[Glenn Epic]

I asked one of the staff members at Electronics Boutique when Psychonauts comes out and he went "huh?", and then searched for it on the system after asking me how to spell it.

[syntheticgerbil]

Aw dude, that's awesome!

[hengst2404]

Actually I had 2 clerks for different gamespots tell me that they had never heard of the game and that it wasn't coming out. SO when i went to the store and pointed it out on the shelf they just kinda played it off like they had a bad phone connection. I get such a kick out of cluless Ebgames and Gamespot employees trying to seell me game manuals and games that I know I won't like.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

They don't get paid much working there, so why should they give good customer service?

[hengst2404]

Why...hmm dunno, maybe because its the right thing to do? They don't get paid enough...quit. Seems to me that if you work at a game store, the store itself would want employees who actually play the games and know the difference between good and bad games. Maybe its the store's fault for hiring the wrong people.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Crappy customer service from sales clerks is almost always telling of how management treats them. Many times if the store you work for abuses you or doesn't appreciate your hard work and dedication, it's almost inevitable that you'll pass on your frustration to your customers. That doesn't happen all the time, but you have to admit, if your employer treats you badly or at least negligently and you still treat your customers heartily well, then your employer does NOT deserve you, and you DESERVE to work elsewhere that treats you better.

Trust me on this, I have over ten years worth of retail experience and many customer commendations.

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by hengst2404

Maybe its the store's fault for hiring the wrong people.

Most EB stores can't hire who they want off the street, gamers who know what they're talking about. Its the EB chain policy that applications for jobs must be made to the EB management who do the picking of who's 'ok' off of a CV and then a list is sent back to the store managers who hire from that (they can interview those candidates but still their choices are limited).

As for this particular query I can also sympathise with the store, what do you want them to tell you when no one else has a friggen clue when Psychonauts will be released in PAL format let alone shipped to Australia.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Crunchy in milk

As for this particular query I can also sympathise with the store, what do you want them to tell you when no one else has a friggen clue when Psychonauts will be released in PAL format let alone shipped to Australia.

I think Glenn was actually saying that the sales clerk didn't even know what Psychonauts was.

[Captain_Tuttle]

Not sure how on topic this is, though I'll try to make it, "Make the worker was depressed about the EB - Gamestop merger and thought in consolidation he'd lose his job, thus was fully working" Incidently doesn't anyone know anything more about this, have the EB shareholders agreed to this, given the Gamestop offer I wouldn't doubt that they would but hey you never know, just wondering if anyone has any further info on this

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I haven't noticed any further news on this.

[Elton28]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Crappy customer service from sales clerks is almost always telling of how management treats them. Many times if the store you work for abuses you or doesn't appreciate your hard work and dedication, it's almost inevitable that you'll pass on your frustration to your customers. That doesn't happen all the time, but you have to admit, if your employer treats you badly or at least negligently and you still treat your customers heartily well, then your employer does NOT deserve you, and you DESERVE to work elsewhere that treats you better.

Trust me on this, I have over ten years worth of retail experience and many customer commendations.

I couldn't agree more Trep, having about 10 years retail/customer service experience myself.

[MDMaster]

I have a full carnet of history with dumb employers at game shops, but at least the dumb ones are gentler than the run-of-the-mill cleark that doesn't know/care/whatever.
One of my favourites goes like this, too bad I'm not the main character:

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

Excuse me, how much does the guide for Manhunt cost?

The guide for Manhunt? Never heard of it.

But trust me, it does exist, I saw it on various sites and on Prima homepage.

Prima homepage? Yeah, right. Well, I don't have it, so it doesn't exist.

----------------
So, of course he ended up buying it from an online shop.
And then someone even has the guts of saying people shouldn't buy stuff outside of their country because it doesn't help the national economy.

It's always been a bit of a dream of mine to work at EB. You know, just so I could guide knobs to the right path of gaming.

[sideburnmania]

Originally Posted by SamNMax

It's always been a bit of a dream of mine to work at EB. You know, just so I could guide knobs to the right path of gaming.

Working at Eb isn't all that glamorous. I worked there on and off for 5 years.
Once I had to setup and organise all the ps2's and games, accesories when it was 1st launched because the manager was "sick". And then getting up early
to help with the ps2 launch where it was crazily busy. I was sick afterwards, and I didn't wan't to see a ps2 for about 2 weeks. This kind of scared me a little cuz I've always been a gamer and now I didn't want to do anything with it.

And for Glenn dissing how the guy hadn't heard of pyschonauts, well, let me say it's impossible to know of every game/cult game in every genre. Often people think you work in a games store, you should know, but in reality we all have our favourite genres. I consider myself a fairly big gamer but there occasionaly is some game I have never heard about. Why am I gonna know about some cult RTS title when I have no interest in them whatsoever? If it's a mainstream title, then I may have heard about it, but I think your expectations are a bit unreasonable.

Workers are humans, they aren't linked up physcially to a thorough games database . Yeah, it may be annoying when a clerk in a games store doesn't know you're favourite title. But to go and brag/laugh about it on a message board isn't much better.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by sideburnmania

And for Glenn dissing how the guy hadn't heard of pyschonauts, well, let me say it's impossible to know of every game/cult game in every genre. Often people think you work in a games store, you should know, but in reality we all have our favourite genres. I consider myself a fairly big gamer but there occasionaly is some game I have never heard about. Why am I gonna know about some cult RTS title when I have no interest in them whatsoever? If it's a mainstream title, then I may have heard about it, but I think your expectations are a bit unreasonable.

No, that's not what I would focus on. Yes, the clerk had never heard of Psychonauts, but that's not where his fault lies. His fault - and the fault of the company he works for - is how he followed up on it. If that guy were me I would have bent over backwards trying to see if Glenn would be interested in waiting a few days if my store specially ordered Psychonauts for him. In the interim I would personally research the game, starting with asking Glenn more about it, and if there's even a shadow of a possibility that others walk in and ask about it, I would order a few copies for my store. Finally, I would issue Glenn a coupon granting him a discount on the next game he buys from me along with an apology for not already carrying Psychonauts for him. THAT is superlative customer service from me.

Glenn, would you want to shop at my store after that?

[Glenn Epic]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

No, that's not what I would focus on. Yes, the clerk had never heard of Psychonauts, but that's not where his fault lies. His fault - and the fault of the company he works for - is how he followed up on it. If that guy were me I would have bent over backwards trying to see if Glenn would be interested in waiting a few days if my store specially ordered Psychonauts for him. In the interim I would personally research the game, starting with asking Glenn more about it, and if there's even a shadow of a possibility that others walk in and ask about it, I would order a few copies for my store. Finally, I would issue Glenn a coupon granting him a discount on the next game he buys from me along with an apology for not already carrying Psychonauts for him. THAT is superlative customer service from me.

Glenn, would you want to shop at my store after that?

Now that's what I'm talking about

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Oh, and I almost forgot: a free store t-shirt for you for your troubles.

[SakSquash]

I had to spell it 4 times for the guy at gamestop, and every time I called to see if it was in. The preorder box was right by the desk!

[Glenn Epic]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Oh, and I almost forgot: a free store t-shirt for you for your troubles.

Yay!!!

You are right though. The problem lies in his approach, not the fact that he didn't know the game. When he asked me to spell it, it was said in such a way that implied "I've never heard of it before, therefore it doesn't exist".

Maybe I should have explained that a little better sideburnmania.

Anyway, when are you opening your gaming store Trep? I'm there!!!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

I had to spell it 4 times for the guy at gamestop, and every time I called to see if it was in. The preorder box was right by the desk!

That's so pathetically ironic, because in their website the game is prominently displayed. At the Gamestop I went to in Chicago, the manager knew exactly what game it was. The only thing was that he had to check if there were any non-preorder copies for me, I just walked in off the street. Another annoying thing is that stupid policy of filing the actual discs so that each console game sold to you has been opened by them, the seal is broken . But at least they had the game.