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

GAMESTOP WILL GIVE ME MORE!!!!!

more fun in the world of customers who can't read the receipt.

This Lady come in first thing in the morning.

"Hi how are you doing?"

"Good, i'd like to return this game."
Spyro: Hero's Tail PS2 (in case you were wondering)
way to start the day off right....i open the case, the disc is flawless, but give her the benifit of the doubt, just because it common to have this kinda thing happen with PS2 game oddly enough.

"so it wasn't working on your ps2, huh, thats to bad."

"well actually my son here couldn't get past a part. it was too hard for him."
unlucky for her as soon as i heard that i was no longer able to return it. but don't fell too bad, if she'd read the reciept (that she didn't have by the way) she could've avoided this alltogether.

"I'm sorry, we can't return the game just because you didn't like it."

the anger begins to hit her face
"Excuse me?"

"Yes, I'm very sorry, the best I can do at this point is trade it in for the store credit value."

"THATS NOT FAIR!! SO YOU WON'T RETURN HIS GAME HE BOUGHT!"

"I'm very sorry thats the best i can do, our return policy was printed on your reciept."

she seems to calm down a bit but still looks pretty angry.
"Fine, what is the store credit value then"

I begin typeing on the computer to find what the value would be, seeing as she paid only $12.99 i knew it wouldn't be that high. I find it,

"Looks like the store credit value is $5 and $5.50 if you'd like to sign up for a free membership card."

the true anger errupts
"THATS NOT FAIR, GAMESTOP WILL LET HIM RETURN GAMES HE CAN'T BEAT! THATS NOT FAIR!"

"Yes Gamestop has a 7 day trial period, but here we have a try before you buy policy, this is to save YOU the hassle of driving the game home only to find out its to hard for your son, then driving it ALL the way back to return it. With gas as high as it is, that wouldn't be very nice for you."

the whole family looks very confused and i can see a smirk curl on Brady's face as he organizes the disc drawers just out of their sight.

she starts yelling madness and begins talking to the air around her.
"Well.....Does Gamestop trade games, i bet they do, i wonder if they'll give me more, in fact I know they'll give me more, that'll show you."

she grabs the hand of her son who the whole was stareing at our big screen and stomps out. on her way she stops to yell things like "thats not fair" and "I love gamestop". I about had tears coming from my eyes from trying to hold in the laughter.

After this incident me and brady discussed how this would be perfect for todays story (hence me writing it now). but just for laughs we decided to call the nearest gamestop (the one she would most likely have gone to).

"Buy sell trade gamestop this is xxxxx (couldn't hear his name) how can i help you"

I put on my best 12 year old voice
"ummm..yeah...whats the trade-in value on Spyro: hero's tail PS2"

"one Second sir......that'll get you 3 dollars"

me and Brady about explode with laughter. i quickly thank him and hang up.

What a great day.....

-Andi

Grandpa is very Angry

so this grandpa guy comes in pretty often. he always brings his grandkid and his grandkids friend. He usually sits in the cornor and occasionally yells at them to hurry up or not to buy stuff just because, typical grandpa stuff i guess.

so after about 30 mins of these kids browsing they leave with nothing. as they leave i hear the grandpa guy say something to the effect of "we can come back tomorrow" or something like that.

so a couple of minutes latter they pull back up right in front of the store. i can see them clearly because we have the door proped open with a n64 rumble pack (thats our doorstop). so the kids friend walks in again and begins to browse yet again. but the grandkid stays in the car. the grandpa opens his doors and steps out but he stays buy the car. he starts yelling at the top of his lungs at the kid.

"JUST GO IN AND BUY THE F***ING GAME!!! YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT!!!"

he taunts the kid like this for (no joke) 10 mins.

he eventually stops and walks in. he yanks the game off the rack, almost tearing the rack off the wall. walks really fast up to the counter where i'm standing.

"IS THIS THE MOTHER F***ING GAME HE WAS LOOKING AT!?!?"

i'm a little shocked so i have a hard time speaking. i just nod my head yes. he pays for it without saying another word, as he opens the door to his car i can hear him yell,
"SEE THAT WASN'T SO HARD, NOW HAVE FUN WITH YOUR GAME!!"

guy needs some anger management or something...

-Andi