Report me to Nintendo? Go for it.

so we got some Wiis the other day. Nintendo and the distributors like to gouge us little guys, so we have to buy from our suppliers in bundles. Not like good bundles either, I'm talkin like wii system at $248 and then 15 chicken shot games at $46. So we get royally screwed when we want to have Wii's in stock. Not that that happens too much with Nintendo fabricating this shortage.



Well you probably get it by now that we make little to no moneys (a lot of time negative numbers.) on the Wii. For this reason the owner has decided to make us force a bundle on anyone who buys a Wii from us. $250 for the system, but they must also purchase an additional $200 worth of stuff to put the total cost at $450. That may seem pretty bad, but after you think about what Nintendo charges for their Wii Remote and Nunchucks its not too bad. If you buy 2 Wiimotes with 2 Nunchucks and one $50 game, you already got it right there. most people buy that much anyway. also as much as i hate this forced bundle, compared to other places that choose what the bundle is for you, I think we aren't too bad.



so........



We have i sign on the front door that says "Wii Now in Stock!". It hadn't to this point got much attention from people.



Later in the day a nice family comes in and their kid was trading in his old N64 stuff. Me and his dad were having a good conversation about how he had work in a similar store years ago and how the value of things just drops like crazy etc. cool guy. As i scan in his sons item to trade, another lady comes running in the door and runs up to the counter.



She yells over our conversation.


"YOU HAVE WIIS!?!?"


"Yes we do."


"I'll take it!!!"


"Ok, Just so you know I do have to sell them in a bundle. its 250 for the wii but you must also purchase another $200 worth of items with it to make the total at least $450."


her eye lids start to tweak a bit, i can only assume out of anger.


"NO, I'll just take the Wii."


"I''m sorry the only way I'm allowed to sell it is the way i previously mentioned."


now the cool guy i was speaking with earlier entered in to help me out.


"Yeah, I was just at circuit city and they are doing the same thing too, except they choose what you get."


now this was an outright lie but I most definitely appreciated the assistance. but she was still very mad.


"Well I'm not buying here than!!"


and she stormed out with the entire family laughing at her as she left (they were purposely trying to be noticed by her and I think it worked).


after the incident I chated some more with the cool guy and he shared some stories with me that if they had happend to me would get 3 pages worth of space here on this blog. I eventually finished his sons trade and they left. Steve came back from the store at this point and I told him about the lady. as he went into the back to eat some food i see a car pull up. Its none other than angry wii lady herself. Back with a vengeance!!!


she storms in strait for the counter.


"I just wanted to know if Nintendo knows what you are doing when you force people to bundle theirs systems?"


"I'm really not to sure ma'am."


"Well I'm going to report you to Nintendo."


"OK. be my guest."


"You shouldn't make people bundle the Wii and Nintendo will know about this."

"OK"

"Thats just not fair to make people bundle them! Its not November, its May! I could go to Target right now and get one!"

I'm not to sure why she said it wasn't November, I now that. I think she was trying to say it wasn't December, that would make more sense. And if she could get one at Target, why are we having this conversation?

"I'm sorry ma'am, the reason we have to sell them in a bundle is thats how we are forced to purchase them from Nintendo and our distributors."

Her eye lids of anger started to flair up.

"Well, I'm still reporting you to Nintendo."

"OK."

and then she left.

I can just imagine that call to customer service now...... what and idiot.

-Andi

Reading is hard for parents and children alike.

So a while ago we got traded in a Donkey Konga game + the Bongos for the Gamecube. We decided that just putting the bongos on the ground just wasn't going to cut it, so we got some hooks and raised them so that they were much more visible. One problem with that though; it put the bongos at about shoulder height of the average 6-10 year old kid. What do kids like to do when they see a button? Push it. Kids were beating the crap outa this thing, and beating it so hard it was falling off the hook and hitting the floor pretty hard (while the parents would just look the other way and hope we wouldn't notice).

After about the fifth time it fell we (and by we i mean Steve) decided to put a sign over the bongos saying, "Please do not touch!". A very simple request i would think, and very visible. yet it is still on a regular basis ignored by parent and children who i KNOW know how to read.


So its a fairly average day in terms of traffic. All seems to be going smoothly till this family walks in. The Father had the classic pedophile look to him. The mother had an uncanny resemblance to a certain celebrity that I'm sure just about everyone in the world hates. 2 little girls as well that had to have been in that 6-10 range i mentioned earlier. The kids were jumping all over the place and messing up the racks, and just being plain loud and annoying.

I walk out to greet them and see if i can help them out with anything.

"Hey! Hows it goin guys? Help you out with anything today?"

"..."

pure silence. they look right at me and give me that "mind your own business" look. so after a few seconds i walk back behind the counter to continue working on something. They go for the NDS section and begin reorganizing it. I always hate that but it happens so often I've stopped caring for the most part.

The mom keeps going through the games while the girls get bored and start running around the store. Eventually the Bongos catch their eye. the run as fast as they can and begin pounding on them as hard as they can.

"Hey, can I please get you girls to not play with those bongos?"

they continue to beat them as hard as they can.

"Excuse me girls, can you not hit those bongos, they are for looking only."
i give it a bit more force this time.

Still being ignored and the parents are just sitting there starring into space i take action. I walk over to the bongos that they are still hammering furiously and pick them up off the wall and start heading for behind the counter. I get about half way there and suddenly I hear a big booming voice. I assumed it was the father but to my horror i turn around and find that it was the mother speaking.

"UMM....EXCUSE ME! My daughter were playing with that!"

"Sorry ma'am, we've had problem in the past with kids breaking these so I am going to be putting these behind the counter for now."

This didn't go over well with her at all.

"Well if you didn't want people touching them then maybe you should put up a sign!!"

I stop dead in my tracks, i walk calmly over to the sign that say, "Please do not touch!" it point for a solid 5-6 seconds while starring her dead in the eye. turn, and walk back to the counter. She then walks over to the sign and stares for a bit.

"You just put this sign up didn't you!?!"

"no ma'am, that sign has been there for quite some time now."

"You're lying!"

"Nope."

"Don't lie more! I know you're lying!"

"Sorry, thats signs been there all day."

"You're lying! I want to see the manager now!"

"I am the manager ma'am."

that last sentence shut her up pretty quick. I think she was trying to go for the "angry customer yells at manager till she get free stuff" thing. Good thing I'm immune to such nonsense.

After that little almost shouting match she shut up quick as I mentioned and went to the furthest corner of the store and put herself in it. The father began speaking to me and he wound up buying around $100 worth of stuff. The girls still were being obnoxious though.

why do people act like that? owell, I WIN!!!

-Andi

So you don't want free money...

Thanks for the welcome guys! Ok, for my inaugural post I have something short and to the point...and also just plain inexplicable. Now, many stores have a membership of some kind to save on used game purchases, and we're no different. Except ours is free. Completely, no strings attached, free. For life.

So, a young girl comes in and, naturally, goes straight to the DS section. After looking for awhile she settles on a game, comes to the counter, and hands it to me for purchase.

"Is this all for you?", I ask.

"Yes", she replies simply.

"Do you have a membership wi..." (Rudely cut off.)

"No, and we don't want one!"

Taken aback slightly, I don't press the issue, retrieve her game, and finish the sale, slightly shaking my head.

Now, this isn't the first time morons...er, people have refused our membership, and we continually ask ourselves why when they do. I mean, would you refuse free money?

-Fastidious Steve

The Biggest Tool in the World vs. the Mighty Andi

so before i get into today's story i will introduce our newest poster. As of today the authors will Andi, Brady and our newest worthy employee, Steve. So hopefully this will help us reach that goal of daily posts (yeah I'm looking at you Brady..you lazy......).

so today's story actually happened last Saturday at around 8:30 PM (30 min till close).


well, Saturday was a very busy day for us. many people come in, many people buy things, all leave satisfied, overall good day. around 8 o'clock it slows down significantly so me and Brady decided to catch up on our stack of unsorted trade.

earlier in the day a young mother with her young child came in. while i was speaking with her she allowed her kid to run around knocking things off the wall and yanking on all hooks and wires. needless to say afterwards the store looked like a mob had just come in and thrashed the place. among the dead items left in his wake was the controller for our SNES demo unit. i wasn't too angry because it was about ready to die anyway (wire casing pulled off and many other little kids have hung on it before).

so back to 8 PM. a younger couple comes in. they go strait to the retro section to check our goods. i approach them and give the usual "how you doin'?" they say, "fine. don't need any help", so i walk back behind the counter to continue helping Brady sort trade.

After a few minutes I hear them smacking the FC Twin (NES + SNES in case you didn't know) unit. I look up.

"Is there something i can help you guys with?"

"Yeah, make this work now."

the tone of voice plus the demanding nature instantly made my opinion of they shift from indifferent the extreme hatred. but keep in mind, i keep my cool well, so i seriously doubt my hatred of them was reflected in my response.

"I'm sorry, some little kid came in today and destroyed the controller for the system."
I get into further detail on the inccident and try to make light of it by jokeing how dumb the kid was.

"But we want to try a game now!"

"Sorry about that, we are unable to demo that system right now, but you can still plug them in and watch the demo, or I've played just about everything on that wall, I could review them for you right here."

The guy just ignores me. after a few seconds the Wife/Girlfriend/Local Whore (of the meth variant i believe) throws her 2cents into the conversation. she does the whole "talk to the person next to you but purposely talk loud enough so everyone else can hear you" thing.

"See, they don't care here at this store, Gamestop is SOOOOO much better."

whatever...my blood is boiling but I keep my cool because i know they want an outburst from me, i just know it. They begin to walk around the store some more, they stop at the defective system stand and try the "talk loud" thing again.

"Gamestop's SNESs are so much cheaper."

the defective SNES was priced at $5. Gamestop hasn't sold SNES stuff in around12 years now. at this point i thought that maybe they were being extremely rude on purpose to maybe just mess with me and everyone else. but the comments and the way they were acting was too natural and venomous to be fake in my opinion. and i believe the next few actions prove that hypothesis.

a few more of these "Gamestop is better" comments and they walk out the door. me and Brady vent for a few seconds and agree that he is definitely the story. but to our surprise he reenters the store almost instantly.

"Do you guys have some kind of complait card?"

"No sorry, is there anything I can help you with?"

"yeah i just need some way to get a hold of your manager."

"I am the manager sir."

he musters up the combined power of every douche bag in the universe for this next statement.

"Are you sure?"

I am about ready to leap over the counter and purge the world of this man.

"I am 100% sure."

"well it was pretty rude of you not to let us play those games over there."

"Sir i believe i already explained why we can't let you play and how it happened. The SNES controller is currently broken."

"well....thats poor customer service!"

"Sorry you feel that way, but there is not much i can do."

he trys to stare me down and give me the evil eye but I've had training in the ways of monotone facial expression and i don't budge an inch.

"well here is a controller right here!"

he points to the brand new sealed one on the wall.

"Sorry sir, we can't open brand new ones for the demo unit, store policy."

he doesn't give up.

"Well I know you have some used ones in the back."

"That would be news to me. If we did i would have gladly brought them out here to avoid this conversation sir."

he paces for a bit and then comes back up to the counter.

"well do you have that complaint card I asked for?"

"we don't have any complaint cards."

"Then how do i get a hold of your manager?!?"

"I AM THE MANAGER SIR."

my temper is starting to cool as this is getting pretty humorous. but at the same time pretty annoying so I crack a little and start using a firm voice with this guy. he wanders around and mumble/yells more Gamestop is better nonsense and finally he leaves for good.

now that was a pretty fantastic tale I'd say, but it not quite over yet.

me and Brady have a few laughs about it and I get the rough draft of it all ready in my head. Some more people come in and I make my way out to the floor to help them. As I am having a conversation with a very nice man the phone rings. out of the corner of my eye I see that Brady gets its. I think nothing of it and continue the chat.

After the man leaves i walk back to the counter to see Brady laughing really hard. I gotta know what happened. Apparently our Friend from earlier called back. and this how the conversation went.

" thank you for calling ******** this is Brady, how may I help you?"

"yeah, is this the manager?"

"no but i can get him for you."

"HA! I knew you were lying to me you punk! I caught you red handed!"

I guess Brady recognized the voice quickly and countered.

"umm...no, you were speaking with my manager Andi"

"huh.....but you said you were the manager!"

"I said no such thing, when you came in earlier you were speaking with the manager, Andi."

"umm...fine I'll call back later!" *click*

so after Brady told me this we couldn't wait until he called back. unfortunately he never did.

I'd have to say I've dealt with many morons in my time. I've dealt with many angry people in my time. and many angry morons as well, but this guy took the cake by far. I almost look forward to the day he comes back in and request to see the manager.



there....i think that makes up for not posting for almost a week.

-Andi

boring.....GTA IV DAY!!!!

so the past couple of weeks have been very uneventful, in the ways of morons that is. very busy sales wise, but not much else. i would have really liked to update but if i did that i would just be making up stuff and thats not cool.



so 2 days ago was Grand Theft Auto IV day. it might as well have been a national holiday by how hyped that game was. i gotta say though, i wasn't much of a fan of GTA III and its expansions or spin offs or whatever you wanna call them, but i bought GTA IV and it was actually pretty cool. I'm not gonna write a review or anything but just thought i'd let you know that this is actually a pretty fun game.



anyways.....we get our shipment of GTA IV in about 3 o'clock (supposed to be earlier but FedEx decided to screw us over.). it was flying off the shelves as you can imagine. everyone who bought it looked to be in their mid 20s to late 30s (much facial hair and balding, not to judge, but hey come-on.) so there really wasn't a need to "card" them on it when they bought it. towards the end of the day a small boy, probably like 10-12 years old came in and headed strait for the GTA IV case on the shelf.



"can i help you bro?"



"umm.....I'd like to buy this game."



he plops GTA IV on the counter.....like I'm gonna sell this kid that of all things.



"Sure thing man, you just need your parents here and then i can get this one for you."



he looked very stunned that i would refuse to sell it to just him. he quickly diverted his gaze to his shoes and did not make eye contact the rest of the conversation.



"oh....umm.....thats ok I already have all of them so i can get this one."



oh how many times have i heard that one before...



"Sorry, i either need to see your parents or proof that you are 17 in order for me to sell this to you, especially for GTA IV."



"well...I've played it and i don't think it deserves that rating, so i can buy it anyway"



"There are may games out there that are rated "M" that don't deserve the rating at all, but trust you me, GTA IV DEFINITELY deserves that rating."



just give up kid, your not going to win this.



"umm...well....FYE across the street will sell it to me!"


"Well thats cool, but if you want to buy it here i will need your parents presence or proof that you are 17."


he began mumbling and groaning uncontrollably for about a minute. after that he plopped the game on the counter, walked out the door, and started heading the way OPPOSITE of FYE.

foolish mortal.....I am invincible!!!!