275: Confessions of a GameStop Employee - Part Three

[mr_rubino]

Is this your first time working in retail ever?
Hate to break it to you, but the golden rule is thus: Company policies are inflexible until a hysterical woman walks into your store.

Sounds sexist?
Simple reason for that: It is.
But big companies fear an older woman might walk in whose estrogen levels are a little imbalanced that day and she will throw a very loud and very public tantrum that will reflect badly on them.

Successful companies have mostly given up on the "The customer is always right" nonsense once repeat offenders start losing them a whole lot of money. Mind you, I said successful companies.

 

[Substance-E]

Oh man, the "The rules only apply 'till a loud moron comes in demanding their money back" policy's the absolute worst. I work at a Petsmart and you wouldn't believe how often I have to deal with that bullshit. You tell them the rules for exchanges/returns and they come back 2 weeks later in complete violation of those rules, throw a tantrum and you get chewed out by the boss for not pleasing the 'customer'. Classic....

 

[dochmbi]

Here's a nice "observed" story that I was reminded of reading this. I was shopping in a Gamestop when a little kid comes in, probably 12, with his brother who is even younger, asking for COD4. Naturally (well, I don't know how well most do it, but to me this was an easy choice) he refused. The kid offered his mother's ID and credit card. He told the boy he could not give him the game, he could only give it to someone who is at least 18. The kid says OK. He walks out the door to a minivan parked and idling right in front of the store. He comes back with his mom, who of course left the van there, running, and then begins to berate the employee for making her get out of the car. She tells him to just give him the game, which he says he still can't because of the rating, he can only accept payment and hand the game directly to her. She tells him that he can decide for himself if it's appropriate or not, but it takes a few more minutes of her being pissed off before she just grabs the credit card to buy the game like she's been greatly inconvenienced. It was utterly ridiculous, and of course, the worst part is that the kids were both just standing there the whole time watching this ridiculous display. I rather feel sorry for those kids, though I felt the one at least handled it rather better than his mother did. Hopefully he'll grow up smarter.

Buying Alcohol for your child or for anyone under 18 is a punishable crime here in Finland, supposedly on the basis that drinking alcohol can be harmful to minors and because minors aren't subject to the principles of liberty because they have a limited capability of understandig what is good for themselves. If violent videogames are also potentially harmful to children, shouldn't the same kind of law apply here as well?

 

[Jorias]

Only thing i can say is that everytime i walk into a retail store, the first thing i think about is what i need to buy. The second is to stay friendly with the people that work their, see i think of it this way; i am their buying something from the store, although i am a customer, i am an adult i should act like one. This stupid Soccer mom ***** is like a friggin disease of our generation. I mean seriously, the stupid ***** was told that if she didn't think her kids like it to buy used and she can get her money back....man only in America i tell ya...

 

[mrx19869]

sorry this guy this an idiot, keeping customers happy overrides store and company policy almost all the time. Especially in a place where you can shrink wrap a product to make it like new. Or sell it at used price of 55$ cause ive seen brand new games at a used price of that..

But basically my point is... the customer is always right especially in retail. and game-stop employees are usually retarded. (my prof is in the article)

 

[mr_rubino]

sorry this guy this an idiot, keeping customers happy overrides store and company policy almost all the time. Especially in a place where you can shrink wrap a product to make it like new. Or sell it at used price of 55$ cause ive seen brand new games at a used price of that..

But basically my point is... the customer is always right especially in retail. and game-stop employees are usually retarded. (my prof is in the article)

Ha. That's funny. Your didn't even try to sound convincing and your grasp on sentence structure is abysmal as a bonus. You'd best find some place where that lazy crap will fly if that's the best you can do. This is no place for amateurs.

 

[beema]

This series of articles could easily just be called "My experiences working retail and why it sucks ass."
Not a bad read, but not particularly insightful or unique to gamestop.

 

[UnravThreads]

I work in retail too, currently, although I'm much more focused on stock-based work (i.e. I'm the socially-inept guy in the back room), and whilst I've been lucky in that the customers are generally polite and understanding, you get some really rude people.

I was unwrapping a bunch of catalogues, and a customer tapped me on the back. And when I'd helped her and gone back to what I was doing, she did it again. I think, overall, she did it three or four times.

Oh, and don't get me started on managers and people in places like head office. Most of 'em haven't got a bloody clue, and they wouldn't be able to find their backside if they were given a map.

 

[flipsalty]

anc[is]Um, what the heck does he mean by spiked? Thrown...? Or are there giant spikes conveniently placed about town where he is?

Thrown at the ground, as in spiked a football

 

[BiggityB05]

Ive been on both sides. I used to work in a 36 lane bowling alley, it was a friday night around 730ish. I was the manager that night and had a guy come in with his 14-15 year old daughter and he wanted to have an unschedule birthday party for her and her friends.

Problem is Friday is one of our league bowling nights and it takes up 32 of our 36 lanes. The 4 remaining lanes already had bowlers on it and I had a waiting list going. He could not understand why I couldnt give him lanes to bowl on immediately. I explained to him that I could put him on the waiting list but it would probably be an hour or more wait.

Visibly upset he said he was going to call his wife and see what she wanted to do. I said OK and went on to helping other customers. About 5 minutes later the house phone rings and its the same guy. He begins spewing obscenities at me and accusing me of giving lanes out to a woman because she was a friend of mine and I had no idea what he was talking about. The sense of entitlement is as prevalent as ever.

On the other side of it I was the customer and I was going in to Best Buy to get a new HDTV for video games. I was looking around the TV section and picked out my TV and an employee asked if I needed help. I told him what I was getting the TV for and he told me I needed all of these extra cables and add ons to actually get my games in HD.

He took me over to the video game section with these accesories and to get them wouldve added another $180 to my $800 TV purchase. Now I knew he was BSing me but I wasnt rude or combative with him I just politely said thank you for your help, he walked off, I put the TV down and left. I then went to Conn's the next day, got a bigger TV with better resolution for less.

 

[mr_rubino]

sorry this guy this an idiot, keeping customers happy overrides store and company policy almost all the time. Especially in a place where you can shrink wrap a product to make it like new. Or sell it at used price of 55$ cause ive seen brand new games at a used price of that..

But basically my point is... the customer is always right especially in retail. and game-stop employees are usually retarded. (my prof is in the article)

Ha. That's funny. Your didn't even try to sound convincing and your grasp on sentence structure is abysmal as a bonus. You'd best find some place where that lazy crap will fly if that's the best you can do. This is no place for amateurs.

Way to go for the negative, however it would have been nice if you made comments on what I had to say, and not just the typos I created (yes I probably should have proofread), but thats not my point.

Actually this is a place for amateurs, because none of us get paid.

So if you would like to say something about my opinion here is your chance. I could be wrong but your most likely one of those gamestop employees that I called retarded.

EDIT: People in glass houses should not throw stones... before you criticize my sentence structure maybe you should check your own first..

Well I got you to use capitalization (mostly), but it's not as your reply post actually said anything. You just threw down some half-thought-out sentences and treated them as separate paragraphs. Yeah, I got the whole "herp a derp gamestop" thing from your first post, but this was your chance to elaborate or... y'know... say something relevant.

I'll put it in language easier to understand: You didn't make a point. So it was funny when you said "my point is..." and then just typed out some cliche nonsense that you didn't even make an argument for in the text.

 

[Kavonde]

I personally haven't dealt with a ton of crazy people (hardware/garden supply store grunt, here), but I do get hagglers. Constantly.

"Hey, this display fountain is the last you have, right? Can I get it for 50% off?"

"Hey, these plants are on clearance, I'll buy 'em all for an extra 25% off."

"Hey, this string trimmer's box is open. Can I get a discount?"

Being a lowly grunt myself, I'm only authorized to give a 10% discount; anything more, and I have to call a manager to have them talk to the customer. But there doesn't seem to be any set rule on how much a manager can offer, so sometimes it goes like this...

"Sorry, all we can do is 10% off."

And sometimes it goes like this...

"Well, sure, we can do 50% off. Kavonde here can load it up for you!"

Well, then the guy who successfully haggled a discount goes home and tells his friends, and a few days later, I hear, "Hey, my friend Bob got this mower for $200. Can I get that deal, too?"

Sigh.

 

[red dragon 52]

I was actually able to return a new game I bought at an EB games, but it was a computer game and was never shrink wrapped, and looked like it had been gutted by the store anyway. I never return my new games for my 360.

 

[Neferius]

Hah! He should have taken the game off of her and refunded her for a Used copy ...it would have taught her a Valuable lesson in Life (that you don't always get to have your way) AND she wouldn't have had any excuse to call the District-Manager
-Flawless Victory >

 

[DarkenedWolfEye]

Quite frankly, I don't think idiots should be pandered to. Your manager is a weak-willed loser who is so damn scared of offending ANYONE that he changes the rules just to make entitled bitches feel like they're in the right, when they aren't.

 

[ultrachicken]

My local gamestop let me return a new game, despite the fact that I'd opened it. You see, the man behind the counter made a mistake by saying that a game was four-player splitscreen, when it wasn't. So I bought it, with splitscreen being the only reason I bought it, and forgot to check the box. When I explained that the reason that I'd bought the game in the first place was because of four-player, he said "screw the rules" and gave me my money back. He's also just an all around cool guy, and I hope I didn't get him in trouble or anything.

 

[frags]

Great article. Businesses always bend over backwards. Sometimes its not worth the negativity such an incident can build.

 

[KezzieZ]

Wow. That's just awful. You would think if she was so uncertain, she could've taken up the used just long enough to find out if her kids would like it or not and, if they did, replace the used with a shiny new one if she's so discerning. She did not deserve that refund, especially after throwing the game hard enough to leave a mark in the sidewalk.

Honestly, though, not all used games are bad. In fact, I have several used games that are great. I don't want to undermine younger consumers' tastes or anything but would a young kid really even care that much about the game being used as long as it's in good playable condition? I bet it was more of Soccer Mom's personal image and doting preferences than their own opinion on used copies.

 

[Michael O'Hair]

I hate people like that...who don't listen and then feel entitled.

Spoiled baby boomers and their kids. Everything on a silver plate.

 

[CRoone]

I find it somewhat amusing that, in America, the customer is not allowed to barter or haggle for prices in stores, and yet employees are expected to give them whatever they want in order to keep them happy, even if doing so is against the written rules that the employee is supposedly expected to follow. It just goes to show that when the employee handbook fails, nothing teaches like experience, assuming it doesn't get one fired for doing only what one was told to do in the first place.