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kelewan wrote:

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?

We called up to see if anything was happening on a Sunday in April half term and there was nothing going. Probably just chose a bad time but I wanted to give a fair overall impression from the last few months, rather than one-sided propaganda. If Brian is the manager who was there a year ago, he was fab, and ran a busy, bustling shop. although it does get draughty in winter. Bloody rapacious IP-hogging plastic-bag-vending data-abusing capitalists.

 AesSedai wrote:

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.

Good to know. Thinking about this, maybe dakkadakka should have a Gaming Etiquette advice page, complete with instructions on the correct attire and how to punctuate your letters of complaint.

FYI, GW staff at the Jimbocho (Tokyo) store are excellent. Mostly, because they are absolutely nothing like the boobs so often satirized on the this site and others. I have seen awful salesmanship at plenty of GW locations, however.

nkelsch wrote:

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.

But what we are talking about here isn't the same thing.

As GW stores are part of GW PLC, a legally bought GW mini will still represent a profit for the store, albeit indirectly, even if it wasn't bought straight from that exact store!

PhantomViper wrote:

nkelsch wrote:

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.

But what we are talking about here isn't the same thing.

As GW stores are part of GW PLC, a legally bought GW mini will still represent a profit for the store, albeit indirectly, even if it wasn't bought straight from that exact store!

That is not true. The stores individually have a 'sales target', which if not met can (and usually does) result in the manager/employee being fired.

Not to mention the fact that GW purportedly utilizes mystery shoppers as a way of keeping tabs on their staff members and to ensure they are 'sticking to the script'.

PhantomViper wrote:

nkelsch wrote:

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.

But what we are talking about here isn't the same thing.

As GW stores are part of GW PLC, a legally bought GW mini will still represent a profit for the store, albeit indirectly, even if it wasn't bought straight from that exact store!

No, it represents a profit for the PLC; it doesn't contribute towards that store's sales targets, and isn't counted as a sale for the store just because the purchaser lives in the store's catchment area. That said, if any of the GW stores I frequent said "You can't play here because you bought your newest Immolators from Someone Who Wasn't Me", I'd first ask if he was kidding, and then say "Well, if you'll just wait a second, I have my mobile on me, let's call CS directly and see what they think about you harassing people who support your store - oh, and I suspect I won't be placing any orders through your store today. Or ever, for that matter."

The difference with what the OP describes is two-fold. First, that I've never had that experience - my local store is just happy to see me, pleasant to shop in, and they know if I use one of the tables/painting stations I'll either buy paints or place a token order for something through their store (which, apparently, does contribute to the store's sales figures, since the money passes through their till). Second, that whenever I use the tables in any store, GW or independent, I buy something - it's good manners, and shows appreciation for the fact the store owner is letting me use the facilities. A cinema ticket is about £7.50 for two hours' worth of entertainment - I figure a few hours of gaming is worth about the same in paint.

PhantomViper wrote:

nkelsch wrote:

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.

But what we are talking about here isn't the same thing.

As GW stores are part of GW PLC, a legally bought GW mini will still represent a profit for the store, albeit indirectly, even if it wasn't bought straight from that exact store!

GW policy and practice often seems antagonistic towards independent stores stocking their stuff and place their stores in competition with them. Furthermore by putting high sales targets on their own managers, unreasonably high some have claimed, along with mystery shoppers and generally operating their staff in a state of fear, they pitch their own shops against each other particularly where several stores operate in a small area. This leads to some managers getting carried away and making demands that people buy GW product directly from their store rather than other stores or online, and scrapping anything that doesn't involve immediately pushing product instead of fostering a community and consumer loyalty. It sounds more like desperation than anything resulting from difficult working targets, and reflects the general GW approach of putting short term gain over long term.

The idea is that with customer loyalty and community they will come back time and again to buy a stream of products. But so many incidents result from staff focusing on selling one item right now and not valuing customer retention. It's no good selling well today if no one wants to come back.

 MRPYM wrote:


The particular reason why the manager got stroppy was because I bought my eldar codex and wraithguard at a FLGS recently and I do mean recently.

I was more distressed when he told me he checked my account to see if I bought those models at any GW location.

The full situation as far as I recall was this:

I come into the store for a game against another dakkanite (this store was the only place he could go to). I see the manager and we banter for a bit, he then asks about what I am bringing, I say eldar and I have the new codex.

He then checks his computer and see's that I did not buy my codex from any GW store. He brings me aside and asks where I bought my codex. I tell him the truth.

After telling him the truth he goes into a speech about whether what I did was ethical. He says that what was I doing caused the closure of another GW I liked alot and that I have responsibility to make sure that his store stays open and that he keeps his job so he can feed his family.

The problem is I saw this coming a mile away. Here is another thread I made that explains what I saw coming http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/531008.page

Unbelievable. Explain to him the virtues of free market capitalism, and the dangers of alienating your customer base.

ever since GW US basically closed all the stores in the state of Virginia I've heard one story after another about... "dubious" business practices on the part of GW. In my case the in-store policies are rather mute as the closest GW store is over an hour away from me. Overall GW's current business model does seem to be gravitating more and more toward "We want your money. Period. If it doesn't involve you giving us money, we don't want to hear it."

I do buy at the store I go to. I usually have to buy each time I go to game, because it's a long drive to get there.

I've never once been asked to leave for not having purchased something, my stores manager even allowing me to proxy some HQ's while they were getting delivered (which is only reasonable, I mean, it's not my fault I don't have the models I've bought yet.)

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...

The key point you forgot, for way McDonalds is a dumb comparison. McDonalds store are NOT owned by McDonalds Company, they are owned by little guys leasing the rights to the name. EVERY GW is owned by GW on the other hand, no where near the same type of business.

 loki old fart wrote:


Ever been asked for a post code?. because that can generate shopping info

I usually don't give them my local post code. I also don't have a GW account. I simply order things to the store and keep my receipts well kept.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Grimtuff wrote:

Mythal wrote:
I'm not entirely sure the thread title make sense - a single event doesn't indicate a trend...

Do a search. You will see that there are literally hundreds of reports like this from across the globe on various forums. Whilst this may not be "company policy" per se; this edict has come from *somewhere* and managers are enforcing it as much as they see is acceptable.

Sure looks like a trend to me.

In relation to:

 Monster Rain wrote:
There are thousands of posts about reptilian shapeshifters impersonating celebrities and public officials on the web as well.

Just sayin'.

That's a reduction to absurdity. IT doesn't make his point less valid. The trend is indicated by what he's saying.

 Scipio Africanus wrote:

That's a reduction to absurdity. IT doesn't make his point less valid. The trend is indicated by what he's saying.

I couldn't resist quoting your sig for this thread, btw.

"Anecdotal evidence is fallacious at best. Stop using it to prove points that aren't true. "

These horror stories about awful GW managers play well to a crowd hostile to GW, but it's difficult to tell how much truth is behind any of them, or what other factors might be in place.

As I mentioned earlier, if the OP was not only buying his stuff elsewhere, but telling others to do the same... then arguably the manager is justified in his position, given that if the store doesn't make any money GW will shut it down and there won't be anywhere to play. Alternately, if the OP is just a nob, then maybe the manager is cooking up a reason to force him out. Hell, maybe the OP smells bad. In my time I maneuvered people out the door for exactly those reasons.

It's equally possible that the OP is telling the truth, and that that particular GW has an overly aggressive manager. But I've never had what I'd call a "bad" experience in a GW store, and I haven't spent any serious money in one of them since they closed the old one on South Street in Philly. And that was almost twenty years ago. My anecdotal evidence is that every GW employee I've ever met has been perhaps overly enthusiastic as a salesman, but never too aggressive, and never provided bad customer service.

Occasionally woefully ignorant about the workings of their own games, pushing the new thing rather than helping a customer make an intelligent choice, and often what I'd term "overly friendly", but that's pretty much par for the course with most sales staff, really. I don't lump that in with bad customer service, just typical customer service.

Though there is one thing posted earlier that I'd like to address:

 Ravenous D wrote:

- GWs old head trainer told a manager friend of mine that he should "Kick out all his regulars and start a new customer base" ...

Yeah, I've done that. See earlier statement about people being obnoxious. And I know I'm not the only one that's done it, even in a relatively small radius it's happened several times.

For that matter, one of the kids I taught how to play ultimately wound up running a GW store. When he first started working, a lot of the previous regulars basically wound up boycotting the store because he wasn't the old manager. He was kinda upset over it, and we talked about it a few times, but a funny thing happened.

His player base expanded rapidly over the following weeks.

The old group had been exclusive, obnoxious, victory-driven, and openly hostile at times. They'd kept away a huge portion of the store's clientele, who came back in droves once they found out that the old crew wasn't going to be around.

You can call it a lack of loyalty to long-term customers, but if those same customers are actually hurting your sales, you need to either get rid of them, or find some way to forcibly change the dynamic.

kb305 wrote:
so much BS. who would have thought little plastic men could be such serious business. politics, drama, people getting kicked out, sales targets, starving store managers and their families with a healthy side of privacy invasion and datamining.

oh my it all sounds like so much fun. im shocked that gw doesnt have more customers.

they should invent the new citadel finecontract. for only 100 bucks a month you automatically get whatever new crap they release delivered right to your door. It's only for three years, sign here. they can hang out with the sleazy cellphone people and sleazy gym membership guys. Put all the shops/gyms into one giant sleaze mall. Keep all the sleaze together.

+1 to this.

Have fun, sell your soul- play with plastic and save the world.


OP, feth that guy. Let that store close and dance in the ruins.

The fact that this "Managing tool" has such a high opinion as to spin this into some sort of drama on the microcosm of the HHHobby leans that you never go back there again and tell your pals of the evil of capitalism.

Games and hobby's cover a broad spectrum...

 Kanluwen wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:

nkelsch wrote:

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.

But what we are talking about here isn't the same thing.

As GW stores are part of GW PLC, a legally bought GW mini will still represent a profit for the store, albeit indirectly, even if it wasn't bought straight from that exact store!

That is not true. The stores individually have a 'sales target', which if not met can (and usually does) result in the manager/employee being fired.

Not to mention the fact that GW purportedly utilizes mystery shoppers as a way of keeping tabs on their staff members and to ensure they are 'sticking to the script'.

Yup I can vouch about this comment to be correct as I know about the sales number targets that stores must meet..

Also I have seen my own numbers on what I purchased at a GW store. I actually buy very little at a GW store now, but enough to at least I'm able to come to that store and see a few people.

I'm not worried about it as other markets do track your data on what you are buying.

Once again I am going into bat for GW.



I have never had a bad experiance at a GW store.
I have never been asked to leave the store, or for that matter have I ever witnessed anyone being asked to leave.
I do not understand where these tales of aggression towards customers from GW staff come from.
I have only ever had a good time at a GW outlet.

The problem here is, somebody has a bad time at a store (does not matter if its GW or not) and they will tar the whole company with that one brush. They will log onto the internet forums and bad mouth the company, trying to do as much damage as they can. If people would put the same amount of effort into praising and recognising when good work is done, I am sure we would all live in a happier place.

Stop looking for the negatives all the time, maybe try entering the store on a positive and not already with a pre concieved notion that your experiance will be a negative one.

PS: My local store is GW Castle Hill, Sydney. The managers name is Troy. Its a small store but I always feel welcome there, I am always greeted with a smile and a 'how's your day?". They are prepared to talk to me if I purchase something or not. For that reason I will usually purchase a product or some paints.

 Bloodmagic wrote:
Once again I am going into bat for GW.



I have never had a bad experiance at a GW store.
I have never been asked to leave the store, or for that matter have I ever witnessed anyone being asked to leave.
I do not understand where these tales of aggression towards customers from GW staff come from.
I have only ever had a good time at a GW outlet.

The problem here is, somebody has a bad time at a store (does not matter if its GW or not) and they will tar the whole company with that one brush. They will log onto the internet forums and bad mouth the company, trying to do as much damage as they can. If people would put the same amount of effort into praising and recognising when good work is done, I am sure we would all live in a happier place.

Stop looking for the negatives all the time, maybe try entering the store on a positive and not already with a pre concieved notion that your experiance will be a negative one.

PS: My local store is GW Castle Hill, Sydney. The managers name is Troy. Its a small store but I always feel welcome there, I am always greeted with a smile and a 'how's your day?". They are prepared to talk to me if I purchase something or not. For that reason I will usually purchase a product or some paints.

If GW has a company actually put the effort into attracting me as a customer to their stores I would absolutely defend their positive actions. As it stands the closest GW establishment is an hour away from me at optimal conditions. One mild traffic hick up and that time can shoot up to 2 hours. EACH WAY! The next closest location I have is 3 hours away. There used to be 5 GW locations with in an hour's drive of my house. All but one of them have been closed. So I'm left with how the company treats me when I order something. Express shipping: If I'm lucky I'll get the item in question 10 days later. Appoc release in this coming friday. The local gaming store is already sold out of copies of the book. So I pre-ordered it from GW. Want to bet I won't get my hands on the copy I pre-ordered before the 23? 'But I can get it faster and with free shipping if I have it sent to the GW store' yeah... remember that whole hour's drive thing? Yeah it's 35 miles and 35 miles back. Roughly 1.5 gallons of gas each way. And at 3.75 per gallon.... that 'free shipping' is costing me $12 and between 3 and 5 hours of my day. To travel to a store that has exactly 3 tables: 1 demo table, a painting table and what appears to be a display table as there's simply no way to actually play on it with that ginormous castle on it (Don't get me wrong it looks fantastic. The staff did a great job of building it) and 2 employees, one of which is a tournament player and is either incapable of thinking outside of competitive play or refuses to do so, while the other one on his best day will answer a question with "Trust me. it's a bad idea". Don't misunderstand me. The first guy is freaking godly when it comes to list building. There are times I think he just loads all the codecies into his brain throw a brain stem implant like the matrix ("I Know Tau. woah") and the other guy is great when it comes to painting advise. So in those regards I don't mind turning to them. But again, getting that advice is going to cost me $12 and 3-5 hours of my day.

So now I'm back to ordering the product. And waiting 10-12 days to get the "free express shipping".... I'm sorry. GW as a company does not appear to be interested in maintaining a presence in my region so I can not defend what is not present to be seen.

Maverike_prime wrote:
And at 3.75 per gallon....

$3.75 a gallon?

You pay $3.75 a GALLON?!

I pay $2 a LITRE...

nkelsch wrote:
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.

He's not a NON-customer though, he has genuine GW items. He may have not bought them from THAT store but he is still a customer. At least, that's the impression given from the back of all the books telling you to pop into hobby centres.

I'm all for pay where you play, but banning people purely for buying some of it elsewhere is extreme and counter productive. If they were otherwise being a bad egg then fair enough, but GW needs to encourage people into their stores and encouraging them to buy rather than kicking them out.

In that position I'd have been asking why he bought there and not from me. It might have just been stock issues or gift vouchers or a gift or something, or it may be a problem that needs to be addressed.

Herzlos wrote:

nkelsch wrote:

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

He's not a NON-customer though, he has genuine GW items. He may have not bought them from THAT store but he is still a customer. At least, that's the impression given from the back of all the books telling you to pop into hobby centres.

yes, but he's also portraying a situation in a misleading way.

In his opening post the OP makes out this was a one-off, the manager data-mined him then threw him out. In his previous thread, it's obvious he's been in the GW stores loads of times, the manager has noticed he never buys so much as a pot of paint, and has taken umbrage. From the strange way in which the OP has gradually given us more information only when asked, I wonder if there's another issue there, too. The offer on the back of codex that you should pop into a store is not a blank cheque giving you the entitlement to stay in a store, and contribute nothing, for ever. That contribution, of course, might only be a good attitude.

But he still asserts that he hasn't been in that GW for months, and rarely uses it. So based on that it's unlikely the manager has noticed this and taken umbridge. It's probably more annoyance at someone having a new codex and giant kit he doesn't remember selling.

It's possible that he normally buys in an FLGS and plays in a different GW though.

Herzlos wrote:
But he still asserts that he hasn't been in that GW for months, and rarely uses it. So based on that it's unlikely the manager has noticed this and taken umbridge. It's probably more annoyance at someone having a new codex and giant kit he doesn't remember selling.

It's possible that he normally buys in an FLGS and plays in a different GW though.

The OP has stated in various threads that he's been going to that GW for some time.

 MRPYM wrote:
I ask because I am worried that my local GW will check thier records and see I did not buy any of my new eldar stuff from any gw store. After finding out ban me from the store.

My local GW manager has a history of threatening to kick me out of the store if I do not buy anything or game.

the OP is also clairvoyant. I see there is some debate here on how GW can track your purchases, but even before it happened the OP somehow knew that the manager would look him up on the surveillance system.

Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:

 MRPYM wrote:
I ask because I am worried that my local GW will check thier records and see I did not buy any of my new eldar stuff from any gw store. After finding out ban me from the store.

My local GW manager has a history of threatening to kick me out of the store if I do not buy anything or game.

the OP is also clairvoyant. I see there is some debate here on how GW can track your purchases, but even before it happened the OP somehow knew that the manager would look him up on the surveillance system.

'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice...

My 2 cents.

I wouldn't feel right about playing on a store's tables that I haven't purchased anything from in a while.

They are a business and rent isn't free. Providing a place to play is certainly not a mandatory thing, it's just a nice bonus to customers.

I used to buy from the internet; but since I've been going to the local stores to play I don't anymore. By purchasing at the store I play at I'm letting the manager know that there is interest in his product (so he keeps the tables going) and I'm helping keep the lights on. Heck, I don't even bring my own drinks as the local stores sell water bottles and soda.

That said, I don't game or buy from GW stores at all - even though there are two within easy driving distance of me. They're league games are pretty disorganized and it's a rare day they have a tournament as they simply don't have the room. It's hard to do a tournament with 12 or 16 players if you only have 1 available table... Two of my local non-GW stores have at least 5 tables always ready to go; one has room for 6 more.

Point is, if you are going to game at a particular store then do the right thing and buy from them. If you don't want to buy from them don't game there. It's the right thing to do.

I've tried a few stores in Germany now. A friend of me told me Madgeburg is pretty good. I go to Berlin 2, which is real FLGS with a great manager and team. Something I've started to dislike is Potsdam, which has gotten a similar mindset to the one the OP mentioned; at least when I stopped visiting there.

So yes, some store owners can be jerks, but just as much can there be nice people who really get involved with the community.

I'm a little curious on how the GW guy checks all the GW stores myself. Or, for that matter, how he checked the OP's "account", since there's no compulsion to enter specific information if you're not special ordering something.

This particular bit of the story reeks of fabrication, to be honest. I mean, the manager might have had the guy's name and phone number for ordering purposes, but even if he had that information memorized (bizarre for a customer who apparently doesn't spend much money at the store, by the OP's account), it would be impossible for him to know if the OP hadn't just picked it up at another store without giving out that information, IF such a company-wide instantly-accessible database even exists.

Wether the OP brought this on himself, I'm not sure. But I feel for his dilemma. He needs to sort things out.
Sofar he's been supporting a store by buying from them, but not gaming there as much as he'd like. And not supporting a store where they play 40k.
Options
1 Suck up to the GW manager by buying stuff from his store.
2 Have a word with his FLGS about not been able to get a game there.(could they be doing more to support 40k?).
3 Form a club or build a table at home, and buy from wherever he likes.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Raesvelg wrote:
I'm a little curious on how the GW guy checks all the GW stores myself. Or, for that matter, how he checked the OP's "account", since there's no compulsion to enter specific information if you're not special ordering something.

This particular bit of the story reeks of fabrication, to be honest. I mean, the manager might have had the guy's name and phone number for ordering purposes, but even if he had that information memorized (bizarre for a customer who apparently doesn't spend much money at the store, by the OP's account), it would be impossible for him to know if the OP hadn't just picked it up at another store without giving out that information, IF such a company-wide instantly-accessible database even exists.

The op told him where he bought the codex etc from quote "The particular reason why the manager got stroppy was because I bought my eldar codex and wraithguard at a FLGS recently and I do mean recently.

He brings me aside and asks where I bought my codex. I tell him the truth.

After telling him the truth he goes into a speech about whether what I did was ethical. "

 Raesvelg wrote:
I'm a little curious on how the GW guy checks all the GW stores myself. Or, for that matter, how he checked the OP's "account", since there's no compulsion to enter specific information if you're not special ordering something.

This particular bit of the story reeks of fabrication, to be honest. I mean, the manager might have had the guy's name and phone number for ordering purposes, but even if he had that information memorized (bizarre for a customer who apparently doesn't spend much money at the store, by the OP's account), it would be impossible for him to know if the OP hadn't just picked it up at another store without giving out that information, IF such a company-wide instantly-accessible database even exists.

When you first buy something at a GW you give your name, from that point on every single thing you buy in your country is recorded. All you need to do to look it up is type in the name and you have his entire ordering history. I worked at GW, its not hard, we did it all the time to help parents buy gifts for their kids on stuff they wanted.

 Ravenous D wrote:

 Raesvelg wrote:
I'm a little curious on how the GW guy checks all the GW stores myself. Or, for that matter, how he checked the OP's "account", since there's no compulsion to enter specific information if you're not special ordering something.

This particular bit of the story reeks of fabrication, to be honest. I mean, the manager might have had the guy's name and phone number for ordering purposes, but even if he had that information memorized (bizarre for a customer who apparently doesn't spend much money at the store, by the OP's account), it would be impossible for him to know if the OP hadn't just picked it up at another store without giving out that information, IF such a company-wide instantly-accessible database even exists.

When you first buy something at a GW you give your name, from that point on every single thing you buy in your country is recorded. All you need to do to look it up is type in the name and you have his entire ordering history. I worked at GW, its not hard, we did it all the time to help parents buy gifts for their kids on stuff they wanted.

I'd love to see them look up my entire order history .. I've never given my name (despite a half dozen purchases at the local GW myself in the past year) outside of my first name only (And good luck looking up an order history throughout the country based on nothing more than "James").

People keep saying this .. but ignoring the fact that unless the customer willingly gives the information (more than enough to ACTUALLY look up a particular person) it's just not probable (or even possible). It's entirely on the customer to give or withhold that information.

In any case .. this thread seems to be going in circles. I'm out.

 Raesvelg wrote:
I'm a little curious on how the GW guy checks all the GW stores myself. Or, for that matter, how he checked the OP's "account", since there's no compulsion to enter specific information if you're not special ordering something.

This particular bit of the story reeks of fabrication, to be honest. I mean, the manager might have had the guy's name and phone number for ordering purposes, but even if he had that information memorized (bizarre for a customer who apparently doesn't spend much money at the store, by the OP's account), it would be impossible for him to know if the OP hadn't just picked it up at another store without giving out that information, IF such a company-wide instantly-accessible database even exists.

the ability to track sales on a per customer basis is hardly new or even noteworthy. Every retail based company I have ever worked for had some means to tracks sales with varying degrees of capability. Whether or not Games Workshop has this capacity is not a question of ability. The ability absolutely exists without question. The question is weather the company, and more to the point the individual store employees, chooses to implement it. When I did have a local GW store they absolutely recorded all my purchases. The manager and I had a running joke that at the end of the month he'd tally up his PnL statements that would read "Column 1: Sales, Column 2: Costs. Column 3: profits, Column 4: Mav's contribution to Column 3". That being said the now one GW store that isn't multiple hours away does not consistently implement the tracking. Sometimes they ask for your phone number. If you give it they type it in and viola. Another tick on your record. if not they just ignore it and move on.

Maverike_prime wrote:

 Bloodmagic wrote:
Once again I am going into bat for GW.



I have never had a bad experiance at a GW store.
I have never been asked to leave the store, or for that matter have I ever witnessed anyone being asked to leave.
I do not understand where these tales of aggression towards customers from GW staff come from.
I have only ever had a good time at a GW outlet.

The problem here is, somebody has a bad time at a store (does not matter if its GW or not) and they will tar the whole company with that one brush. They will log onto the internet forums and bad mouth the company, trying to do as much damage as they can. If people would put the same amount of effort into praising and recognising when good work is done, I am sure we would all live in a happier place.

Stop looking for the negatives all the time, maybe try entering the store on a positive and not already with a pre concieved notion that your experiance will be a negative one.

PS: My local store is GW Castle Hill, Sydney. The managers name is Troy. Its a small store but I always feel welcome there, I am always greeted with a smile and a 'how's your day?". They are prepared to talk to me if I purchase something or not. For that reason I will usually purchase a product or some paints.

If GW has a company actually put the effort into attracting me as a customer to their stores I would absolutely defend their positive actions. As it stands the closest GW establishment is an hour away from me at optimal conditions. One mild traffic hick up and that time can shoot up to 2 hours. EACH WAY! The next closest location I have is 3 hours away. There used to be 5 GW locations with in an hour's drive of my house. All but one of them have been closed. So I'm left with how the company treats me when I order something. Express shipping: If I'm lucky I'll get the item in question 10 days later. Appoc release in this coming friday. The local gaming store is already sold out of copies of the book. So I pre-ordered it from GW. Want to bet I won't get my hands on the copy I pre-ordered before the 23? 'But I can get it faster and with free shipping if I have it sent to the GW store' yeah... remember that whole hour's drive thing? Yeah it's 35 miles and 35 miles back. Roughly 1.5 gallons of gas each way. And at 3.75 per gallon.... that 'free shipping' is costing me $12 and between 3 and 5 hours of my day. To travel to a store that has exactly 3 tables: 1 demo table, a painting table and what appears to be a display table as there's simply no way to actually play on it with that ginormous castle on it (Don't get me wrong it looks fantastic. The staff did a great job of building it) and 2 employees, one of which is a tournament player and is either incapable of thinking outside of competitive play or refuses to do so, while the other one on his best day will answer a question with "Trust me. it's a bad idea". Don't misunderstand me. The first guy is freaking godly when it comes to list building. There are times I think he just loads all the codecies into his brain throw a brain stem implant like the matrix ("I Know Tau. woah") and the other guy is great when it comes to painting advise. So in those regards I don't mind turning to them. But again, getting that advice is going to cost me $12 and 3-5 hours of my day.

So now I'm back to ordering the product. And waiting 10-12 days to get the "free express shipping".... I'm sorry. GW as a company does not appear to be interested in maintaining a presence in my region so I can not defend what is not present to be seen.

Yup. In my current area they had 5 stores and now there is only two. All of the good managers that I know do not get past the 5th year of employment. They are under the gun to make there monthly and yearly quota. But how can you make those quotas if the corporation hamstrings you as described above?

What's left are people who are under pressure to perform. This at times make people complete jerks. I'm not defending the corporation. I hate the higher ups because of the complete disconnect from their customer base. Nor I am defending the actions of those managers that are more of a feth than what a manager should be.

I'm just letting people know that because of the string of policies starting at 2010 to current has placed a lot of pressure to perform on the backs of the GW store managers (as well as sales).