Ok last two and then I'm tapped of good ones. Day to day life at Gamestop has always made me want to see a movie like Clerks made from the view of the video game employees. It would be quite funny at the stupidity we see. We sell a tech related product for the masses, yet even the masses have a hard time figuring out the Wii. I seriously don't know how many times I have had to explain the difference between a persons cable modem, their PC, a router and a wireless router to get their consoles online. I seriously explained this to a grandma and her grandchild about 45 minutes one day. I finally just said call Time Warner, get the Lynksis router, run a long ethernet cable and it'll be easiest.
Sheesh
Ok this one will be kind of lengthy I think:
The "What did you put in your PS3?!?!" Story
Ah the PS3, so much confusion on what games it can play. PSone, sure, PS2 maybe? Fully, partial, none... backwards compatibility is a crap shoot for the unknowing consumer. That's our job to help! ... but, sadly, we can't save everyone.
One fine Sunday I was putting games away behind the counter whilst the Asst. Manager at the time was talking about something when he says "Uh oh... trade-in?"
I look up and see soccer mom and her young teen son lugging in a PS3. Would have to say the kid was 14? He looked pretty bummed, mom comforting.
They come in and my associate asked how they might be helped today. The lady nudged the son to say go on, maybe he can help. The boy, with a little bit of effort, placed the black behemoth on the counter. He says:
Kid:Yah, so my PS3 is broken and I was wondering if you can fix it
ASM: Uhm, well what's wrong with it.
Sidenote: ALOT of people claim broken PS3s but usually just have it booted in the wrong mode. If you hold down the power button, you can boot the system in HDMI mode rather the PS brand output. If you don't have an HDMI cable in, your PS3 appears bricks. It's sad how many people we have to explain this too...
Kid: Well, we bought it here and was wondering if we could get it fixed or get another.
ASM: Well ok, when did you buy it?
Mom: about 3 months ago.
ASM: Well if you had a warranty we could replace it, do you?
Mom: No... *looks embarrassed* I don't.
ASM: Sorry, but hey maybe we can help your problem. What's the matter.
Me, I'm only partially listening. You grow immune to stupid after 4 1/2 years in the food industry and 2 years in retail sales. I just kept putting games away (aside: you would be surprised how much the Holiday Help we hire fails at alphabetical skills... or gamecube games in the 360 section).
Kid: Well there's a game stuck in there.
ASM: Oh... well did you try restarting and the such?
Kid: Yah
ASM: Hmm well a bad drive, if you bought it recently Sony should honor it and fix it (Aside: Sony's repair service is the worst out of the three major... and we know this)
Kid: Really?
Mom: Reaaly?
ASM: yah you should give them a call. What game did you get stuck in there?
Kid: Well I know the PS3 plays old Playstation games and so I wanted to play my old PSP game on it, so I stuck it in but ...
The rest just fades away as my ASM and I just do that slow head turn stare to each other.
>_____> <______<
ASM: Uhm, a what game?
Kid: ... Oh uhm, a PSP.
ASM: (He was good at playing along and making people not feel stupid when they really were) Oh, well, hey how did you get that in there?
Kid: Oh well it wouldn't fit in the plastic case, so I just popped it open and slid it in. It made a weird noise and the PS3 wouldn't read it.
ASM: Oh, Yah. I guess it's not supposed to do that
Me, I'm trying hard not to laugh. Kind of that zoned stare.
Kid: Well yah and then it wouldn't get out of there so I tried to use a butter knife to wedge it out.
ASM:... uh butter knife... huh?
I'm reeeaaally going to lose it at this point.
Kid: Yah see, the little flaps there got damaged a bit, but they seem ok.
Mom is just standing listening like this is normal tech talk and that her little son knows all.
ASM: Well, uhm, we don't fix systems here, but if you look in your manual you can get Sony to fix this.
Mom, finally chiming in: OH! Warranty,right!
ASM:... yyyeeah, Warranty (looks to me for support, and just seeing me double over behind the counter trying not to laugh).
Kid: Well ok, we'll do that!
Mom: THANK you so much, you are so nice.
*they leave*
The asm just stands there frozen. A customer walks up and ask.. "uh did that ki"
ASM: Yes... Yes. *shakes his head*
I Lose it.
Never heard back from him.
Worst BRAT ever
Now I dont want to lose my job for naming kids on the internet, but when you refer to this kid by first and last name to your co-workers with that sort of stretched out tone... you know, like you were saying the name of someone you just HATED with every fiber of being, it works best to at least have a name. I'll refer to him as Mike, for fun.
Little Mike thinks he knows games. Little Mike likes to test others about his game knowledge. Little Mike knows how to operate a phone.
Lucky-*#$&ing-us.
So little Mike first started calling asking for trade in values. This is normal. We usually give out a few until it gets obscene and we just tell them we got busy and stop by the store if they have more. Well... as soon as little Mike figures out we are getting to that point he starts asking questions.
"Which is the best Spiderman game?"
"Do you like Spiderman?"
"Which is better, the PS3 or 360?"
"Oh, the 360 is much better, I like Gears, do you like it?"
There are many more STUPID questions, but my intelligence doesn't sink that low to make up some nor do I pay attention enough to remember. We usually made a game out of it to see who could get stuck with him on one of his calls the longest.
The little Mike started coming into the store. We couldn't dodge the little twit then. He had us. It's like he's either that dense or he's that *#$&ing evil.
So what were the worst of little Mike? I'll give two of the best.
Little Mike LOVES Yu-Gi-Oh. So much that he needed the one game on DS we didn't have and was hard to come by. He wanted it from us even though a store 20 minutes away had one. So little Mike called about everyday... for ... ... too long. Eventually, after these sessions, my manager broke down and said that she would order in the game from a store, go and pick it up herself, and bring it in for him. He was thrilled.
So we get said game. It's all ready for him... and he takes TWO WEEKS to show up to get it. When we finally do get it for him he looks at,... flips it around,... reads it, opens it and then puts it back and says "Doesn't have the cards, I want it new".
...
...
....
Long story short, he got the choice of that game or wait. I think he took it.
Then he discovered our trade ins. He could actually bring in those games he always asked to trade in and get more stuff. Great... so he started doing that. More... and more. More little Mike. Great. So eventually he started trading in big stuff until finally... Guitar Hero 3 and 2 guitars for something stupid.
Well ok, so he didn't want it anymore,.. but I guess he forgot to ask his (how does the hell does this happen) attractive older sister if she wanted to still play it. Long story short, Mom found out and was ... not pissed at us? She came in, asked for it back. Well after much deliberation we came to an agreement. Little Mike was NOT allowed any more trade at our store (or even in it) without sis or mom and he got his stuff back. Mom wasn't even angry,... like this sort of behavior was almost typical. You could see in her eyes the desperate cries of "For the love of God, I have to Love this, don't I?" kind of sadness.
We see him much less, now. Thank god.
Short Story
You can see from the other threads I know something about PCs. Just something. Well I love it when real PC gamers come in and we can shoot the crap for an hour about hardware and games and tweaks.
What I hate is the fake PC gamer. The dude who bought his way into our club. He got an alienware and fakes the talk. Makes me angry. The worst guy I ever met was some douche who bought from cyberpowerPC or ibuypower, notoriously bad service companies who lured people in with great prices but shady practices and parts. The guy was all happy that he bought 2 7800 GX2s for some ungodly amount, which while the GX2 has always been a bastardized and I remember, unlike now with the good deal 9800GX2, were undercut by higher ups in the 7000 family and were seen as waste of cash.
My fave thing is to make up random statements about PCs that don't really make sense, but to someone who doesn't know what's going on, confused the hell out of them and they try to play it off. Like "How is PCI-e x16 treating you on your Intel chip with an AM2 Socket?" "Oh man you wouldn't believe it, GREAT!".
Yah... right.
or the fact one of them upgraded for Two Worlds. XD
Whew, that's a lot of story telling. If I think of other goodies, I'll let you know, but those are the major ones or at least the ones that stick out most in my memory. Hope you enjoy and share your own!
