

Actually to say one good thing about there pushyness, I always seem to forget to buy those 1 or 2 paints I need when I am down there, or would forget to if it wasn't for gw's staff reminding me.

I've come to an understanding that they do what they need to do, and I'll just humor that and continue on to what I was gonna do.

I wouldn't know if GW staff are pushy--I've never been into a store. I live in Oregon, and for some reason, though there are *nine* GW stores in Washington State, Oregon has *zero*. WTF GW? I want a store!

I do feel for some of the younger players who may not have as much money as working stiffs and are more easily coerced. So....

1) Go in with a specific thing in mind and have on you the exact amount it will cost. If you don't know, look it up online.

2) Don't tell them what you're in for, even if you know full well and they ask. Say politely but firmly: 'I'm just browsing, thankyou'.

3) Learn to say no.

4) If you're aware you are being upsold (It will feel like a burning sensation on the back of your neck), take a minute to browse something completely different, WH Fantasy miniatures for example, giving you time to think whether you really need that extra pot of Snot Green.

They're all right bless them.

On the rare occasion I go in for something I do hope they don't try and talk to me about the stuff I'm buying.

I sometimes chant in my head "Don't talk to me..don't talk to me."

Was worst when my GF was with me once and he got going on about a subject they're hyper excited about and it makes me cringe to think about it.

Still, it's me going into their shops so it's only fair

obsidianaura wrote:Was worst when my GF was with me once and he got going on about a subject they're hyper excited about and it makes me cringe to think about it.

What was it? Trying to get your GF to start "The Hobby"?