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Like i say, what happened IN there, eclipsed my memory of the actual shop!...It was small though, had like one gaming table i think?

I have been with the lady 7 years now...that was in...2004..Yeah..I think so, closed by august 05!

AvatarForm wrote:I just read ALL 20 pages... this thread made my day. Thanks guy/gals!

I despise GW for what they are. Their staff are trained to respresent the 'entire' gaming world to children and newbies as being 99.9% GW... fair enough, they have a profit motive. But outright lies and forced sale of products upon these people generates negative images of the hobby as a whole.

I went into a GW to meet a friend I had not seen in a long time. From the moment I stepped in the door with my Battlefoam PACK, the manager was demanding to know what was inside and when I told him it was Warmachine he almost tried to position himself between myself going any further into the store. Then when my friend came over to greet me he took the same attitude to my mate, who is a regular GW fanboi.

Needless to say, the remainder of the afternoon I was chatting to my friend while he painted his minis (bought at full RRP* in the same store) and the manager tried to sell me crap from the shelves, as I had admitted that I had sold most of my armies because GW didnt do it for me anymore.

*AUS RRP is DOUBLE what you lucky basterds in the USA and Europe pay... at the very least.

I know the manager of this store - I have known him for only a matter of weeks but have been on a drinking binge with him and it doesn't get much more honest than that - and I feel that you have greatly misrepresented him. Sure, he recommended a gak beer IMO but I didn't have to buy a second one. GW staff are well within their rights to refuse service, and it should go without saying that you can't play non-GW games on their freely provided tables. The Tin Soldier is about two blocks away, and you can play anything there. You can buy GW boxed sets at a discounted price. There is no free painting table and the staff are helpful but not especially knowledgeable with regards to the GW hobby - they'll order anything for you though. Order from Maelstrom Games if you want dirt cheap, just bear in mind that the delivery takes ages.

Not expecting to encounter a retail pitch in a retail store is simply idiotic. It's not that they make commissions because they don't - if they don't make a profit they close. You can easily say you're not interested or JUST LOOKING THANKS! and they'll likely leave you alone. You probably just grunted and waved your hand, demostrating your lack or underdeveloped understanding of basic social skills. Then again if I was masochistic enough to work at a GW store I'd be sure to be as pushy as I could with a punk like you until you sodded off. But that's just me.
It's not just a place for you to 'hang out,' regardless of what your friend is doing. I've sold most of my armies too, and they know it.

I go there pretty often now (I've just moved to Sydney) and it took a fairly long time before the different staff members stopped asking me what I played and talking to me as though they knew everything. It's their job to be informative and to sell things. They're now aware that I know just as much as they do, and often educate them on the background of their hobby. It's nothing like the atmosphere of my old independent local store but it's a great place if you're a normal and friendly person who doesn't spit out ragewords like 'fanboi'.

I am with you in complaining about the current RRP of GW gear in Oz, but I make a point of buying at full RRP at my local store and always have. It's worth it because it keeps them going - but if GW doesn't do it for you any more then than that's your decision. Not their problem.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Ahem. Rant over - the worst experience I've had at a GW or LGS was probably being matched up in a 2v2 with an eleven year old kid who had never played a game before in the later stages of a Fantasy campaign organised by one of the local club members. His dad came to pick him up an hour into the game. I didn't rage or anything but I had a pretty firm talk with the organiser about how crap his entire campaign had been - I love a challenge but I'm not always keen to teach a complete newb how to play when I'm there on my day off.

AvatarForm wrote:I just read ALL 20 pages... this thread made my day. Thanks guy/gals!

I despise GW for what they are. Their staff are trained to respresent the 'entire' gaming world to children and newbies as being 99.9% GW... fair enough, they have a profit motive. But outright lies and forced sale of products upon these people generates negative images of the hobby as a whole.

I went into a GW to meet a friend I had not seen in a long time. From the moment I stepped in the door with my Battlefoam PACK, the manager was demanding to know what was inside and when I told him it was Warmachine he almost tried to position himself between myself going any further into the store. Then when my friend came over to greet me he took the same attitude to my mate, who is a regular GW fanboi.

Needless to say, the remainder of the afternoon I was chatting to my friend while he painted his minis (bought at full RRP* in the same store) and the manager tried to sell me crap from the shelves, as I had admitted that I had sold most of my armies because GW didnt do it for me anymore.

*AUS RRP is DOUBLE what you lucky basterds in the USA and Europe pay... at the very least.

here here, i second that.

I've never had a bad experience in a GW, sure I've had the sales pitches and such but I've never been pressured into buying anything. My FLGS is another question, though in truth nothing worth complaining about. Long story short: Kids.

Over the summer holidays, the shop has pretty much been overrun by them, and they've been an all-round general annoyance, just being kids.

The worst thing one of them did was take one of my sausage rolls.

Thankfully, the schools are back in action now!

High_Marshal_Helbrecht wrote:
I just couldn't get over the nerve of the guy ya know?..What did he expect?

Her to spin round and look him in the eyes
"You sweaty mass of nerd meat you, the way you fondle my tits like two plastic stompa kits makes me hotter than a Salamander with Heavy Flamer...Kiss me you socially inept pustle of manliness!! BE MY CALGAR!"

Someone Sig this now!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Arctik_Firangi wrote:

AvatarForm wrote:I just read ALL 20 pages... this thread made my day. Thanks guy/gals!

I despise GW for what they are. Their staff are trained to respresent the 'entire' gaming world to children and newbies as being 99.9% GW... fair enough, they have a profit motive. But outright lies and forced sale of products upon these people generates negative images of the hobby as a whole.

I went into a GW to meet a friend I had not seen in a long time. From the moment I stepped in the door with my Battlefoam PACK, the manager was demanding to know what was inside and when I told him it was Warmachine he almost tried to position himself between myself going any further into the store. Then when my friend came over to greet me he took the same attitude to my mate, who is a regular GW fanboi.

Needless to say, the remainder of the afternoon I was chatting to my friend while he painted his minis (bought at full RRP* in the same store) and the manager tried to sell me crap from the shelves, as I had admitted that I had sold most of my armies because GW didnt do it for me anymore.

*AUS RRP is DOUBLE what you lucky basterds in the USA and Europe pay... at the very least.

I know the manager of this store - I have known him for only a matter of weeks but have been on a drinking binge with him and it doesn't get much more honest than that - and I feel that you have greatly misrepresented him. Sure, he recommended a gak beer IMO but I didn't have to buy a second one. GW staff are well within their rights to refuse service, and it should go without saying that you can't play non-GW games on their freely provided tables. The Tin Soldier is about two blocks away, and you can play anything there. You can buy GW boxed sets at a discounted price. There is no free painting table and the staff are helpful but not especially knowledgeable with regards to the GW hobby - they'll order anything for you though. Order from Maelstrom Games if you want dirt cheap, just bear in mind that the delivery takes ages.

Not expecting to encounter a retail pitch in a retail store is simply idiotic. It's not that they make commissions because they don't - if they don't make a profit they close. You can easily say you're not interested or JUST LOOKING THANKS! and they'll likely leave you alone. You probably just grunted and waved your hand, demostrating your lack or underdeveloped understanding of basic social skills. Then again if I was masochistic enough to work at a GW store I'd be sure to be as pushy as I could with a punk like you until you sodded off. But that's just me.
It's not just a place for you to 'hang out,' regardless of what your friend is doing. I've sold most of my armies too, and they know it.

I go there pretty often now (I've just moved to Sydney) and it took a fairly long time before the different staff members stopped asking me what I played and talking to me as though they knew everything. It's their job to be informative and to sell things. They're now aware that I know just as much as they do, and often educate them on the background of their hobby. It's nothing like the atmosphere of my old independent local store but it's a great place if you're a normal and friendly person who doesn't spit out ragewords like 'fanboi'.

I am with you in complaining about the current RRP of GW gear in Oz, but I make a point of buying at full RRP at my local store and always have. It's worth it because it keeps them going - but if GW doesn't do it for you any more then than that's your decision. Not their problem.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Did I say I was going to play Warmachine in his store? NO. I was meeting my friend before heading off. However, his attitude to me entering the store, which IS a social hang out judging by most of those loitering inside made us change our decision where we would spend the afternoon. He could not rightly throw my mate out, as he was a regular. Believe me, Alex is an in-joke around the circuits for his double standards.

Also, buying to 'make a point' is ridiculous. If everyone who was a fanboi did this, we would have many more GW stores... which they do not.

Further, a good retails sales person doesnt need to approach someone to get a vibe if they are going to make a sale or not. Why? I have worked in Liquor and Electronics and did very well on my commissions and targets. I could out-sell any Redshit anyday. Not only does product knowledge come into it, but once in the Eastgardens store (R.I.P) I sold a battleforce to a kid's mother who was vehemently against the hobby as she was some sort of self-styled Christian Missionary and didnt believe in wargaming. Needless to say, my Catholic upbringing assisted me in changing her mind. It's one thing to identify your customer's wants, its another to attempt to force feed them drivel and drag them to the counter in order to make a sale.

"High_Marshal_Helbrecht wrote:
I just couldn't get over the nerve of the guy ya know?..What did he expect?

Her to spin round and look him in the eyes
"You sweaty mass of nerd meat you, the way you fondle my tits like two plastic stompa kits makes me hotter than a Salamander with Heavy Flamer...Kiss me you socially inept pustle of manliness!! BE MY CALGAR!"

That did make me rofl, was taking to a customer at work and had to stick em on hold while I recovered. Sigged,

*starry eyed expression of wonder*

I'm glad you can all appreciate my little twisted humour there!

Tried it on the missus later that night, asked her "Can I grab your stompas?"

Needless to say I need an Apothecary to stitch my nuts back on...

LOL! Helbrecht I've found that generally making jokes about grabbing things isn't good . . . and generally ends up in harm for the man . . .

Back on-topic, as a redshirt I was never pushy, I always just talked to the guys about what they were working on, if they were looking for something but didn't know what, or wanted some models for a conversion I would help out. I would talk through what someone would need to start the game, and go through what you must have, and what would just be desirable to have. And so on and so forth . . . but then, maybe my friendly demeanour is why I no longer work for GW . . . So my worst (and in a way best) experience in a GW is being fired

Oshova

In my FLGS there was a man, or at least some form of well dressed Boogyman that held "DnD" games using our warhammer tables. He had all of his men in his group, (term used loosely) wear communist Russia era clothing, Hammer and sickle this Hammer and Sickle that. All of them were the neck bearded or goth variety, the majority of which have stolen from the FLGS before, but with our lovable blackshirt always busy he never could get them out. They would play overly annoying mood music depending on what they were doing in the game, varying from bagpipes, to the not-so-good deathmetal. Roughly loudly and rudely the man would spew vile language as they played, all of the regulars were tired of his behavior. But the worst wast that all of the NPCs were voiced by the most loud and racist accents ever, you ever try to win a game against 7th edition Daemons with Ogres while some Chinese farmer was yelling "Onwy the Eggwoll!", have ya?

This clothed oggy boogy man and his crew was eventually thrown out for harassing the one and only worker at the LGS one to many times. We now live without fear in our FLGS

21 pages + 2.5 hours = Utter hilarity. I haven't had a bad experience at my FLGS thankfully. Makes we more wary of leaving my models around though.

Bronzi_The_BadlandBelcher wrote:In my FLGS there was a man, or at least some form of well dressed Boogyman that held "DnD" games using our warhammer tables. He had all of his men in his group, (term used loosely) wear communist Russia era clothing, Hammer and sickle this Hammer and Sickle that. All of them were the neck bearded or goth variety, the majority of which have stolen from the FLGS before, but with our lovable blackshirt always busy he never could get them out. They would play overly annoying mood music depending on what they were doing in the game, varying from bagpipes, to the not-so-good deathmetal. Roughly loudly and rudely the man would spew vile language as they played, all of the regulars were tired of his behavior. But the worst wast that all of the NPCs were voiced by the most loud and racist accents ever, you ever try to win a game against 7th edition Daemons with Ogres while some Chinese farmer was yelling "Onwy the Eggwoll!", have ya?

This clothed oggy boogy man and his crew was eventually thrown out for harassing the one and only worker at the LGS one to many times. We now live without fear in our FLGS

Ive had a similar experience, except the annoying D&D group was led/joined by the shop owner. Its a relatively small place, seems like something along the lines of "XXXX relative has (or left me) money and Im gonna start a games store so I can game all day and not have a real job". If you found something you want to buy you typically stood at the counter for several minutes until the guy tore himself from the D&D game to ring you up. The vast majority of stuff in the store is GW, D&D, and snacks. Theres an small smattering of PP and other games, as well as weird crap from Japan...not even games stuff...toys/novelties and crap.

Im not sure if the place is still open, its been months, if not a year, since Ive been there. Its about 30 minutes away, and selection of things I would want is pretty slim.

This one didn't happen at a store, it was in a home D&D game, but it's the same kind of thing. A friend brought me and one other person over to the game, it was run by a couple in their garage. They seemed normal (by gamer standards), they were talkative and friendly, two of the players were their older kids, one was a cousin, another was some other friend. We get started playing, it's low-key and pretty ordinary stuff, in game were a group of adventurers sent to go investigate something at a place where there was some kind of border dispute between a kingdom and some goblins. At night, some goblins throw rocks towards us, so I have my character fire an arrow into the ground as a warning shot to try to intimidate them into leaving, which seems reasonable for a hardened adventurer to do.

All of a sudden, everyone who wasn't one of the 3 visitors Freaks Out. The game comes to a screeching halt, and people are yelling at me about various problems with what I did, that it would start a war with the goblins and ruin their campaign or something. Now, the thing is their initial reaction was bad enough, but if they had taken my 'whoa, chill, I don't do anything then' and we had moved on, this would just be 'some guys overreacted slightly to one thing in a game'. As you might guess, that's not what happened.

The next two hours or so were all filled with discussion of my warning shot. There was a while where I was lectured about me personally being too hot-headed and trying to pick fights (which is odd since it was a character action). There was 20 minutes or so where someone talked about the impossibility of 'nocking and shooting an arrow', and explained how you really have to store a bow with the string off and other irrelevant technical details. I got an explanation of how warning shots are actually illegal (again odd since it was in-game, not IRL). I got a dissertation on how high tensions were between the kingdom and the goblins. And more that I don't remember details of now, it's not like I was taking notes, and I have never before or since had such a lecture in a game.

I wouldn't put up with that today, I'd drive away, demand a ride, or walk away and call a cab, but i wasn't as confident and wasn't really aware of how to deal with nutcases (and didn't have a cell phone). So me and the non-driving friend were just sitting there stunned through the whole multi-hour lecture/dissertation/whatever, which took up most of the play time. To top off the strangeness, they politely said that it was a good game and said that they hoped I'd be back again, to which I just kind of smiled and nodded and then never even considered coming close to there again.

We have two stores in town. The FLGS is quite crampt, and only has two 4x4s. But the LGS with the sucky owner has a 4x6, a 4x8, and a 4x4.

While I do not have any crazy stories about something happening in the store the LGS owner feels the need to randomly not open on our game days. This isnt something that has happened once or twice, it happens about every month or two. Its normally "went to vegas for the weekend" or something along those lines. And it isnt like the some of our guys dont pass through the store throughout the week, and if he were to let someone know we could easily get the word out on our forum. But no, we instead are forced to sit outside the store for an hour waiting to see if he "just stepped out" (not usually the case). But we'd never know because he doesnt leave any notes or anything, the doors are just locked.

Not to mention he doesnt really give two craps about us. I mean I understand he is in the retail business, but he takes it way over the line. A time or two he has offered food or drinks on a tournament day (at a relatively unreasonable price) then tries to tell us we cannot bring our own drinks or food but its okay when he isnt offering food and drinks.

There was another time that one of our guys was trying to get his friend to start, so he came down and was considering a 'Nids battle force (which wasnt in stock). so we mentioned that he would be interested if there was one in stock. When it got there it miraculously had a 15 or 20 dollar markup from the one that just sold.

It seems like it is always something with this guy, I'm normally the type of guy that will support my store even if it is slightly marked up over GW's prices, but i refuse to buy anything from this guy.

:-( I just wish we had someplace better to play.

@tekk_45

Build a board. It's what I did. Then I bought a battlemat.

Whatever suits you, go right ahead and do it. Then you can have people round your house to play (if possible).

tekk... what do you mean marked up over GW price? How could you consider paying more than RRP for GW stuff? My god that's so expensive!

Ordo Dakka wrote:tekk... what do you mean marked up over GW price? How could you consider paying more than RRP for GW stuff? My god that's so expensive!

tekk is in the US.

Imagine a shop doing that here. I can just imagine some shop owner grinning trollface style at me as I look and see that the Blood Knights are $110.

Ordo Dakka wrote:Imagine a shop doing that here. I can just imagine some shop owner grinning trollface style at me as I look and see that the Blood Knights are $110.

I know, right. One of the many reason I order from the UK

Ordo Dakka wrote:Imagine a shop doing that here. I can just imagine some shop owner grinning trollface style at me as I look and see that the Blood Knights are $110.

Thats gakky to do anywhere. I dont even like to pay regular retail prices. Guess Im spoiled from my days of working in a LGS and paying cost + 10% for everything. I would certainly never pay above retail unless it was some sort of long OOP item.

Thats why I tend to do most of my purchasing online. Figuring an average of 20% savings even with shipping its cheaper than retail plus 8% sales tax. Also figure that the only truly decent games store "near" me is 2 1/2 hours away. Even then it can be hit and miss. A couple weeks ago i took the trip out there to pick up the new Daemon Prince, figuring of all places this one would have it in stock...nope. 5 hour round trip and all I had to show for it was some pokemon cards for my kid.


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tekk_45 wrote:We have two stores in town....:-( I just wish we had someplace better to play.

Sucks to hear that. LGS are hard to keep open and profitable, I cant imagine why people would want to run their store like that. When I lived on the other side of FL we had a great store. Guy was friendly as all get out, and once he knew you were a good customer he would do anything for you. He stayed at the store late many times for us to finish games. Sometimes he would even turn the keys over to one of the guys in the group (he knew him pretty well) and say "lock up when you leave".

Im not sure if the store is open anymore...I moved away from there in 1999. Hope it still is.

BearerOfSalvation - tough break mate. Only bad DnD experience I had was when I tried 4.0 with some uni kids who were meta gamers... worst n00bs ever.

tekk - buy from Maelstrom or a friendly online indy... save your $ and when you play the minis not bought in his store, perhaps the troll will realise he is unreasonable.

I havent been to a GW store, but I did have a horrid experience with a patron of my local shop. I was playing 40k with this stereotype of a D&D, smelly, overweight with a beard that looked like he had gotten pubes glued to his face, and he played like a prick, criticizing every move I made at every turn, not saying what he was doing until there were 15 wounds on a squad I didnt even know were being shot at, and just being a bad guy. It was my tau vs orks if anyone was curious, im just the other ork players at the shop are guys I already know and like or this snotling bitter would've created a new stigma against them for me.

I haven't had any ones as bad as what some of y'all have had, but here's a few.

1) Watching two people practice for 'ard Boyz with a friend. Abaddon charges into combat and my friend goes, "He'll <explicit> everything up." I reply, "Unless he rolls a 1." And indeed he rolls a 1 and proceeds to fail his invul save. Next turn, same thing happens and I say to my friend "Damn, that really sucks." I kind of laugh a little too, mainly because I hate Abaddon. The CSM player flips out and starts yelling at me and tells me to get out of the store. Everyone looks at the CSM players like s/he's fracking nuts.

2) A friend of mine who is new to the game is playing an Eldar player in a league game. This Eldar player is your typical pot bellied somewhat affluent gamer and he looks like a creepy pedo. Since my friend has never played against Eldar before I take a look at the guy's list just so I can be aware if he tries to pull any crap during the game. Now, I usually look at people's lists who are playing and no one gives a damn. It's not like I'm touching their models or codexes. But this guy freaks out, snatches the list out of my hand, and starts yelling at me. I say to him, "I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to hide your list in this league." He sort of snarls at me and after a second gives it to my friend. My friend looks over it and asks the guy about everything. The guy doesn't want to tell him what everything does, which is pretty f-ed up IMO, so I fill in the blanks. The game finally starts and my friend ends up stomping that d-bag into the ground.

3) I really dislike people who don't bathe and bring their whiny kids into the store.

Once I wnet into GW, and a blue shirt said, would you like to join in the island of blood gaem, I said i only had a few mins. He said how much is a few, I said 5-10 mins. He said that should be enough. My mum came in, and the guy wnated me to play the game, but my mum said I had to go soon. The man asked me what I wnated, I said a box of plague monks and my mail ordered thing. He gave me my mail order, and then tried to convince me and my mum into buying the island of blood for 60 quid. We said we already had it (preordered) so he said bring it down 2 weeks ahead, and maybe my mate may buy 1 in the store, you see, there was a raffle if you bought from store. Then he says about gamesday tickets, i said I'd got em, then he advertises the coach trip, I said my dad drives me up. Then I grab my monks, then he says would you like to double your army with a battalion = £55, I wouldn't just 'fancy' spending that much, I'd at least plan it. Then he says do you want a plague furnace for £35, i said no. All in all, for a box of monks for £18 pounds, and to pick up an order, I got asked if i wanted to spend an extra £200 quid at least on the stuff mentioned!

Just to bring the mood back up. I went into GW in glasgow just last week and a sales person I have never talked to before walks over. I was wanting to buy a new book (the sundering triology) and he got it for me and while we were talking he gave me a brief overview of the new 8th edition rules, a starter game so I can grasp the basics and even says that I would be better to buy the shortened rule book of a casual or ebay it if I do not have money.

Last time I was in another sales guy tried to help me find spares for my tau as well - no luck though but he did push the new boards a bit, but that's fine it is his job after all. And there used to be a tall ginger guy that worked there that I liked but no idea what happened to him.

the only bad experience i have in GW and this happens every time... is... the staff, friendly as they are try and make me buy the entire contents of the shop... other than that i love GW

Heres one thing to give some prospective to some of you guys...at least you guys have a GW store...there isnt a single on in my whole state...or any neighboring states. The closest one to me appears to be in Memphis TN...aprox 750 miles away.

I don't have a GW store. There used to be 5 LGSs in San Antonio, but the only one worth a damn went under. Everything left is meh.

Oh and, it's really fun to get labeled as a power gamer because I don't run crap lists and table people who take crap like Aun'va...

Darkvoidof40k wrote:@tekk_45

Build a board. It's what I did. Then I bought a battlemat.

Whatever suits you, go right ahead and do it. Then you can have people round your house to play (if possible).

That's the current plan, I just moved into a home with an office that will be dedicated to the hobby.

Ordo Dakka wrote:tekk... what do you mean marked up over GW price? How could you consider paying more than RRP for GW stuff? My god that's so expensive!

Most of the stuff is at retail, but he feels the need to sometimes "round up" and other dumb crap like that. The situation I used was an extreme example, and I've only seen something serious like that a time or two (but any is too much)

AvatarForm wrote:tekk - buy from Maelstrom or a friendly online indy... save your $ and when you play the minis not bought in his store, perhaps the troll will realise he is unreasonable.

That is what I do unless I am in the middle of something and need a paint, as a rule none of the regulars purchase stuff from him since he is so shady. It just sucks, because it is against my nature not to support the store that provides us with gaming space.

Not really an awkward or worst experiance but a few months ago i was shopping with my GF and decided to go grab a GD ticket, much to my amusement the guy in the store spent the next 5-10 mins trying to sell another ticket to my gf who has no interest what so ever in gaming, wasnt bad as i say but was highly amusing watching her look of horror at the thourght of spending the day at GD lol.

I've taken my girlfriend in before, and they just come question me about what I do, and leave her alone . . . Sexism or what? =p

Admitedly I'm there looking at what models I want to buy, and she's there just looking at the models in the cabinet . . . but still.

Oshova