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kb305 wrote:
what i gather from going over it quickly is that he bought crap from both places?? who cares??

Well apparently GW cares...hence the thread.

Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:

You might want to - but it's not your right. The stores are retail outlets, not marketing for a wholesaler.

As others have observed, simply buying the occasional odd item in the store you want to use all the time is probably enough to earn you a slot at a gaming table. But the manager has to (a) make a sales quota and (b) not deal with people who think they're entitled when that ain't the case.

I don't think it's entitlement as such, just a change in the store model. In the past, they were hobby centres and treated as a facility you could use if you bought GW stuff (at a premium because of the facilities), and were just part of the larger company. You paid GW, GW let you use a GW store to play.

Now they have become more like franchise stores; sales made to GW as a whole are less relevant, and they are more pressed to justify themselves. So now just having bought GW stuff doesn't work for the store which has it's own (harsh) targets to make in a vacuum.

This apparent entitlement is just a clash between those who started gaming when pay where you play meant all of GW as a large coherent entity, and those where pay where you play means that store, as a separate island amongst many competing against the rest of the company.

 MRPYM wrote:
@loki old fart
What I meant was that, when I was at that store I would buy some products from them. This is before I found out about my local FLGS. And after finding out about the FLGS, I still bought a few models from them.

The earlier thread you are referring was made after buying the new eldar codex and wraithguard from said FLGS. The only GW products I ever actually bought from the FLGS.

And those eldar products I bought are the reason why the GW manager situation occurred because I did not buy those products from them.

 MRPYM wrote:

 motyak wrote:
.
To clarify, I barely ever went to the store since October of this year. I can count all the time I visited on one hand.
Recently I have been buying all my GW products from my FLGS
But let me ask this: Why don't you play at your FLGS?

They have gaming space but at my store there is no reliable crowd of 40k gamer. I never know when I will be able to get a game.

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Herzlos wrote:

This apparent entitlement is just a clash between those who started gaming when pay where you play meant all of GW as a large coherent entity, and those where pay where you play means that store, as a separate island amongst many competing against the rest of the company.

A good summation.

This thread started to illustrate an apparently new trend. Yet is it new? In the old days, if you turned up regularly, for years, in a store, became known to the manager, then brought in new GW items, mentioned you'd bought them somewhere else, would the manager have been happy? Were the stores always loss-leaders, there just to build up the brand without making any sales?

Because the main point of this thread, despite initial impressions, is that the OP has been to the problematic store a lot. Now, we've been to maybe 6 or 7 GW stores in the last few months and had a good time gaming, without buying anything (bar, maybe because we're so brainwashed by the idea of politeness, the odd White Dawrf or couple of paint pots). So there's no precedent here of being told to buy something after [i]one[/] visit. Instead, the subject is really about a gamer's right to visit the same store repeatedly, and obviously never buy, and about the GW store manager's duty just to put up with it.

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

There is an implied right of access to any shop that is open to the public. The shop manager can, of course, ban any customer that they wan't from using the premises for whatever reason he deems fit.

Now, please show me where GW stated that open gaming tables in store can only be used with models bought in that same store?

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

There isn't one. And if they ask you to leave, and you refuse, what happens afterwards is covered by CJPOA 1994 and, probably, Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977, since the tables and any of the store's terrain are the property of the store. Edit: In the UK, at least.

Me playing my painted armies in a store is advertising their game. That manager cant say how many sales are generated by people that play with their armies in his store. I would simply not go there any more and watch him bleed out slowly when he does this with other customers too.

I am never again entering any official GW stores because of a somewhat similar story. Friend of mine was starting a dark eldar army two weeks ago. We went to gw because our FLGS didnt have everything he wanted in stock. While buying boxes and blisters worth 300 Euro my friend asked for a bag to carry the stuff to his car. The manager told us that he has to charge 15Cents for that bag. Seriously ... after spending such an amount of money on toy soldiers i expect at least a bag to carry them away. GW isnt even giving ANY discount at all.

Its not about the 15 cents its just about respect and being treated as a valuable customer.

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

There is an implied right of access to any shop that is open to the public. The shop manager can, of course, ban any customer that they wan't from using the premises for whatever reason he deems fit.

Now, please show me where GW stated that open gaming tables in store can only be used with models bought in that same store?

GW provide free tables for the use of their customers. If your not buying, your a visitor, not a customer.

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

There is an implied right of access to any shop that is open to the public. The shop manager can, of course, ban any customer that they wan't from using the premises for whatever reason he deems fit.

Now, please show me where GW stated that open gaming tables in store can only be used with models bought in that same store?

GW provide free tables for the use of their customers. If your not buying, your a visitor, not a customer.

Don't forget - All GW rules are permissive. If you can't find written permission to use their tables...

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

There is an implied right of access to any shop that is open to the public. The shop manager can, of course, ban any customer that they wan't from using the premises for whatever reason he deems fit.

Now, please show me where GW stated that open gaming tables in store can only be used with models bought in that same store?

GW provide free tables for the use of their customers. If your not buying, your a visitor, not a customer.

If you're buying GW products you are a GW customer, are you not?

We are not talking about someone wanting to play with Mantic miniatures in a GW store, or playing a FoW game in a GW store, we are talking about someone being forbidden to use GW products in a GW store because all of those products weren't bought in that particular store... and you are ok with this?

PhantomViper wrote:
and you are ok with this?

I'm okay with the legal right of any customer-facing employee to eject individuals from the premises. I'm not okay with the alleged behaviour of the GW Store Manager in this case, but mainly in terms of the (equally alleged) fashion in which he probed the activities of the alleged non-customer, rather than anything to do with the gaming tables themselves.

Not my fault GW doesn't offer discounts on multi-buys, or that their paints are more expensive than petrol.

No one is going to care if they get banned from a GW.

Unless they like small tables and smelly opponents who don't know the rules.

Even if its the only store near you, you're still better off just buying online.

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

There is an implied right of access to any shop that is open to the public. The shop manager can, of course, ban any customer that they wan't from using the premises for whatever reason he deems fit.

Now, please show me where GW stated that open gaming tables in store can only be used with models bought in that same store?

GW provide free tables for the use of their customers. If your not buying, your a visitor, not a customer.

If you're buying GW products you are a GW customer, are you not?

We are not talking about someone wanting to play with Mantic miniatures in a GW store, or playing a FoW game in a GW store, we are talking about someone being forbidden to use GW products in a GW store because all of those products weren't bought in that particular store... and you are ok with this?

I dislike GW as much as the next man. If I buy GW stuff I use ebay, or local discount gaming shops. I don't expect to just walk in a gw shop and game.
I bought dark vengeance, I got dark vengeance. Not the keys to the shop. You buy a product, you get a product, nothing else. No extra rights conferred or expected.

So yes I'm ok with that.

 Mywik wrote:


I am never again entering any official GW stores because of a somewhat similar story. Friend of mine was starting a dark eldar army two weeks ago. We went to gw because our FLGS didnt have everything he wanted in stock. While buying boxes and blisters worth 300 Euro my friend asked for a bag to carry the stuff to his car. The manager told us that he has to charge 15Cents for that bag. Seriously ... after spending such an amount of money on toy soldiers i expect at least a bag to carry them away. GW isnt even giving ANY discount at all.

Its not about the 15 cents its just about respect and being treated as a valuable customer.

Just as an aside, there are some countries and US states that have nationally/state wide imposed surcharges on plastic bags. Ireland for example has a 15 euro charge for each bag used. A GW in Ireland would be breaking the law if they were not to charge the customer. Of course if you are in a country/state that does not have such a tax ignore the above. GW were clearly being arses!

Mythal wrote:
Actually, I'm saying it makes sense to couch things in conditional statements. For example: If this happened the way the OP alleges it happened, that Manager should be reported to GW's head office, and likely deserves to lose his job; if this is representative of GW's corporate policy, they ought to be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (or, if this is representative of GW's policies in Canada alone, its Canadian equivalent).

I think it is actually worse to say that, as it potentially has a more direct impact on this particular individual's livelihood, regardless of whether you couch it in a conditional statement. "Likely deserves to lose his job," is a harmful statement to make.

What I said, on the other hand, was that I feel such behavior as described is unprofessional, ineffective, and reflects badly on the company. You are suggesting that, conditionally, certain things should happen. I was saying how I felt, not that X should be done about it.

You should get off your high horse.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mythal wrote:

CloudRider wrote:

 caledoneus wrote:
weeble1000 wrote:


Nothing is really knowable anyway.


Then how do you know this?



Relativism at its logical best.... there is no absolute truth, except the absolute truth that there is no truth.... ;/ confused... me too

Wait... What? What is not 'knowable'?

Anything, because anything you 'know' is filtered through your perception of it. It's just a little bit of hyperbolic reductio ad absurdum - pay it no mind.

Which is a fancy way of saying that I was poking fun at you, Mythal.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

So you buy at one store, and expect to play at another

Why don't GW stop selling models and just provide tables for free

They do provide tables for free, there is no obligatory contract that you have to buy anything at the store to use their tables. Or is there? Care to point me to that contract?

Point me too the contract, that says they have to let you in the store

There is an implied right of access to any shop that is open to the public. The shop manager can, of course, ban any customer that they wan't from using the premises for whatever reason he deems fit.

Now, please show me where GW stated that open gaming tables in store can only be used with models bought in that same store?

It is all fine and good to say that one can bar someone from a store, but in the grand scheme of things, is that a good way to do business?

 loki old fart wrote:

I dislike GW as much as the next man. If I buy GW stuff I use ebay, or local discount gaming shops. I don't expect to just walk in a gw shop and game.
I bought dark vengeance, I got dark vengeance. Not the keys to the shop. You buy a product, you get a product, nothing else. No extra rights conferred or expected.

So yes I'm ok with that.

So what are those "open gaming" table in the stores for?

OP is a troll. He stated in his 'other' thread that he never buys anything at the GW and does all his purchasing at the FLGS which doesn't have any real gaming. So he goes to GW to game, but buys all his stuff at another store...

Recently I have been buying all my GW products from my FLGS and recently a question popped in my brain,

should I feel guilty for buying GW products from my FLGS and then using my local GW store tables to play 40k?

So the Manager has identified him as a NON-customer and is throwing him out. This is not a grand conspiracy.

You should Pay where you play... and reverse to that, don't PLAY where you are unwilling to PAY. That makes you a loitering mooch and you deserve to be thrown out... I mean what are you going to do? Stop shopping there? You don't shop there in the first place.

Store owners recognize their customers and who buys what. They know which non-customers they want to leave their store and never come back and which people he can turn into customers.

weeble1000 wrote:

Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:
At the same time, you can see the manager's point, can't you?

Uhhh...no. This manager just gave the OP a great reason to A) never go to or buy anything from his store again and B) never buy anything from GW again.

I'm not saying the OP is going to do this, but rather than give him a reason to patronize the store, he in fact incentivised the OP to do the opposite. In fact, he directly caused the posting of this thread, which absolutely has a negative impact on GW's image.

I mean, that's an aggressive move and I would certainly feel both uncomfortable and unwelcome. Looking up a purchase history? Shouldn't he be happy that they guy bought the Eldar codex? If GW doesn't want people to buy from indy stores, maybe GW should stop supplying indy stores. But, oh, wait, GW can't really afford to do that.

Sure, this manager should want his store to do well, but badgering his employer's customers is certainly not his job, and if it is, well, GW has some serious problems.

Considering the amount of corporate speak you hear from multiple managers I actually think GWs plan is to kick out and remove anyone that does not shop with them. Just off the top of my head I can think of a bunch of different signs that point to this

- GW Langstaffs manager banned a guy who brought in models bought at another location harassed him and then asked him to leave.
- GWs old head trainer told a manager friend of mine that he should "Kick out all his regulars and start a new customer base" and that the LGS 5 minutes away that sold product at 20% off was "Not a threat because they don't run demos"
- Look at GWs store policy, any negative or non warhammer speak is prohibited.
- I was asked to throw the boxes away that had the 20% off price tag on somethings I bought in the states at Da Boyz GT

Considering all the actions GW have been doing in regards to shutting out and isolating their games with embargos and threats I wouldn't put it past them that they are actively filtering customers that cant taint the rest of the herd.

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

I dislike GW as much as the next man. If I buy GW stuff I use ebay, or local discount gaming shops. I don't expect to just walk in a gw shop and game.
I bought dark vengeance, I got dark vengeance. Not the keys to the shop. You buy a product, you get a product, nothing else. No extra rights conferred or expected.

So yes I'm ok with that.

So what are those "open gaming" table in the stores for?

The same thing tables in McDonalds are for... Use for their "customers" who wish to use the product in store opposed to taking it home.

When someone brings their food from home to eat in a restaurant, they should be thrown out. If a non-customer is taking up space from paying customers, then that non-customer doesn't really have much room to complain. I do like how non-customers are the first to be like 'they should cater to me to convince me to buy stuff here, I totally won't ever buy stuff here, but they should jumpt hrough the hoops to try to make me.'

 Mywik wrote:
Me playing my painted armies in a store is advertising their game. That manager cant say how many sales are generated by people that play with their armies in his store. I would simply not go there any more and watch him bleed out slowly when he does this with other customers too.

I am never again entering any official GW stores because of a somewhat similar story. Friend of mine was starting a dark eldar army two weeks ago. We went to gw because our FLGS didnt have everything he wanted in stock. While buying boxes and blisters worth 300 Euro my friend asked for a bag to carry the stuff to his car. The manager told us that he has to charge 15Cents for that bag. Seriously ... after spending such an amount of money on toy soldiers i expect at least a bag to carry them away. GW isnt even giving ANY discount at all.

Its not about the 15 cents its just about respect and being treated as a valuable customer.

Honestly I wished more places charged for plastic bags, they're wasteful, dangerous to the environment etc, and despite what most people think, do cost money to produce/print.

Besides, in your scenario, you should be given the bag for free regardless of how much you spent, or are you only a valued customer after you spend a set amount? who decides that amount?

nkelsch wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

I dislike GW as much as the next man. If I buy GW stuff I use ebay, or local discount gaming shops. I don't expect to just walk in a gw shop and game.
I bought dark vengeance, I got dark vengeance. Not the keys to the shop. You buy a product, you get a product, nothing else. No extra rights conferred or expected.

So yes I'm ok with that.

So what are those "open gaming" table in the stores for?

The same thing tables in McDonalds are for... Use for their "customers" who wish to use the product in store opposed to taking it home.

When someone brings their food from home to eat in a restaurant, they should be thrown out. If a non-customer is taking up space from paying customers, then that non-customer doesn't really have much room to complain. I do like how non-customers are the first to be like 'they should cater to me to convince me to buy stuff here, I totally won't ever buy stuff here, but they should jumpt hrough the hoops to try to make me.'

Nonsense.

Are GW stores part of GW PLC or are they not?

Should a GW customer now have to have their products stamped with a label indicating where they bought them from and be allowed to use them only in those particular stores? "I'm sorry sir, but you bought that SM command squad in GW Edinburgh so you cannot use them over here in GW Glasgow".

As for your little McDonalds comparison: McDonalds restaurants honour the customer card promotions even when all the meals used to fill in those cards where bought in other McDonalds stores so that little comparison of yours falls a bit flat...

weeble1000 wrote:

Mythal wrote:
For example: If this happened the way the OP alleges it happened, that Manager should be reported to GW's head office, and likely deserves to lose his job; if this is representative of GW's corporate policy, they ought to be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (or, if this is representative of GW's policies in Canada alone, its Canadian equivalent).

I think it is actually worse to say that, as it potentially has a more direct impact on this particular individual's livelihood, regardless of whether you couch it in a conditional statement. "Likely deserves to lose his job," is a harmful statement to make.

What I said, on the other hand, was that I feel such behavior as described is unprofessional, ineffective, and reflects badly on the company. You are suggesting that, conditionally, certain things should happen. I was saying how I felt, not that X should be done about it.

You should get off your high horse.

Emphasis mine. I did not say those were my opinions - I was providing examples of conditional statements for you

Which is a fancy way of saying that I was poking fun at you, Mythal.

That much was rather obvious - reductio ad absurdum is the intellectual equivalent of sticking your thumbs in your ears, waggling your fingers, and chanting "neener neener neener"

It is all fine and good to say that one can bar someone from a store, but in the grand scheme of things, is that a good way to do business?

It depends upon several factors - not least of which would be the safety and security of the staff of any given shop. It's why (over here, at least - don't know what the situation is where you are) a shop can bar you for any reason, save those proscribed by legislation protecting specific groups from discrimination (such as the DDA 2004). I'm not saying it's a good idea for GW to bar people for not buying stuff at their store; I am saying that it's a legal necessity that they have the right to bar whomsoever they choose from that store.

Largely, I think our disagreement revolves around, as I pointed out in my previous post, difference of opinion regarding what constitutes evidence upon which conclusions can be drawn; my bar is set slightly higher than yours. Beyond that, I'm largely in agreement that the alleged actions of the store manager constitute bad business practise, and the alleged policy of a super-secret-spy-network in GW stores tracking your every purchase, whether or not you pay by cash and/or give them your name, would be pretty darn creepy were it verified.

PhantomViper wrote:

nkelsch wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

 loki old fart wrote:

I dislike GW as much as the next man. If I buy GW stuff I use ebay, or local discount gaming shops. I don't expect to just walk in a gw shop and game.
I bought dark vengeance, I got dark vengeance. Not the keys to the shop. You buy a product, you get a product, nothing else. No extra rights conferred or expected.

So yes I'm ok with that.

So what are those "open gaming" table in the stores for?

The same thing tables in McDonalds are for... Use for their "customers" who wish to use the product in store opposed to taking it home.

When someone brings their food from home to eat in a restaurant, they should be thrown out. If a non-customer is taking up space from paying customers, then that non-customer doesn't really have much room to complain. I do like how non-customers are the first to be like 'they should cater to me to convince me to buy stuff here, I totally won't ever buy stuff here, but they should jumpt hrough the hoops to try to make me.'

Nonsense.

Are GW stores part of GW PLC or are they not?

Should a GW customer now have to have their products stamped with a label indicating where they bought them from and be allowed to use them only in those particular stores? "I'm sorry sir, but you bought that SM command squad in GW Edinburgh so you cannot use them over here in GW Glasgow".

As for your little McDonalds comparison: McDonalds restaurants honour the customer card promotions even when all the meals used to fill in those cards where bought in other McDonalds stores so that little comparison of yours falls a bit flat...

But we are not talking about a voluntary promotional item which a franchise owner has the ability to 'opt-out' of. We are talking about loitering and preventing paying customers from using the tables in the store.

The issue is when someone, like the OP spends all of his gaming time in a store and never buys a damn thing explicitly because he is buying everything at the FLGS across town. People who don't pay where they play cause store owners to shift open gaming to other products like MTG and hurts wargamers in general. GW can't shift products so they get rid of open play as it is not generating the sales to sustain it.

While the Owner was reportedly unprofessional, the OP is entitled and the owner probably figured a non-customer who never buys stuff locally is no great loss so it is worth offending him so he never comes back. Guess what? Tthat is his right as a store owner, and he has to live (or die) by his decision. I have seen the same exact behavior at multiple FLGS in the face of unreasonable non-customers so this is hardly a GW thing. It is entitled customers taking up space in your shop and not contributing to your bottom line. Ideally it should be a good symbiotic relationship, but some customers can never be converted to good stewards of the store and need to be forcibly removed, often with the removal of wargaming from the tables in favor of another game.

Hmmm... and if his store is falling behind then kicking out potential customers is a good idea... why?

In a store that relies on word of mouth advertising?

Gonna wax full cranky here - let the store go under. The manager has earned it.

When my area had a local game store I made it a habit to buy something every visit - even if it was only paint, or glue, or dice, or a single Reaper miniature.

If that same store owner then tried to tell me 'you can't use that Dreadnaught, you bought it somewhere else' then I would never buy from him again.

And I would tell other folks to avoid them.

And I would rejoice - just a little - when the store closed.

But if they had a going out of business sale then I would likely buy some stuff.

The Auld Grump

"Hi, may I ask where you bought those models?"

"Yes, you may."

....

"Um, so, where did you buy them?"

"I didn't buy them."

....

"I'm sorry, I having a very heard time following you."

"They were a gift."

"I see. Do you know if they were purchased at this location?"

"I do not. However, I can only surmise that my great-aunt Hester was aware of what a predicament her failing to inform me of the specifics of the point of sale for this latest gift would put me in. I suspect that she, distracted as she must have been by her preparation for her upcoming circumnavigation of the earth, did not actually forgot to provide me with the authentication data, but rather she simply chose a less than expedient manner of rendering unto me the aforementioned data. Perchance a postcard from dear Autie Hester is at this very moment making it's way here from Malta!

For real though, I applaud that GW manager. He is the kind of ungainly tool that is a perfect herald for the "end times". I love table top wargaming and the sooner the festering abomination that is GW implodes, the sooner we can be wooed, en masse, by a different company that knows that treating people well is good for business.

 TheAuldGrump wrote:

When my area had a local game store I made it a habit to buy something every visit - even if it was only paint, or glue, or dice, or a single Reaper miniature.

If that same store owner then tried to tell me 'you can't use that Dreadnaught, you bought it somewhere else' then I would never buy from him again.

that's not at all unreasonable.

But that's not what happened to the OP, is it? He was going in that store for months, believed it had better games, knew the manager was looking askance because he hadn't bought anything over many visits, and could have bought a pot of paint at any time - as have so many people who posted in this, and other threads - just as a token of gratitude if nothing else.

 AesSedai wrote:
"Hi, may I ask where you bought those models?"

"Yes, you may."

....

"Um, so, where did you buy them?"

"I didn't buy them."

....

"I'm sorry, I having a very heard time following you."

"They were a gift."

"I see. Do you know if they were purchased at this location?"

"I do not. However, I can only surmise that my great-aunt Hester was aware of what a predicament her failing to inform me of the specifics of the point of sale for this latest gift would put me in..

I've seen a fair few conversations like this one in GW stores, where kids have brought in GW items they got for Christmas. And, you know, every time the staff were charming and enthusiastic. Mind you, in every case they were treated with a modicum of politeness, something which is obviously inappropriate when directed at employees of such a fiendish corporation.

Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:
Sad news if this is widespread. We've been in Truro, Bluewater, Cambridge & Canterbury in the last couple of months and not been hassled (altho we did buy Dark Vengeance one visit). We only found one store, Lincoln, wasn't receptive to casual games.

What was your store? And might there have been a particular reason the manager got stroppy?

I am quite surprised to here that about lincoln, I live in lincoln and pop into the store maybe once every couple of weeks and there is always some casual game going on, I personally think Brian is a fantastic manager you must have just picked a bad day :(

When did you visit?

Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:

Mind you, in every case they were treated with a modicum of politeness, something which is obviously inappropriate when directed at employees of such a fiendish corporation.

Indeed, sir, indeed.

Every time I deal with any GW staff I follow a few simple rules:

When dealing with a redshirt always be gentle, not forceful or insistent. No matter what recent change has raised your ire, such as poor quality or price rises. When in doubt, observe others. Surely, there are others who seem to be having fun? When faced with an aggressive sales pitch, just say "Let's agree to disagree" and change the subject, politely debate, or simply excuse yourself from the conversation. Also, do not hog the conversation, as that is arrogant and boorish. Look interested and listen to the pitch. If you do decide to make a token purchase, shake the man or woman's hand firmly and look your hobby fulfilment representative in the eye when doing so.